Cassondra Windwalker; poet and novelist, is a breath of fresh air. She has taken the time out from her busy schedule to answer some more of our questions and she has been an utter delight. Her most recent novel, HOLD MY PLACE, a contemporary gothic horror was released in January of this year, and is already receiving rave reviews with one reader describing it as delectable. Come and see what she had to say.
Something Wicked This Way Comes – Hi Cassondra, when did you know you wanted to be an author? Cassondra Windwalker - I’ve said I was a writer before I was a reader. Both my parents read to me from the time I was very young, and I have memories from before I could speak of narrating the world around me in my head. Language has always been my medium for understanding experience.
SW - What has your life been like so far? CW - My life? Oh, I mostly talk about everyone else’s life, not my own. I suppose I would say it has been a series of serendipities and tragedies.
SW - Where are you from and where are you now? CW - I was born and raised in Oklahoma City and earned my degree in Letters from the University of Oklahoma in Norman. I spent almost nine years in Indiana and eleven in Colorado, which I count as the home of my heart. I presently live on the southern coast of the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska.
SW - What other jobs have you had? CW - I’ve had several jobs, including journalist and technical writer and even new homes saleswoman, but my two careers besides writing were bookselling and law enforcement. I spent several years as a manager with Barnes & Noble followed by several serving as a deputy sheriff in Larimer County, Colorado.
SW - Tell us about your personal favourite novel of yours. Brag a little. CW - Favorite novel? That’s like a favorite child! What a wretched question. You’ll have to come close and let me whisper the answer so the others don’t hear us.
(Idle Hands. It’s a powerful and poignant tale told by the Devil Herself that will speak to everyone who’s ever watched their life crumble on a single what-if. The Devil – she goes by Ella these days – is unlike any other devil portrayed in literature, at once more divine, more wicked, and more human. The reader will have to decide for themselves if she is truly friend or foe.)
SW - Does writing energize or exhaust you? CW - I guess I would say that writing empties me. It’s not fatiguing, exactly – more like being distilled from mere sugar water into something intoxicating. It’s metamorphosizing.
SW - What are common traps for aspiring writers? CW - That’s a tough question. I wouldn’t call anyone who considers writing their true vocation aspiring. I’d say there are bad writers and good writers, and we all shift between those columns from time to time. How I feel about a passage means nothing beside what the passage actually conveys. Writing is not an entitlement. Nobody – not even the people who love you – are obligated to read it. Writing pursued as an art form rather than a diary exercise or therapy is a craft, a discipline, and only the willingness to be absolutely dedicated and brutal with yourself will result in success.
SW - What is your writing Kryptonite? CW - Happiness, perhaps? I don’t think I really have a writing kryptonite – I will write about anything, and I will cannibalize anyone and anything to do so, even and especially myself. But I suppose those rare moments of true bliss exceed the shape of words. As some moments ought rather to be seen than photographed, some stories are better lived than told.
SW - Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym? CW - Not seriously. There are advantages to doing so, especially when someone writes across multiple genres as I do. But I cannot commit to the duplicity. I like the idea of forcing readers to concede that the same person who writes children’s stories writes erotica writes suspense writes poetry writes essays. All that is within the human experience is within the artist’s scope, and as a philosopher, I adhere to a practice of living fully and wholly in all spheres rather than elevating one over the other. For some people, though, physical safety is a concern, and I certainly understand the necessity of a pseudonym in those circumstances.
SW - What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? CW - Oh, too many to list! Twitter is a wonderful little dive bar in which to meet all the best people, and I’ve formed relationships with other writers through the publishing houses I’ve worked with, too. And some of the most talented writers I know have yet to publish their first book and are forcing me to live in constant and painful anticipation.
SW - What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? CW - I honestly can’t think of any. I’m fortunate enough to enjoy a very wide expanse of styles and voices and genres. And if I don’t like a book, I don’t finish reading it. Life is perilous short and the libraries far too full to waste spirit on that sort of thing. I’ve made occasional exceptions when reading at someone else’s request – for instance, I did read all of Infinite Jest on someone’s behest, which I absolutely loathed on every possible level, but at least my hate is well-informed now.
SW - What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? CW - This wasn’t in question for me. One of my earliest memories is sitting on my father’s lap while he read Poe to me. “Nevermore” was a spell whose power over me has never diminished. And I was lucky enough to be both relentlessly bullied and utterly tongue-tied all through school, so I had no doubt of the strength and efficacy of language.
SW - As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? CW - I suppose the animal with which I have the closest and most contentious relationship is the bear, although anyone else will tell you incontrovertibly I am a cat person. But bears and I have intersected most terrifyingly on multiple occasions, and still I love them. They are a beginning and end, perhaps eventually of me.
SW - What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book? CW - I write in multiple genres, and the type of story and its setting dictate the sort and amount of research required. The fundamental pillar to any book, though, is always the characters. Once I fully understand their thoughts and impulses and motivations, I need only follow them through their hours and copy down what they do.
SW - What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? CW - Perhaps this is more difficult for writers who identify very strongly with one particular gender and have always othered anything else in their personal life. It is only as difficult to write another gender as it is to write another animal or another person. A writer worth reading is always putting on someone else’s skin or else they are only self-indulgent.
SW - How do you select the names of your characters? CW - Some names just appear attached to their people. Some names have hidden or not-so-hidden meanings. For instance, the highly unreliable narrator in the thriller Bury The Lead, Jeff Paine, becomes obsessed with the interconnectedness of information and experiences and ends up framing himself for the murder of his missing girlfriend. A close reader will note that his name is the conjunction of Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine. The Devil in Idle Hands chose the name Ella as a snarky poke at her former friend, the archangel Gabriel. But the unseen character whose lost life dictates the present of the novel I’m currently working on is named Shelly simply because her name is Shelly.
SW - Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones? CW - I do read my book reviews because I truly appreciate the time and spirit they represent on behalf of the readers who took the time to write them. I’m a strong believer, though, that reviews are for readers, not writers. Reviews don’t exist to stroke my ego or affirm my art; they exist as guides to other readers. Once my books are published, my part is done. Now the art must find its completion in the comprehension of the reader. I neither possess nor want any control over that. Likewise, reviews have no power over me.
SW - What was your hardest scene to write? CW - My hardest scene to write was the death of a young character in a book I haven’t published yet, that may never be published. Incidentally, it was reading that very manuscript that made my husband fall in love with me, so I must have done all right.
SW - Do you Google yourself? CW - I do occasionally, just to make sure there isn’t something unsavory floating around out there. One of the unpleasant realities of maintaining a public persona on social media is the possibility of exploitation in some form. Happily most trolls starve when they aren’t fed, but sometimes something more serious crops up.
SW - What is your favorite childhood book? CW - I don’t have a favorite childhood book. Since my earliest days in primary school, I read three books a day most days I was in school. I’d check one out on before class, trade it in at lunchtime, then get one more after school for home. On the weekends, I had my stack from the public library. But fairytales and Arthurian legends influenced me more than anything else.
SW - What is the most difficult part of your artistic process? CW - The most difficult part of the artistic process has nothing to do with the art. It is the need to remain physically and emotionally available to corporeal people when all my soul is in another place.
SW - Does your family support your career as a writer? CW - My family is a fantastic support. My sister used to always read my stuff long before it was published. Now that she’s a mom of two kids under ten, she doesn’t have much time for bubble bath reads. My dad is the first person to share the news anytime something new comes out. My mom devours my writing. My husband is my patron and my cheerleader. I’m very lucky in this regard. Even my in-laws are wonderfully encouraging.
SW - How long on average does it take you to write a book? CW - Every book is different. It’s taken me six weeks to write a book and it’s taken me four years. At the moment, I’m more than halfway done with the first draft of a book I’ve been writing since late February.
SW - Do you believe in writer’s block? CW - I believe in writer’s block, but I haven’t yet experienced it. It is a poor artist and a poor human being who dismisses someone else’s experience as invalid simply because it differs from their own. SW - What are you planning next? CW- I’m the middle of next, of so many next’s. I am working to find a publisher for a murder mystery, a dystopian novel of magical realism, a horror, and a fantasy while writing contemporary fiction. I have to fully live in this hour before I reach its progeny, though, so I guess I’m content to wait and see. I’m just throwing out silks. Eventually some wind will carry my web to a tree limb somewhere. Or it won’t!
SW - Thank you again for taking the time to chat with us.
