Open Book Society discussion

Cassie Alexander, author of Nightshifted, recently answered some questions for OBS on Edie Spence, her plans for her moving forward and her love of writing creatures. Watch for my review of Nightshifted tomorrow!

Your own work as a nurse inspired Edie Spence and her adventures at County, but I thought Y4 was such a wonderful way to explore all manner of creatures in the urban fantasy world – I mean, the inclusion of the dragon had me riveted in this novel – is there any creature you have been or are waiting to write about in Y4? And why is that?

I’m glad you liked the dragon! It feels like I’ve been waiting my whole life to write a book with a dragon in it!

I love all sorts of monsters, myths, and legends. Anything is fair game. What I like about Y4 as a concept, is that I can shoehorn almost any creature in, as long as I do it carefully. Moonshifted’s 1st draft [second in the planned trilogy] had a long section with a were-skunk, basically because it amused the hell out of me. He even had a sweet backstory, but I had to take it out because he didn’t really work with the plot.

In Shapeshifted [third in the trilogy] I got to bring up an urban legend from my hometown, the Donkey Lady. I remember in middle school we’d all tell each other creepy stories about her, and then when people had cars in high school people we’d go out to where she was supposed to be and try to find her. I was happy to get to include her, even if it was just a short part.

I’ve got some more ideas for using other creatures down the line – but I want to keep them a surprise, if I get contracts for the next two or three books

For the full interview----> http://openbooksociety.com/article/ca...