Today’s special author guest is contemporary literary fiction author Chad Musick. We’re chatting about Not My Ruckus.
During his virtual book tour, Chad will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit his other tour stops and enter there, too!
Bio:
Chad Musick grew up in Utah, California, Washington, Texas, and (most of all) Alaska. He fell in love in California and then moved with his family to Japan, where he’s found happiness. He earned a PhD in Mathematical Science but loves art and science equally.
Despite a tendency for electronic devices to burst into flame after Chad handles them, he persists in working in various technical and technology-related roles.
Chad makes no secret of being epileptic, autistic, and arthritic, facts that inform how he approaches both science and the arts.
Please tell us about your current release.
Not My Ruckus is a pull-no-punches spare-no-bullets novel about a teen girl being kissed by the girl next door, right when that girl’s mother is being murdered, and then taking it on herself to save the girl. The publisher’s site lists a dozen or so content notes, which a critique partner summarized as “all of them”. Kirkus calls it a “sharp, affecting novel of pain and love.”
The perspective is an unusual one: the narrator is a teen girl who doesn’t hesitate to do what she thinks is right. Sometimes that’s being nice, but sometimes that’s shooting people or beating them up. Lots of readers have reported a cycle of “oh, a nice sapphic romance… okay, I hate the author… okay, I forgive the author. Where’s the next book?”
What inspired you to write this book?
(Minor spoiler) The main character is an undiagnosed autistic and epileptic person, and her parents and others use these things against her. I experienced this in my own childhood (I’m also autistic and very, very epileptic). I wrote to break hearts (but put them back together!), but also to tell the stories of me and other people I’ve known.
It seems strange, and even upsetting, to some readers that I identify so strongly with a teen girl, but when I tried writing it with a boy as the main character, it turned into a serial killer novel about growing up in a cult, which isn’t what I was trying to write. At all. There are still elements of that book, but without the serial killing part. Or the cult part.
Excerpt from Not My Ruckus:
I was still asleep when I hit the water, and I thrashed and sputtered before momma let me up for air. She let me recover, let me get my bearings and see that I was in the tub with her in front of me and papa watching, before she pushed me under again.
When she let me up the second time, she spat in my face. “I spit in your face, Satan, and baptize this vessel!”
Papa leaned close to her ear. “Do you think she’s had enough?” Maybe she would stop now, with even papa questioning.
She pushed me back under. I tried to hold my breath and still fight my way up, like I was just playing rough with Frank at the pool, but that made her keep me under longer, long enough the lifeguards would’ve thrown us out for sure. Every time she let me up, she had some new way to curse the devil and demand it leave.
Usually, when the devil took me, I could feel it. I could feel my blood getting stirred up, feel myself getting angry.
This was different. I just felt confused and upset.
I thought of Frank, and how he just laid there whenever momma said he had the devil in him, and she rarely had to give him Jesus’ love more than once or twice before the devil left.
Fine.
I stopped struggling, decided to just let myself be drowned in the bathtub. That would show her who was tougher.
What exciting story are you working on next?
I’m finishing up a fantasy novel about a (very tiny) dragon who is obsessed with watching tv, wearing costumes, and escaping from the tower where they’re being held by a magician who spends his days playing MMORPGs. It’s a lot lighter than Not My Ruckus, but there are still moments that had early readers making comments like “What’s the happy little monster going to do next?” That will be published in February 2022, but the title hasn’t been decided yet.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
The earliest I remember writing is when I was in first grade. I wrote stories about a world where vegetables were made of jewels, and everyone was hungry because they wanted to be rich more than they wanted to eat. My literary influences at the time were Bunnicula and Nancy Drew.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I was a full-time editor for almost a decade, but I’ve never written fiction full-time. Nowadays, I get up at 5 or 6 a.m. to write. I don’t think morning is the important part for this, I just happen to be a morning person. In my professional life, I manage a group of data and business analysts for a retail goods company.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I’m not really a plotter or a pantser. I sketch out a few broad plot points, but the most important part for me of writing a book is finding the “voice”. Not My Ruckus has the voice of a teen girl, but forthcoming books have the voice of a dragon, of a dead tiger, and (still working this one out) of an evil chalkboard.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was young, I always said “rich.” I couldn’t conceive of actually surviving to adulthood – I spent an enormous amount of time at the hospital for severe asthma and a mystery ailment that I now know is epilepsy. As a teenager, I wanted to be a writer.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Not My Ruckus is a heavy book, but I hope you’ll read it. The main character is hilarious, in a juvenile way. She tells fart jokes and has a wicked streak of sarcasm, despite not understanding it in others.
Links:
Twitter | Website | Goodreads | Amazon
Thanks for being here today, Chad.
Thanks for hosting!
I liked the excerpt.
This sounds like a very good book.
Great post – I enjoyed reading it!