PLAINFIELD — PLAINFIELD— Matthew Vincent grew up in Plainfield and delivered the Hendricks County Flyer
as a boy. These days, however, he’s making headlines himself.
His first book — [you] Ruined It For Everyone: 101 People Who Screwed Things Up For The Rest of Us — is due to hit bookstore shelves on Oct. 19.
The book has already been reviewed by USA Today and Village Voice. On Labor Day, Vincent will be appearing on a morning news show called FOX & Friends that airs at 6 a.m. on the FOX News Channel. He’s even been interviewed by the Canadian Wire.
Vincent graduated from Plainfield High School in 1994. He’s the son of Pat Vincent of Plainfield and Dave and Julie Vincent of Fishers. His mother, Pat, has worked at the Hendricks County Flyer for the past 26 years and is well known throughout the community.
“He’s always been a card,” she said. “I think he always liked to make people smile ... make them happy.”
He attended Ball State University where he studied architecture and then went into graphic design.
“I used to deliver papers for the Flyer,” he said. “Very poorly. I ruined it for a lot of people ... at least that’s how my mom recalls it.”
Vincent now lives in Los Angeles, Calif., with his wife, Mélanie, and their daughter, Téa, who was born Aug. 16.
He said he became an author by happenstance. He had compiled a list of names in his iPhone of people or businesses who have “ruined it” for the rest of society.
“My wife said I should write a book,” Vincent said. “After talking to some writers and hearing horror stories, I was humbled quite quickly.”
Humbled, but not deterred.
“Fortunately for me, I’m a designer,” he said. “So I went ahead and designed it before I shopped for an agent.”
He got some editing help from his father.
“I spent quite a bit of time on it,” Dave Vincent said. “It was fun. I’m a journalism grad from IU and started in newspaper then went into public relations.”
Once the Vincents felt the book was ready, they mailed it out to several agents.
“When I sent it out we had a banana peel as the cover,” Vincent said. “I immediately got responses from three agents. I was totally overwhelmed.”
With the exception of a change in the cover, he said the book is pretty much how he sent it out.
One example of someone who “ruined it” for the rest of us is number three in Vincent’s book: Peter Travis, the inventor of the Speedo swimsuit. Here is an exert from Vincent’s blog:
“Peter Travis was many things: a designer, sculptor, ceramicist, kite-maker, and teacher. But the Australian is most famous for bringing millions of unwanted winces of disgust to the faces of people after seeing repulsive men wearing Speedos. This phenomenon is undeniably awful.
“Don’t get me wrong — the Speedo does have its place. It is, after all, very functional swimwear. It has low resistance for swimming competitions, it doesn’t restrict movement while diving, and it can even lend itself to a bodybuilding competition (although that last point is highly debatable).”
Vincent said his sense of humor is genetics.
“It’s allowed me to have a large hand,” he said. “And a very large pointy finger. That pretty much sums it up.”
[you] Ruined It For Everyoneis available for pre-order on Amazon.com and will be in bookstores in October.
brenda.holmes@flyergroup.com
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