Allie_X_Hello.mp3

 Hello! Bonjour, if you’re nasty – and I’m disgusting.

            I have no clever way of following that train of thought. It was a stupid thought, but then again, most of mine are. Still, hello! My name is Matthew (shocking, given this blog title) and this is my blog. I decided that I wanted to make a blog dedicated to the books that I read. This is going to be a place where I throw my thoughts into the ether for the rest of the world to see, if that’s what they want. So, welcome to you, if you are a part of the aforementioned “rest of the world”.

            Now, I was originally going to write that this blog was going to be book-related content in this section, but given that I already said that this was going to be dedicated to books, how dumb would that have been? Still, this blog is going to be a mix of book and writing content. I'm planning on doing reviews, general rambles about books and I'll even throw in a little of my own creative writing if I'm feeling particularly spicy.

I know “miscellaneous” is super vague and really helpful in selling this blog. But! The one “miscellaneous” post I thought of before I even started writing this intro post was a round-up of my favourite books of 2020 – that kind of miscellaneous. I’m not setting a strict timetable for myself for when I’m planning on posting. And that's because I know myself too well. I know that if I did set myself a timetable, I would end up stressing myself out and then feeling like I had to read, just so I could get content. And if I did that, I just wouldn't enjoy the stuff I was reading. So, this is something I'm going to do of my own volition.

If you want to keep up to date on when I do post make sure to follow my Instagram and my Twitter. (They're both clickable links, by the way. Go on, click on the word Instagram or Twitter and see where you end up. Spoiler alert, it's to my Instagram or Twitter account.)

So, my name. I feel like so many other book bloggers manage to snag themselves a snazzy, sparkly and clever little name. I won’t lie and say that my name is particularly smart, but it was born from me deciding I wanted to start a blog, and then when I went to create said blog, I was asked for a name. Matthew Reads, I guess… was the first thing I thought of, and honestly? I’m into it. There was a short period of time where I thought that I should have come up with something wittier, but I think my name is very representative of me and how I write. I’ve noticed that when I write, I write almost in the same way that I think, with the same tone and inflection.

And I, personally, think the casual tone that I write with has worked out really well for me thus far. The majority of what I write is YA, and while YA definitely doesn’t have to have a casual a tone as I write with, I’ve just found that my favourite books have (for the most part) had a casual, chatty kind of tone to it, in terms of narration.

            Did I need to talk about the tone of my writing? No, but I’ve done it now, so, you’re welcome.

            I’m going to round out the inaugural (ooh, that was a fancy word) post by just telling the world a little about myself, because the internet is a selfish place and I am yet another rat that inhabits it.

My name is Matthew and I (semi) recently moved from the 18-24 age range to the 25-34 and it was a dark day for the world. I studied Creative Writing in York for four years and came away with both a BA and an MA, so, a bitch got an education, as well as a £50k debt. In 2019, I was shortlisted, by Penguin Books for the ‘#Merky Books New Writers’ Prize’. I write queer YA fiction, and am currently querying my debut novel out to literary agents. My ultimate goal/dream is to be a queer fiction writer. I currently write YA as, for lack of fancier phrasing, it’s my favourite genre. I'm one of those writers who writes the things they want to read. So, to quote Monique, when it comes to my writing... "I would like to see it."

(I also just tried to add a GIF, so lets hope it's worked)


Anyway… that’s it. Thank you for coming to my Ted Yell – like a Ted Talk, but you just yell everything. I have one post already written out and ready to go, and I have another in note form. So, I'll see you soon-ish. Soon adjacent?

Okay bye!

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