Nugget Editor Matt Aiken emerges from basement with new novel

Nugget Executive Editor Matt Aiken has spent the last decade or so reporting the facts and just the facts. Until now.
“I wanted to make something up,” he said while sitting at his desk in The Nugget office. “With reporting you have to be as factual as possible. And that’s the way it should be. But I wanted to write something that was completely untrue. Something just from my head.”
And so he has.
The novel, which he mostly wrote in his basement late at night, is called School of Sleuths.
“It’s a high school detective novel with a sort of Stranger Things meets Scooby Doo vibe,” said Aiken. “It’s scary at times. Hopefully funny throughout. There are no talking dogs though, sorry.”
Aiken said he tried to write a story that he himself would like to read.
“As a kid growing up and watching Goonies over and over again I always liked adventures where it’s up to the kids to solve the mystery,” he said. “Bonus points if they solve it while riding around town on bikes.”
Aiken first started working on the novel about four years ago, but would leave it for months at a time.
“It always bugged me that I hadn’t finished it,” he said. “It was always on the back of my mind.”
Last August, after stepping aside from the publisher’s position and handing the reigns over to John Bynum, he was able to focus on finishing the project.
“During the hours that I wasn’t working for the paper I pretty much went into the basement and wrote and wrote and wrote,” he said. “One thing that helped move things along was writing from a first person perspective. I’ve written a lot of columns for The Nugget, so that came naturally. But instead of writing as myself, I wrote it as the main characters.”

UNDERDOGS ASSEMBLE

Aiken said inspiration for the book ranged from Murder, She Wrote to E.T. to the Avengers movies. In fact, it was one particular web-slinging Avenger who helped kick it off.
“After watching Spiderman: Homecoming one night, I decided it would be fun to write a story where all the main characters are pretty much like Peter Parker if he didn’t get superpowers,” Aiken said. “They’re all the nerdy sidekicks. But their nerdiness comes in handy when it comes to out-smarting the bad guys.”
When you get down to it, he said, the novel is really about being yourself.
“And it’s about not worrying about what other people think about you,” said Aiken. “That’s hard to do no matter how old you are, whether you’re a kid or an adult.”
The dedication on the first page of the book sums that up as it reads: “For the kids who think they’re weird and the kids who think they’re alone. Good news: You are weird. Better news: You are not alone.”

ADDING IT UP

When it comes to fiction writing, this isn’t the first novel Aiken has written, but it’s the first one that he’s actually wanted to publish.
“The other ones I was pretty sick of by the time I finished them. This one, I really like. So I want people to read it,” he said.
Earlier this year Aiken brought the pages to a self-publishing company just down the road off Highway 400. The book is currently in the final stages of the proof-reading and editing process. Now Aiken is trying to figure out how many copies of School of Sleuths to print.
“If you want to reserve a signed copy, just send me an email at:
mattaikenwriterguy@gmail.com,” he said. “You don’t have to pay right away. I’m just looking for a good estimate for a print count.”
Advance copies are going for $14.99 plus shipping, and should be available within the next few weeks.
“I’ve spent a lot of time on this. And if people actually read it, I’d be honored,” said Aiken. “That part I’m not making up.”