A Word From Matt Brown

For as long as I can remember I wanted to be a writer. Actually, that’s not quite true. I remember wanting to play for Man United, and I remember wanting to be an astronaut, and I remember wanting to be a spy. But I think even though I liked playing football, and watching sci-fi movies, and reading books about spying, I never LOVED any one of them. I did always love words though. Words like ‘dribble’, and ‘spatula’, and ‘festoon’. And I always loved stories. I wasn’t a big reader of books, although I did love some, but I ADORED reading comics, and watching TV shows and movies, and listening to music, and playing videogames. And no matter what anyone tells you, movies and songs and videogames are all stories. I promise you that if someone in your life keeps telling you that you are playing too many videogames, or watching too much TV, try telling them that what you are actually doing is creating stories. That will confuse them, and they will hopefully leave you alone.

When I was in primary school, I started writing my own comics. I would spend hours and hours drawing them and thinking of things to get my characters to say. Then, when I had enough strips, I would staple them all together to make a comic and sell it to my mum. At secondary school, I loved performing and would often write little plays with friends that we would videotape or perform in school. Then, when I left school, I started writing stories of my own. At first, they were teeny, tiny stories but each new story got a bit longer than the last, until…

BLAM!!!

One day, I realised I had written a whole book. I’ve always loved writing stories for kids because anything is possible in kids’ books. Like, one day, a travelling fairground came and set up not too far from where I live and I thought to myself, “I wonder what this fairground would be like if it was run by monsters?”. And once I’d had that thought, my brain said, “come on then, Matt, you think you’re so great, why don’t you write something about it?”. And so, I did. I started writing a story about a carnival full of lots of different monsters and Kevin the Vampire was born.

Kevin the vampire came from a lifelong love of monster books and comics and movies and TV shows and videogames. I absolutely love monsters but I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because they are scary. Maybe it’s because they are often on their own and I feel a bit sad for them.

My favourite monsters are vampires. I absolutely LOVE vampires.

I think it’s because they live forever, which I’ve often thought would be fun. Or because they wear such awesome outfits. I’ve always wanted to have my own cloak.

But sometimes, when I read, or watched monster stories I would wonder what they had for their tea. Or whether they had any friends in school. Or, whether their mum still made them tidy their room. So, that’s what I wrote in the Kevin the Vampire stories. Kevin is from a family of vampires, but the Aurelius family are not much different to you or me. I mean, sure, they’re immortal, and they can turn into bats, and can speak to each other using their minds but apart from that, they are really similar. Kevin is a nearly eleven-year-old who doesn’t have any friends his own age. He has an older brother and sister who make his life hell. And no one seems to understand him except his dragon, and a giant called Gog. He's a bit like me when I was nearly eleven, well, apart from the dragon and giant. So, even when I’m writing about extraordinary creatures I try and give them ordinary problems because I think that makes them more real. So, even though ‘A Most Mysterious Monster’, is a story about Kevin trying to save a town from a terrifying creature, it's also about Kevin trying to find a friend. I really hope you like it.