Jeff VanderMeer

Effective immediately, Matt Staggs is joining the VanderMeer team as a PR consultant and general assistant, focusing on several different media in addition to helping organize PR generally on various projects. He will also be helping book appearances, etc. So, don’t be surprised if you start hearing from Matt. You can still contact me directly, but Matt will be going to town on a few things himself. I’ve listed his email address in the FAQ section.

Matt Staggs is a writer and publicist living in Mississippi. A graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, he holds a degree in psychology and worked for many years in the mental health care field. Today, Matt spends his time updating his website, writing fiction and publicizing the work of various authors.

Below the cut find more information about Matt, who runs SkullRing, from a short interview I conducted with him.

From Matt:In the last year, I’ve started to try my hand at writing fiction, mostly horror. The very first thing I ever wrote – a novella called THE GREEN MAN OF LOWLAND LITTLE SWAMP – was published by Magus Press in a three-author anthology called OTHER THINGS, OTHER PLACES. Since then, I’ve had a spate of short stories published here and there. Some of my favorite writers include Jeff VanderMeer, Angela Carter, Joe R. Lansdale, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, Lewis Nordan and Robert E. Howard.

In addition to writing fiction, my other major pastime is running my weblog. SkullRing focuses on horror and “weird” literature, movies and music. I, along with a few friends that I’ve drafted, do reviews, interviews and feature articles. I’ve been fortunate enough to have interviewed several of my favorite writers, actors and directors, thanks to SkullRing. I’ve also made lots and lots of good friends all over the world.

When I’m not reading or writing, I’m almost always at a bookstore. I buy dozens of books a month, and read several a week. The rest of my time is spent either at my day job, at the gym, hanging out with my wife, Meg, or catching up with my email.

I have an odd sense of humor that definitely skews toward the absurdist/dada end of the spectrum. Playing word games crack me up. Double entendres, stupid puns and purposefully maiming syntax, pronunciation, tense and conjugation is hilarious to me. I’m constantly playing weird practical jokes on people around me, the more nonsensical the better. I am interested in lots of strange things like octopuses (octopi?), folklore and mythology, exotic diseases, biotechnology and more. I love the occasional cigar, cold glasses of beer, good coffee, sushi and chocolate. I have four tattoos. I love animals, and am strangely fascinated with the ocean and its inhabitants, despite living in a landlocked city and being barely able to swim.

My wife and I continue to live in Mississippi for now, along with our three cats (Booka, Grendel and Spider) and our dog (Pixie). We both dearly hope to relocate to a major metropolitan area, and are keeping our eyes open for any possibilities that could enable us to do this.