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Multi-volume, multi-genre author, Matthew Fish introduces us to his latest story, “All The Best Roads Still Lead West”: In the summer of 2019, a Photographer who has lost their way and a young woman who is losing her vision go on a meandering journey westward. Over the course of their travels, they both strive to connect and find happiness along the open road and the spectacular views of nature the trip affords them. All the Best Roads Still Lead West is a story about dealing with the difficulties that can often be found in life and holding onto the idea of hoping for better days ahead. Along with the story, the novel contains over eighty photographs from my own personal journey west. The idea was to create a compelling narrative revolving around the idea of travel and mix it with my love for photography. This is a surprising book. It seems like a book about photographing a cross country vacation. But it is really about two people discovering each other and learning to share a small part of their life together. I love photography and there are a lot of nice pictures in the book which is really refreshing. The story of the trip these two make across the country imbues the photos with pathos. We know the young woman is losing her vision and nothing can be done about it. Her apparent equanimity in facing her increasing blindness unravels somewhat when she employs her sharp-edged humor. I found the writing to be compelling. The descriptions were luxurious, and set the stage quite well for dialogue and for action. The story is told in the first person, pulls me in deeply. The characters were well constructed, they played their roles in a very natural way, they came across as real and alive. I award 4.6 stars to “All The Best Roads Still Lead West”. You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Roads-Still-Lead-West-ebook https://www.goodreads.com/all-the-best-roads-still-lead-west https://www.audible.com/pd/All-the-Best-Roads-Still-Lead-West-Audiobook You can follow the author: https://twitter.com/Matthew_MFish Copyright © 2020 Mark L. Schultz except for the author’s introduction
15 Comments
Matthew Fish
12/7/2020 08:42:38 am
Hello! Thank you for you very well written review, I really appreciate it!
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Mark
12/7/2020 09:28:14 am
You are very welcome. I enjoyed reading your book quite a bit.
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Matthew Fish
12/9/2020 06:37:29 pm
Hello! Sorry for the rather late reply, I have been going through a cancer ordeal that has left me rather tired lately. Regarding myself, beyond my bio, I enjoy being outdoors. Although, this year has been rough with everything that is going on lately. I enjoy hiking when I am able to do so. I love to fly drones and have only crashed and destroyed five of them, I am hoping the sixth one will be the lucky one to survive. I enjoy travelling as much as I can, once again not a good year for that. Last year was really good because I did manage to do a lot of travelling and got a lot of photography done. I spent weeks just meandering across the country and it was really great. I also got to fly in two vintage WWII aircraft which was amazing, I have always been a huge fan of aviation. This year, my main hobby seems to be sleeping--at least since my diagnosis. I'll go for an hour or two nap and end up sleeping for twelve or more hours...interesting way to end the year I suppose.
Mark
12/9/2020 06:46:24 pm
As much as I love talking to authors here, it's more important that you get the rest you need. Cancer is hell. Sometimes the cure is worse.
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Matthew Fish
12/9/2020 07:14:23 pm
I would say that I am a full time writer. Though, I do a lot of graphic design work and also have done a lot of event photography. I started writing when I was around twenty-two, that was when I actually sat down and started taking it seriously. I wrote my first novel that year...it was this large two-hundred thousand word beast that was absolutely terrible. I have never considered putting it out into the world or even trying to fix it, I see it as just absolutely awful. After that, I wrote my first real novel 'A Window in the Earth' and that did extremely well. I was working at State Farm at the time in a job that I absolutely hated and it allowed me to quit and move to somewhere more rural and close to canyons, rivers, waterfalls--things people do not associate with Illinois. So I would say that between my first terrible novel I wrote at twenty-two to my first successful book I would say it took about seven years. I have been writing continuously for the past eleven years in which I've written about thirty plus novels but probably have only published about twenty or so.
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Mark
12/9/2020 07:26:51 pm
That is a lot of creative activity!
Matthew Fish
12/9/2020 07:51:25 pm
Honestly, I feel that it is a pretty even split. I write books because I love writing. It is what I wanted to do ever since I was a kid and I would just devour book after book. I remember thinking that I always wished that the stories would end differently or explore a different path--so, it was following that idea that led me to decide to write stories for myself. Regarding money, I do not love money, but I do appreciate the freedom that comes with being able to do things. I think that it would be untrue to say I only write for the love of it because having money has allowed me to travel, to experience new things that I would not have gotten the chance to, to continue writing, and buy equipment for my other interests and forms of income. That said, I am also a minimalist. I value experiences over material things and I am perfectly happy to not let money or the need for constant consumerism to become more important than the things that really make me happy.
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Mark
12/9/2020 08:10:57 pm
I think you met all of the objectives for the story. And you did it in an excellent way. I found myself drawn into your story quite deeply.
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Matthew Fish
12/9/2020 11:47:47 pm
The reason I chose this genre was specifically because a lot of what I normally write has elements of sci-fi, horror, fantasy, even mystery at times. I really enjoy never being tied down to one specific genre, I believe the longest I committed to one genre was when I wrote a four book story and it was hard for me to stay on track. Mainly I wanted to write a more grounded story that focused on human nature and the relatable obstacles that everyone faces. I’ve always been a huge fan of slice-of-life stories and films and realized I’ve never created one, so it was really nice to check that one off.
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Mark
12/10/2020 09:31:02 am
Sci-fi and fantasy are at the top of my list of favorite genres. I wasn't sure what genre this story belonged in. Roads is listed in several photography categories on the Amazon page.
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Matthew Fish
12/11/2020 03:07:04 am
That is a good question, the title for the book was really difficult to come up with. I wanted to create a title about travelling west that seemed interesting so I believe I went through quite a few titles before this one just stuck, it felt right. I even talked about to a friend of mine who does music and he wrote a song called "All the Best Roads Still Lead West" for the story. The problem is, I was never able to actually get it out to people as I had planned on leaving it as a link that people could download the song from at the end of the book....however, that was not really allowed. When I feel a little better I plan on making some kind of music video with a link to download it on Youtube,
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Mark
12/11/2020 09:42:47 am
That is the first time I have heard of an author having a song written for a book. Very nice. I look forward to hearing it someday.
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Matthew Fish
12/13/2020 06:29:36 am
For other books that I’ve written, the main ones that really come to mind are A Window in the Earth which was YA supernatural/paranormal fiction. C-Shapes was really well received, it’s more of a sci-fi action story. The Bittersweet Song of Canary was really fun to write and that was in the dystopian sci-fi genre. Buried in Sunshine is one that I forget about a lot, but it’s a personal favorite and that’d a paranormal mystery. I know there are a lot so I won’t to completely nuts with the list, I think...finally my personal best work is Charlotte’s Feathers which I would say is more of a paranormal mystery as well. It has a really unique feel and though it has been a bit controversial, I was always really proud of it. With regards to All the Best Roads Still Lead West, I put it under photography and general fiction. I was a little unsure as to where that should go as it was really unlike what I normally write. I know that a lot of books are covered under that and it probably would have served me well to pick something else, I just had a really hard time nailing it down in terms of genre.
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Mark
12/14/2020 11:14:24 pm
You have written quite a few books and in different genres. I have been remiss, I forgot to put a link to the review of The Bittersweet Song of Canary on this review. I will cross-reference both of these reviews..
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Matthew Fish
12/15/2020 07:00:33 am
Thank you for the recommendations, will definitely look into them. Also, thank you very much for your time and consideration. I had a great time engaging in the interview. Hope you have a great holidays ahead! Leave a Reply. |
Who am I?An avid reader, typobuster, and the Hyper-Speller. I am a husband, father, and grandfather. Archives
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