[Today we sit down for an interview with author and publisher, Kit Muse. Here, they discuss their new cozy fantasy crowdfunding campaign, the work that goes into it, and the book itself.]
Forests Haunted By Holiness: Your Backerkit campaign for Becoming Neptune’s Cat will launch at the end of October. First, congratulations! Second, how did you come up with the idea of a magical, scuba-diving cat? What brought those concepts together in your head?
Kit Muse: Thanks. I’d been writing a lot of equestrian fiction and, having a lot of cats in our care, I realized I wanted to write a story featuring a cat only I didn’t want it to be ordinary, as if cats can ever be ordinary. I thought, well, cats and water don’t go together supposedly, what can this cat be doing in water? I am a huge fan of ocean/nature/shark documentaries and so the idea of scuba diving for magical treasure came to me given my contemporary fantasy world in which I write.
FHBH: What sort of research went into Orains’ adventures? Were there particular myths you wanted to include, or did you sit down with a big book of legends and pull out the ones that sounded the most interesting?
KM: I write stories featuring the deities walking among us, and I have a preference for the Roman pantheon over the Greek, so it was pretty easy to come up with Neptune and thinking of cats being on ships for pest control, well Neptune must have cats, too, right? I do a lot of location research, such as the islands I reference in Becoming Neptune’s Cat or which ocean species, namely sharks, are supposed to be in which waters. It’s how salmon sharks and thresher sharks got referenced, for example, because they are found in the northern Pacific off Oregon’s coast.
FHBH: “Becoming Neptune’s Cat” is part of your larger Musimagium universe. How many books and stories make up that literary universe? Can you give us a hint as to what adventures lie ahead?
KM: Oh goodness, I’m not sure I can count them all. I have four mini series (each one stands alone) and some standalone novels, plus all the short stories available in my reader subscription group, Muse Happens, so it’s hard to say. I also have technically folded Tyche’s Par Impar stories into this universe. Yeah, there’s no counting.
What’s next? I will be writing more about Orains and what comes after Becoming Neptune’s Cat. I have at least one novella and one novel planned, if not more short stories. I am also working on my serial stories and their sequels, as well as my young adult work, which oh yeah, I didn’t include in my attempt to count earlier.
The good news is that each series or standalone book stands alone, so you can dive in anywhere. The world simply grows larger with each story you read and many of the characters have cameos.
FHBH: What tips can you offer to other creators who are considering a crowdsourcing campaign? Things they absolutely must do? Mistakes to avoid?
KM: Learn as much as you can. I’ve been a member of Kickstarter for Authors (a FB group) and just reading and lurking has given me ideas and also told me where I didn’t want to go with a campaign, at least not just yet. Anthea Sharp has a book by the same name (she runs the group) that is extremely helpful.
And if possible don’t launch alone. I am launching as part of the Book Bazaar (You can see all of the amazing projects here). And the group as a whole has been amazing as someone who has experience publishing and fulfilling book orders, just not as part of a crowdfunding campaign. I guess the tl;dr version of this is: ask for advice and help!
FHBH: What other projects are you working on?
KM: A lot. My brain won’t let me write one book or one project at a time. I basically have different groups of projects that I rotate depending on which daily writing session it is. But they’re all set in this one grand universe that I’ve created and that only seems to be getting bigger. Rest assured whatever I’m working on will have animals (most likely horses) in it along with queer/disability/neurodivergent representation.
