The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – The Spooky Haunted House by Marian A Mattice

Episode Date: March 6, 2026

The Spooky Haunted House by Marian A Mattice https://www.amazon.com/Spooky-Haunted-House-Marian-Mattice/dp/B0FCSHJXQD? This book is a Halloween holiday themed story reminiscent of the motif in The House That Jack Built. It uses a repetitive sentence pattern and storyline pattern that is perfect for emergent and beginning readers to read and reread to develop their reading fluency skills. It’s storyline deals with searching for your own comfortable place in the world and finding lasting friendships with others. It is amusing and entertaining, with a child friendly, non-threatening level of seasonal spookiness!

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And kind of why she wrote it, you might learn some lessons. from some of the ways that she writes. Marion Matisse is on the show with us today. It's Mattice. It's Italian. It's like Matisse, but Matisse is with two asses. This is the way to pronounce it. That's Italian.

Matisse. Matisse. Marion A. Matice joins us on the show today. We'll be talking about her book, The Spooky Haunted House. And we'll get into some of the details that go into that. She is a professional. professional educator for the last past 45 years. This is her first published children's book, and she resides in a big old farmhouse in New York with her husband Kent. They own three

papillion dogs, one Devon Rex cat, and a large flock of chickens. Welcome to the show, Marion, how are you? I am fine. Thank you. Thank you. Nice to be with you. Pleasure to meet you as well. Give us your dot coms. Where can people find you on the interwebs? I just had a website made up. And it's, oh, is that backwards? People seeing it backwards. Go ahead and just read it off to us. All right.

It's author, Marion Matissebooks.com. And we'll have a link for that on the Chris Voss show, so they'll be able to click on it there. So give us a 30,000 overview of what's inside your book. I wrote it for one of my students that has different. difficulty with fluency. He's dyslexic, we believe. And I'm trained in the Orton Gillingham method of teaching dyslexics how to read. And so I was inspired, not this past Halloween, but the Halloween before, to write a book for him where it built. So it's kind of like the house that Jack built, where, you know, he started out with just a phrase. And he had another phrase on the next

page and another phrase on the next page and so on. And so it's cumulative in nature. And it helps with the fluency because it helps you remember what you've already read and you develop a flow. And that's how children, beginning readers, learn to read. In the middle of the story, there's a question posed to the reader. And what do you think is going to happen next? And so he came up with the idea and that launched into part two of the book.

So the part one is pretty easy for emergent beginning readers. And then it gets slightly more difficult in the part two, which is where he wanted the pumpkins that the ghost pours his magic potion on to become zombies. So I went with that idea and I wrote. the part two where the three zombies try to find a place where they want to spend the rest of their earthly existence and with, you know, a friendship relationship with someone. It's, it's kind of, I mean, as with a lot of children's books, an adult can read it and apply it to their own experience as well. Okay. Because they've had situations where they've had to do that. So yeah, it says that on the back we put the little blurb says it's a Halloween

holiday theme story reminiscent of the motif in the house that Jack built. It uses the repetitive sentence pattern and storyline pattern that is perfect for emergent and beginning readers to read and reread to develop their reading fluency skills. So once a child reads it and says, oh, this isn't that hard. I think I can read it on my own, especially if the first time they hear it was when their parent reads it to them. And then they might want to pick it up and try practicing it

themselves. Because I still remember when I was a child doing what my teachers in school said and I'm sitting in my living room and I said to my parents, I can read that newspaper headline. It says and I sounded it right out.

And I remember that was the first time that I had read, using, you know, what my teachers had taught me in school. And I think I remember reading at four or five. I don't think I was in first grade yet. So when I went to first grade, of course, it was a lot easier. And my parents always told my sister and I, you know, you're going to be first generation college kids, but in order to go, we don't have the money, you're going to have to earn scholarships.

And so that's what my sister and I did. We applied ourselves. We got good grades in school. We won scholarships in order to be first generation college graduates. Congratulations. So winning the scholarships and getting to go to college, first generation and stuff is really important. What were some of the early books that you maybe were reading and influences maybe that you had? I loved fiction, fantasy.

I did not care for biography. I didn't want to read about dead people. but a lot of books that had magic in them, you know, imaginary creatures. I love the Princess and Curti series, which I don't know if anybody reads those anymore. I also loved the series Half Magic and there was a whole bunch of magic written by Edward Eager. And my very favorite book that I must have read 50 times was called The Witch Family. And it was about a family that lived on top of a glass hill. And within the Glass Hill, there were mermaids living.

And the little witches became friends with the mermaids. And they had all kinds of adventures. And what was weird is it was a story within the story. because the two girls that were friends invented this. And it became so real to them that they became part of the story. And it was hard to figure out what about it was true and what about of it was just their imaginations. And I liked that kind of thing when I was growing up. So what motivated you want to write this book?

Like I was saying, my student was struggling. He's much improved now because that was a year and a half ago, a year and a quarter ago. And so I wrote it for him. And it happened to be Halloween time. So, of course, the appeal for this book is pretty much seasonal. But I do have an idea from my next book, which is not going to be just for one season. And it's going to have a draw year round. And that's called Brownie Barn Chicken Bounces Back.

And I have so far a line drawing. And then I'll fill them in and they'll be, you know, colorful. And so that's the next one. And then my third book that I'm thinking of doing is going to be called Bend in the Read, Teaching for Student Learning Breakthrough. I always look at the child, I evaluate their strengths, I try to combine remediation and that's based on their strengths so that you're not pointing out to them what they're not good at and giving them more of what they're not good at and then more of what they're not good at and they get turned off. So if you integrate their interests, what the skills they are good at, and then you pair it with activities that are going to cause them to practice what they're not good at, they see the fun in it and the motivation, and they don't pay so much strict attention to the boringness of it or the practice over.

and over practice because I vary the topics and the strategies. So basically that last book about Bend in the Read Teaching for Student Learning Breakthrough is going to be geared to encouraging newbies in the field of education, how to have the most bang for their book so that they don't get themselves burnout, doing activities that the kids can't stand or have little effectiveness and a little reward. Yeah. I mean, burnout is a big deal.

Most teachers now hardly even last the first five years before they decide that, you know, this isn't for me and it's too discouraging and, you know, I can make more money someplace else. But for me, it was never about making more money someplace. else. It was the rush that I felt when a student all of a sudden, you know, poofed, you know, in their head and said, oh, I can do this. It's not smoking mirrors. And they'd look at me like, why has it taken so long for someone to explain this to me this way or to, you know, boost my morale this way, you know? And I guess the biggest thing that I find reward is,

is students that I had have asked me to be their friend on Facebook. Oh, wow. So I get to see their children and, you know, in their lives now. And a lot of them report to me that they're teaching their children at home, the same techniques and strategies that worked with them when they were having difficulties. That's amazing because, you know, teachers, my mom was a teacher for nearly 20 years. my sister was the teachers change the world, man. They make impacts to people in their lives in a very youthful state.

And, you know, I've been at the store, my people come to my mom and be like, oh, you know, I remember you as my teacher. And they just love on her. You know, sometimes she's kind of looked at me after her and been like, that was one of the bad ones. I didn't think whatever, not be in jail right now. But it's funny how they remember her and they adore her. I'm not saying that there weren't lots of times where I wanted to throw in the towel and, you know, and do something different for a living.

Because I graduated 13 out of 295 and I want a half tuition scholarship to afford them. And I was thinking of going into journalism. And then my parents couldn't afford the other half. And I said, maybe I'll do my next favorite thing, which was I said, if I'm a teacher, then I can continue to learn my whole life right along. the kids. And so I went to Geneseo, which was a state school. And then when I taught my first five years of teaching in a school district that is not very, the people that live in it aren't wealthy, the school district is because it's Downsville Central School, which is at the base of a pepectin reservoir. So they get a lot of New York City tax money from the land that's under the reservoir.

But the people that live there, you know, are stone quarriers, but they're so family-oriented. And they would do anything to help their kid learn. But because they were, you know, economically disadvantaged because of living in the ruralness of the environment, I got my student loans canceled each year that I work. Wow. That's good. Those things can get really on hand and expensive. So now, why did you choose zombies?

Why did you choose these characters in the book? What was the impetus behind that? There's the two ghosts that live in the haunted house. But, and here's the other ghost, the grown-up ghost that pours the potion on the pumpkins. Oh. But, yeah, there's a mummy. And when they decide to live someplace, the mummy chooses the gnarly. Because I do read aloud.

I'm open to do read alouds and travel anywhere within commuting distance or even stay overnight. If, you know, somebody wants me to come in as an author and read to their students or explain how I did this. Now, the pictures have a computer-generated, AI-generated background, but these were actual cutouts that I used and glued on white paper. And I take a JPEG file and I emailed it in or sent it as a message or whatever to the publishing company. And then they made it a full page illustration for me. And the same thing with the text is I never took keyboarding or typing in school. So I hunt and tech with one finger. And so it's just faster for me to write in my own.

handwriting, take a JPEG, send that in, and somebody there can type it up. Because I want to become proficient. I don't want to be one flash in the pan, you know, one book and that's it. My favorite children's authors, probably Patricia Palacco. She does her own illustrations. She was dyslexic, didn't learn to read until she was 50, and she puts a lot of her own family background, which which is, I think, Ukrainian, Russian. She knows how to make the Sanky eggs. And a lot of her books are so brilliantly colorful. And so she does both the illustrations and the text.

And she's got over 40 titles. So I want to be like that. I'm going to be turning 70 in June. But I'm hoping I take after my father's side of the family, which they live to be 99 and 96. So if I can be a hundred, my goal is to reach 103. Ah. Here's where the...

Can I ask you something real quick? That's something I don't hear a lot of people say. Why 103? Is there a specific reason for that number? Threes are very popular in the Bible. So I think if I make it to 100, I'll add three on to it, a hundred and three. Hey, you might as well do the extra three since you're already there, right? Yeah.

You made that one. Yeah. Yeah, so they choose different places to live. And the one pumpkin zombie now decides he wants to have arms and legs. So he wants to be friends with the mummy. And then the littlest pumpkin decides that he wants to live in the haunted house because there's already two ghost friends for him to play with there. And the biggest, yes, the largest pumpkin zombie,

chose to live in the gnarly tree. And it looks like the gnarly tree could use some cheering up. So, you know, I'm thinking, you know, there's possible for a sequel where I could get into more of the developing relationships between the zombie and the person that they, the character they chose to live with. Because at the end of the book, the large, the big ghost, grown up ghost says that he was very pleased that his magic potion had helped three jackal lanterns turn into zombie jackal lanterns and find just the right places to live out their zombie lives. Now I can truly rest in peace,

he said, as he disappeared into the ground, at least until next Halloween, he added, with a big smile on his face. Oh, big smile on his face. Now, are they all zombies or some of these people, humans and how do they keep the zombies from eating their brains? Oh, there's no humans in it. And that was something my students suggested because I want them to be zombies and I want him going around killing and eating people. And I'm like, I think we want to keep our book PG, thank you, or less than PG, just gee.

So I said, let's just have the Halloween creatures in it. And let's not have any human. interaction yet. We'll work, we'll think about that down the road. We'll think about it down the road. We'll give it, we'll give us some thoughts and all that good stuff. What do you like about book reading? You were telling me before the show, how you write and you sometimes go to a special place, a house that you have. Yes, before I met my husband. I lived in the district in which I taught, and it is a cottage, a winterized year-round cottage on the banks of the West branch of the Delaware. So we actually have it listed as an Airbnb for people to retreat there

when we're not using it. It's called the Regal Eagle River Flat. And it's in the town of Hamcock, but the school district of Downsville Central School. And it's in the Catskill Mountains. And I specifically only have a landline there. No internet. The mountains are so high. You can't even get GPS on your phone to work. Okay. So you have to rely on old school maps, but you can go 10 miles either direction

to a town, and you can check your emails and your messages and stuff there. But my particular cottage is a little step back in time, and I didn't want people that go there to be able for their kids

doing this, you know? There's DVDs to watch. There's CDs to listen to. I have a whole chest of games in case it's raining, and they can't go out on a nature hike or, you know, put their fishing pole in the river to catch. Because the state stocks it with trout. And my husband actually caught the biggest trout of his life in that river. And he didn't have his phone with him that day.

So he's, oh, it was this big. I go, are you sure it wasn't only this big? But he let it go because he figured it had survived as such a large size. He let somebody else have fun catching him too. But the next one he caught was half the size. And we cooked that one up. You roll them in cornmeal. You know, you got them roll them in cornmeal, put cornmeal inside them.

And a cast iron frying pan with butter. And boy, are they delicious. Oh, they sound delicious. Maybe you should do a book on that. That sounds, I'm hungry right now. Possibly, that would be, you know. I'd read it right now. I'd probably eat it.

I want to be very proficient, like my favorite author, which is Patricia Polacko, and, you know, have 40 books sometimes. Oh, we have a lot of those authors in the show, as much as 60 plus. It's wild. They've been writing for a long time. So, yeah, just staying consistent doing the techniques you're doing. You should get there. What are some ways that you're using to promote your books? By doing this podcast and then having it on.

my website that just got got made but onionta for being a two college town only has one bookstore in town which i find appalling but i did i did put some of my books out in there at halloween time then i've also driven to vestal new york which is an hour west and to albany which is an hour east. And I did read aloud and author signing of my books for kids that come in to that physical bookstore. And then the local library has a copy of my book, and the librarian wants me to come in. And there are some students that have been published through various methodologies and she wants me to speak to them about, you know, when they become adult author.

So the big thing is I never realized that, you know, I just figure people go on Amazon or Barnes & Noble and they search the topic and then they find your book and buy them. And I never realized that you don't really get a lot of sales unless you actively spend money to advertise. and promote your book through either the company that published your book or other book-related companies. That's what I'm doing is I'm trying to save up and pay for other ways to get the word out there that I exist. My book exists. I'm willing to come and read my book and any future books and become, I would like to become a best-selling author. And I'm assuming my

Once you have a book and you get another book, and then they see when they order one of your books, oh, she's got other books. Maybe I want to order that other book, you know. I'm working with two other companies besides the company that you work with, with the books to life marketing. So I'm thinking the more I can diversify who I'm working with, when people search me, these other things will pop up. and they'll be, you know, interested in doing that. The one company I'm also working with decided that they wanted me to help them design a pitch deck to turn my book into a animated short or series, just like bluey, you know,

we're working on that pitch deck, and then that'll be pitched to producers that might want to invest and create, you know, animated version. Ah, that should be fun. That should be fun. An animated version in film, in film scoring. That would be fun as well. Now you do these, you said you'll do readings at places. Where are you located?

You said within a day's drive or so, what part of the country you located in it again? I'm in Oneonta, New York. Okay. Yeah, and we have two colleges, Hartwood College, and the State University of Oneonta in our town. And yeah, I really into encouraging, you know, beginning teachers and beginning authors not to get discouraged. So I'm trying to take that advice myself. Don't get discouraged.

Yeah, you have to market the book. You know, I've seen this with apps and companies, you know, you can build the biggest, biggest, best book or biggest company in the world. Unless you advertise it, market it. You know, people won't see it, you know. There's a lot of competition out there, too. I can't remember the number. I'm just... Well, there's so much self-publishing going on, too.

You know, it used to be you had to put your book, you know, pitch it to pitch it yourself, you know, and send it in. And they'd say you'd get all these rejections until finally somebody would want to invest and publish your book. So I can see that, you know, self-publishing is good if you can, justify that, you know, you sold more books with a advertising campaign on social media, then, you know, you might continue that another year. And hopefully, you know, when you reach a certain number of copies sold, you know, it could be pitched to a very, what do I want to say, prominent publisher. And enter it into a contest, too, where it might win a New Berry Award or a Caldecott Award or various awards.

It's been wonderful to have you on and talk about the show and all that stuff. As we go out, tell people your final.coms and where people can find you on the internet webs. Yeah. I can read upside down and backwards from working with students on the other side of their desk for so many years. And they're amazed when I can write something that they can read when it's upside down to me.

So I have no problem reading backwards. It's author Marian Matissebooks.com. And then I also have a Facebook account and a LinkedIn account. Thank you very much, Marys, for coming to the show. We really appreciate it. Or Marion for coming on the show. I really appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Order up her book, where refined books are sold. It's entitled The Spooky Haunted House out June 10th, 2025, and all that good stuff. Be sure to further show your family and friends and relatives. Go to Goodrease.com, fortunately. Chris Voss. LinkedIn.com, Fortress Chris Foss. Chris Foss won the TikTok and all those crazy places in it.

See you next time. You've been listening to the most amazing, intelligent podcast ever made to improve your brain and your life. Warning. Consuming too much of the Chris Walsh Show podcast can lead to people thinking you're smarter, younger, and irresistible sexy. Consume in regularly moderated amounts. Consult the doctor for any resulting brain bleed. Oh, great.

Thanks, Marion.