Lisa Haselton's Reviews and Interviews: Interview with the sci-fi author team known as Casey Lea

Today I have the writing team known as Casey Lea here to talk about their first two books IceFlight and its sequel Frostbite, and also give us a glimpse into future books.

Casey Lea is offering five gift pack giveaways during the virtual book tour. Each includes: (1) signed IceFlight paperback, (1) signed Frostbite paperback, and (1) $20 Amazon gift card. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below.

Bio:

Casey Lea is a mother and daughter writing team with a strong interest in science fantasy. The Casey Lea partnership began in 1990, with the arrival of Emma Casey Frost, first daughter of Shelley Lea and Gary. Although Emma was a very precocious child, it took another fifteen years before she began working with her mother.

Shelley Lea (pronounced ‘lee’) was born on a snowy June day, near the bottom of the world, in Invercargill, New Zealand. Reluctant to supply a date of birth, she would rather claim several decades of maturity, but only a few days of actual wisdom. Those decades have covered a range of jobs, a couple of degrees (including English Lit), one great husband, plenty of travel, two gorgeous daughters, several scatty cats and one charmingly dumb dog. They’ve also included an on-going struggle to put pen to paper in any spare second. This has led to some dire poetry, some eyebrow raising children’s stories and finally to something resembling a novel. This languished in a sadly disjointed and hand written form until…

Emma Casey inherited her mother’s love of books and the ability to string two sentences together (sometimes three). She proved to be the missing link in trying to actually finish a manuscript. Younger, savvier and able to turn on a computer without causing it to explode, she picked up the book and ran with it. Emma is also studying graphic design and happily provides Casey Lea’s cover artwork.

Welcome, ladies. Please tell us about your current release.

We’re delighted to be releasing Frostbite, the second book in our Iron Altar trilogy. Our favourite lost-in-space-and-kicking-alien-butt slave Darsey is back, but now she’s a mother and learning to be brave in an entirely different way.

What inspired you to write this book?

All the stories we’ve loved that have brought joy to our lives.

An excerpt from Frostbite…

Zak broke off when his words were lost in a thud and a grunt. Misty ducked her head further from cover to see what was happening. Ace. He'd finally managed to slither from his party burrow and do some work. Impressive work too. He must have taken Zak down with a diving tackle, but the nearest cover was meters away. Not a bad leap.

Unfortunately, Zak arched hard enough to throw Ace off and they came to their feet together. Two swords appeared and they attacked each other instantly. Their blades clashed repeatedly, without pause or hesitation.

Misty stopped and stared. She had never seen such a fight. Every blow was countered and each riposte was blocked. It was like watching someone fence with a mirror. There were no advances and no retreats. The fighters stood toe-to-toe, perfectly matched. The pace increased, until their swords were a blur, but still no one broke through with a blade.

Zak decompressed a second sword and slashed at Ace recklessly, driving him toward the cliff. The clash of blades was constant as the Beserk pushed forward. Misty took half a step toward them, but Ace spun around Zak, away from the drop. He swung his sword over his shoulders to guard his back and caught the blades trying to cut him down from behind. He twisted his arms while crouching, to turn and sweep one of the weapons from Zak’s hand.

Ace leapt high, while Zak jumped too. Their swords collided and they both swung a fist as well. Ace smashed his opponent in the mouth, but a punch like an anvil glanced from his chin and he staggered. He fell to a knee, before surging upright to back away and look for the Beserk. He attacked as soon as he saw the stranger - still on his back in the dirt.

Zak sprang to his feet just in time to counter the blow, then took an unsteady step and Ace paused too, breathing heavily despite com support. The stranger used the back of his hand to wipe blood from his lips and frowned when he saw Ace wiping his own bloody mouth.

“Get out of my head, snot balls.”

“Glad to,” Ace sneered. “I don't usually play in garbage.”

Zak sprang forward, but this time he put his full weight behind his swing. The wild blow was a risk, but Ace was too surprised to take advantage of it. He belatedly tried to block Zak’s sword, but its momentum was too great. Both swords flew through the air and Misty jumped aside when they clattered past. Ace reached to his wrist for another blade, but was too slow. This time Zak tackled him and they went down together. They grappled with each other and rolled across the plateau toward the cliff.

What exciting story are you working on next?

Sacrifice, which is the last book in our trilogy. The Devourer returns to feed and either Darsey or Amber will lie on the iron altar. Someone has to die, but who?

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Still working on that, particularly since we self-published. However, every book sold and every new review makes it more real.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

We work as often as we can and don’t have formal jobs to distract us. Fortunately, because we don’t know how we’d manage.

Shelley has a seven-year old, who seems to have boundless energy. She’s a lovely little girl and hubby Gary is a great dad, so it’s not too bad. His help and that wonderful innovation called school make a writing life possible. It’s early Sunday morning and Shelley’s still in her dressing gown, sitting beside daughter number two, who has a nasty virus. However, her temperature has dropped (still above normal) and she slept last night, so seems to be on the mend. She’s presently hatching furblings, so this is a good time to write. Grab every moment…

Emma helps her husband Mike with graphics for his website design business and spends most of her time in front of her two computer screens in the dining room. However, all that is about to change. Emma and Mike are expecting their first child on April 26, which is Emma’s birthday. So life is about to become much more distracting. How that will affect Sacrifice remains to be seen…

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

Jumping up in the middle of the night when inspiration strikes. We also have some quirks as a writing team. We often play tag with phone calls and emails. We exchange bits of text and take turns with it, conferring by phone as required.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

When Shelley was young she always wanted to be an astronaut. Which was insane. Math was a foreign world, she was careful to the point of timidity, not particularly athletic and not American. It was never a runner, yet still it appealed.

Emma has had two childhood dreams, the first of which she’s been pursuing for the past few years in the form of graphic design. She is about to fulfil her second dream of becoming a mother!

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?