Dark Promptings: Love Wrestling with Matt Duvall

“Dark Promptings” is a special series of guest-written creative writing prompts, aimed at sparking the imagination’s gasoline for writers from any genre…but with a dark or devious discoloration, just like the Instigation department at Gorelets.com. The guest contributors are folks who wrote articles appearing in my fat new non-fiction book for fiction writers of all kinds, Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction, making a stop here at gorelets.com as part of their Virtual Book Tour across the web. (You can find my own VBT essays elsewhere).

Writers and creative people: drop on by our book’s meaty weblog to learn more about the book, or order Many Genres today.

Our next “Dark Promptings” are a batch of potential titles and/or themes from author Matt Duvall. Matt — a former wrestler — is around six feet tall, and weighs about 215 pounds; he likes to eat chicken wings, drink beer, and watch cage fighting… and he also holds an MFA, teaches English, and writes highly original women’s adventure fiction. Yes: women’s adventure fiction. Surprised? Don’t be. He’s good at it. And I bet he’s already got your attention pinned to the mat.

About these offbeat and funny prompts, he writes “Write a story to fit each of these titles or themes. The story can be any genre…but if it’s women’s adventure fiction, I get a cut.” Pick your favorite and see what it brings to the imagination…

• The Day the Jell-O Wrestled Back
• The Coach Who Loved Fast Women
• My Ex Marks the Spot
• The Snowboarder and the Beast
• Chokehold on My Heart

Matt Duvall was a professional wrestler who appeared on national TV shows and was included in Pro Wrestling Illustrated magazine’s Top 500 wrestlers for 1996. He completed his MFA at Seton Hill University, which is also where he met his wife, Natalie. His short fiction has been published in a number of venues, including Chizine, The Ultimate Unknown, and Eye Contact. When he’s not teaching high school students, Matt practices Krav Maga, runs half marathons, and tries to avoid mowing the yard.

Matt’s contribution to Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction is called “Powerman Writes Women’s Fiction: On Writing What You Know” and, drawing from experience, explains how writers can mine their own experience to flesh out even the most outlandish flights of fancy.