‘The Book Attic’ and ‘Books In Sync’ Interviews Multi-Book Author Anastasia Cassella-Young

Anastasia resides in Cherryfield, ME, USA

Tell us what makes you proud to be a writer from Maine? I was born in Bar Harbor, Maine in 1963 and when I left college I traveled throughout a lot of southern states. I live in New York City for quite a few years and then also in St. Petersburg, Florida. I came home to Maine in the aftermath of 911. It just happened that I was traveling that weekend after. I came home to the beautiful countryside and quiet small town living. I enjoy the scenery and beauty of my home state. It is serene and allows me to write comfortably. I maintain some of my stories in Maine because I believe that I should represent my home state if I am to be called a local author. Maine has been a part of me for my 44 years and always will be.

What or who inspired you to become a writer? I was encouraged in high school to write for my year book. After that I began to write poetry for a long time. When I finally re-connected with my aunt, Theodocia McLean, who was is an author she encouraged me to put my poetry into a book. Then I started writing my short stories and put them in the poetry book. Then again Theodocia encouraged me. She told me that my short stories would be better as longer stories so I took some of them and wrote them into novellas. I continued writing from there. Theodocia was also very encouraging as we decided to venture into co-authoring books together and we came up with Murder, Secrets and Injustice in a Small Town.

Tell us why you write the genre(s) that you write? I write in various genres because of my life learned lessons from my past experiences with a lot of people, stories and adventures I had in my travels. I put a lot of these into each and every story and that is why people tell me my stories seem so real. Reality is a good place to start when writing fiction and non-fiction.

I wrote my Home Health Cures & Special Household Quick Tips because I am disabled and on medications. There are things that I can not take because of my prescribed medications so home health cures passed on by my family and by doctors were of a vast help. The “quick tips” I have learned to assist me in my physical disabilities as I’ve had to overcome the fact that there are just some things I can not do in the conventional way any more.

Anastasia’s Mind Fog is just that – my “Mind Fog” from over the years of my disabilities and surviving a lot of various experiences which are all entered into the poetry written there.

The Rogue Bear & Other Short Stories include ‘The Rogue Bear’ where a bear actually tried to get into my home in Cherryfield, Maine; ‘Just Like Grandma’ is about a grandmother protecting her grandchildren from a drunken and doped up father; ‘The Writer’ is a completely fictional story of a man who sees premonitions of the short future in a picture that is above his desk; ‘You’re Supposed to be Scared’ is about a haunted house trip on Halloween. ‘Small Blurb’ is about a woman who died on the IRT in NYC.

‘Stalk or be Stalked’ came out of a conversation I had with someone one day about a person who might be a stalker and is purely fictional.

‘Justice is Served – Sequel to Murder, Secrets and Injustice in a Small Town’ is a fictional accounting of what might happen if you didn’t have money to bribe officials to make the crime an unsolved case.

‘Two Sides of a Bi-polar Survivor’ is a bibliography of my own experiences of being Bi-polar and surviving it because a lot of Bi-polar affected people do not survive the ups and downs that come with being Bi-polar. It has all the juicy details most Bi-polar people won’t share with anyone including their families.

‘Letter to My Brother’ comes out of sheer frustration with the system of the Human & Health Services that are supposed to help remove children from homes that are not fit for them to be in and is actually based on a true story.

‘The Seiners’ is a book that my dad wrote in the 70s while reading it to me. I had to put it to paper for his sake and in his memory as he died in 1986 at age 53. It is to honor his memory and is completely fictional but based on Maine and the small fishing communities that are still here to this day.

What special projects are you working on now and what books do we have to look forward to in the future? I am currently working on my first romance novel ‘Love at First Sight?’ and it is coming along fine. I expect it to be self-published by the end of June, 2008. It is based on some of my life experiences but is completely fictionalized. I plan to write more as time goes on whenever my Bi-polar mind kicks in and throws out an idea at me. Being Bi-polar helps me get my ideas. I am a Bi-polar survivor and continue on my quest to survive it and be an author at the same time. I also work on my free advertising for author’s website at http://www.anastasiasbookattic.com every day. I accept unlimited numbers of submissions on my site and live to help authors succeed. I am an editor, proofreader, basic formatter and reviewer on my web site as well.

Books:

All of my books are available at http://stores.lulu.com/anastasiacassellayoung and they are all available in LARGE PRINT EDITIONS!

Anastasia’s Mind Fog – Poetry

Home Cures for Health & Special Household Quick Tips – Health & Self-Help

Murder, Secrets and Injustice in A Small Town – Co-author; Fiction based on a true rumor

Justice is Served – Sequel to Murder, Secrets and Injustice in a Small Town - Fiction

The Rogue Bear & Other Short Stories – Fiction and Non-fiction

Two Sides of a Bi-polar Survivor – Bibliography & Memoirs

Stalk or be Stalked - Fiction

Letter to My Brother – Fiction based on a true story

The Seiners – Fiction based on small Maine fishing communities written by my father

Please visit Anastasia’s Author’s Page on ‘Books In Sync’:

http://www.booksinsync.com/authorsandbooks/cassellayounganastasia.html

Websites:

http://stores.lulu.com/anastasiacassella-Young

http://www.anastasiasbookattic.com

Emails: authoranastasia@anastasiasbookattic.com or authoranastasia@aol.com or authoranastasia@hotmail.com

Interview done by Theodocia McLean – Owner of ‘The Book Attic’:

http://www.thebookattic.us

And ‘Books In Sync’: http://www.booksinsync.com