Last week, ASU pre-law senior Eric Matheny sat confidently at Dos Gringos. The undergraduate's upbeat demeanor was shielded from view behind a pair of shades.
Dressed in a leather jacket and non-designer jeans, the California native slowly lowered his shades, took a sip of his beer and ordered another round.
"I inspire myself to write," said Matheny. "I believe the best kind of motivation is self-motivation."
Matheny may have the stereotypical look of an ASU fraternity brother, but there's more to him than his "The Fonz" leather jacket and his James Dean shades.
The kid has talent to write, or so his new novel, "Home," proves.
A printing company decided to publish his book months ago, and the novel will hit major bookstores May 8.
While writing the novel, Matheny was president of ASU's Theta Chi fraternity; he will graduate in May. He said he will be heading off to law school next year. Syracuse is first on his list. Matheny said he hopes publishing a novel will better his chances of getting in.
A second book is already in the making, he said.
During the past summer, Matheny said he relaxed with the company of his computer and the stories of his mind. "Home" soon became a method of therapy after heartbreak and was finished months later, he said.
"Being in a long-term relationship for so long and having it fail put me in a melancholy state of mind," Matheny said. "It became the best form of therapy I could find after my long-term relationship ended."
One ASU student who was especially entertained by the novel was fellow Theta Chi brother and political science major Eric Zeller.
"I read the manuscript and found that it's a novel the average adolescent can relate to," Zeller said. "There's college, drugs, sex. ... It's the life of an average big kid."
Word of the novel's excellence has elicited praise from across the country, including from a USC student who read the manuscript of the novel.
"I thought the book was a dark portrayal of a generation accurately illustrated," said 22-year-old USC film student Braden Aftergood, who has known Matheny for over a decade. "Every character is a hybrid of experience. ... He's shaped all the characters from past occurrences."
Sterling Dubin, an applied math major at the University of California-Berkeley and a childhood friend, said the author "has a wonderful ability to make the best out of any situation."
Reach the reporter at jamie.franzen@asu.edu
