Park City Local Author Feature // Zack Matheson
“The restaurant industry in Park City, Utah, can be murder” states the pitch for local author Zack Matheson’s latest book Recipe for Chaos set right here in the community Matheson has called home, off and on since 2004.
Interested in writing, since he was a kid, Matheson began submitting stories to magazines while in an Honors Creative Writing program at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “After a slew of thanks-but-no-thanks letters from a variety of publications,” explains Matheson, “my writing got a huge boost when the late-great, author Edward Bryant became my mentor.” Bryant advised that one particular story was a great read and should be submitted. “That story, a dark sci-fi called ‘Impotence’, was turned into a graphic novel and became my first published work of fiction.”.
In 2012 he finished his first novel Island of the Lost Souls and went through the routine almost every writer encounters, receiving the dreaded rejection letters from publishers. Fortunately, he discovered the option of self-publishing with Amazon. “Okay, they do zero marketing for the books,” says Matheson, “but other than that, they’ve been a good fit for me, and I’ve published all five of my books with them.”
The latest book, Recipe for Chaos incorporates his experience in the restaurant industry and, like two of his other novels, is set right here in Park City. “Local readers will absolutely recognize locations in all three of my Park City novels. I try to use as many actual places in and around Park City as possible, whether it be businesses, landmarks, or certain geographic locations, which make for a more realistic, atmospheric read. And because of all the actual locations I use, Park City itself becomes a character in the books.”
Why set a crime fiction in Park City? “Really? Why? And I say, why not? I’ve always been interested in exploring the darker reaches of the human condition and because Park City is seen by almost everybody as an idyllic resort town where everything is perfect, I think it’s a great setting for delving into those darker recesses of humanity. “
Matheson already has two other projects in progress including another set in Park City along with a total departure from his usual style. “It’s a genre mash-up of a rock n’ roll fantasy story meets horror novel meets science fiction. Yes, it sounds trippy, because it is. I can’t wait to get back to working on it.”
Recipe for Chaos can be purchased on Amazon.com.