Guest Post by Matt Converse: My Journey from Male Stripper to Author

Matt Converse [email protected]

My journey from male stripper to author.

By Matt Converse

I always loved to write. My Mom said leave Matt alone in his room with a pen and paper and he’ll be content for hours. In fourth grade, I wrote a short story about a young boy who would sleep walk to a graveyard at night. At the end, he discovers a grave with his name on it. Pretty dark for a nine-year-old, and my teacher accused me of copying it from a movie or TV show. I took that as quite the compliment.

I studied journalism in college but dropped out my junior year and moved to San Francisco. I worked at a bank for several years before I stumbled into my career as a male stripper. As a scrawny kid growing up in Ohio, I never thought this would happen, but here I was. And I loved it. I was very into the dancing, music and choreography. But I knew it was a career with a shelf life. What next? A return to my first true love: writing.

On January 9, 2015, it happened. I checked my email and there was a response from a publisher I’d been waiting for, and the subject line said, “We absolutely LOVED Behind the Velvet Curtain.” I could hardly believe it. I hurriedly clicked on the email, and there it was. They loved my novella and attached was a contract from Comet Press. I was over the moon–and slightly hysterical. I called my Mom and she thought something was terribly wrong because I was such a babbling mess, until she realized what I was saying was that I was finally going to be published. My Mom was a great inspiration to my writing as she first got me into watching scary movies on Friday nights. This led me to writing scary short stories, and led up to me being an author in the genre of horror, mystery and thrillers. As a novella, it would be an eBook only, so publication moves pretty quickly anyway, but this was being fast-tracked. Just seven weeks later, on March 2nd, Behind the Velvet Curtain was released. It all happened so fast I could hardly believe it. All the struggle and hard work was worth it. It has been like a roller coaster, and I don’t want to get off any time soon.

So the stories of countless rejections and then finally a yes are true. Every no is one step closer to that yes. Keep at it, and keep writing. Do what you love and you’ll find it’s true, success doesn’t bring happiness. Happiness brings success.

My next project is publishing my first full length horror novel, which I recently finished. I’m currently writing a prequel to Behind the Velvet Curtain.

BEHIND THE VELVET CURTAIN, erotic gay thriller novella eBook.

People have an idea of what being a stripper is like, and they’d probably be wrong. It takes swagger to strip for a room full of men but what goes on in his head might surprise you.

Matt was just a scrawny kid from Ohio who moved to San Francisco in hopes of starting a new life. He cut his hair, started working out, and suddenly he was desirable. But when he was up on stage, he held onto the same insecurities he clung to in his childhood. The stripper façade was complete, but inside, he was still the anxious kid he’d always been.

Justin was a young hunk living in the same apartment building Matt would have previously thought was out of his league. But Matt took a chance and approached, and to his surprise, the attraction was mutual. Over time, the off the charts hot sex began to turn to love, something Matt hadn’t expected. But just when Matt seemed to have everything he desired, a stalker with a twisted obsession appeared with plans to take it all away. Sex sells, what it attracts can be deadly.

Amazon buy link http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TBPESD0

Comet Press buy links (includes Kobo, Barnes & Noble (Nook) and Amazon UK. http://cometpress.us/behind-the-velvet-curtain/ Twitter https://twitter.com/MattConverse1 Facebook https://www.facebook.com/matt.converse.39

Thank you so much for hosting me on your blog, I appreciate it.

Sincerely,

Matt Converse