Category Archives: KTK

Matt standing in front of a museum display dedicated to his tattoo story

Feb 2025 Update

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Since last post, I’ve been reading the headlines – a millionaire CEO gets shot, wildfires scorch California – so I knew it was time to rewrite Kill The King, since the events mirror so many of its major themes.

It follows down-on-his-luck Vincent, who has a good thing going – committing petty crimes and breaking harmless laws for money – but when charismatic punk Jimmy recruits him to help kill the richest people in the city to save the needy before encroaching wildfires or boiling riots burn it all down. I wrote from the heart.

So far, I’ve been doing it side-by-side, writing in the fresh Word document on the left side of the screen and the previous draft open on the right. Every paragraph is tighter and smoother. Wise man say:

Formula: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%

I’m at page 132, at the exact same point where, in the first draft, it’s page 145. Not sure if that math maths out to be 10 per cent, but I’m happy with how it’s turning out. I’m also growing a book beard. I stopped shaving once I started the new draft of Kill The King, and won’t buzz it off until I’ve written those magic two words, three letters each: THE END. Maybe won’t shave even then; I kinda like it.

This does mean all my short stories are on hold.

But not other people’s short stories! Happy to announce that I’m now one of the new editors / readers for Story Unlikely, which has been a lot of fun, and is making me a better writer and editor.

Other news: I was featured in a tattoo exhibition at the local museum! It’s in Kingston and free all year, so go check me out. Bonus image below.

Gotta go. More writing.

Book on display. Title card reads: Slaughterhouse Five novel by Kurt Vonnegut, German beer glass, and leather bracelet Objects inspiring the writing of Matthew Hampton On loan courtesy of Matthew Hampton, 2025

April Update

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I DID IT! 

After 122,620 words, I finished Kill The King. 

It took three attempts. I stopped once to write a different book, started again and only got halfway, once more to replot the entire second half, and finally got to write those magical two words — “THE END” that can only compare to “I do” in terms of weight and accomplishment. Feels damn good. 

I immediately set about fixing some things wrong with it: had to go back and make the villain a little more understandable and charismatic, foreshadow and establish some things I pulled out of my rectum in the third act, and generally finish bits that I’d just written “finish this later” because the next part was too exciting to wait to write. Kill The King was only finished when I delivered it to my Alpha Reader, and only done when she came down with a bad flu and I read almost the entire thing to her over the phone. Four Dirty Eyes novels down, two to go.

Next, lots of reading. I’ve been putting off Story Grid by master editor Shawn Coyne, because I didn’t want to level up while I was finishing it and then have to start all over again, but I’m working my way through that. Not learned too much so far that I haven’t gleaned from On Writing or Save The Cat or various Reedsy articles and short courses. 

Reading for pleasure is back, too.
I’m making my way through Exiles by the amazing Australian author Jane Harper, and am damn excited to hear that her second book is being adapted to film, again with Eric Bana as the detective. 

I’ve also joined a book club! We covered Metamorphosis in-between cold beers in the side room of a dive bar in Fortitude Valley and I had a blast, will be reading Scoop by Evelyn Waugh (which I’d never heard of until then) as this month’s assigned reading. I’ve also been assigned a challenge to take a photo of a plaque or commemorative sign from a local park near my house; hopefully, I can achieve this without getting stabbed. I don’t live in the best neighbourhood. 

The rest of the year is focused on shorts.

I got a thick parcel of notes for a short story I showed to a family friend who is an experienced author, which I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t even looked at because of my focus on Kill The King. The ‘moon’ story and the ‘cat’ story are promising enough that I want to hone them and snd them out to magazines, but I have a Top Fifteen Most Intriguing list of story seeds that I’ll be writing. 

Putting some pics up on the gram, go look (unless you came here by that link, then go back and like my post)

Happy Easter / Ramadan / April! 

Progress in Dresden

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Hard at work on Kill The King, if only on weekends. Hit 13,000 words, so the big life-changing catalyst has occurred and the hero is on his way to figuring out if he wants any part of it.
It’s quite a cathartic story to write, as they go. My heroes are among a larger group of lowlives tasked with bringing the heads of the richest people in the city, so that they might all enjoy a slice of the money, but things are never really quite as they seem in my books.
To sum it up as a logline:

“On the verge of bankruptcy and starvation, Vincent, a down-on-his-luck warehouse worker pairs up with Jimmy, a freelance criminal, to take on a series of assassination contract; but when they realise the client might be setting them up to fail, they’ll have to work together to make a real difference before the city burns down around them.”

Me, Kill The King (working title)

I got a little over halfway through the first draft before it collapsed under me, not the first time that’s happened, but I feel I’ve levelled up as a writer since then, so I have high hopes to make this a decent read, or to at least write it to the end. Perhaps some snippets and sneak peeks next time, if I’m happy with them.  

Weekends are for the novel, but weekdays are for short stories. Currently working on a horror short that takes place on the moon, though I’m a couple thousand words in and the protagonist hasn’t reached the moon yet, so I might have to edit it quite heavily. More on that soon.

On other other side of the page, I read Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and it effected me deeply. 
For those who haven’t had the pleasure, it’s about an American soldier in the Second World War, taken captive in Germany and held in as a prisoner of war in Dresden. He survives the firebombing there and goes on to be abducted by aliens, but that’s besides the point. What I loved most was that with EVERY SINGLE mention of death — whether it be a five-star general killed in combat or a single microbe being killed by soap — he follows that sentence with “So it goes.”
I found that this made all death equal, dignified, and memorable. This alternate cover I found online (or is it just some art, I’m not sure) stuck with me:

source: Zach Adams (I think)

And I’m not going to be in Germany for too much longer, so I thought, “why not?”At the lovely Erika & Kurt tattoo parlour in oldtown Dresden, I had the (agonising, excruciating) pleasure of getting this piece done, by Gustavo.

Still limping, two days later. Do tattoos get more difficult, the older you get?

More on my Instagram.