Here it is, the first of December roll: another interview with a fellow indie! Today I’m having Cassidy Frazee on my blog.
Cassidy Frazee is from Northwest Indiana, but currently lives in Pennsylvania. Does a lot of writing, not so much publishing, but she hopes to fix that soon.
Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and check out her blog.
Now, onto the QA part! 😉
[aesop_content color=”#ffffff” background=”#333333″ width=”95%” columns=”1″ position=”none” imgrepeat=”no-repeat” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]Q: Cassidy, you are a programmer. If it’s not a secret, what exactly are you currently working on/with (databases, languages, etc.)? What is your specialty? How did you end up with the tech career? Was it something you wanted to pursue or was it something you were pushed into? Do you intend to become a full-time writer one day? Or would you prefer to write part-time?
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I normally write in the very archaic RPG Free language, which came from the RPG (Report Program Generator) language developed by IBM in the 1960’s. I don’t really specialize in anything: I’ve worked in some small shops where I programmed, developed data bases, and even operated the computer. These days I just write program code.
I got into computers a long time ago (1979) because I thought it would be interesting. And I was wrong! Boring, it is, yes.
My dream is to write full-time one day, but in order to do that I need to publish more. And that’s where I sort of fall down.
[aesop_content color=”#ffffff” background=”#333333″ width=”95%” columns=”1″ position=”none” imgrepeat=”no-repeat” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]Q: From what I know about you, you have always been an avid reader. What books have most influenced your life and writing life in particular? Also, do you belong to any fandoms?
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Harlan Ellison made me want to be a writer; I loved his visions and imagination. The Dangerous Visions anthology drove me to want to create my own strange tales. I also loved Arthur Clarke and Larry Niven, and fell in love with John Varley’s Gaea Trilogy.
I have always been a fan of Star Trek, mostly because I was there when it started, but I’m not a hard-core fan. I’m like that with everything: I’ll follow it, but I’m not interested in driving my life around the fandom. I don’t have the time to invest.
[aesop_content color=”#ffffff” background=”#333333″ width=”95%” columns=”1″ position=”none” imgrepeat=”no-repeat” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]Q: How did you decide to become a writer? Why did you choose to write in your particular genre? If you write more than one, how do you balance them? What do you think most characterizes your writing?
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See Harlan above. Also, strangely enough, I became serious about writing due to what I saw as really lame stories being shown on TV. I usually write science fiction, but it’s soft fiction, because I’m more interested in my characters — though I will spend time getting my planet together if need be.
I’ve written fantasy, horror, and erotica as well, but I don’t find this a difficult balancing act. I only work on one thing at a time, so there’s no difficulties when it comes to keep things straight.
I love my characters: that’s the thing that drives my stories. What do they do, what are their struggles? Nearly everything I do is pushed forward by the characters.
[aesop_content color=”#ffffff” background=”#333333″ width=”95%” columns=”1″ position=”none” imgrepeat=”no-repeat” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]Q: What are you working on now? Tell us about your current book/series in progress.
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Oh, my Infinite Jest. It’s The Foundation Chronicles, Book One: A For Advanced, and I’ve been writing it for just over a year now. It’s a long, character-driven story about two young children and the people surrounding them at a school run by a world-wide organization that kinda runs things from behind the curtain. The first two acts just passed over 300,000 words, and I expect this last act to edge close to 150,000 words.
[aesop_content color=”#ffffff” background=”#333333″ width=”95%” columns=”1″ position=”none” imgrepeat=”no-repeat” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]Q: How did you become involved with the subject or theme of your book? What are your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved/about to achieve them?
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The novel actually came about as a limited role play that me and another person worked on back in 2011. After being implored to turn what we’d done into a novel, I rebuilt the world and made it all my own. It was a great deal of fun building up everything from scratch, and I have a couple of time lines created that show how things came about.
When I’m finished I’ll release the story by Acts, so pretty much three novels in one. I started it for last year’s NaNoWriMo, and I’m working on getting it close to finished with this one. Will that work? Only time will tell.
[aesop_content color=”#ffffff” background=”#333333″ width=”95%” columns=”1″ position=”none” imgrepeat=”no-repeat” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]Q: How do you develop your plots and characters?
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I spend a lot of time thinking about what I’m going to write: with The Foundation Chronicles I spent close to a year and a half getting everything right in my head before I started plotting out the novel. I tend to work up histories, time lines, and milestones for my characters: with The Foundation Chronicles I know the lives and deaths of over fifteen characters, because I’m looking way down the line into the future with this story.
[aesop_content color=”#ffffff” background=”#333333″ width=”95%” columns=”1″ position=”none” imgrepeat=”no-repeat” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]Q: Tell us about your protagonist(s)? Was there a real-life inspiration behind him or her? If applicable, the same questions about your antagonist(s) / villain(s).
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As the main protagonists came out of a role play, a lot of our own characteristics — mine and my friend’s — ended up in the characters. My main male character isn’t me, but I drew on some of my own life experiences to build up his life. It worked for E. E. Smith and Bob Heinlein, so why not?
[aesop_content color=”#ffffff” background=”#333333″ width=”95%” columns=”1″ position=”none” imgrepeat=”no-repeat” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]Q: What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding within your book?
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For this novel I’ve used a lot of real places when possible, and I try to blend my world into the one that we know. Like setting up secret teleport stations in major international airports around the world: it allows my special people the ability to jaunt (yes, I use that word) from city-to-city and blend into things with the not-so-special people who make up the world.
[aesop_content color=”#ffffff” background=”#333333″ width=”95%” columns=”1″ position=”none” imgrepeat=”no-repeat” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]Q: What real-life science, mythology, history, etc. did you research for your book?
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For this novel I didn’t use too much mythology, but I do look up history here and there to get a good idea of how my world may have affected some of the events of my story. Not so much for this novel, but if there are future novels the Polar Vortex of January 2014 will show up, and there’s a city in Russia that’s going to suffer a rather horrible fate…
[aesop_content color=”#ffffff” background=”#333333″ width=”95%” columns=”1″ position=”none” imgrepeat=”no-repeat” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]Q: What is the hardest part of writing this book? What are the hardest scenes for you to write in general, if any? What are your favorite parts?
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The hardest thing is doing it night after night. I only manage between five hundred and a thousand words a night, and it can be a real strain after working all day. The mark of a writer is to get to it when you don’t want to write. Being tired, being distracted, being depressed: it’s all there. You write through that.
The hardest thing for me to write are action scenes. I keep them short and sweet; I hate drawn out action. The easiest thing for me to write are special moments between my characters.
[aesop_content color=”#ffffff” background=”#333333″ width=”95%” columns=”1″ position=”none” imgrepeat=”no-repeat” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]Q: If you couldn’t be an author, what would your ideal career be?
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I haven’t found a job I like more than writing, and there are days when I’m not too crazy about that.
[aesop_content color=”#ffffff” background=”#333333″ width=”95%” columns=”1″ position=”none” imgrepeat=”no-repeat” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]Q: What else have you written/published so far? Did you go self-pub route or did you try trad pub as well? What was the experience?
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I’ve self-published Kuntilanak and Her Demonic Majesty. I learned a lot from putting those two stories out for sale, and I hope I can build upon the experience when I start publishing again next year.
[aesop_content color=”#ffffff” background=”#333333″ width=”95%” columns=”1″ position=”none” imgrepeat=”no-repeat” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]Q: What are your future project(s)? What readers should expect?
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I have a list of things I want to publish, but so far I’ve slipped on my time line for that. Right now I’d say… I expect to get things out next year. It’s just a matter of sitting and getting it done. That’s what 2015 will be about: getting out the work.
[aesop_content color=”#ffffff” background=”#333333″ width=”95%” columns=”1″ position=”none” imgrepeat=”no-repeat” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]Q: Where can people find more about you and your work(s)? What is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you?
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I’ve found that social media really doesn’t do much for me. I’ve heard similar views from other writers, but then some have had great success there.
Read Cassidy on her Blog & connect on Facebook | Twitter.
Thank you for participating, Cassidy. 🙂
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