Matt Nuth Interview

April 2, 2024 Lynne Northing

Daily Inspiration: Meet Matt Nuth

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Nuth.

Hi Matt, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
To say that writing and music were the intentional destination for my life would be a radical overstatement. In fact, I spent an entire career avoiding them; they were things I loved, but I could never imagine that they would become central to defining who I was. Granted, writing and communication was critical to my success in business, and music was something with which I have had a lifelong love affair. They were a part of me even though I never acknowledged them. Now, I can’t imagine a day without them.

I was lucky to have a long career with Hewlett-Packard. This company allowed me to be the best I could be and never put me in a position that forced me to compromise my values. In fact, those years allowed me to recognize and acknowledge what was most important to me: family, faith, and relations. As a note, I can’t imagine anything more important to living a fulfilling life than understanding and honoring one’s values.

Retirement should be the conclusion of one’s life, right? Wrong. It was the beginning of mine. My career provided me the skills and retirement provided me the time to do something good and critical for our community here in San Diego through Father Joe’s Villages. I like to think Father Joe’s needed me, but in retrospect, I needed them. I still joke that HP gave me the financial resources to do what I wanted, but it’s Father Joe’s that touched my heart to ensure that what I wanted to do was good. They’re a blessing to San Diego. Between the two of them, they provided me a wealth of experiences to fuel my writing for years to come.

So, how did I get into writing and music? Music was something that was forced upon me by my parents and is something for which I will forever be grateful. Of course, as a child, being forced to practice the cello seemed more a chore than a gift. It wasn’t until I became an adult and a parent that I realized how important music had been in shaping my life. It provided confidence, relaxation, peace, and a massive shot of humility… all good things for a good life. I now play with the Poway Symphony and knock around with some dear friends, playing jazz and folk music for fun.

In addition, music has taught me the importance of commitment. With writing, this is especially critical. It’s easy to turn off the PC if writing something becomes difficult, but you can’t. It’s not that you must continue pounding away at some story idea that isn’t working, but, just as with music, it’s also critical to not quit. So, when I hit a snag in my writing, I shift to writing something different, a poem or an article, just to get the creative juices flowing again.

Writing is something I feel compelled to do. Not only does it feel natural; it’s something that fulfills me. It’s about saying something that elicits something from the reader, too. I hope that when you read one of my books, you feel as though you’ve experienced something with me, that we’ve gone on a worthy journey together.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Smooth road? Heck no, but then again smooth roads aren’t nearly as fun or challenging as rocky dirt trails. There have been a number of potholes along my life’s way that could have prevented me from doing the things I love. For years, I was a partner in a growing and successful audio electronics business. A downturn in the market wiped out the business along with a substantial amount of our financial resources. Finger injuries made cello playing even more challenging. And specific to my writing, just finding a publisher willing to give a 60+-year-old, fledgling writer a shot was a difficult and time-consuming effort.

On the positive side, every setback has been a wonderful learning experience, not just from personal expertise perspective, but they also in that showed me that I can always rely on my family and friends for support. My wife has become my number one fan and my number one critic, two things that are absolutely critical.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My third novel, My Brother’s Keeper, was just published by Crimson Cloak Publishing. It’s a fast-paced story with a huge psychological twist that readers will love. It’s a significant deviation from my previous books: the sensitive story telling in Countenance of Man or the dark disturbing shock of Nails, but I have no doubt it will also be a read you won’t want to put down.

As a note, I haven’t forgotten those Nails readers who have asked me for more. The sequel is written and is already at Crimson Cloak for editing. The name? The Bent Nail.

So, what’s different about my writing? Subject matter – it’s whatever hits me at the time. Perspective – I write in 1st person because I need to imagine myself as the protagonist, experiencing what he or she experiences. My readers expect it. Innovativeness – I enjoy for different story structures and subject matter. It takes a little longer, but I think the reader deserves more than rehashed stories recast with the same characters. Plus, it makes me work harder in my research.

What’s next: I have completed a sensitive look at WW1 through the eyes of a single soldier at the tail end of the war struggling with the emotional burden of killing individuals a cause he doesn’t believe in. It’s a both troubling and uplifting tale that will bring tears to some. Tentatively, I call it The Day Before Tomorrow because in that particularly disturbing and wasteful war, peace was always “tomorrow,” never “today.”

And what am I working on now? An extremely painful and touching story about a young man and his fall into schizophrenia. The story is told from two perspectives: his and his closest friend. This will be a tough story, both to read and write.

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
What do I see changing in my industry over the next five to ten years? Probably the most significant change will be that of a transition of talent. I suspect everyone reading this interview has established their personal list of favorite writers, and in these lists several names will come up time after time. And guess what? Those have been the same names that have come up for decades. I suspect we will see a major shift over the next five to ten years as publishing houses look to revamp their aging talent pools.

Regarding physical books vs. ePublishing, I would have bet on the demise of physical books last decade, but I don’t think so any longer. People like the tactile aspect of books. I get it. As such, I expect digital printing technology to continue to scale and drop in cost providing a means to bring print-on-demand directly into major booksellers, thereby reducing the cost of distribution and enabling the brick-and-mortar to support perhaps a more diverse set of talent and creativity addressing the needs and demands of their unique markets.

Perhaps the most perplexing aspect that I see within the current industry is the relative lack of innovation and creativity. Unique and thought-provoking story telling has largely been displaced by woke, easy-to-read, cookie-cutter novels and novellas that strive to satiate the reader through titillation rather than challenging them to think. AI will have a profound and significant impact here.

As a technology, AI has no issues with cobbling out cookie-cutter, mindless stories at a massive pace. Writers must become focused at generating true pieces of unique art. Publishers should be looking to combine AI and digital publishing to position themselves as the curators of that art. AI can provide a tool to evaluate talent and differentiate one publishing house from another. In other words, I suspect publishing house brands will migrate to meaning something to the reader, much like they do today for authors and booksellers.

Book wholesalers? They maintain a grip on the industry today based on old supply chain limitations and economics. Maybe not so much in the future.

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