Story Profile: Grief

“Grief” is a story about a young woman named Melissa who is attempting to deal with the various stages of the grief process after the loss of her life partner. I wrote this story in an attempt to highlight the grief process, drawing on and inspired by my own experiences with grief and loss, the experiences of close friends, and my work in the field of human services and grief and loss counseling.

 

I turned and left the coffee shop, went back out into the cold. I headed in the direction of my apartment, but I knew I wasn't going home; the idea was to get away from Susan, to find someplace where she wasn't likely to be, but where? She'd lived in this city her entire life, her ghost floated over every street corner, she was in every window in every building, every brick and inch of mortar, every moment of the sidewalks. She was in the snow, in the rain and sunshine, in the leaves laying dead in the gutters. I'd grown up in Darlington too, but the city had always belonged to her.

I stopped at a convenience store and bought a pack of cigarettes, thought about getting a bottle. Who would know? But I couldn't do it; for me drinking was slow suicide, and if I was going to do something like that, I'd have to do it quickly.

Back out on Olsen Street, getting closer to home. I came up to a bus stop, sat on the bench and lit a cigarette, my mind blank. I tried not to think, tried not to see myself the way other people saw me, or would see me if they knew what was in my heart: just a poor dumb dyke still pining away for her long lost love. It was strange; everyone experiences pain in love, everyone loses somebody, but how many people really make the effort to empathize? I'd lost more than all the lovers in the world. I'd lost the rest of my life. Who could even understand that?

Anatomy of a Pocket Novel Cover

As I've said before, Pocket Novels are not like regular novels. For one, they're quite a bit smaller since they're short stories, not novels. But the length of the story is only part of what separates Pocket Novels from regular books. Much of the difference lies in the colorful wrapper.

In this case, maybe you can judge a book by its cover.

With fifteen years of professional experience in the art of graphic design, specializing in print media, our artist carefully plans, lays out, and renders each Pocket Novel cover, producing a work of art that both promotes the book and represents the overall tone and meaning of the story. When you look at the cover, it should inspire the same feelings that the story within will. This is why we get so many compliments on our covers. That awesome cover art is just a matching intro to the fantastic story behind it.

The back cover of our Pocket Novels is where the real differences show up. At first glance it might look like a tradition novel back, but then you'll start to notice certain features that you might associate with movies, comics or video games. These differences, which we hope will one day be adopted by every major publisher, are currently exclusive to Pocket Novels.

There's the blurb of course, the short description that tells you, the reader, exactly what the story is about without giving away any of the surprising bits that lay in store. What begins with the image on the front is driven home by the careful wording on the back. The story and its unique tone are summed up and presented here so you can decide if this will be a gift for your nephew or if you're keeping this one for yourself.

We said we did things with our covers that other publishing companies don't do, and here's the first. Just beside the Pocket Novel logo, you'll notice the story's genre clearly listed. When flipping through a stack of our stories, you can easily find them listed by genre. Looking for Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Mystery, Suspense, etc.? We proudly list our genres for your convenience. No more wondering. We openly tell you.

But the differences don't end there. Is the book suitable as a gift for your nephew? Will his mom call you up the day after Christmas, furious, because the innocent-looking book contains and explicit love-scene on page 16? Not if you can take the split-second to read what's located in the lower right corner of the back cover. Printed plain as day is the story's rating. All Ages, Teen, Mature. And we don't just rate the stories just like games and movies, we tell you exactly why it has that rating. No unpleasant surprises. No furious mothers. Just one more convenience to make your decisions that much easier.

What's that printed below the genre? What do those four words proclaim? Surely it can't be. I haven't seen that in 20 years! But it's true. Pocket Novels are printed right here in the United States of America, supporting local jobs and local families. Always have been. Always will be. Period. No outsourcing to foreign countries. No sweatshops. No slave labor. Just honest, hard-working individuals that you may bump into on the streets of this great nation. All our books are produced by a small, local printer. And that's how it's going to stay. Yes, that is a promise.

Finally, last but not least, is our logo. Pocket Novels. At the bottom left, proudly proclaiming that The Short Story Is Back!

Author Interview: Henry Moon Fortune

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BECOME A WRITER? When I was fifteen I had to read Albert Camus’ novel The Plague for a class I was taking, and I was so impressed by it that I decided, “I want to write stories like that.”

DO YOU GET YOUR INSPIRATION FROM A PARTICULAR SOURCE? Most of my inspiration comes from my own life experience, the things I’ve learned and the conclusions I’ve drawn from living life.  I do get the occasional idea from something I’ve read in the news, or else a scene or situation in a novel that wasn’t explored to a satisfactory extent.

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR FIRST POCKET NOVEL.I started writing “Grief” in 1995, primarily as a personal response to the death of a close friend.  It took me several months to write it, and even though I’ve written four novels, I think this one story was probably the most difficult piece of literature I’ve ever produced.  But it helped in my healing process, and I hope it can help others in theirs.



WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO PUBLISH WITH POCKET NOVELS? When I first learned of Pocket Novels and their mission to revive the dime novel, I thought that was an excellent idea.  I checked out their website, learned more about their operation, and decided that I wanted to contribute to this new direction in publishing.  I believe it will be a great thing for the world of literature.

WHAT'S THE MOST DIFFICULT PART OF THE WRITING PROCESS?  Actually starting a new project; I might have a story outlined from start to finish, but for me the most difficult part is getting those first few sentences and paragraphs out onto the page.

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE PART OF THE WRITING PROCESS? When my characters begin to take on a life of their own and start writing the story for me, even if they take it in a direction I hadn’t intended; it’s then that I know I’m onto something good.

DO YOU THINK THAT WRITING SHORT STORIES (POCKET NOVELS) IS HARDER OR EASIER THAN WRITING NOVELS?  Definitely much harder.  Because of their brevity, pocket novels have to be more focused and compact, ideas have to be fully explored with a limited number of words, and so choosing the right words and still managing to tell the complete story is much more challenging than writing novels.



WHO ARE YOUR FAVORITE AUTHORS/STORIES/GENRES? I could probably fill an entire page with just a list of my favorite writers.  The top few would include Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Jack Kerouac, Albert Camus, Vladimir Nabokov, Allen Ginsberg, Sarah Schulman, Stephen King, and Gregory Maguire.  My favorite books would  include most of the books these fine writers have produced.



ANY PARTICULAR GENRES YOU LIKE WRITING MORE THAN OTHERS? I write almost exclusively in the mainstream/literary genre, though recently I’ve taken to experimenting with a fantasy novel.

DO YOU HAVE ANY INTERESTING WRITING QUIRKS? I don’t think so.  The only odd thing I can think of is that, with the occasional exception (like the story “Grief”), I tend to write my stories and novels solely from an idea, without any kind of outline, or even plan of how to get from beginning to end.



DO YOU HAVE ANY NON-WRITING PASSIONS?  Not really.  Writing is about the only passion I indulge, though I am addicted to the arcade game Space Invaders.