About
The daughter of a commercial artist, I started drawing seriously at age 3, and at 5 proudly announced to my parents, "I want to be an author and illustrator of children's books when I grow up". Well, the children's books part didn't quite happen (yet), but I knew I wanted to write by the age of 8.
For a school assignment, we were to write a story about a random inanimate object; mine was an envelope. When my mother read my paper she started to cry, which somewhat startled me. I had created an analogous story of an envelope which had delivered an important letter, yet it got crumpled up and thrown into the garbage. The story was a parallel of my father's getting cancer and ultimate death, which I revealed at the end of the story. It touched me that I could move others with my writing.
Since that time, I became a graphics artist, a cruciverbalist and creator of other puzzle games, and after some rough emotional times, I eventually came back around to writing again. Writing to me is very personal and I find it quite therapeutic. Most of my time is spent running a seasonal non-profit organization, so I really enjoy the off-times when I get the chance to actually sit down and write.
Since 2017, I wrote a couple of reference books, and by 2018 started a small hybrid publishing company, Tovim Press LLC, and its imprint Picky Press. They make very little profit, but the goal was to give new authors a chance with wide distribution and quality books. We have few authors which is okay with me, because I give my all to them. Being a writer myself, I made sure our contracts specified that authors retain all their rights and own everything. I would have it no other way.
In 2020, wanting to reach a wider audience, I published a book on toilet-training cats, and in September 2024 released my first trilogy of novels, all under the pseudonym of "Cassie Cluster". In fictional works, I find that I still unconsciously inject parts of myself into my characters. Perhaps the last book of the trilogy, "Man-Made: Three out of Four", contains the most of my inner self, dwelling within several of the characters.
Old habits die hard.
Featured Work
Man-Made: Three out of Four
Set in the very near future, man-made certified caregiving nurses with AI are the norm. Insusceptible to pandemics and able to work tirelessly, they are the answer to a medical crisis. A relevant story for our times, much of the tech in the story is being utilized right now.
The stories center around "Betty", a man-made caregiver who gets a coding tweak and develops real human emotions. It leads her on a journey of self-discovery, action, romance, and a knack for saving others in trouble.
In this third book of the Man-Made trilogy, Betty and her civil rights lawyer and husband Mack Schwartz must flee for their lives after Betty's rescue from having been kidnapped by a notorious gangster. They wind up in witness protection and Betty must adapt to a whole new culture. With the help of Mack's best friend FBI Special Agent Woody Everett, they rebuild their lives with new names, in a new place, and a whole new family of their own with the eventual birth of twin children.
The family grows and learns to adapt to the challenge of living in two different worlds. We watch as these unusually intelligent children acquire additional talents learned from their already extraordinary mother, who they believe is just an average human.
