Business
If at first you don’t succeed at this thing called writing…keep writing, and learning, and writing some more. Cassie Hamer, author of After the Party, has put in the hard yards, earning her Masters in Creative Writing, and then unlearning most of what she’d been studying for years as she searched to find voice. And lucky for us, she found it with her debut novel. Cassie opens up about the fears, doubts and joys of success as a published author. We even get a sneak preview of the joys of lunching with her editor. In this episode, we cover a range of topics which can be summed – sort of – as follows: Publishers want to publish your book literary versus popular fiction the value of Higher degree Creative Writing courses what it’s like to meet your editor for lunch a writing place of your own finding and trusting your writing voice rejection is part of the writing life celebrate your wins what is your next book? writing is a personal journey You can find out more about Cassie and her writing here. You can find out more about Author Success Stories Magazine and TIPS For Writers here. Read Full Transcript Mel Today have with me the beautiful Cassie Hamer. Hi Casey. Cassie Hi Mel. I love your podcast. You have such great warmth and enthusiasm and it really is lovely to be speaking with you. Mel I'm really excited everyone to introduce a new writer and the book, 'After The Party. Now I had no idea what to expect but when I read it, it was thirty two young children at a birthday party. Cassie I have three young children myself and they're 6, 8 and 10 and I have hosted quite a few parties here at my home on their behalf. I always find that kids parties are constantly teetering on the edge of total disaster because you have so many children they're so hyped up there are games of competition. There's far too much sugar causing total chaos. So I thought what what it a scenario into which to put an inciting incident. So as you say the party is a complete disaster the laser WAKES UP LIKE NOTHING'S READY TO GO. SHE'S ABOUT TO HAVE 33 children land on her doorstep which they do. And it continues to be disastrous. And she makes it through though she struggles through until the end and reads It's a relief that there will be kids and picked up and taken home. Well, all except one little girl who she discovers hiding in a dog kennel. And at first Lisa thinks well the mom's just running late. No problem. This is true and she gets a note and the note is from Ellie's mother and the note explains that in fact she's not coming back to pick up the child at all and that she's asking Lisa to take care of this child and then laces put into these massive conundrum what do I do. And the story takes off from there. Mel It's really interesting because when I set out to to research for this interview Cassie I wasn't quite sure where this novel was going to fit. And one of the reviews that I read is this reviewer thought it was going to be a romance and I thought oh we must have another book here but it's not it's far. I think it's far deeper than that. It's got a lot of elements in it. We can all relate to it. We all cringe away from from some of the things that happen in it. But basically this book has a lot more depth and resonance than then just a quick story doesn't it? Cassie I think I think it did. Well thank you very much for saying that