In this issue, I spill the beans about my latest writing project and tell you about upcoming events and interviews.

Amiga takes you from the early days of the personal computer industry in the 1980s to 2016 as a programmer must face her past to deal with the present. With a 4.6-star rating on Amazon, readers have called Amiga "one of those stories that sticks with you" and "a story of life and love, a story of growing up, a story where the amazing Commodore Amiga played the role of a supporting actor."

Get your copy of Amiga and find out for yourself. Available on Kindle and Audible on Amazon and in paperback wherever books are sold. 

What you're looking at is the opening of my new screenplay, Julie vs the End of the World. Julie is a middle-age woman whose comfortable life is torn apart when society collapses. She must go on a dangerous journey with a homeless teenage boy to save her husband and her community. They must overcome their initial distrust to form an unlikely mother-son relationship. Along the way, they confront a wannabe zombie hunter, a family who takes their anime cosplaying to dangerous extremes, a violent gang of children on skateboards, a pop star with a thirst for power, and a kindly doctor who causes Julie to face her deepest tragedy.

I finished my first draft, and I'm now looking for feedback. If you'd like to be a beta reader, please email me and let me know.

If you'd like to learn more about the creation of Julie vs the End of the World, you can read these post on my website:

• Going from novel to screenplay
• Apocalypse reconsidered
• "Oh, must it all end in violence?"

Social media is a weird place. You never know when something you post is going to take off. This is the case with one of my TikTok videos.

I responded to the Mean Girl of the Week's call to save "normies" like her from the "theater kids, nerds, and 'Annie May' fans" she hated in high school. (I later learned this is the same woman who spit out horrible racial slurs, and it got her in all kinds of trouble.)

One of the things I learned at my high school is popularity is based on how you treat people and what you can do for them. And the most popular kids at school, including the cheerleaders and football stars, were also the kindest and most accepting. (And after watching Travis Kelce performing on-stage with Taylor Swift, wouldn't you agree he's a big theater kid at heart?)

While social media loves dunking on bad people, there's also a desire to uphold values we consider good—including compassion, kindness, acceptance, and respect. Let's demonstrate those values and teach them to our children. It's the "normie" thing to do.

Sunday, June 30, 1-4 pm, Local Author Showcase and Book Fair, Norman P. Murray Community Center, Mission Viejo. 
Join me and other local authors for the Local Author Showcase and Book Fair where we will discuss our books, and you can purchase signed copies for your summer reading.

Learn more about the event at the City of Mission Viejo website. The Norman P. Murray Community Center is located at 24932 Veterans Way, Mission Viejo, CA 92692.

In case you missed it, check out my interview with Rayanne Thorn Krueger about The Remainders, why I chose to be a writer, my thoughts about the future of writing and much more on the Real Words podcast.  

Coming soon to Authors Answer, I will post my responses to five of their fascinating questions. Look for my responses on July 8, and check out the responses by other authors.

I was recently interviewed by Joseph D'Urso for his TikTok channel, Rough Writer. Our interview will appear soon on his YouTube channel. 

My publisher, Black Rose Writing, will post my novel The Remainders on NetGalley on August 1. If you're not familiar with NetGalley, it is a respected website where libraries, reviewers, influencers, and others in the book industry post reviews and make recommendations. This can greatly help the sales of a book.

If you're on NetGalley, or know someone who is, look for The Remainders starting August 1 and be sure to request and review it. And if you've already read my books, please post reviews on Amazon or where you bought my books. Reviews help, and I greatly appreciate them.

In previous issues of my newsletter, I interviewed authors Marissa Bañez, T.C. Correy, and Yvonne deSouza.

If you are an author who wants to be interviewed, send me an email to admin@matthewarnoldstern.com with the following information:

• Your name.
• A brief bio (100 words or less).
• Your books.
• What you would like to talk about in your interview.

By supporting each other, we can all grow!

I hope you have enjoyed this newsletter. If you have any comments and suggestions, feel free to email me at admin@matthewarnoldstern.com. 

If there is someone who you think would enjoy this newsletter, pass it along and encourage them to subscribe. A simple subscription form is on my website.

I'll be in touch again next month with more news and content.