Imaginary Friends

Imaginary Friends

by Chad Musick

 

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GENRE:   YA Magical Realism

 

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BLURB:

 

If the delivery had been a demonic bowling alley or a mermaid’s grotto, Ivy would have sent it away. She has standards, after all. But she can’t refuse a magical Library, especially when they’ve gone to the trouble of including a wheelchair ramp. They say that on the Internet nobody knows you’re a dog, but somebody knows fourteen-year-old Ivy is an orphan, that she sells her paper-writing services to lazy college students, and that her imaginary friends are unhappy being stuck in the mural on the wall of her Alaskan home.

Himitsu refuses the Library, becoming angry enough to attack the delivery people with his bamboo sword. They won’t tempt him with books, any more than his mother has been able to tempt him into leaving their apartment during the past two years. He has all he needs: video games, online forums, and his virtual girlfriend Moe. Well, almost all. His dad’s death has left a hole in him, which is why when he receives text messages saying the Library can bring back the dead, he changes his mind. Moe tries to warn him about the danger, but what does she know, anyway?

Now, having been lured into the Library and having foolishly brought their imaginary friends with them, Ivy and Himitsu find those friends are trapped. The teens have a choice: fulfill the Librarian’s odd and painful demands in hopes of rescuing their friends or go back alone to their small, boring lives, knowing they’ve failed the only ones who really believe in them.

 

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EXCERPT

 

 

All giraffes are named Janice, excepting a few heretics. The old guard, being traditionalists, are the most militant in asserting that this is the necessary state of affairs. 

 

The Janice of our story, however, is not one of the old guard. He’s too young to be a veteran of the Nehming War, and to him the consequent Sophie massacre is something that happened to distant French relatives. Because of this, he is sometimes known to intimate that his name might, in fact, be Chanda.

Despite this obvious breach in social graces, he doesn’t consider himself to be a deviant. In fact, he thinks of himself as quite normal. Janice is anything but normal. For one thing, he’s a giraffe. We mustn’t neglect this observation. Giraffes are not normal. But let us leave that aside for a moment and pretend they are.

Humans, not being monstrosities except in aggregate, naturally regard involuntary baldness among the males as an unsightly defect. Bald men are likely to be regarded as degenerates. Some of them even become history teachers. Among boy giraffes, however, baldness of the ossicles—those little sticky-uppy bits on their heads—is a mark of honor gained by battering at other giraffes. 

 

To his enduring shame, the tops of Janice’s ossicles are covered in thick, feathery hair. Not because he is cowardly (though he is) but because Janice has never met another giraffe. In fact, he’s never encountered a third dimension at all, being stuck in perpetual twilight in the paper jungle pasted to the wall of Ivy’s otherwise crappy little house.

 

 

 A Word With the Author

 

 

1. Did you always want to be an author? Not really. I’ve been writing since I was in high school but had a tendency to not finish any of the books I started writing. During the lockdown, I was able to complete a book and that really sparked something in me and now I have 3 published titles. My first book, Not My Ruckus, is a literary fiction coming of age story that is quite dark. My second book is From the Lighthouse, a Fisher King story in which it is up to the reader to determine if the main character in a dragon or simply delusional. My current book, Imaginary Friends, is a whimsical novel in which two high school students are lured into a magical library. This begins a quest to fulfill tasks to receive what the library has promised them and to free their imaginary friends who are very real to them.

 
2.Tell us about the publication of your first book. My First novel, Not My Ruckus, is quite a dark book about a young girl who suffers a lot of abuse and how she saves herself and her best friend from a life a torment. 

3.Besides yourself, who is your favorite author in the genre you write in? I really like the work of Robert Creekmore. He is the author of a series of books that can best be described as a transgressive superhero saga. The first in the series is called Prophet’s Debt. It’s also published by Cinnabar Moth.

4.What's the best part of being an author? The worst? The best part of being an author is that moment when a reader connects with your writing and is excited to talk to you about your work. The worst is when a reader hates what you wrote and wants to tell you how awful your work is.

5.What are you working on now? I’m currently working on two books: one is a prequel called Chalk, and the MC is one of the secondary characters in Imaginary Friends that was very popular with the beta readers named Simon. The other has no title and is still early in its development.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

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.

 

Amazon buy link: https://www.amazon.com/Imaginary-Friends-Chad-Musick/dp/1953971733/

 

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE:

 

Chad Musick will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway