Biography
Cassie Greutman is a small town Ohio girl who has always loved stories in any form. You can usually find her typing away at her computer or playing out in the barn with her ponies.
Tell us about your most recent release, Dracos: Fantasy Dragon Tales.
Dracos was an exciting opportunity to get involved in an anthology with lots of other talented writers. It’s an entire set of dragon stories, my favorite! The story I have in the anthology is about a dragon hunter who makes some surprising decisions after finding something on the latest hunt.
You have a series called Perchant for Trouble with a fourth book scheduled to release in October. Tell us about the series and the upcoming book.
The main character Trish is fae. She has gone through a lot and learned so much in the last three books, and it really starts to come to a head in book four! So I’m not giving away too many spoilers, I’ll just say book one is about a fae girl being raised in human foster care and is blackmailed by the Faerie Council to help capture an escaped fae fugitive. Things only get more crazy from there!
What are some of your favorite books and authors you’ve read?
The Mercy Thomson Series by Patricia Briggs and the Green Rider series by Kristen Britain are my favorite current series. My all-time favorite is The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, by Patricia C. Wrede.
How did get started writing stories? Why did you decide to publish?
As a kid, I read through every book at our library that I found interesting, and most of them twice! So I started writing my own stories. I was finally told enough times that everyone who read them loved my stories, so I decided to give publishing a go. It’s been quite a journey!
What is your strength as a writer? What is your biggest challenge?
I’m told I do characters and structure well. I hope that’s true! But I struggle with scene description. I can see it in my head, and I don’t always get it down well enough on paper!
If money were no object, what would you do with the rest of your life?
I’d spend my time going back and forth between the best scuba places in the world and home, writing the whole time!
Do you have a favorite character that you’ve written? Why?
Trish from Penchant for Trouble is my favorite. She’s been through so much, even as a kid, but is learning how to trust and be part of a family again.
What is something you wish you would have known when you first started writing?
How long it takes! Here I thought I’d just do a thousand words a day and have a book in 70 days, right? Not so much.
What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
I spend a lot of time with my family, and I’m really into horses. I also enjoy art and music.
What does success look like for you as an author?
Being able to pay the bills without having to work another job! That’s the dream, anyway!
Is there anything additional you want to share with readers?
You are really appreciated! Every author pours a bit of their soul into their work, and it’s so encouraging when a random stranger actually wants to read what you’ve worked so hard on.
Website: www.cassiegreutman.com
Book Locations: Nearly anywhere e-books are sold! Amazon
Excerpt: A short section from book one in the Penchant for Trouble series, Regen:
A mile on city streets should only take a person fifteen minutes. Out here where we had to dodge around rocks and massive trees, it was a good half hour before Cray stopped us, looking down into a dished valley.
“The energy is coming from that hill,” Cray said. It was the first time I’d heard him speak. His voice was surprisingly deep.
“Trisha,” Starren said.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Go be bait.”
“Be careful,” Wade said. Strange coming from the guy that had killed me last week. And I still wasn’t sure they weren’t trying to kill me now. Something seemed off about this whole situation. I ignored him, took a breath and started down the slight grade.
It leveled off after a couple minutes and soon after the trees thinned. Before they were gone I paused, staring at a strange hill in the middle of the forest floor. “I feel you, Atreyu. I hope this doesn’t turn out to be a giant turtle, I don’t want to get snotted on,” I muttered. I’d probably watched too many movies at the children’s home. Something about the two worlds in that one made me think about Faerie, thereby reminding me of my mom. I’d watched The Neverending Story a bejillion times. I glanced back at the trees, hoping to see Starren. For once, I wanted her to tell me what to do. They were gone.
“They’re probably just trying to get me killed,” I snarled quietly. If I didn’t know that the fae couldn’t lie, I’d be running the other way right now. It was get this job done or get dragged to some world I didn’t know anything about, with people I didn’t know. I’d had enough of that growing up, thank you very much.
A step. Another. Something sniffed. I froze.
I didn’t move for a few seconds, then almost laughed at myself. A sniff? Really? Was that Jaden’s new, unknown power, a super sniffer? I laughed at myself quietly until the sound came again, louder and longer.
Okay, no way that was Jaden. A bear? That would not be cool. I’d heal while it did the damage, but how long until it decided to let me be? Ouch. I backed a few steps away slowly.
The earth began to shudder, nearly knocking me to the ground. The little hill shook, dirt rained down as something stood up from underneath it, knocking the soil from its body. My fingernails bit into my hands. Maybe a bear wouldn’t have been so bad. This thing was massive, its stony looking head nearly as tall as the trees.
Without warning, whatever it was moved over to a small stand of trees and ripped one out by the roots. It paused to get its bearings, more dirt raining down off its greyish skin.
“Oh crap,” I whispered as its gaze finally found me. It hefted the tree up like a club and took a step in my direction, covering the distance between us in that one stride. The club came down hard, right at me. I jumped to the side and it missed. The impact of the club on the ground still knocked me off my feet, dirt and small stones raining down on me. A fist sized rock slammed into my arm.
I tried to catch my breath, flat out on my back, the wind knocked out of me and my arm screaming in pain. That’s going to leave a mark, the nearly hysterical thought ran through my mind. At least for a few minutes. I looked over to assess the damage. Shoot. My sleeve was shredded and my clothes, unfortunately, would not regenerate like the rest of me. Nina was going to have a fit when she saw this. I scooted back a little but had to bite my lip to keep from yelling as my hip and side shrieked. I’d landed on a rock and hadn’t noticed while I was trying to catch my breath.
A rumbling started. The thing was trying to talk. It had massive moss green eyes with big crooked teeth hanging out of its mouth. The rest of its body looked fairly human, other than the size. It rumbled something again, then coughed.
Troll or ogre? What was the difference?
I rolled over to stand and a crunch sounded from my pocket. Shoot again. My phone. I pulled it out. The screen was shattered. Great. No time to worry about it right now. I stuffed it back in and moved into a crouch.
The troll took a step toward me, ground shaking under its massive foot. So this was why California had so many earthquakes. So much for the fault theory.
“I’m gonna rip your head off your body,” the troll finally got out. I could barely hear the words, his voice was so deep.
I wished I hadn’t been able to understand because for the first time since I’d started regenerating, I felt a thread of panic. How did that work? Even I probably couldn’t recover from that.
