They might not be raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. Welcome back to My Favorite Things, the weekly column where we grab someone in speculative circles to gab about the greatest in geek. This week, we sit down with Matt Betts, whose latest book, The Boogeyman’s Intern, came out in June from Dog Star Books.
What does Matt love when he’s not working on his latest book? Spoiler alert: skeptics and believers, a water tower of blood, a t-shirt for every day of the year, poking fun at bad movies, and five minute games. Curious? Read on to learn more!
It’s tough to talk about my favorite things, as I find they change frequently depending on my mood. Or the weather. Or what I had for dinner. Here are a few of the things that I love right now.
Television
The X-Files and Fringe: In many ways, the two shows were two sides of the same coin, with each having their own overarching conspiracy/mythology/glue that held them together. For me, the best X-Files were the stand-alone, monster-of-the-week episodes. Flukeman, Tooms, Leonard Betts (no relation), Ghosts, and Jessie Ventura head up my list of favorites. The play between Mulder and Scully, the believer and the skeptic, worked perfectly and became a template for shows to come, including Fringe. Of course, in Fringe everyone eventually had to become a believer. Olivia, Peter, and Walter were assigned to investigate cases along the same line as The X-Files. Both shows were on the Fox network, both were weird, and both gave me something to watch on network television at a time when nothing was seriously strange enough for me.
Favorite Binge I’m Still Watching
Ash vs Evil Dead: It’s so, so, so gross on many levels. I love it. Bruce Campbell is amazing as always in the roll of Ash Williams. Lucy Lawless? Yes, please. She’s terrific. I really hoped this continuation of the Evil Dead series would live forever, but alas, cancellation killed it. And Bruce Campbell said he’s done with the character. I’ll love it while I can. And I’ll love it from a distance, since they use about a water tower of blood in each episode.
Attire
Graphic T-shirts: I know. T-Shirts, right? Best giant monster ever? What’s my favorite science fiction show? Look at my shirt and wonder no longer! It’s silly. It’s cliché. And I can’t help it. I enjoy it. I worked in the corporate world for a while — definitely not as long as some, but long enough, and I realized that wearing a suit to work every day just wasn’t me. (Apparently, they realized it too, but that’s a whole other list.) Even business casual feels wrong on me somehow. I just enjoy wearing t-shirts too much. It’s a running joke with my publisher that they never see me in the same t-shirt twice. My wife would agree that it’s becoming a problem. My dressers are full of them and I may have to curtail my intake. Maybe even… gasp… wear some more than once! I’ve had good luck finding sci-fi and horror favorites at Off World Designs, Zazzle, Tee Public, Sharp Shirter, and others.
Favorite Movies
Bad Movies: I suppose I caught the bug in college while watching Mystery Science Theater 3000, but I still love a good terrible movie all these years later. I’m mostly referring to the ones that get riffed by a group like MST3k, RiffTrax, or Cinematic Titanic (which are basically all the same people, just split into different factions). There’s something about the shared experience of talking back to an awful movie that I love and occasionally adore. Some of my favorites include Cinematic Titanic’s riff on the movie East Meets Watts, RiffTrax’s take on Birdemic: Shock and Terror, and MST3k’s Catalina Caper episode. In the wrong company (people who want to actually WATCH a movie) the joke of talking back to the screen and making fun of poor lighting, awful dialogue, and continuity errors can grow tiresome. I am not that company.
Favorite Family Geek Time
5-Minute Dungeon: My kids love to play board games, and they’re just getting into role-playing adventures as well. It’s tough to play those games with them sometimes. It takes so long to set them up, we need a lot of players, and my youngest is just learning to follow the rules of certain games (rather than making up his own.) Friends recommended 5-Minute Dungeon (by Wiggles 3D), and we’re all thrilled we tried it. The game takes very little prep. The rules are simple, and, as the name implies, each round takes just five minutes. Your players choose a character type — paladin, thief, wizard, etc. — and you’re ready to go. If you pass the first round, you move on to another five minute round and so on. So, really, if you defeat every one of the dragons, goblins, minions and monsters on every level, you might have an hour invested, tops. We’ve played it with aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins and parents, and everyone has enjoyed this super-addictive little card game.
Ohio native Matt Betts is a pop culture junkie — sometimes to levels that are considered unhealthy by the Surgeon General. He grew up on a steady diet of giant monsters, comic books, and horror novels, all of which creep into his own work. Matt’s speculative poetry and short fiction have appeared in a number of anthologies and journals. Matt’s first novel, the steampunk/zombie/alternate history adventure Odd Men Out, was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award for excellence in independent publishing. He is also the author of the urban fantasy novel Indelible Ink, the sci-fi novel The Shadow Beneath the Waves, and his latest novel The Boogeyman’s Intern. His poetry collections include See No Evil, Say No Evil and Underwater Fistfight.
Author photo by Catherine Murray @ Catherine Murray Photo
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