Author Feature: Cassandra DeBrown

Hi guys! Today, I'm featuring an author, Cassandra DeBrown on my blog! To start off, let's welcome Cassandra to the blog for a short-ish author interview!

Hey! It’s lovely to have you on the blog today! So, shall we begin? J

Glad to be here, thank you for having me.

For starters, why not tell us a little about yourself? Perhaps something not many people know?

Cassandra DeBrown is my pen name and I have been writing novels for the past year. I’ve been writing short stories, articles and all manner of stuff since I was just a wee girl but over Christmas last year decided to do something different with my talents.

Hmm. Something not many people know… I wear size nine sneakers and I’m afraid of heights. I hate roller coaster rides but because I refuse to chicken out of anything if I can help it, you will often find me screaming my head off on a mega ride at Thorpe park or at Southend .

Once got on a ride at Disneyland Paris without knowing how bad (or good depending on your view point) it was.  It was the Twilight Hotel one and honestly I thought it would be like a studio tour of how the movie was made- like the Armageddon one. Oh Boy. Let’s just say it wasn’t a fun experience and leave it at that.

What made you want to become a writer?

It was ineveitable. I had too many random thoughts floating about in my cranium and I kept doodling, writing out scenes or just thinking “what about...”  After a while I ran out of friends and family to coerce into reading my stories so decided to look for fresh fodder ( Laughs). So far it seems to be working well.

Do you have any hidden talents? *wink*

LOL! Not like you mean…

 I like to cook though I’m not always sure if my family like my food or they are just eating it to spare my feelingsJ. I bake a little. My speciality is making doughnuts. Sprinkled with sugar and flavoured with hazelnut or vanilla. Yum!

What gives you inspiration for your book(s)?

I get inspired by the weirdest of things in the weirdest of places sometimes. Church, school, work, the news, the shopping mall, the airport… it depends. Sometimes just hanging out with friends and kicking ideas between us gives me a “what if…” buzz and that’s all it takes really.

Are your characters based off real people, or did they all come entirely from your imagination?

I like to think they come straight from my head but I guess there are a few shades of family, friends and acquaintances in the nuances of the characters.

I must confess that the meanie boss BELINDA in GROUP THERAPY (A Little Bit of Black Magic) was inspired by a real person though no sexual undertones were involved in real life.  We just didn’t quite get along. After a particularly stressful day, I and a friend went for a boxing class at Fitness First and picturing her face on the punching bag was a great stress reliever. Went to work the next day with a massive smirk on my face.

But then, all writers are advised to ‘write what you know’ so errm, yeah…

Could you tell us a bit about your book and why it is a must-read?

Fiery gemstones is a Heston Witch Novella, part of my new YA trilogy The Heston Witches that follows the adventures a clan of powerful witches. There are two teenage witches, their grandma, their mums and their aunts. Apart from the usual magical happenings that are the norm around such magical families and the typical teenage mischief that goes with the territory, their home and lives are under threat by as well.

 If you haven't been introduced to the clan, do take a peek at the short story on Writing Shorts (http://wp.me/P2mNT1-U). Edna was the first Heston witch I met and she’s the one who introduced me to the family so to speak. Her mother, (Evie) is the Matriarch of the clan, and along with her sisters (Eden and Ethos), they all live in their ancestral Home Red Rock Haven located in Silverline City. Eden and Ethos each have a daughter, (Elvira and Esther).

I think it’s a lot of fun and I hope to have much more happy hours writing about this magical family.

What do you love most about the writing process?

 It all about Words. I love words and stringing them together in a way that makes sense and is interesting to me as a person just makes me happy. I lose hours every time I sit down to write but in a good way.

And of course, do you have a particular favorite character? I know an author will love most if not all of the characters he/she creates, but I’m sure there must be a favorite of yours! So who is it, and why?

I do love all my characters, even the badies, but if I had to pick a favourite it would be Chuckles, the loveable dog in Legitimate Issues. I grew up in a house where at a time we had a record number of nine dogs living with us. Add six kids to the mix and imagine the mayhem.LOL!

Will you tell us a little about your plans for the future, and maybe other books that are in the works? (Ideas thought out, perhaps even a rough draft?)

I think I will be turning my hand to finishing up my other books. The Hestons kind of bullied their way into the forefront of my imagination but I’ve learned not to force stuff. Legitimate Doubts, the sequel to Legitimate Issues is almost halfway done, I’m also working on Book one of the Deadly Beauty Series - Amber Dade. I will definitely continue with the Heston Witches Trilogy.

War Beast hopefully will be done before the first quarter of the new year. Wish me luck.

And now, just some little random questions!

Favorite colour?

 Changes between red, black blue and white depending on my mood.

Favorite place?

The Gardens at Mysore, India. They are truly beautiful. And peaceful.

And Lovely.

Favorite book?

Don’t be mean, I can’t pick just one

Danse Macabre By Laurell K Hamilton

The Way of Shadows By Brent Weeks

A Dance of Death By David Daglish

Shall We Tell The President By Jeffery Archer

………. And many many others

Favorite genre? (and why, if you like)

I love paranormals, Fantasy/ Sci-Fi stuff because they are never boring and anything is possible.

To end off, is there anything you would like to say to your readers?

Yes! Thanks for all the support and encouragement and for taking out time to spend a few moments with the weird and wonderful stuff that comes out from between my ears. J.

Hmm, I think that should be about it for today! It was a pleasure to have you on the blog today! Wishing you all the best in your career! :D

Thank you for having me on your blog. I really enjoyed visiting and I hope to come back again soon.

Signs from Beyond is the short story that inspired the series and I’d like to share it with you. Fiery Gemstones is out on Amazon November 2012. Read Signs From Beyond below! :)

This is her book, Fiery Gemstones which has been published already.

Buy it from Amazon

Cassandra DeBrown

Cassandra Debrown is the author of Legitimate Issues and A Little bit of Black Magic. She enjoys writing and says this is to share the stories in her head as she has always had a very vivid imagination. During her working life she has worn many hats - teacher, graphic artist, medic ,et c and she is currently enjoying the author hat while she plans the next step. She loves to travel, read, watch movies, swim and walk about alot. She also has a deep and abiding love for retail therapy.She is single and lives in london. Readers can connect with her by email at cassandradebrown@hotmail.co.uk or at her wordpress page cassandra DeBrown.

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Here's the short story that she wanted to share with us:)

Signs from beyond

A Short Story By Cassandra DeBrown, Author Of Our Urban Utopia.

Copyright Cassandra DeBrown, 2012.

All Rights Reserved.

Preston Williams was a right ass and everyone but him knew it. He was worse than a mad dog and it was way past time that somebody put him down.

Crouched in the bushes outside his country home, Edna could feel the blend of chemicals coursing through her veins. Her heart was pounding, its rhythm a loud thump, thump, thump, hitting her eardrums in the early morning silence.  She wasn’t frightened though. On the contrary, she relished the simulation of the normal human adrenalin fuelled flight or fight response. She thought of a word that would best describe how she felt and settled on giddy. “I feel positively giddy,” she laughed softly. She hadn’t felt this spry, this vibrant, this alive since… well since she’d died actually.

She grimaced at this unwelcome reminder of her unnatural state.

Thanks to that ass Preston, she was no longer alive in the proper sense of the word. The arrogant bastard wasn’t used to being denied anything. Unfortunately her vocabulary seemed to shrink to miniscule proportions whenever she was around the smug little shit. Her usual responses were “No”, “Hell No”, “Oh No” and “Fuck No”. No matter what it was that he wanted, she simply hadn’t been interested. He’d kept pestering and she’d known he’d send his goons after her soon enough so she’d taken adequate precautions.

She’d cast the spell herself and had gone over everything twice, leaving no room for error. It worked like a charm. A few hours after she had been very publicly shot in the head by that moron, Lester, who worked for Preston, she’d woken up with a mild headache and a faint taste of formalin in her mouth. Perhaps she shouldn’t have baited him; perhaps she should have lain low. She shrugged. There was no use second-guessing herself now. What was done was done. She wasn’t a zombie, she wasn’t the undead and she definitely wasn’t a ghost, she felt way too corporeal for that and no way was she an angel (Duh! No wings!). She was simply other.

Someone really should have warned the retard about the consequences of his actions. Karma was one mean bitch. And right now he had a shitload of payback coming his way. If he thought that things were settled now then he had another think coming. Preston Williams was a dead man walking, he just didn’t have enough sense to lie down and die. It would be a singular pleasure to teach him the finer points of etiquette when it came to being a corpse.

Edna smirked evilly to herself as she crept silently towards the big house that was lit up like a Times Square Christmas tree. In the back of her mind she noted vaguely that she cast no shadow in her new form but she didn’t care.  Anything was worth it just to see the look on his face when she confronted him.

She’d never been one to put much emphasis on signs and portends but right now she was about to put up a great big billboard. The message she had to put across to the world and the rest of the magical community was simple. YOU DID NOT MESS WITH A HESTON WITCH! Not if you had any modicum of sense or wanted a semblance of a life when you were done.

She ran her hands lightly down her sides, brushing off a layer of dirt that simply wasn’t there. Her pale green tunic was as pristine as it was when she’s put it on. She swished back her shoulder length brunette hair and knew that her pale blue eyes would be sparkling with malice and mischief. She struggled to hold back a manic grin as she gestured to the front door and it swung open welcomingly. She could hear alarms going off and she silenced them all with just a single thought. Making her way up the staircase she knew led to Preston’s bedroom she remarked to herself that the world had gotten it all wrong.

Life didn’t begin at forty, it began when you were dead.

The End…

or simply a new beginning