Billie Sue Mosiman

Mosiman is a suspense novelist and short story writer. She's been writing since she was a teen and began publishing in her early thirties. She's a fulltime writer, working on novels most of the time and on short stories throughout the year during breaks. (Many times during novel breaks she gardens and makes soap--see her soap page on her site.) One of her novels, NIGHT CRUISE, from Berkley, was nominated for the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Paperback Original, 1993. Her 1995 novel, WIDOW, from Berkley, was nominated for the Bram Stoker award for Superior Novel in 1996 by the Horror Writers Association. Sample her latest: STILETTO, Berkley paperback, ISBN 0-425-15127-1. You may read the first chapter by using the link below to her site.

Q:
Billie...why are novels that much different from short stories? And why do you prefer them?/ga

B Mosiman:
They're just so...long! When I work on a novel, it means committing to a very long and sometimes difficult project. Short stories I write in hours, in one sitting. Novels take months, sometimes a year or more. I like both, for varying reasons. Stories because I can take one small idea or event and build a story around it and have it written in just hours. Novels because they allow complexity and character development./ga

Q
what is your favorite short story taht you'v e written?/ga

B Mosiman:
Oh my. That's hard to decide...I've published over a hundred of them, but probably written twice that many. I guess the latest ones are always my favorites. But there was one that I really cared about, though it was "down" and didn't end happily. I marketed that story for a long time. I think it had 20-odd rejections. It finally won a literary magazine's fiction contest! The contest paid money, publication, and the staff took me to dinner. I was so proud to see that story finally make print. For that reason it remains one of my favorites. And another one that just came out in DEATH IN DIXIE, my first anthology that I co-edited with Martin Greenberg. I like that one a lot. ga/

Q
Billie...I suppose that the lesson to be learned from that experience is that one must be...tenacious if one wishes to be a professional writer?

B Mosiman:
I would say so, yes. It's a difficult profession and it seems you have to have tremendous faith in yourself and the stories you want to tell--whether they are short stories or novels , but anyone can do it too--with sufficient staying power. :)ga/

Q
Billie, I ran across a story of yours in an Anthology edited by Greenberg and Weinberg... recently... "The Smile of a Mime" in the collection MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY... and I was struck by the depth of your characterization in such a short story. How do you prepare characters? or do the evolve on their own?/ga

B Mosiman:
Thank you! Writing about people is what I think fiction is all about. It's all very fine to have a great nifty plot no one else has thought up. It's also great to have a wonderful world and descriptions of that world so you feel as if you live there. But unless the people in that world or plot are engaging then I feel the story or novel fails. I don't prepare characters, precisely... Short stories sometimes start with one line, or a title, or one character... and then the character helps build what the story is about. /ga

Q
Billie...I was also curious about the fact that all of the stories in that collection ... circled around the fabled Miskatonic U of Lovecraftian Lore.Did a call go out for stories about MU? Or were you approached...just curious/ga

B Mosiman:
I was invited to write a story for it. Many anthologies are "closed" that way, meaning editors invite certain writers they want to appear in the anthology. Of course the story turned in has to hold up. Even very big name writers have had their stories turned down after being invited. If they really messed up. :) Other anthologies are "open" meaning there is a public call for submissions. In Horror Writers Association they put out an anthology every year or two... Those anthologies are "open." I will have a new story coming out in the next one called ROBERT BLOCH'S PSYCHOS. I think more than 2 millions words of stories flooded in the submission time. Only about 110,000 words could be bought. The competition was really fierce. But I loved Mr. Bloch and wanted to write a story he would approve of. I was really happy when the story was selected for it. It will be outfrom Pocket later this year./ga

Q
Yikes! Congrats on that sale then.

B Mosiman:
Thanks. I held my breath for months waiting to hear. /ga

Q
Billie...seems to me that though your web site says you specialize in suspense...you do an.. awful lot of horror. Are the two genres synonimous (sp) for you? /ga

B Mosiman:
Well, yeah, they pretty much are. Genres are determined by publishers and sales and marketing gurus. We writers just write what comes to us and then they label it. For my novels they have built me up as a suspense thriller writer. None of the novels have fantastic elements or supernatural ones. But in the short story field I write all types of stories and try my hand at everything. I've even published a western story in a newspaper section of the Tampa Tribune! I just love the short story for that reason--the freedom to play around in different genres. /ga

Q
Billie...can you tell me a little about the Novel Writing workshop you do?/ga

B Mosiman:
Certainly, I'd love to. My course is just ending up now. I teach an introductory course to novel writing called WRITING SUSPENSE, MYSTERY, HORROR NOVELS. I keep the classes small so I can give individual attention. We have eight assignments, one to be completed and emailed to me over 8 weeks. We have our own private library with lots of files I loaded into it. And a classroom where we meet once a week. Around September I plan to offer a new course for the advanced novel writing. I used to work for Writer's Digest School but I prefer online classrooms much more. It's more immediate and I get to know the writers better and then can be of more help to them, I think. I went to college to be a teacher and turned into a novelist instead. I guess the teacher is coming out in me despite my best intentions. Heh! /ga

Q
If someone wanted to join your Novel Writing Workshop online...where would they go?/ga

B Mosiman:
They would type keyword CLASSES here on AOL. There is an area for registration. I won't be teaching the novel course again for a little bit, so folks can email me and I kee p their names in a file until the course starts, then I let them know it's time to register. Thank you for asking! /ga

Q
Who has been your biggest influence in your writing? /ga

B Mosiman:
There has been more than one...I learned a lot about pacing from Stephen King. Before him, I learned some things from Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, and Dostoyevski. Not that I am as good a writer as any of those names, but they were influential on what I decided to write about and how I wrote it. I also very much love the work of Larry McMurtry, Phil Dick, Harlan Ellison, William Goldman, Jim Thompson...oh so many./ga

Q
Billie...back to the short story...a lot of young writers are complaining that it's very difficult to break into the... market these days...whether it's SF Horror Suspense or Fantasy... do you have any advice on what an unknown writer can do? /ga

B Mosiman:
Yes, but it's always been hard. When I was first trying to sell short stories in the early '80s, there were only two horror magazines. That's the kind of fiction I was writing exclusively at that time. The mags were THE HORROR SHOW and 2AM. That was it. Later more mags came along, but for the longest time there were no other markets available doing the kind of thing I wanted to write. I think I sent THE HORROR SHOW about two dozen stories before he finally bought one. Today the market is slim too, for both horror and sf/f. The point is to write the stories. Then market the stories. And keep writing the stories. Wear them down. (grin) It can be done because I did it. Was it easy? Oh no! And it was in many ways demoralizing. But I wanted to publish fiction so bad! It meant so much to me. So I wrote and sent them off and wrote more. I wrote 100 stories before I really learned enough about storytelling to sell a story. That won't be true for every writer. I was slow But it will take determination and practice. ./ga

Q
If you had the opportunity to write a story with one author, living or dead, who would it be? /ga

B Mosiman:
Well, I don't really think it's impossible, though. It can be done. ga/

B Mosiman:
Okay, if I could write with one author, who? Stephen King. I think he's our Dickens. He'll be remembered and much loved. I'm not one of those folks who get a kick out of badmouthing successful writers. If I could ever write a story with King, what would be grand. The closest I'll come, I expect, is to write a story that ends up in an anthology with him. He doesn't collaborate. But then I don't do that often either. /ga

Q
Is it wise for a writer to think about studying...screenwriting these days, as a secondary thing?/ga

B Mosiman:
Well, it wouldn't hurt. But screenwriting is so very different than fiction writing. Novels and stories are really different forms, but the screenplay is another elephant all its own. It takes years to learn fiction writing. It takes years to learn good screenplay B Mosiman: writing. I'd say dividing one's study up that way and trying to write in both fields would be very hard. I've tried the screen play. It's hard!! /ga

Q
What's the difference (besides length) between writing short stories and novels?/ga

B Mosiman:
Stories take one event and explores it and brings it to a conclusion. A novel takes many events, characters, backgrounds, and complex ideas and weaves them into one cohesive whole. I started writing the short story so that now my novel chapters all have a feeling of a "small ending." And (I hope) puts the urge on the reader to read the next chapter. But other than that there's not a lot of crossover between novel and story techniques. Like I said, they're different forms and it takes practice in each to learn them. /ga

Q
Before we move on to the next question...Billie can you tell us how to find out about your..Novel writing course again?

B Mosiman:
Ok. Type keyword CLASSES here on AOL and look for the registration button. My course is called WRITING SUSPENSE, MYSTERY, HORROR NOVELS and it's an intro course. People can email me at BMOSIMAN to be put on a waiting list for the next course. /ga

Q
Follow up: Which do you prefer when writing? Which do you prefer when reading? /ga

B Mosiman:
I come to the short story for pleasant reading that can be done in a short time. I come to the novel for a broader and deeper experience. I love writing both of them very much. But the novel is harder for me. It means a much heavier investment of time and effort. And it's a greater risk. /ga

Q
What's the ONE story you wish YOU had written? /ga

B Mosiman:
I can't remember the name of it, but it was a story King wrote where a man is on an island alone and is starving. He begins to chop off pieces of himself to EAT in order to survive. It's one of the most disgusting pieces of work I ever read. But it was effective and it was scary. I wouldn't mind having authored some of Flannery O'Connors' short stories either. Any of them. /ga

Q
Will you be doing any book signings in New York City?/ga

B Mosiman:
Not for a while. I love NYC and visit every 2-3 years. So I have nothing planned right now, sorry. I might be at Worldcon in San Antonio this year. /ga

Q
You must let me know when you come back here!

B Mosiman:
I'll certainly try!