Author Interview: Gracelyn Musica

WHERE ARE YOU FROM AND DO YOU LIKE IT THERE?
I'm from Lake Charles, Louisiana. It's an interesting place to live -- too small-time to be big city, too big city to consider itself adequate.

DOES THE BAYOU STATE INSPIRE YOU AS AN AUTHOR?
Of course it does! The people and places here have long memories, for both the good and the bad. Everywhere you turn, someone has a story. And if they don't, it's rather easy to make one up.

FAVORITE AUTHOR? AND DO YOU DRAW INSPIRATION FROM HIM/HER?
I have quite a few favorite authors, and honestly it depends on what I'm into at the moment: Neil Gaiman, Roald Dahl, Diana Wynne Jones, Gerald Morris, Douglas Adams, Rick Riordan, Kate Chopin. I like a lot of children's lit, so I'm really inspired by stories with strong main characters, or characters that don't start out all that strong but come into their own (Matilda, Coraline, Chrestomanci and Squire's Tales series, Ella Enchanted, Percy Jackson). I also love funny characters -- if a book makes me consistently laugh out loud as I read it (Dirk Gently, Good Omens, The Squire's Tales again), I'll usually pick up another book the author's written.

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR FIRST POCKET NOVEL, "GHOST STORY"
I hate writing summaries, I generally suck at them, but here it goes. It's pretty much the main character, a psychic named Mia Richard, getting disgruntled at a spirit she takes on and being snarky at him. I know it doesn't sound completely thrilling, but if I tell you any more I'll have to charge you.

WHAT'S THE MOST DIFFICULT PART OF THE WRITING PROCESS?
Finding the discipline to take the time to write! Between work and the rest of life, it keeps getting harder and harder to find the time.

DO YOU THINK THAT WRITING SHORT STORIES IS HARDER OR EASIER THAN WRITING NOVELS?
Short stories and novels both have their pros and cons: for short stories, it's harder to confine myself to the word count while novels let me ramble on and on. However, it's easier to write short stories because I get the feeling of accomplishment when I finish a story.

ANY PARTICULAR GENRES YOU LIKE WRITING MORE THAN OTHERS?
I love fantasy and sci-fi, I always have. I find myself lately writing -- and enjoying reading -- romance stories.

DO YOU HAVE ANY INTERESTING WRITING QUIRKS?
I do like to say dialogue out loud as I write it. I read a lot of my stuff out loud when I write, actually, to make sure the words flow naturally. One quirk I do have is that when I write by hand, I can't use fancy writing journals. I love them, but they're always so beautiful and I hate messing that up! I like to write on yellow legal pads when I do hand write first drafts. And I never erase if I'm using a pencil. Slows me down.

FOR YOU, WHERE DO YOUR STORIES COME FROM?
The truly terrifying recesses of my mind, and from things my friends say in conversation. That is meant to be as ominous as it sounds.

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT WRITING "GHOST STORY"?
Honestly, it wasn't the writing part, although I did have a blast writing Mia and Bill's interactions. My absolute favorite thing about going through the experience of getting Ghost Story published was doing the photo shoot for the front cover with fellow writers Jason Foux and Tasha Gray. You know you have amazing friends when you can look at one and say, "I'd like to take a picture of your legs sticking out from under the trunk of my car for the cover of my Pocket Novel" and he replies with, "As long as you both stay away from the jack while I'm underneath it."

I am also rather proud of the back cover blurb. Like I said, I hate writing summaries.

ANYTHING YOU WANT TO ADD? ADVICE? WARNINGS? ANYTHING?
I want to thank all of you for reading, writing, and supporting Pocket Novels! We couldn't do this without you.

Submission Guidelines

We're taking submissions for pocket novels. Download the PDF below and follow the directions contained within. Submit your original manuscript based on the submission guidelines.

The email address listed in the PDF is for submissions and serious inquiries only. Anyone who spams this email will be added to the ignore list and will not be able to submit future stories.

http://www.mediafire.com/?61gdgf8fv40ms42

About the Project

How many novels have you read in the past three months? If you ask this question to a group of people, the average number will be 3. Three novels, per person in the last quarter.

How many short stories have you read? Ask this question to that same group and you will be greeted with blank stares.

Short stories, something that can be read while waiting for a load of laundry to finish, somehow does not get consumed during our busy lives. One might think that they would be more popular than novels considering the frantic pace of society, but one would be wrong.

The problem isn't in the time it takes to read, it's in the availability. One simply cannot walk into a bookstore and purchase a short story to read. One cannot simply sit back and enjoy a single short while sipping that first cup of coffee in the morning. One cannot do these things because the shorts are not available for purchase.

Pocket Novels are going to change all of that. 

The individual short is coming back. Before this year closes, they will be available in multiple locations in North Carolina with plans for expansion into other cities and states beginning early next year. My goal is to do two things.

First, I wish to reestablish the short story as a viable product to be distributed alongside novels and collections.

Second, I wish to open a new avenue through which budding authors can make a little money, have their stories read, and build up a fan base. Getting published is difficult, nearly impossible. I'd like to open another door.

Also, I wouldn't mind it at all if the project got so big that I could quit working for the man and spend my working hours at a computer, selecting stories, designing covers, and even being frustrated over distribution details. At the end of the day, all my work would count for something. I'd be growing a business I could call my own, not filling the pockets of some person I'll never see.

The plan is complicated. It's big. It's going to be difficult. But I welcome the challenge of starting and running a business like this. Without challenge there can be no satisfaction. I intend for this project to do big things. I don't believe there is any other way.

Coming soon...

Several years ago, I had an idea. It started with a question.

"If I printed individual short stories, would anyone buy them?"

Short stories were typically sold as part of a collection. Either you bought a book filled with assorted stories by one author covering numerous different topics and genres, or you bought a collection of stories by numerous authors covering one topic. Either way, you were paying a lot of money for a lot of stories, when you really only wanted a few. Thus, the short story didn't sell very well.

Why not sell them individually? It had been done before, up until the 1930's. They were called Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls. People read short stories back then. 

Could it be done again? The idea was simple. Spend a little money, print a few copies of a story, and drop it in a privately owned store and see if it sells. If it does, awesome. If not, I lost a little money and learned the answer to a question.

So I printed 40 copies of Pyro, a first-person narrative about a kid who loved fire, and let it rest on the shelves of a comic store in Lake Charles. I didn't expect much. Maybe a couple of buys over the course of the month, maybe a dozen.

When it sold out in under a month, I released another story. When that one matched the success of the first, I ran a third. Thirteen months, three authors, two book signings and a the best selling table at a local convention, I had my answer.

Would anyone buy a single short story?

YES!

They would. They did. And once again, very soon…

They WILL!

The TEN DIME NOVEL, what began as a $25 question became a $600 return. Soon, the POCKET NOVEL will be released. The test run was a blast and far exceeded my expectations and hopes. That was just the  tip of the iceberg. The testing is done. The trial period over. The beta version tested. It's time for the real deal.

I'm not going to worry about small printing projects. It's time launch the publishing company. The world is obviously ready, and I intend to deliver.