YA Feature: Cassandra Giovanni

The Author:

Cassandra Giovanni is an avid writer of young adult novels and can't wait to share her work with you. The genres of her novels include dystopian, paranormal, mystery and romance all aimed at appealing to adults and young adults alike. Her personal goal with her writing is to show the reader the character's stories through their dialogue and actions instead of just telling the reader what is happening. She began writing at a very young age, in fact from the moment she could draw she was telling stories that way. At age seven she won a contest in American Girl Doll to have a chapter she had written published. From that point on she was always writing, if not on paper than in her head. In May 2012 she published her first novel, In Between Seasons, which demonstrated her unique writing style and approach to the genre of post-apocalyptic fiction. On Halloween 2012 Cassandra released her second novel, Walking in the Shadows. This novel puts a new twist on the obsession of vampires in literature and explores some of the darkest parts of human nature, while still showing that there is always hope--if we only choose to believe in ourselves. Cassandra is also attending college to receive her degree in marketing, so that she can expand her photography company, Gio Design Studios, into a publication marketing company.

Writing:

I can't really tell you when I started writing or what go me writing. I asked my parents when I started writing and their response was "you were always writing. We don't remember a time when you weren't." I stopped writing in high school because I lost faith in myself after a teacher basically ripped my writing to shreds. In 2008 I watched a movie inspired by a book; I read the book and then I sat down and re-wrote it. It was probably awful, but it got me writing again, and I haven't stopped since.
 

The Books:

In Between Seasons is my debut novel, and it's a young adult romance with a post-apocalyptic backdrop. The characters don't really have an understanding of what happened to create the world they are living in, but this misunderstanding helps to shape them into the people that they become in the book. I never set out to write a dystopian, it was about Hunter and Kate and them going from who they were supposed to be to who they were meant to be. The inspiration of the novel was from the building on the cover. I'm a photographer and when I drove by this building for the first time I couldn't stop thinking about taking photos of it...and then I had a dream about Kate and Hunter and the building was there. I needed to understand the characters from the three brief flashes I had and the emotions I felt. The first flash was of Hunter kidnapping Kate. I think my banking training kicked in on this scene. We are trained to be kidnapped, and the first thing they say is: Don't under any circumstances fight, why? That's what will get you killed. It was when Hunter and Kate's eyes met that I saw it was more than just instincts kicking in. There was so much pain in his eyes, and I knew he wouldn't hurt her. She was what would fix him and he was what would keep her stable as she learned about the vague but awful world she was living in. Next, I saw the take over...it was mostly blurry images and running. There was one thing that resounded more than the people who were involved, fear. I need something to symbolize that, so I found it. The last scene was on the beach, which was when everything was resolved, and things felt whole. As whole as the could be considering what had happened.

Walking in the Shadows was based solely on a dream I had about Vera and Tad. In the scene Tad pulls Vera into a closet and they share what felt like a forbidden kiss, one that was based on feelings more than physical yearning. The thing that confused me was the fact that Tad wasn't much older than Vera, so what would make it forbidden. The beginning of the scene was in an auditorium and he was dressed in a formal button-up and tie. He had to be a teacher, so that was how the relationship was formed, but I needed something more than that. I started thinking about the vast obsession with vampires and wanted to take my own very realistic, but scary spin on it.

Bookies Questions:

 

Fave genre and why?

I don't really have a favorite genre, I read everything, but I really like contemporary romances, or romances that are more about emotions than all physical and stuff. I think the reason is because a romance can really alter a person in a good way or a bad way, and as humans we are influenced by the ones we love to be who we are, or who we aren't.

Fave book series and why?

I'm going to be honest right now, I don't particularly like series. They tend to drag, but growing up my favorite series was a Heartland, which is about a girl who heals horses using natural holistic methods. I grew up riding horses and love them to death. The first novel I wrote when I was fifteen was a horse novel.

Fave author and why?

Jane Austen, why? She's amazing in the way she explores human nature and expresses it. Plus, she has the same sense of humor as me.

An author you recommend to my readers?

Candace Knoebel, she's a brand new author and her first novel Born in Flames just recently came out. I really liked her style of writing and her imagination is great!

Stalk the author:

Website
Blog
Goodreads

Buy Cassandra's Books:

Amazon!

Inbetween Seasons
Walking in the Shadows

B&N!

In Between Seasons

Walking in the Shadows

Directly from the author and book merchandise:http://www.etsy.com/shop/CGiovanniWrites