Bryan Cassiday

answers the Usual Questions

Bryan Cassiday

According to his web site, author Bryan Cassiday is a retired federal government employee. He now writes thrillers and horror stories full-time.

He spends his spare time reading thriller and horror books and watching thriller and horror movies.

Has your interaction with fans, for example, at conventions, affected your work?

I suppose you would call me a cult writer. In other words, I don't have a large fan base. I went to the World Horror Convention in Portland this year, but I guess my fans didn't get the message.

I didn't see any of them there. Actually, that's the first convention I've done. I have interacted with several of my fans on Facebook and Twitter. It's certainly gratifying to hear their comments about my work.

Is there any particular incident (a letter, a meeting, a comment that stands out?

One of my fans on Facebook said I'm one of his ten favorite writers. That was a pleasant surprise.

Do you have a favourite author or book (or writer or film or series) that has influenced you or that you return to?

Romero's Night of the Living Dead stands out as a zombie movie. I actually didn't like this movie when I first saw it in a theater. I walked out before the ending. Compared to other movies of that time, it seemed repellant. People eating bugs and human flesh in grainy black-and-white. It was stomach turning. Later on, when I saw the entire movie I saw what Romero was getting at, the flick's dead-on cynicism, which is a staple of the zombie genre and one of the main reasons I like the genre. I suppose you could call Romero ahead of his time back then. What I like about the movie now is its intensity. It has an intensity with those survivors trapped in that farmhouse by zombies that few other movies can match.

Who is the person you would most like to be trapped in a lift with? or a spaceship?

Scarlett Johannsen. But not if she was that creature she played in Under the Skin.

Who is the person you would most DISlike to be trapped in a lift with? Or a spaceship?

Dracula.

book cover, Comes a Chopper by Bryan Cassiday; 140x196

What would you pack for space? (Is there a food, beverage, book, teddy bear, etc that you couldn't do without?)

Cheerios and orange juice. Cold beer. The complete works of Shakespeare. He wrote some great thrillers like Hamlet and Macbeth.

What is the most important thing you would like to get/achieve from your work?

It would be nice to reach a larger audience and have more fans. But the most important thing is that I write a good book or short story, one that is so good and so entertaining it will stand the test of time. A book that people will be reading a hundred years from now - -if the human race is still around then.

What is the special satisfaction of your work?

To be able to write thrilling, scary fiction that enthralls readers and takes them into another world.

submitted by Bryan Cassiday

17 August 2014

For other answers to The Usual Questions Click here

Just the facts:
Born: January.
Resides: Southern California.
Bibliography/Awards:
My short stories have appeared in anthologies, such as Horror Society Stories Volume One. The Chad Halverson zombie apocalypse series, which contains five books: Zombie Maelstrom, Zombie Necropolis, Sanctuary in Steel, Kill Ratio, and Poxland.
Comes a Chopper.
The Anaconda Complex.
The Kill Option.
Helter Skelter.
Blood Moon: Thrillers and Tales of Terror.
Fete of Death.