Full Transcript

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C- I think I like the idea that you can put a twist on reality.

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Hello and welcome to the Finding Elara Podcast. Building worlds with words and sharing those words with the world. A podcast for writers, world builders and artists that would like to take a mindful look inside their creations. Join me as I dive into the depths of mindfulness, and explore world building in all it’s diversity, ever searching for Elara.

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Hi guys and welcome back. My name is Dianna, and this is episode 17 of the show. This week I am recording, from my Mum’s house in Collie. That is the joy of working for yourself, I can record anywhere, anytime. I am now highly motivated to ensure I pre-record before next week though. Whenever I return home there’s so many people I want to see, and there’s so many things that I never get enough time to complete.

This week’s episode I have an interview with Cassie Laelyn. The now published Author of the paranormal romance, Unforsaken; The first book in the Fallen Guardian Series.

I write up all my show notes and a full transcript of the episodes. That’s dlnix.com/017 for this show. There is a competition running from my site, and on Facebook and Twitter, for a free copy of Cassie Laelyn’s new book Unforsaken. All you have to do to enter is check out the Facebook page, for me dlnix, or for Cassie cassie Laelyn author, and… You can enter, it’s through Rafflecopter so it’s pretty easy to follow the instructions. There are a few other options there as well. Before next week’s show I will draw the, winner through the Rafflecopter site. It’s really easy, all you do is press a button, and it tells you who has won, which is awesome.

This last week I have done a lot of traveling again. I’ve come all the way down to collie which is, 6 hours away from my home, and the kids have swimming lessons here for 2 weeks. I am going back home on the weekend. So, I can spend some time with Hubby on his week off, and... While I’m down here I’ve had a chance to catch up with, a few old friends that I haven’t had a chance a see in quite some time.

 I had an opportunity to talk to Tina Deits from start something creative solutions, and she gave me some, pointers that I can adapt my website to make a bit more… appeasing to the eye. So, over the next couple of weeks I am going make those changes to the site. Should be fairly easy to change. I didn’t realize that on the… webpage, because I use a Spotify app, it only plays 30 seconds. So I was like ooh goodness. So I’m going to change that and… you will see that over the next couple of weeks.

If you ever have questions about the show, feel free to email me dianna@dlnix.com  that’s Dianna with 2 n’s in it, and I’m happy to answer any of questions that come through. Also, there’s a Finding Elara Facebook group, and most of the people that have been… guests on the show, are actually members. Which is really fantastic.

I don’t really any other news to tell you right now, so I think we should just move on with the interview.

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Before I get into the interview, I thought that I would share a little bit more about Cassie. She is also a member of RWA Australia, and Cassie Laelyn is a chosen pseudonym. She chose Laelyn because it means flower of hope and I thought that was really beautiful when she told me about it. Her debut novel has just been released like, literally 2 days ago and I am so happy for her. I was really lucky to receive an arc copy of her book and have happily added the purchase version to my library.

Cassie grew up in a military family, forever on the move. Her childhood was filled with countless crazy adventures. Eventually sunny Queensland stole her heart and she now calls it home with her husband and their 2 BMX crazy boys. Borderline obsessed with the paranormal world, Cassie has a passion for crafting story's involving strong other-worldly characters in need of redemption. She’s a self-confessed book-aholic and a sucker for a gut wrenching happily ever after. When she isn’t narrating imaginary characters Cassie loves binging on TV shows spending time at the beach and curling up listening to the rain. 

D- Hello Cassie how are you today?

C- I am well Dianna, Thank you. How are you? 

D- Not too bad. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and what made you choose the writerly path?

C- I guess from a very very early age I've been a reader, you know I've lived in books. I've read so many books it's ridiculous. In my early teens I started you know having these characters appear in my head, I know that sounds a little weird but I guess as a writer you would understand that. 

D- Yep Yep.

C- The character kind of appeared in my head and I started jotting down notes and their stories and they would take me on these little adventures. I would lie there of a night time and hear noise and then wonder what that noise was and start creating a whole world around where that noise could have come from who made it what where they doing. Those kind of things so I think it's always been a part of me. And I think, you know when I was a teenager I was writing lot's of short stories and things like that and I think that when I became an adult it just slipped away a little bit and then I had a moment with Raven. Raven appeared to me, he's the hero of Unforsaken and it just felt like the right time to pursue that as a career. It's always been a passion of mine but never something that I had thought to pursue as a career. It wasn't until Raven appeared to me that I thought, Hang on a minute! I can do this and this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. If that makes sense. It has always been there kind of bubbling in the background but it's only recently that I have really started to pursue it full time.

D- Fantastic. You've finished your first book and by the time this podcast comes out it should have been released, you would have had a successful launch and everything like that.

C- Yeah.

D- I'm sure you're eagerly anticipating the next step.

C- I am. I'm so excited to finally have it our in the world Raven's character appeared in my head almost seven years ago and I ignored it for so long and then finally I thought no, I'm just going to write this down and suddenly I opened these floodgates and all these other characters appeared and this whole world started building in my head. Yes I wrote... It took me probably a good ten months or so to write unforsaken I didn't know what I was doing. I knew nothing about romance writing. I had joined RWA I got all of that info so I think it's been a really long time for me and I can't wait for everyone else to read. I can't wait for it to be out there. To share it and start talking about it to everyone else if that makes sense.

D- I't does make sense. It's like you're in a secret circle at the moment. 

C- Yeah. 

D-Where you can't tell anyone.

C-Yeah, I can't tell anyone. I've been sitting in that circle too long and I want to get out. 

D- Do you have any other books in the works?

C- I have finished book 2 in the series which is pretty exciting. It is in the final edit stage at the moment before it goes off to the publisher and I have started book 3 in the series. last year I did, towards the end of last year I just needed a break from the paranormal world and I just wrote something a little different and I wrote a contemporary romance 

D- mmhmm

C: Which turned out to be a great thing because it A showed me the paranormal romance is my passion. But also B it got me out thinking about different real characters. I had to really stick to reality. I couldn't create worlds. I couldn't create mystical beings and things like that. It was tough in that respect but was also really rewarding and really challenging as well. So that's sitting there ready to go to a publisher as well.

D: Can you tell me a little bit about your world building process?

C: So I thought about this for the last couple of days and I don't really have an answer. I don't really know how I do it or what technique I use. I guess with the fallen guardians you know when raven appeared in my head and I finally decided to give him some air time and started jotting things down I think the world building just happened organically. you know I started almost like a character interview with him but I didn't you know do it on paper. I almost day dreamed it. so I would sit there in quiet moments and think... well why is raven sitting there on that rooftop?  You know he seems so sad, he seems to be struggling with something. Where is that coming from and then you know another character would appear. Well who's that character where would t hey fit in? Why are they banished? What happened to make them be here in the mortal realm. and then I think as the characters appeared the world started to build itself. and I tried not to. Tried to keep it religion free if that makes sense. I tried I wanted to create my own heaven which is why it is 'the heavens there's not just one there's several of them.' I wanted to create a space where lots of different beings live not necessarily related to religion?

D: Is that your dog in the background?

C: No it's the dog two doors over would you believe?

D: Oh my gosh!

C: That's how quiet my street is. we can hear, yes it's two doors over that that dog is barking and I have closed the doors and the windows and I am suffering in the heat to try and mute that noise. Yeah you know my dig is asleep in the lounge room at the moment.

D: Sound's like you've got a fairy strong grasp on your process, seems like you are going from the character out as opposed to having the whole world and then plunking characters in there.

C: Yeah, Yes I would agree with that, because I think, I did read a little book from a well known author a favourite author of mine, she wrote a book for aspiring writers and I did read that and she talked about how you should build your world you know you should build your world. you should map it all out you know you should figure out whose got powers and how that powers going to be used you know etc etc. But I found that wasn't working for me. and as soon as I went back to that character and I thought why are they here and what characters do they have and what can they do and what can't they do and what restrictions do they have and where are they going? and stuff like that It organically started to build. SO I think you're right I think I definitely need to, my process, is definitely that character out world building process.

D: So what drew you to angels specifically for your paranormal genre?

C: It was purely the fact that raven appeared to me. I wouldn't have considered writing angels. I think I spoke to you on Facebook, I'm always drawn to shifters and wolves in particular. I've read a gazillion vampire novels and fae novels you know I hadn't contemplated writing an angel novel and it was purely just sitting in the park and I had that really clear image of Raven on the rooftop behind me and he had these massive majestic black wings you know unfurled behind him and he was kind of crouched there looking down in the park and I thought that's it, that's my story, that's my hero and it just unfolded from there. So I didn't actually choose angels they chose me.

D: So you've got different categories of angels in your story, do you want to talk about that a little bit.

C: I do, I guess you know I didn't want... In my story it's not just the usual good an bad angels that I guess they have different factions, I guess they have different roles you know to what they do and I guess that the fallen guardians centers around the guardians. Their fate's guardians, thy're her protectors and she banishes them to the mortal realm as a punishment. So I guess that guardians are those warrior type angels that their role is to protect Fate's chosen's. They're to protect her and her path that she maps for every mortal. So then there's the other, not so good angels that choose to forsake the heavens. They're called the fallen and they reside in hell but again, there's not just one hell there's many different realms in hell depending on how bad you are or how powerful you are. There's also you know other angels that I guess become kind of clearer in book two but in book one we see Gabe. He's an arch angel. So he's like the leader of the factions so there there's also Cole who's  Azriel so he's like a sole collector who escorts the mortal soles back to the heavens or to hell depending on where they go. And in book book two we start to see a few more different fractions. There's angels that regenerate life or you know fauna I guess so they, after a bush fire they'll recreate the forests and things like that. There are many more in book three there's another fraction that's introduced, I haven'y really named it yet but they're like your dream angels. So they guide your dreams and they'll dream-walk into other people dreams. I guess as the series goes on you'll see alot more fractions appear. I've got a few of them already mapped out but as I go, so sort of just appear out of no-where. and I think oh okay, that's really cool.

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Music

That’s all I have for you today, the music is by bensound.com If you have any question about the show then you can contact me via email dianna@dlnix.com that is Dianna with 2 n’s. Or look for me on facebook as DL Nix on twitter @ finding elara. The show notes are at dlnix.com/016. If you would like to support the show then check out my Ko-fi page. That is K O – F I.com / finding elara. You can buy me a cuppa for 3 dollars any time you like I practically live off black tea so I appreciate any boost to my supply.

I have interviewed Cassie Laelyn for the show next week. Cassie grew up in a military family, forever on the move, Cassie had a childhood filled with countless crazy adventures. Eventually, sunny Queensland stole her heart, and she now calls it home with her husband and their two BMX-crazy boys. Borderline obsessed with the paranormal world, Cassie has a passion for crafting stories involving strong, otherworldly characters in need of redemption. She’s a self-confessed book-a-holic and a sucker for a gut wrenching happily ever after.  When she isn't narrating imaginary characters, Cassie loves binging on TV shows, spending time at the beach, and curling up listening to the rain.

We had a really good talk. She has also provided a copy of her book Unforsaken the first book in her fallen guardian series as a gift to one lucky listener. I have the rafflecopter link on the show notes and on my facebook page.

I hope that you have a wonderful week and keep up the search.