What’s your pen name?
Don’t have one. But the nickname of the powerlifting group at the time the book
was written was: “The Brothers of Steel”.
Tell me about your most recent story you’re writing and the title.
The book I have up on Amazon is titled: Origen – A True Story of Evil.
It’s set at the time that I was the manager of a gym and details how
I became close friends with a serial killer. In the end, I provided details
that the police lacked that helped to incarcerate him for life. But when the
police first approached me, I was adamant that my friend couldn’t
be a killer. Turns out, he was.
What genre do you write in and why.
I write horror and drama. Reason is, I knew so many unsavory characters
in my youth, it’s hard to write about anything else. But like most villains,
there are usually positive attributes to go along with the negative. Perspective
is everything. But this serial killer was different. He was inhuman.
Tell me how critique partnering works for you.
When you write, you lose objectivity. Another writer can read what you’ve drafted with
full objectivity. So it’s sometimes important to find someone you trust who can
help you navigate the maze of the forest through the trees.
Give me an estimate of how many books you own.
I own over one hundred titles but they deal with everything from finance
to philosophy.
How should one organize their bookshelf?
Everyone should organize by “books they’ve written” and “books they’ve read”
and try to equalize the two bookshelves.
What actor or actress should play your main character and why?
I always thought of Mark Wahlberg as my main character.
What music do you listen to that inspires certain scenes.
My daughter is a phenomenal musician and has a few songs that helped
me create scenes. Generally though, I listen to actual movie music from
existing films.
How many books have you read this year? Which was your favorite?
I’ve wrote a book this year. Now I’m marketing it. Previously though, I’ve been
reading about Origen Adamantius and his beliefs as a scholar of the early church.
What is something you’d refuse to take out of your book if a publisher/editor
recommended?
I refuse to remove the truth. Many threads of what happened were woven together
to provide a different chronology of events, but I’m a stickler for making certain
that each individual thread has a measure of truth to it. There’s something powerful
that happens when you read about something that actually happened.
What makes the best sorts of beta readers and why?
I find that anyone can be a beta-reader just like anyone can tell you why
they like or don’t like a certain dish at a restaurant. As a writer, you want as
many viewpoints as you can get, but you realize that you can’t appease everybody’s
personal taste.
Tell me about a book you’d like to advertise here and why?
I’d like to advertise Origen – A True Story of Evil. It took me forty years to decide to
write this book. Now that I have, I want some good to come from it. No one knew back in the
decades where I grew up, that someone this evil could be standing right next to you.
But if you’re aware, you might be able to see the signs. There are always signs.
You may choose to rationalize them away, but I think your intuition fights to make you
take a closer look. In my case, my intuition spoke to me in dreams. If I knew that this
kind of evil was possible, I might have done a better job of listening.
Cassie Swindon 