Cassondra Windwalker earned a BA of Letters from the University of Oklahoma. She’s the author of nine novels and three works of poetry who does her best to keep fed the menagerie of stray critters, cryptids, marooned kelpies, and lost specters.
Born and raised on the red clay, she’s wandered the sticky corn fields of the Midwest, the frozen seas of the Wild North, and frequently rests her wings where orange skies meet purple mountains. She enjoys interacting with readers, writers, and generally decent humans on social media.
The Gardener’s Wife’s Mistress plot summary
Hayden Hill has led the quiet life of a gardener, reveling in his greenery and his happy marriage—until the day his wife suddenly dies. It’s then that Hayden discovers a directive from his late wife, one that leads him to the discovery of a shocking secret. What follows is a heartfelt and complex narrative about nature, grief, and the space we hold for loved ones long after death—no matter what they might have done.
The interview
Why do you write in the genres that you do?
This is a particularly fun question because I don’t specialize in any one genre. I’ve published works in poetry, science fiction, romance, literary fiction, magical realism, satire, thriller, horror, and fantasy. Did I leave anything out? Oh, the novel whose first draft I just completed includes aspects of historical fiction as well.
For me, it’s important to challenge myself not only in story but in craft with every new work. Perfecting various genres is part of that. Observing the world, and chronicling what I observe, through the prism of different characters in different ways allows me to expand my comprehension of the human experience and hopefully allows more readers to interact more fully with the texts.
Do you keep a notebook of ideas?
Yes and no. On the last page of whatever notebook I’m dragging around at the moment, someone might find a random list of words and phrases that my brain will recognize as seeds for poems I can’t afford to forget. As far as prose goes, though, I let the ideas ruminate and ramble around in my brain until they’re ready to throw down in a more complete fashion.
Do you have a muse?
Always and so many. The natural world is an endless source of fascination for me, with all its mysteries and mundanities. But the subject of which I never tire is humanity itself.
No one else so infuriates, grieves, delights, or charms me. I’m that stalker you never knew you had, always listening, always watching.
Are you more of a fan of plot-driven stories or character-driven stories?
I think a well-written plot-driven story is always a character-driven story. I’m not a fan of making up twists and turns and then force-marching characters through the conflict. The very nature of characters dictate that conflicts and plot twists will naturally arise, if we allow the characters and their motivations to drive the story.
Fill in the blank: “People will like your book if they like stories about…”
People will like The Gardener’s Wife’s Mistress if they like stories that grapple with grief and identity, if they enjoy feel-good stories about found family, if they crave books that challenge and delight and sometimes even change them.
What are your thoughts on typewriters?
I have actually written stories on a typewriter, so my feelings are probably decidedly less romantic than some people’s. I love the sound of them, the weight of them, the evocation of a unique period in history for journalists and novelists in particular. But I’m unceasingly grateful for my laptop and have no desire to return to the days of ribbons and white-out fluid!
Would you rather own a bookstore or run a library?
Oh, lord. That’s so tough! If you or any of your readers are familiar with Dylan Moran’s comedy Black Books, that bookstore is unquestioningly my first choice.
Libraries are such particular sort of magic, though, opening not just the world of books but the whole world of literature and communication in every form to every person, regardless of social standing or wealth. And while most bookstores pander heavily to current titles, libraries are archives and chroniclers as well as storytellers. So yeah. I’m not answering this question, am I?
If Hollywood bought the rights to your book, would you want it to be turned into a movie or series?
I think almost any novel is best suited for a series, while short stories make excellent movies.
Do you try to hit a certain page or word count with each writing session?
I do check my word counts after each writing session. It checks a weird little box in my brain that feels good when it goes green, no matter what the number is. Some days a good session is a super hard 200 words. Some days 3,000 words just fall out of my fingers.
It’s like breathing to me. The moment at which that long deep exhalation sighs out, and I just begin to draw the next breath, that’s time to stop. The voices in my ears have quieted, but when I return to the page, I’ll be able to pick up the next word without a hiccup.
What are your passions/obsessions outside of writing?
Being outside. Ironic, really, because when I was a kid, all I wanted to do was hide inside under the air conditioner and read. But come on! I grew up in Oklahoma. That’s all you would have wanted to do, too.
Now I live in Colorado, where temperatures and humidity levels are usually a little kinder. The natural world is a teacher who never tires, never quiets, never tells you to go away and come back another day. She has something new for you every single moment, if we pay attention. I try to hike as often as possible. I also just go for bike rides and walks. We don’t have to be in the wilderness to hear the wind.
Have you made any public appearances to promote your book?
I try to do book signings as often as possible. I’ve gotten to meet so many incredible readers. And who doesn’t want to spend the day in a bookstore? Booksellers are awesome people, and they will be the most passionate advocates for the work they love.
Quite often, I spend a significant amount of my time in bookstores talking to children who love to read, and in some cases, to write. Even though none of my published titles are children’s books, children are ardent engagers with the world eager to share what they love. They ask great questions, and some of them will be the most thought-provoking authors whose works we will read in the next decade or so.
What is your favorite bookish possession?
I have a few. A fellow author I’d never met in person handmade me a beautiful pin and sent it to me through the mail. A fellow reader sent me a first edition of a Eudora Welty novel along with a squirrel-gnawed deer bone (If you know me, you know my writing desk is covered in shells and bones and rocks.).
A witch who encountered me for the first time at a book signing for my novel Ghost Girls and Rabbits gifted me a gorgeous agate. The stone was especially meaningful because that particular novel was set in Alaska and dealt with the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women. The agate looked just like the northern lights I used to watch play across the night skies when I lived in Alaska.
Are you a big reader? Do you own a large collection of books, or are you more of a borrower?
Reading is such an integral part of my life, I have often wondered how very different a person I would have been had I not grown up in a literate society. Storytelling – and story-listening – diverge radically from literature, even as closely related as the two are. Reading is an intensely solitary practice, even as it exists only in constant communion with another – the author. Storytelling, on the other hand, is inherently communal and depends on the will and cadence and breath of someone else.
I have an extensive library, which I hope to grow much further still! But I’m still a borrower. Libraries are my happy place. I volunteered in my public library starting when I was a kid, my college job was in the university library, and I was overjoyed when I got a paying job at my local public library, too. Nowadays I have two local libraries within five minutes, so how lucky am I?
Have you ever gone away to work on a piece of writing? If not, where would you go if you could?
I have occasionally gone away into the mountains to focus on my writing. I take inordinate quantities of snacks and alcohol and whatever pet I can cajole into accompanying me. I write and nosh until my laptop battery runs down, and then I head into the outdoors to look for adventures while it recharges. Rinse and repeat.
This is in fact how I met the bear that wanted very badly to eat me. No doubt I smelled deliciously of chocolate and cheese. But that’s a story for another time.
What is an annoying thing that a non-writer has assumed about writers or the act of writing?
It’s true that everyone has a book in them. It’s also true that everyone has guts in their belly. But just as not everyone can be a gastrointestinal surgeon, not everyone can be a writer. It’s a craft and an art that requires enormous discipline and passion, and a writer does not become a writer simply because they “finally have time” to produce a book.
How do you measure the success of your writing career?
This is a constant source of contention between my husband and me. He tries to convince me that because I have published books and readers all over the world, I have succeeded.
The hard truth for me is that I do not consider success a possibility for an artist. Success would mean arrival, completion. It would mean rest and relief. But an artist is a person consumed by hunger, by want, by dissatisfaction, by restlessness. Not the desire but the need to do better, to become more, to understand more, to stretch further. Every bite, no matter how sweet on the tongue, only hollows the belly.
So as much as that hunger drives me, the real tragedy would be if I ever felt full. That would be the most consuming despair.
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