Interview + Giveaway with The Assassin's Curse author Cassandra Rose Clarke

ARRR! Welcome to today's post! We've got an interview with the awesome Cassandra Rose Clarke, author of The Assassin's Curse. A novel about an unlikely alliance between a pirate (now you get why I said ARR?) and an Assassin! The Assassin's Curse takes you on an amazing adventure you don't want to skip out on. Be sure to check out my review here. We've got the usual awesome (ahem) questions as well as even better answers from Cassandra herself! so enjoy, get to know this awesome author, and then enter for a chance to win this fabulous book provided by Strange Chemistry! 

Cassandra Rose Clarke is a speculative fiction writer living amongst the beige stucco and overgrown pecan trees of Houston, Texas. She graduated in 2006 from The University of St. Thomas with a bachelor’s degree in English, and in 2008 she completed her master’s degree in creative writing at The University of Texas at Austin. Both of these degrees have served her surprisingly well.

During the summer of 2010, she attended the Clarion West Writers Workshop in Seattle, where she enjoyed sixty-degree summer days. Having been born and raised in Texas, this was something of a big deal. She was also a recipient of the 2010 Susan C. Petrey Clarion Scholarship Fund.


Follow Cassandra Rose Clarke: Website | Twitter | Goodreads 

Find The Assassin's Curse on Goodreads | Amazon | B&N

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to an allying pirate clan: she wants to captain her own boat, not serve as second-in-command to her handsome yet clueless fiance. But her escape has dire consequences when she learns the scorned clan has sent an assassin after her.

And when the assassin, Naji, finally catches up with her, things get even worse. Ananna inadvertently triggers a nasty curse — with a life-altering result. Now Ananna and Naji are forced to become uneasy allies as they work together to break the curse and return their lives back to normal. Or at least as normal as the lives of a pirate and an assassin can be.

Describe yourself in a tweet (140 characters)
I’m a writer, a teacher, a movie watcher, a reader, and honestly a pretty big nerd all around.


Describe your YA novel The Assassin's Curse in three words 

Pirate, assassin, adventure


What is the one thing you always need or do when you are writing?
Silence (or rather, white noise). I absolutely can not write with music or television going in the background! I do like to get out of my house to work at coffee shops on occasion, but if the music is too loud or intrusive and isn’t something I can tune out, then I have to either put on my headphones and listen to the white noise generator I have on my phone — or leave. It’s that bad.

If you were ever given the choice between being a pirate and an assassin that can do magic, what would you choose?
Hmmn, that’s a good question! I think I’d rather be a pirate. Being an assassin seems pretty dangerous, not to mention a lot more work. Plus I love the ocean and I love to travel. 

What is your favorite book, show, movie, and song?
This is a very difficult question! I chose my current favorites, which means my answers are definitely liable to change without warning. 

Book: One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This one’s actually pretty easy, because this book has stayed a favorite for a long time. It’s probably tied with Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin, but I went with One Hundred Years because it’s had a bigger influence on my work and they way I approach writing. What I love most about it is how magic isn’t treated as magic at all, but as something completely everyday and ordinary. 

Show: I’m going to say Community. I didn’t get into it until about a year ago, but I watched all three seasons straight through and then immediately turned around watched them all straight through again. Watching the show a second time was just as enjoyable as the first, because there were so many jokes and references I didn’t catch with one viewing. 

Movie: Right now I am completely obsessed with Prometheus. It has a lot of flaws in the storytelling, but I loved the characters, the cinematography, and some of the issues it raises (although I wish it explored them in more depth). Choosing an all-time favorite film is a lot trickier, though, because I watch a lot of movies. 

Song: Let’s see. I’ve been listening to the new Fiona Apple album a lot, and I think my favorite song on there is “Hot Knife.” I like the way it captures the confusion and weird power imbalances in romantic relationships.

Where do you usually like to write or read? 
Here’s a picture of the desk in my bedroom where I do almost all of my work. I have an extra computer monitor because my boyfriend didn’t want to throw it away, so he gave it to me — now I don’t think I could live without it. I write in Scrivener and I like to have my writing screen on my laptop and all my notes for the story on the second monitor. I also keep my to-do list in a composition notebook, which is a habit I picked it up from my days of working as an administrative assistant. And I like to surround myself with little toys, just ‘cause.

Who are you more like in personality, Naji or Ananna, and why?

I’m probably more like Naji. I wrote Ananna specifically as someone who’s not like me at all, although I do think some aspects of my personality spilled over in spite of myself. But like Naji, I’m more reserved and more keen on studying than learning how to swordfight. And although I said I’d rather be a pirate than an assassin, I really don’t think I’d make a very good pirate.

The cover of The Assassin's Curse is gorgeous! were you a part of choosing the cover?
Shortly after I signed my contract, I sent Strange Chemistry some comments about what I hoped for in my cover: mainly stuff about how I prefer graphical, more stylized art on covers. I was extremely pleased when my editor sent me the preliminary artwork! The cover’s almost exactly what I had in mind.

What inspired you to write about an alliance based on a curse between a pirate and an assassin?
It was an idea that I’d been kicking around awhile. Originally it was going to be about an alliance between a witch and an assassin, but as I worked on different iterations of the story the witch eventually turned into a pirate. There was no real point of inspiration — more that I wanted to try my hand at writing high fantasy and pirates and assassins are both cool, so I figured they should both feature prominently.

To end this interview, can you give us any hints or clues about book #2 of The Assassin's Curse? I can't wait to read it!
Yay, I’m so glad to hear that! The second book has a lot more adventure on the high seas. I also introduce a couple of new characters, one of whom is my absolute favorite (but I don’t want to say too much about her because I don’t want to spoil the surprise).

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Now to end this post, Strange Chemistry has generously offered ONE (1)  copy of The Assassin's Curse to one lucky INTERNATIONAL reader! So, you want to win a copy? fill out the rafflecopter below!

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