Although Matthew Skelton doesn't look old enough to have a substantial resume, he studied for and received a Ph.D. from Oxford in English Literature before he wrote his debut novel, "Endymion Spring."
During a phone interview from his apartment in Oxford, England, the 35-year-old author said "I feel about twelve." Because on both sides of the Atlantic there are many more graduates with Ph.D.'s than there are university teaching jobs, Skelton came up empty-handed.
Then he got a temporary job dusting very old books ("It was fun.") until "Magically, I got a part-time teaching job at the University of Gutenberg in Meinz, Germany. It lasted for five months."
Besides the thrill of being in the same place where the first printing press was invented, Skelton got the crucial idea for a book he wanted to write. "I uncovered the secret in an academic book — not about a sage or a wizard, but a young boy. There was a legend that Johann Gutenberg didn't really invent the printing press, that it was a man in Holland who carved letters in a magnificent tree as an alphabet for his children."
In 1997, before he received his Ph.D, Skelton had a dream about a young boy trapped in a library with a dark, sinister figure. In Skelton's book an American boy named Blake discovers a mysterious blank book in an Oxford library. His 15th-century counterpart turns out to be Endymion Spring, Gutenberg's young apprentice.
"I couldn't get a job," Skelton said, "so I decided to spend time on the book. I was lucky because a friend let me stay for free in his Berlin apartment. I learned about my characters as I wrote about them. They became my best friends. In three months, I only spoke to two people outside of my book."
Getting more excited as he talked about it, Skelton said, "Little things fell into place. I was having fun playing with the boundaries of history and fantasy. The competing elements were exciting. The book was clearly not going to be conventional. I was really writing it for myself. The characters kept saying, 'You can't leave me!"'
Now that "Endymion Spring" has been published in the UK, Skelton has seen the reaction of many of the young people who have read it. "I was happy that I could grip young readers. I was never conscious of writing for an age group. But my most magical moments came when I met young boys who said they could not put it down."
Skelton was inspired by Susan Cooper's series of five books "The Dark is Rising," and he loved the award-winning trilogy "The Dark Materials," written by British writer Phillip Pullman (it was Pullman's second volume, "The Subtle Knife," that he enjoyed the most).
Now Skelton's role as an author has turned into a huge promotion. "Endymion Spring" is being simultaneously published this month in 16 languages, 150,000 copies, and he's going on a lengthy tour in many countries.
At least Skelton has learned that he would rather write than teach. He would even prefer being a librarian or work in a book shop than teach. "If I can survive as a writer, I'll do that. I will never be able to stop writing.
"I'm working on a second book but I'm a very slow, conscientious person. This will take some time. It is set in the 18th century, so I've been learning some fascinating things about the time and culture. I'm living in Oxford for this year — and it's a lovely setting for it."
If you go
What: Matthew Skelton, book signing
Where: Deseret Book, Cottonwood Mall
When: All Day
How much: free
Phone: 534-1515
Web: www.deseretbook.com
Also: Deseret Book, Layton Hills Mall, 7 p.m.
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com