Gerald C. Matics -- Author

Okay, it's been ridiculously long since I've updated.  Ironically, writing for a living has left me with precious little time -- or energy -- to write.

Anyway, like most healthy Americans who aren't my mother, from time to time I Google myself to see whether anything's been posted about me, kind or otherwise.  In the "kind" category, yesterday I discovered a new review of Dark Distortions I that mentions "Enthralled."  All right, it mentions every one of the 33 stories and poems in turn, but it singles mine out for a line of special praise.

The site is The Fix: Short Fiction Review and the reviewer is Michelle Lee.  Here's the paragraph about "Enthralled":

In "Enthralled" by Gerald C. Matics, two college students find more than they bargained for when they venture to a fortuneteller to divine their futures. Suddenly, a momentary bit of entertainment turns into a long, fear-filled trial, as Marie tries to fight a future that seems to be more than a self-fulfilling prophecy; Madam Wanda appears to be acting to guarantee that her predictions come true. "Enthralled" came together nicely at the end, making it one of the more satisfying reads here.

Cool, huh?  I'm not saying I'm going to go out and buy a Porshe or anything (J.J. Cale once said the first time he heard Eric Clapton's version of his song "After Midnight," the first thing he did was go out and buy a Cadillac), but it's nice to get the credit.  I especially appreciate what she credited me on, that the story "came together nicely."  (My next post will be a rant about stories that don't come together at all -- on purpose.)

By the way, in the "otherwise" category on Google, I found the following post on a message board:

One can always tell a skunk by it's stripes and if it looks like a skunk and smells like a skunk you can bet it is a skunk. I would therefore have no problem identifying Gerry Matics as a skunk of the schismatic kind.

Let me just state unequivocally that THIS IS NOT ME!  Apparently there's some controversial character, a borderline heretic by some accounts, in the Catholic church named Gerry Matatics whose name the poster misspelled.  I'm thinking about contacting the message board moderator and asking him to correct it; I love a good skunk analogy as much as the next guy, provided I'm not the skunk.