Q&A: Gaithersburg Man, A Longtime Broadcast Journalist, Readies For Book Festival

Editor's Note: This Q&A is part of a series conducted by the Gaithersburg Book Festival. It orginally appeared on the GBF website.

Larry Matthews is a former broadcast journalist whose 30+ years as a reporter, anchor, news director, producer and editor provide the background material for many of his books. “Brass Knuckles” is the second book in his Dave Haggard thriller series about a radio reporter with a taste for investigative journalism.  The series takes place in Washington, DC, where Larry worked for major radio stations, ABC Radio, and National Public Radio. Larry is also the author of a memoir, “I Used To Be In Radio,” and two other books of fiction, “Healing Charles” and its sequel, “Saving Charles.” He lives in Gaithersburg.

GBF: What are the best books you’ve read recently?

Matthews: “Trust Me I’m Lying” by Ryan Holiday. It’s a book about how information and “news” is manipulated on the Internet. “Escape from Camp 14″ by Blaine Harden. This is a story about one man’s escape from a North Korean labor camp. “Sirocco” by D.L. Wilson, a bio-terror thriller. Wilson is a master at this genre.

GBF: What was your favorite book as a child?

Matthews: My favorite book as a child was a novel about a boy playing baseball. Sadly, I don’t recall the title. I do recall that it was the first book that opened my mind to the world of books and stories. It launched me into a lifetime of reading.

GBF: What is the most difficult, or challenging, aspect of being a writer?

Matthews: The most challenging aspect of being a writer is balancing creativity with the technical details of building a good story. I was a journalist for over three decades and spent those years writing about events of the day and certain investigative projects. I thought I had the writing thing pretty well figured out. I did not. Fiction writing is the only thing I’ve done that gets harder, not easier, the more I do it. There is a quote from W. Somerset Maugham that pretty well sums it up: “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”

The Gaithersburg Book Festival takes place on Saturday, May 18, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the grounds of Gaithersburg City Hall. Larry Matthews presents from 10:35 a.m. to 11:05 a.m. in the Dashiell Hammett Pavilion.