Monthly Archives: February 2017

An Interview with Author Yvonne Williams Casaus

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For over a decade, counselor and play therapist Yvonne Williams Casaus has helped children, adolescents, adults, and families in her private practice. Now with her first book, A Drop of Water: A Spiritual Journey (2016), she continues her outreach as she shares about healing, grief, and personal growth. You can find Yvonne at LaughingAtMyself.lol and on Facebook and Twitter.

What is your elevator pitch for A Drop of Water: A Spiritual Journey?
A Drop of Water: A Spiritual Journey is a tangible way out of depression, trauma, and loss. I was spiritually inspired to share from my knowledge as a therapist and suicide loss survivor. I lost my first husband, the father of my children, to suicide. It is my own personal story that I share to help others. My love of water transforms it into a lighthearted, uninhibited, and fun poetic journey.

When readers turn the last page, what do you hope they’ll take away from it?
I hope they will learn that we can all overcome profound tragedy, grief, and depression because we are all connected. We all feel loss; we all have dark nights of the soul. It will remind you that no matter how lonely you feel, you are never alone. Of the 8 billion species on earth, there are 7.24 billion people of different cultures, ages, and genders. What is the universal link that connects us all? Water. A drop of water, an ocean of water, we are all connected.

What unique challenges did this work pose for you? 
Writing the book definitely took me out of my comfort zone. I never thought I would share my personal story of loss. It was so painful I never imagined I would put it on paper. However, it has been very healing. I have now met so many people who have been affected by suicide. It is considered a taboo subject, but it is so important to start talking about it and end the stigma of mental illness. It was also challenging because I wrote it while working full time as a mom, wife, counselor and play therapist, so I really had to learn to manage my time.

How did the book come together?
I had a calling for many years to write a book. I did not know what I would write about, but I felt there was a book inside me that needed to come out. I truly believe it was spiritually inspired. I attempted to write it many times. Finally, during a weekend writing retreat the words came out so quickly I started typing with my eyes closed. The first draft was written in a weekend. The editing process took much longer. It took a year to create a cover, edit, and self-publish the book. I learned a lot in the process.

Do you have a favorite quote from your book that you’d like to share?
From the Chapter “Dancing”: “Feel the vibration, the connection, the knowing. We are all souls, connected and growing.”

Was there anything surprising you discovered while doing research for this book?
The entire process of writing this book has been a surprise. One of the most delightful things I discovered was that I could write in rhyme. I have never rhymed, so I was literally laughing out loud and laughing at myself while writing this book. That is why my website is LaughingAtMyself.lol. I discovered that my ability to laugh at myself has been a huge part of what has helped me heal and grow. I found it extraordinary that the joy I felt was in direct proportion to the pain I experienced during my grieving process. I was also completely taken aback by the statistics—nearly 800,000 people die from suicide each year. When you’re dealing with a loved one’s suicide, you think you are the only one.

What was the most rewarding aspect of writing A Drop of Water?
The most rewarding aspect is knowing my words are helping people. So many people have reached out since I opened up about my loss. I have gotten amazing feedback about how my book has helped others struggling with depression. I am proud to be fighting the stigma of mental illness. I hope these words will give people courage to talk about how they are feeling and ask for help if they are struggling. I was honored to be asked to run a writing workshop for Long Term Survivors of Suicide at the Grief Resource Center. I have also been featured in many blogs, television, and radio programs to discuss suicide, depression, anxiety, and grief.

Do you write other than nonfiction?
Yes, I am halfway through my next project which is a fantasy novel dealing with spirituality. It is a young adult book. I work with many adolescents so I was drawn to this genre. I have really enjoyed writing paranormal fiction and creating my own fantasy world. So far there is a lot of suspense, romance, betrayal, and vampires. All of which I love to read.

What has writing taught you about yourself?
Writing has helped me heal more than I thought I could. Sharing my deepest, darkest moments with the world has to be the most terrifying thing I have ever done. I have gone skydiving, and I have snorkeled with sharks. I am pretty adventurous. I don’t mind heights, and I love big, scary roller coasters. However, I tend to be a very private person, so sharing the loss of my husband to suicide was not easy for me. It has given me more courage and confidence in myself. I learned that I am much stronger than I ever imagined.

What advice do you have for discouraged writers?
Just write. Editing can come later. Write from the heart and let the words flow quickly. I found that if I stopped to correct my mistakes, it would take me in a different direction. We all have stories to tell. I say, “Do it!” Courage is not the absence of fear; courage is doing what you are called to do in spite of your fear.

What writing projects are you working on now?
Besides my young adult fantasy novel, I have been working on blog posts for my website. And I was recently awarded an Honorable Mention in a SouthWest Sage short story writing contest. My story “Awakening” is featured in the February 2017 edition of the Sage (page 8).

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. She has a new speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.



An Interview with Author Zachry Wheeler, Part 1

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Science fiction novelist Zachry Wheeler is a web applications developer and self-professed nerd who also writes nonfiction articles for BrewChief.com and HerringtonPost.com. You’ll find him on his website ZachryWheeler.com and at SFF conferences throughout the Southwestern United States (see his website’s Events page). Transient, published in 2016, is his debut novel.

What is your elevator pitch for Transient?
I got a lot of pitch practice at the Albuquerque Comic Con this year. It sold a lot of books, so I guess I’m doing something right:

“You can think of Transient as a re-imagination of vampire lore through the lens of science fiction. Now here’s the fun part. I took the widely abused trope of a young adult vampire romance … and shoved it face-first through the meat grinder of post-apocalyptic science fiction. The story is dark, sinister, and morally ambiguous. Consider it the anti-Twilight.”

Tell us about your main character in the book.
From the rear cover blurb: “Jonas is a young transient deep undercover in downtown Seattle. He lives underground, works at night, and drinks his daily blood rations, just like any normal eternal. He is a model spy, but also an apostate among extremists, torn between ideologies (as well as lovers) from either side.” That sums him up quite well and foreshadows his struggles as the protagonist. You can think of him as a young idealist trying to navigate a world of extreme moralities. He’s an easy character to connect with because, at a baseline, we all just want to get along.

How did Transient come together?
Transient took 10 years to publish. When I wrote the first draft, I wasn’t a writer at all. I was barely a reader. I just had an interesting idea that I put down on paper. And boy was it terrible. It was a study in how not to write. I used every crutch and cliché you could imagine, but I didn’t know any better. Once I learned how bad it was, I set it aside and went on to other things with the assumption I sucked at writing.

I credit beer for teaching me how to write (totally serious). I started a craft beer review site (BrewChief.com) shortly after I wrote the first draft of Transient. I had no intentions of becoming a writer at that point; I just wanted to talk about the wonders of the craft beer movement. A thousand articles later, I realized my writing had improved dramatically. I decided to revisit the Transient manuscript and was surprised by how much I had learned. Not only could I see what was wrong, I knew how to fix it.

What is your writing process like?
Stephen King said, “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” That’s me in a nutshell. I’m a very motivated person, a task master who is uncomfortable with idle time. I write every day, and I never have trouble getting started. The only x-factor is topic. Writer’s block is not something I experience. I’ll get hung up on an idea from time to time, but instead of faltering, I just shift focus onto another writing avenue while it simmers. I own and operate several online writing ventures, including BrewChief.com and HerringtonPost.com. So if I get stuck on something in a novel, I’ll go write an article or blog post to reset my brain.

What comes first for you before you write: a character, a scene, a story idea?
Definitely the story idea. Every novel I write can be boiled down to a “what if” question. I refuse to outline my stories, so the characters and plot emerge organically.

Do you have a message or a theme that recurs in your work?
I don’t construct messages or themes because I never want to come across as preachy. I let the settings and the characters do that for me, no matter how ambiguous (I downright loathe some of my characters). However, I do employ some recurring elements. I enjoy taking jabs at religion, both critically and comically. I also like to explore misanthropic personalities.

What are the hardest kinds of scenes for you to write, and what do you do to get over this hurdle?
Sex scenes are quite vexing, mostly because everyone’s sexuality is so different. The things I enjoy will turn off someone else, and vice versa. To get around it, I just set up the foreplay and kill the scene, leaving the reader to their own imagination.

Who are your favorite authors, and what do you admire most about their writing?
My favorite author by far is Douglas Adams. I adore his entire catalogue. When writing humor, there are a few ways to do it right and a million ways to do it wrong. Adams had an unapologetic wit and a storytelling voice that hooked you from the first sentence. I dedicated my latest work to his memory (a science fiction comedy entitled Max and the Multiverse).

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
To be honest, I still don’t. I consider myself a compulsive dabbler.

What writing project are you working on now?
I just released my latest, a young adult science fiction novel titled Max and the Multiverse. It was so much fun to write that I immediately launched into the sequel. From the back cover of Max and the Multiverse: “Max is a teenage gamer with an exceptionally dull life. That is, until a bizarre accident leaves him with the ability to shift between parallel universes, but only when he falls asleep… Determined to escape his mundane existence, Max and his cyborg cat venture into the black, only to entangle themselves in an intergalactic conflict. A ruthless criminal overlord, a corrupt planetary system, an ornery walrus, a secret society of super nerds, and a pair of plucky orange lesbians round out this crazy, clumsy adventure.”

To learn more about Zack and his writing, go to Part 2 of this interview.

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. She has a new speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.



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