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Debut author, Cassie Greutman, introduces us to her first book REGEN: Life is finally shaping up for Trisha. For the first time, she’s with a foster family she doesn’t hate. Her new school is decent, and she even has a boyfriend. Until the night she finds herself waking up in the woods covered in blood, a bullet hole in her dress. Without her fae abilities, she’d be dead, but now the Faerie Council has given her an ultimatum. She has to help find an escaped fugitive, or be taken to Faerie, a place her missing mother told her horror stories about. Now, Trish has to keep her day job a secret from her foster parents, join forces with the ex-boyfriend who killed her, and hunt down a dangerous criminal before he comes into his powers. Should be a piece of cake. This urban fantasy story really surpassed my expectations! It was so much fun and kept me on the edge of my seat. I was especially pleased that the story is told from the first person POV of Trisha. She seems to be a human-Fae hybrid and knows very little of her ancestry or her nascent Fae abilities. Cassie’s plotting left me breathless at times, her scene-setting and action sequences are quite good. When first person POV is done correctly, it’s wonderful, in my opinion. Cassie avoids so many of the problems that trip up authors, she kept the POV clean of extraneous thoughts, there was no head-hopping. This is a great story, I highly recommend it! I hope there is a sequel. There is a lot more story to tell. I award 4.8 stars to REGEN, the score would have been higher except for the small handful of spelling issues. You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Regen-Cassie-Greutman-ebook https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38594972-regen https://www.amazon.co.uk/Regen-Cassie-Greutman-ebook You can follow Cassie: https://twitter.com/writeranrider89 Copyright © 2018 Mark L Schultz except for the author's introduction
33 Comments
Cassie Greutman
9/18/2018 09:35:45 am
Thanks for the review!
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Mark
9/18/2018 10:12:15 am
You are most welcome, Cassie. I really enjoyed your book. It was fun for me to read, I found it quite exciting. What inspired you to write this book?
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Cassie Greutman
9/18/2018 10:54:24 am
Great questions! Inspiration mostly came from the fact that when I was a teen I was constantly looking for more stories about family, even if they were thrown together families.
Mark
9/18/2018 11:17:09 am
I can really appreciate the dynamic that Trisha was feeling, she protected herself as much as possible. It was fascinating to go through her experience of learning to trust her foster parents. I grew up in a blended family, and as an adult I have done foster care also.
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Cassie Greutman
9/18/2018 01:08:35 pm
I've been writing since I was a little kid. And always, always, making up stories, for as long as I can remember. I was also the kid that had two bags of books to return to the library all the time :)
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Mark
9/18/2018 01:47:02 pm
I love that you were a kid that was writing. We both were returning books to the library all the time. I was so proud when I got a library card at the town library, when I was in the sixth grade.
Cassie Greutman
9/18/2018 04:19:18 pm
I grew up in a great home, but because my parents kept foster kids since before I was born, I got to see first hand all the struggles some of those kids go through. Wanting to know their real parents, loving them even when they are horrible. It really touched me, and it's something that made me who I am today. I wanted to incorporate that into the story.
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Mark
9/18/2018 04:31:33 pm
That makes perfect sense considering how you grew up. You did a very credible job of looking through Trish's eyes.
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Cassie Greutman
9/18/2018 05:36:09 pm
Thanks!
Mark
9/18/2018 06:23:00 pm
How about those other 6 books waiting for some attention on your computer, what are they about, what genre? If you don't mind sharing a little bit about them.
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Cassie Greutman
9/18/2018 07:52:14 pm
Four of the other books are just typical fantasy, one is urban fantasy, and the other is about a Russian girl that gets adopted by an American family. Maybe I will go back to them someday, but they would probably each need full rewrites, as I've learned so much since I wrote them.
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Mark
9/18/2018 08:16:40 pm
You certainly seem to be on the right track to me, especially since you have non-writing beta readers, and critique partners who are writers. Both are necessary, as you pointed out.
Cassie Greutman
9/19/2018 08:31:38 am
Sooo much more fun to write! I am gung ho about the first draft, but after that it becomes work!
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Mark
9/19/2018 11:35:16 am
Not everyone writes the same way, some people need a well-defined plan for writing, others can't work that way for a variety of reasons. Those reasons are valid for them and you. There is a guest blog post you might find interesting, Non-linear writing by Rick Hall. I am such a concrete person, if I was a writer that would have been extremely liberating for me.
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Cassie Greutman
9/20/2018 08:32:32 am
The first book I wrote was completely seat of my pants haha. I enjoyed doing it that way, and the excitement of discovering the story as I went along, but as I got more serious about it I realized that for me personally, it was a lot more work. The first draft went by quickly, but when I started editing, I realized I'd changed my mind about this part way through, changed it about that character half way done, and had to go back through the entire story and change things to match. So now I do a little of both, and I don't end up having tore-do nearly as much.
Mark
9/20/2018 12:00:41 pm
I bet a lot of writers have gone through the same thing with their first novel. It's easy for me to imagine how much fun it is to write by the seat of your pants. It's also easy to empathize with the discovery of plot holes and character shifts. Trying to do some foreshadowing must be so frustrating when the plot shifts in an incompatible way.
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Cassie Greutman
9/21/2018 09:08:31 am
I was pretty young the first time I had someone critique my work, and it was very intimidating. Thankfully everyone was so kind. I love the writer community. Nearly everyone I've met is so supportive.
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Mark
9/21/2018 12:18:24 pm
You have had a great experience within the writing community. Have you had an opportunity to pass that experience on to younger writers?
Cassie Greutman
9/21/2018 01:23:07 pm
Yes! It's a lot of fun watching a book develop as a writer learns more about the craft. I am pretty involved working with other people and their stories.
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Mark
9/21/2018 03:56:32 pm
That Collins' book sounds quite interesting. I learn so much talking with you and other authors. Every choice seems reasonable at the moment.
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Cassie Greutman
9/21/2018 04:03:44 pm
Hmmm... the most important thing I've learned is probably when I should listen to advice, and when I shouldn't. I'm sure I'll still have times when it's a tough choice, but in the beginning I trusted everyone more than myself, and changed things to make them happy. Eventually I changed some of it back, and left some as it was.
Mark
9/21/2018 04:58:39 pm
Knowing when to buy and when to pass is something that all of us must learn the hard way, none are born knowing that.
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Cassie Greutman
9/24/2018 03:17:17 pm
Best money ever spent has to have been getting a critique from a professional editor. It's expensive, but it helped me learn so much about writing. I just paid for a basic read through with notes on the first book I ever wrote, and it really helped me learn when I had to figure out how to fix the things he said needed fixing.
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Mark
9/24/2018 03:44:29 pm
Would you like to give a shout out for that editor, who helped you so much?
Cassie Greutman
9/24/2018 07:45:35 pm
Sure! His name is Jeff Gerke. I believe he still does edits.
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Mark
9/24/2018 07:54:09 pm
I know what you mean about covering your costs first. Sometimes that takes a long time, unfortunately.
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Cassie Greutman
9/24/2018 08:38:09 pm
That's really great that you get to see your grand daughters so often!
Mark
9/24/2018 09:07:35 pm
It makes a lot of sense to me to keep up with what's current in your chosen genre.
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Cassie Greutman
9/24/2018 09:15:01 pm
I have started one book that would be considered contemporary, but fantasy definitely has my heart. I probably wouldn't leave the fantasy genre, but would possibly write just straight up fantasy instead of urban fantasy.
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Mark
9/24/2018 09:42:41 pm
Very nice! One of my favorite authors is Tegon Maus, I reviewed his most recent fantasy, Black Moon. He writes in first person also.
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Cassie Greutman
9/24/2018 10:42:04 pm
The movie was the Neverending Story :) Such a great film!
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Mark
9/24/2018 10:55:38 pm
I enjoyed the Neverending story also. It was a lot of fun!
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Cassie Greutman
9/24/2018 10:58:21 pm
Thanks so much for taking the time to read Regen! And for the thoughtful interview :)
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Who am I?An avid reader, typobuster, and the Hyper-Speller. I am a husband, father, and grandfather. Archives
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