Today we’d like to introduce you to Cassandra Rose Clarke.
Cassandra Rose, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
When I was younger, I wanted to be a visual artist—a painter or an illustrator. I started art classes in fourth grade and stayed in them all the way through high school, and I intended to major in studio art in college. However, by the time I graduated, I was completely burned out on all of it. But I’d also always loved to read and write (I used to make my own illustrated books on the regular) and when I took my first creative writing class, I immediately shot off on a totally different creative path.
I started taking writing seriously as a career after I finished my creative writing graduate degree in 2008. I began submitting short stories to literary magazines, and I started writing The Mad Scientist’s Daughter, the novel that would eventually get me a publishing contract and a literary agent, in that order. Since then, I’ve published six novels, several poems and short stories, and one collaborative serial project.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I’ve written literary fiction, science fiction, poetry, adventure fantasy, noir, romance, space opera: basically, I love playing around with different genres and tropes. Because I was “trained” in literary fiction when first starting out as a writer, I have an intense appreciation for classic litfic elements like character deep dives and gorgeous language. But I grew up watching Star Wars and Star Trek and reading RL Stine books, which shaped my love of speculative fiction and plot-driven stories. My goal as a writer is to bring in the best of both worlds and in the process completely obliterate the divide between genre and literary fiction.
Any advice for aspiring or new artists?
The best advice I received as a young writer was to distinguish between dreams and goals. A dream is something you want but which ultimately depends on other people in order to happen. Getting published is a good example of a dream. A goal is something that only you control, like writing one thousand words a day. Putting my focus on goals, rather than dreams, has been the number one thing that has helped me build a career in the arts.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
My books are available for purchase in all of the usual places: indie bookstores, Barnes & Noble, Amazon. I also have several stories and poems published on online, which are linked by way of my website: cassandraroseclarke.com
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.cassandraroseclarke.com/
- Email: cassie@cassandraroseclarke.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cassandraroseclarke/
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authorcassandraroseclarke
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/seeorsea
Image Credit:
Cassandra Clarke
