User:Osseous/Matt Hilton

Matt Hilton (born March 2,1966) is a British author best known for his novels featuring Joe Hunter, his writing broadly described as crime thriller books. Hilton’s debut – Dead Men’s Dust – was plucked from the ‘slush pile’ by Agent of the Year 2010, Luigi Bonomi, and sold for a record breaking six figure, five book deal (for a debut thriller author) to publisher Hodder and Stoughton in the UK. Hilton went on to secure a further three book deal with publisher William Morrow and Company in the USA, with translations in German, Italian, Bulgarian and Romanian following suit. Dead Men’s Dust was shortlisted for the Best New Book Award 2009 by the International Thriller Writers’ organisation.

Early Life
Matt Hilton was born on March 2nd 1966, at Blairgowrie[|Blairgowrie, Scotland] but was raised from an early age in Carlisle [|Carlisle, England]. He describes his family life as being ‘poor in money, rich in love’. He was raised on a council estate in the west of Carlisle and attended Newtown and then Morton Secondary School, leaving full-time education at the age of 15 to go to work. He began working at a motorway service station, before becoming a tree-feller, before finding his vocation at age 20 and entered the world of private security.

Career
From the age of 20, Matt Hilton worked first as a uniformed security guard, then a store detective, before moving into managerial aspects of the private security industry. He worked for a number of years as a Regional Loss Prevention Manager for retail giant Marks and Spencer. At age 38 he decided a change was due and applied to be a police officer with Cumbria Constabulary, where he served his local community, posted at the Cumbrian towns of Workington, Maryport and Wigton. During his years in private security and as a police officer he experienced many high tension and violent incidents which have helped add realism to his writing.

Writing Career
From an early age, Matt Hilton wanted to be a published author. As a boy his first attempt at writing a novel was as a pastiche of the children’s ‘Adventure’ books of Willard Price called Antarctic Adventure, but he gave up when realising that polar bears and penguins didn’t share the ice. His next novel was a teenage coming of age book called AGGRO, written by hand at age 13. Matt experienced an epiphany during an English lesson at school where his teacher chose to read a violent western short story to the class and it was met with the acclaim of his school friends. It was at this point that the bug to write truly took a hold of him. Matt went on to write seven unpublished novels, sending them out to agents and publishers over the next twenty plus years without success. He says that he has had enough rejections that he could wall-paper his living room with them. Throughout the years there were certain high spots. Hilton was shortlisted for a nationwide novel writing competition hosted by Writers’ Forum Magazine, and came fourth in another writing competition (where only the top three entries won a prize). He also placed articles on martial arts with Combat magazine and with local magazine, Cumbria Life. However his love was for writing fiction, in particular fast moving, cinematic American style thrillers. Matt secured an agent in March 2008 in the form of Luigi Bonomi of Luigi Bonomi Associates in London, England. His first novel, featuring ex counterterrorism soldier cum vigilante, Joe Hunter, went to auction and publisher Hodder and Stoughton offered a record breaking six figure, five book deal. As a result of this, Matt retired from the police force after four years to write full-time. His first book, Dead Men’s Dust, was published in the UK in May 2009, reaching number 11 in the Sunday Times best seller chart. It was also published in the USA in May 2009 by William Morrow and Company (Harper Collins), with subsequent translations in Germany, Italy and Bulgaria (under the titles Der Knochensammler, L’Inseguitore and The Reaper respectively) with a Romanian edition to follow soon. The second Joe Hunter thriller – Judgement and Wrath – was published by Hodder and Stoughton in the UK in October 2009, with the USA edition from William Morrow and Company following in August 2010 under the title Judgment and Wrath. A German edition under the title Das Blut Gericht is due for publication in November 2010. Slash and Burn, the third Joe Hunter thriller was published in the UK in April 2009, with the USA edition scheduled for an August 2011 release date. Book 4 in the series – Cut and Run – was released in the UK on 19th August 2010. Further Joe Hunter books are to follow, with a publication schedule for book 5 – Blood and Ashes – scheduled for March 2011, Book 6 – Dead Men’s Harvest – scheduled for August 2011 and book 7 – Currently untitled – to follow in 2012. Matt has plans for further books in the series.

SHORT STORIES

Matt Hilton has written numerous short stories, usually under the pen name of Vallon Jackson. He is also the creator and co-editor of the award winning webzine Thrillers, Killers ‘N’ Chillers.

Matt’s short story ‘The Skin We’re In’ appears in the short story collection Even More Tonto Short Stories published in the UK by Tonto books in August 2010.

Martial Arts
Matt Hilton has been interested in and has trained in various martial arts since an early age. At 13 years old he trained in boxing, before moving on to Shotokan karate at age 16. He also trained in Kyokushinkai karate and PKA Kickboxing. At age 18 he began training in the exacting combat art of Kempo Ju-Jitsu and attained his first Dan black belt at age 21. Matt continued to train in various unarmed combat systems and attained the grade of 4th Dan in Kempo Ju-Jitsu in 1996. Matt, and two of his brothers, Jim (4th Dan) and Raymond (2nd Dan) were instrumental in setting up the respected Bushidokan Dojo and coached numerous students to black belt level and beyond. Matt was a pioneer of the fledgling mixed martial arts scene, fighting in various full contact martial arts fights from 1996 until 2000 when, having won the Northern Area Ju-Jitsu Championships (heavyweight division) he retired to concentrate on teaching. Black belt student Stuart Hall (now a coach in his own right) now runs the martial arts classes, with Matt attending as and when his busy writing schedule permits.