Interview with Author Kassy Paris

It was another hot day here in SE Colorado. Glad I worked last night and was able to sleep through it! It’s cooled down some now and we’ve even turned off the A/C. I’m sure there are plenty more hot days ahead, great for porch sitting and sharing a glass of iced tea, so stop by sometime!

I’m pleased to introduce Kassy Paris and her book, First I’m Nobody.

Good evening, Kassy. Welcome to Patti’s Porch. I’m excited to have you here. Please tell us about your book, First I’m Nobody.

First I’m Nobody is the story of a young man trapped in a job he doesn’t love and gets injured as he tries to escape an impossible situation. His rescuer, a Good Samaritan type, brings him to her North Texas horse ranch to help him recover. The trauma of his accident and his life lead the two of them on a search for his identity and the truth. This book was written with my best friend and writing partner, Elaine Bonner Powell. Together, we write as Kasandra Elaine. Elaine writes and has been published solo as Elaine Bonner.

Is there any particular reason you chose amnesia as a subject for your story?

The amnesia component came about as a result of a conversation Elaine and I had as we drove along an Interstate highway. Why do people discard things such as shoes and other items of clothing along the roadsides? That led to a “What if?” conversation about a man walking along a deserted highway and getting hit by a couple of teenagers driving home after a weekend of partying. The teens assume he is dead and drive away. The resulting amnesia is partly due to the physical trauma of the hit and run, but Duke’s personal life has contributed in a major way to his amnesia.

You wrote this book with a collaborating author. Tell us a little bit about that process.

Oh, that’s the fun part. Elaine and I met as sophomores in high school when her father moved to my community as the Methodist minister. We became close friends our senior year after I accepted Jesus as my savior. That year we started our collaboration as writers when we wrote a Christmas play our youth group put on for the church.

To write as partners, each person has to be able to compromise. We were among the first writers that we know of to partner up who were both creators as opposed to a researcher and a creator. We work extremely well together because we think so much alike, have the same principles and beliefs, and are both seat of the pants writers. I’m sure two plotters would work as well together, but I’m convinced that a plotter and SOTPser would be doomed to failure. Since we’ve been friends for forty-two years now we can finish sentences for one another, literally. At the beginning of our career, one of us would be writing and get tired, sometimes in the middle of a sentence, and the other would take over and complete the sentence and continue the story without hesitation. Now we usually write a section and then email it to the other one who reads it, tweaks it and adds the next section. We live 150 miles apart and don’t get together in the same location often due to work and family.

Do you find it easier to write with a co-author or alone?

Both. LOL Writing together is easier because I only have to come up with half the books! I have someone to fall back on when I hit a snag with the plot line. When we’re rejected I’m only half at fault. Writing alone is easier because I don’t have to worry about what Elaine will think about what I’ve written.

Your book was released in E-book format this month. Congratulations! Do you feel this format has a bright future in the publishing industry?

Yes, I think E-books will become stronger in the future as the E-readers come down in price and more people possess them, but I hope print books will never become extinct. I love the feel of a book in my hands. Going on vacation would become so much easier because I wouldn’t have to pack and carry so many books or have to purchase more books during the trip when I run out of reading material. My two trips to Israel to visit my sister would have been much more pleasant because books in English that I wanted to read were so hard to find. I was there six weeks each time.

Is there an extra advance beyond the print format advance when a book is also published in E-format?

Not with the company that is publishing First I’m Nobody and the next book in
the series Redigo’s Choice. In fact there wasn’t any advance for these two books. We do receive royalties – 7% for print and 30% for E-Books. Some E-book/print companies may have advances.

When did writing become an important part of your life?

Basically, writing has been important to me all my life. As a child, I began writing my own episodes of my favorite TV series – Bonanza, Wagon Train, and Dr. Kildare to name a few. I’d make up stories as I rode my bicycle alone, at night before I went to sleep, and when my parents took us to and from my grandparents’ homes in the Dallas, Texas area. As I grew older the stories became more and more elaborate and deeper from my own imagination. In college, I began writing some of my creations down. The process of writing by hand was frustrating. Typewriters made the process easier because I could type faster than I could write by hand. But that still frustrated my creativity. I don’t like to backtrack even when I’m driving, and if I changed a scene with typewritten stories I had to retype the whole story. When word processors, with their cut and paste features, were invented and I got my hands on one, well, I finally could finish something without giving up. About 11 years ago is when I became dedicated to writing as a profession and my dreams of being published became goals.

Do you follow a writing schedule?

I try to, but life intervenes much too often. I work on writing in some form, creating, revising or editing, pretty nearly five out of seven days a week for at least a couple of hours a day. It’s usually after 10:00 p.m. when I head to my bedroom. I live with my mother, her sister, and one of my sisters. My mother and my aunt start going to bed between 10 and 11 and I’ve spent the evening with them eating and watching TV. I’m a night person, so I do my best creating around that time. Some nights I go to bed when the sun starts to lighten the sky. I try to go through email during the early afternoon when my brain is not at its peak of creativity.

Any other works in progress or under contract?

Elaine and I have a couple of proposals out – one for a romance and one for a cozy mystery. We’re waiting to hear about both. Also, we are in the midst of completing the writing on the cozy out for proposal and a second book in that series. On top of that, we have about 5 other books in various stages. I’ve got three novels I’m working on as solo projects that are also in different stages from a completed rough draft that needs elaboration and extension to two books about a third to a half of the way finished.

What is your parting advice to unpublished writers?
I think the best thing I could tell unpublished writers is to fin
d or put together a critique group to become a part of as well as joining a writer’s group that has programs that teach techniques. Attend writing conferences, as many as you have the time and money for until you become confident. I learn so much when I go to conferences and the contacts you make are invaluable. Beware of the trap of learning vs. actual writing. Put the things you learn into practice. I think the most vital piece of advice I could give unpublished writers is to believe in yourself. If God has a plan for you to be a writer, it will happen in His time not necessarily in your time. Don’t give up.

Thank you so much for spending some time with us today, Kassy. Best of luck with your writing career.

Thanks so much for letting me visit with you and your readers. Best of luck to each of you.