Bryan Cassiday

what is your name?
My name is Bryan Cassiday.

how would you describe what you do?
I write thrillers.

what are you currently working on?
I’m working on a thriller about a neighbor who may not be what he seems.

what has had the greatest influence on your work?
Good books have had the greatest influence on my work. Some of these books are Stendhal’s “Charterhouse of Parma,” Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises,” any of Jack Higgins’s thrillers, Forsythe’s “Day of the Jackal,” Graham Green’s “This Gun for Hire” and “Ministry of Fear.”

what is the greatest misconception about you or your work?
There is a misconception that thrillers are not good books, but merely genre potboilers. The example of Shakespeare easily refutes this obtuseness. Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” is a great thriller and a classic. The same could be said of his magnificent “Julius Caesar.”

what do you see as the main strengths and weaknesses of the medium you work in?
The advantage of the thriller genre is that it allows an author to explore character and at the same time to build a plot and conflicts that lead to an exciting and satisfying denouement. I don’t think the thriller genre has weaknesses except maybe that the writer can’t allow himself to be too humorous–or you’ll end up with something like Robert Ludlum’s wretched “Road to Omaha.”

how has technology impacted upon the work you do?
In terms of technology, I as a writer use a computer instead of a typewriter. On the other hand, I still frequently write longhand, despite the fact that I have a laptop.

what’s the greatest piece of advice you would like to pass on?
This may sound presumptuous of me, but my greatest piece of advice would be not to heed anyone’s criticism–either negative or positive. The way I see it, nobody knows anything when it comes to writing. I also reject the advice that you should write about what you know. In fact, I would go so far as to say that you should write about what you don’t know, in other words, what you can imagine. As Einstein said, imagination is more important than knowledge.

where can we find you online?
You can find me online at www.BryanCassiday.com. You can find all my books, both “Fete of Death” and “Blood Moon: Thrillers and Tales of Terror,” on Amazon.

what are you reading at the moment?
I am currently reading Vince Flynn’s thriller “Pursuit of Honor.” I still think “Consent to Kill” is his best book.

what are you listening to at the moment?
I’m listening to Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.