Roseane Frank’s debut book takes its name literarily.
Her book is a collection of stories that are grouped by an average read time.
“Bite Size Reads: slightly twisted, deliciously dark, really short stories for people with very little time or very short attention spans,” is divided into two story sections — one are stories that can be read in under four minutes and the other can be read in under 10 minutes.
“Sometimes we choose what to read depending on how much time we have. So if you are waiting for your coffee and you have two minutes, you go to the less than 4 minutes section,” the East Hills resident said. “Then there are stories between 5 and 10 minutes and the last section has stories that vary in length and are different in theme.”
She said she curated the stories by time because if she “gave people a time reference as to how long the stories were, that would nudge them to actually read the book.”
Frank describes the book as a of 23 short stories of murder, revenge, time travel, and creepy things, each with a dash of irony and a sprinkling of humor.
She said she was motivated to publish her book after three articles she wrote were published in the alumni magazine of Manhattanville College, her alma mater, that received praise from readers.
“That kind of gave me a little boost and I thought I could try my hand in this,” Frank, who is self publishing the book said.
Frank graduated with a double degree in Arts and Elementary Education from Manhattanville College in 1986. She said she taught for 10 years before heading to Hofstra University to receive a graduate degree in Reading K-12 and Clinical Diagnosis.
She said she is self-publishing because of how difficult it is to land a deal with major publishing companies.
“It’s actually very frustrating. It’s really difficult to get someone to notice your work and I figured I’m just going to do this myself,” Frank said. “It’s a very weird time with traditional and indie publishers. Traditional won’t take a chance on the new writers given the time and support that writers need.”
But Frank said the advantages of self-publishing like having control over the front cover and edits are worth it. But she said she will try to get her next books, a young adult novel and a middle grade book, published by a traditional book publisher.
“I’ve been sending out drafts of the middle grade one,” she said. “I’m constantly changing the cover letters and but I might have a different luck with the young adult one.”
Frank will hold a book launching event at the Bryant Library on May 14.
Frank has been a member of the of Friends of Bryant Library for six years, first as a director and then as programming director, where she organized many family activities.
“When I decided to debut my first book, it was without question where I wanted that special event to take place,” she said. “The library has always been welcoming and a second home for me.”
Copies of “Bite Size Reads: slightly twisted, deliciously dark, really short stories for people with very little time or very short attention spans,” can be purchased on Amazon and rbfrank.com
