An Interview with Brit Chism: Author of Mnemosyne’s Daughters

Mr. Chism had a whole other career in registered nursing, but now he writes short stories about women protagonists. He holds two bachelors degrees, one in English, and one in registered professional nursing. He lives on the west coast of Florida and loves to cook, garden in pots, and ride his bicycle around the trendy warehouse district looking at murals.

Tell us about your book.

Mnemosyne’s Daughters is a book of short stories about women protagonists. They explore issues like glass ceilings, trafficking, outdated social mores, patriarchy, unfaithful lovers, and assault. Several were inspired by ancient myths. I took the women (Mnemosyne, Jocasta, Medea, Eurydice, and others) and dug deep into the mythology to find a grain of truth, then used that to develop their character arcs in 21st century settings.

Why did you choose to self-publish?

There are only a few publishing houses left, and getting published there has miniscule chances, and requires a great deal of time. It’s a legacy for me. I want to leave something behind of beauty and value. I’m older, so a surfeit of time is not something I have anymore. I hired an editor and paid for formatting and a cover design myself.

What tools or companies did you use, and what experience did you have?

I do huge amounts of research online, and spend days developing characters. They get place-holder names, biographies, even purses and backpacks which I dump out on the floor, like a seer auguring guts. I write using pen and paper. Cut and paste involves a scissors and tape. When I finally have a rough draft, I put it in the word processor on the PC. I, fortunately, found two very smart, well-educated women to edit the rough drafts. Damonza.com did the formatting and they have a subsidiary/collaborator who works hand-in-glove with them to create a cover. Their final products upload in a snap to the appropriate places on Amazon and Kindle.

Would you self-publish again?

Oh, yes. I have nine stories written, and I hope to have a total of about thirty for another book. Hopefully it will be ready in January 2019.

What tips can you give other authors looking to self-publish?

Believe in yourself, and write faster than the critic-in-your-head can tell you why you’re a fool.

As a writer, what is your schedule? How do you get the job done?

I have a goal of two usable pages per day. That’s only 500 words, but in six months, if you stick to it, you will have a book. The Muses speak to me and I have to be attuned to their divine channel, and I have to be willing to get out of bed and make coffee in the middle of the night and write to realize the dream.

Tell us about the genre you wrote in, and why you chose to write this sort of book.

Short stories have always appealed to me. My heroes include Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, James Baldwin, Mavis Gallant, Anton Chekhov, Alice Munro, and Truman Capote. There seems to be a real shortage of women protagonists, so I imagined this would be a good market – women who are readers and well-educated.

How do your friends and family get involved with your writing? What do they think of your book?

They say they’re proud of me. They tell me everything I write is “GREAT!” I love them, but they’re not useful as critics. That’s why I pay an editor.

Why did you write about this particular subject?

Women have always been the most important people in my life. I had two sisters in a neighborhood with few other boys. My mother was a battered alcoholic who used her children like emotional hand grenades in a 27-year war she and her husband called “a marriage.” I made my living as a nurse, so school and work were >90% women. Our experiences of their hopes, dreams, set backs, and peculiar ways of communicating provided grist for the mill.