Carol Cassella's Blog

Last month I spoke to Bill Kenower for Author Magazine. Our half-hour conversation was edited into a short segment for Author Daily Minute, an online repository of interviews Bill has videoed with a wide variety of talented writers. It isn't often that an interviewer's question teach me more about myself than I knew at the start. Before we met, Bill said he didn't like too much preparation because he enjoys showing the process of thought, catching it on film so viewers can witness the author...

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I've started up a Q & A on Goodreads, (www.goodreads.com) and anyone visiting this blog is invited to join me there. I sent an email to the people on Goodreads who'd read my book inviting them to give me any feedback on Oxygen. I've had some really nice responses, and made a connection with some readers I'd never otherwise meet. But most fascinating to me is the sense I am getting that readers are sometimes reluctant to write freely, telling me whatever they think.

OK, I can sort of get that, bec

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Thank you to Seattle Woman Magazine and Judith Tingly for this article. It tells more truth about this last year than any other interview I've given. Balance? There is no such thing!
http://www.seattlewomanmagazine.com/articles/july09-6.htm

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It's no surprise to anyone interested in books that publishing has taken a huge hit in this economic mess. Big book tours are a rare treat for the biggest stars. I was hugely surprised and honored that Simon & Schuster sent me on a smaller tour for the release of OXYGEN as trade paperback. But I wanted to visit a few more of the fabulous independent bookstores here in the Northwest that I could reach without a plane ticket and hotel room—four children do not travel cheaply. So, we combined a min

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Well, at last a new blog entry—a link to a blog I just posted for Reading Group Guides. I was offered the chance to write a short entry on any topic related to reading groups, and I immediately knew what I wanted to say, (not always true for me!): both a thanks to the groups I've already met with, and an affirmation that talking to book groups is the single best way to bring see a book through all the stages of its life. I'm linking to it here (scroll to June 29, 2009): ReadingGroupGuides

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La Recesion en USA

Came across this video recently. Too funny! But then I watched it from across the border. Could almost be a trailer for my next novel.

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Well, I feel really sad for anyone who has been opening this page looking for a fresh blog. Life has gotten so busy I am more amazed at what gets accomplished than what falls off the list. But that might be good, right? Oh, please tell me that might be good!

I had this dream last night. Now, this was not an MLK kind of dream about equality or freedom. This was a night terror—the kind that is so real you wake up searching the bedcovers for damning evidence—blood, maybe. In the dream it was

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A friend at the hospital heard I was a newly published novelist and asked me if I would be calling in too "Rich and Famous" to work soon. After all, I am on a book tour! I have just published a novel!

Published a novel?? Me?? Who would have dreamed it when I was slogging away in our grungy basement, or local coffee shops with the same fantastical self-image as any middle-aged mother who suddenly decides to reinvent themselves? Was this novelist thing any less outrageous than suddenly taki

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I am vacationing in the mountains of Colorado with my family, the first true break we have taken in six months. It has been a grueling spring—I have been prepping for my first ever book tour, trying to fish my new novel out of the fast moving river launching my recently released novel, and still practicing anesthesia. My husband is finishing up two houses and taking care of his elderly father. Trader Joe's is a dinner staple and the kids are rotating KP. To put it bluntly, nobody's mopping

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OK. The secret is out. I do not have this blogging thing down yet.

I came across an article that said I should blog at least once a week or it isn't worth the effort. Worth it to whom, I wanted to ask? Are you now going to tell me, just like my kids, that I am hopelessly behind the times in music and fashion, too? At least I know what a blog is (I think.)

So let that stand as my apology for anyone logging into my website hoping for regularly scheduled glimpses into my life. Trust me, my

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