By Amy Johnson
One of the best things about our tutors is that they have interests and passions that extend beyond teaching and tutoring. Kassandra, a Christianson Tutorials tutor since 2014, has had several short stories published and one novel under agent consideration.
Kassandra studied Music Composition at the Sunderman Conservatory of Gettysburg College, where she played an important part in developing the pilot Music Composition curriculum for the program. Although she never took an English Literature or writing class in college (she tested out of all the English requirements), she has always had a passion for writing, and she completed many hefty research papers for classes in Ethnomusicology, Music History, Philosophy, Anthropology, Linguistics, and Music Theory, all of which informed her creative writing. She explains that writing music “helped develop many of the skills required to write fiction, such as thematic progression and the creation or manipulation of expectation and release."
Kassandra started writing stories almost as soon as she learned to write. She loves creative writing, and wrote fiction and poetry on her own throughout high school. After starting with ChristiansonTutorials, she was able to write “seriously”, because tutoring allowed her the time and flexibility to really dig into this creative endeavor. She had her first short story published in Seven Deadly Sins: A YA Anthology (Envy) in 2016 and has since had three other short stories published in online journals. Her favorite is probably "The Chinchilla Affair," which was inspired by an episode from her adolescence, wherein Kassandra and a friend found a chinchilla in the middle of a country road at midnight. She says, “The fictional account remains pretty true to what actually happened, at least until fairies get involved.” Another of her favorites, "Muddy," is scheduled to be featured at Flash Fiction Magazine on January 7, 2018. She also has another short story, "The Spider And The Honeybee," scheduled to be published at Fterota Logia in the new year (publication date TBD).
Kassandra has written one young adult fantasy novel, "A Garden Of Light And Shadows," which is currently under agent consideration, and she is working on her second, tentatively titled “In The Dark Of The Moon." She explains, “it speaks to my own heritage and interest in Greek mythology and folklore. The story follows Chrysa Markou, a Greek ex-patriot who returns to Greece as a teenager and encounters all sorts of fairy tale creatures, including vrykolakes, which are something like ghouls or vampires, and neraides, or nymphs.” She is planning a research trip to Greece for June, 2018.
In hopes to raise some money to offset the cost of various writing workshops, conferences, and writing classes, Kassandra is running a campaign on Patreon, a site that allows creators like her to accept small but regular donations from fans. In return, donors, or Patrons, enjoy various perks that are not available to the public. In Kassandra’s case, that means "behind the scenes" access to works in progress, editing services, and more. The reward thresholds are generally pretty low. For example, her tiers are $1, $3, $5, $8, and $10. She’ll also be posting mini grammar tutorials that are available at no cost.
You can check out Kassandra’s Patreon page at www.patreon.com/flamourifiction or learn more about her published works and current projects at www.flamourifiction.com, where you can also subscribe to her blog to get updates about her work and upcoming publications.
One of the best things about our tutors is that they have interests and passions that extend beyond teaching and tutoring. Kassandra, a Christianson Tutorials tutor since 2014, has had several short stories published and one novel under agent consideration.
Kassandra studied Music Composition at the Sunderman Conservatory of Gettysburg College, where she played an important part in developing the pilot Music Composition curriculum for the program. Although she never took an English Literature or writing class in college (she tested out of all the English requirements), she has always had a passion for writing, and she completed many hefty research papers for classes in Ethnomusicology, Music History, Philosophy, Anthropology, Linguistics, and Music Theory, all of which informed her creative writing. She explains that writing music “helped develop many of the skills required to write fiction, such as thematic progression and the creation or manipulation of expectation and release."
Kassandra started writing stories almost as soon as she learned to write. She loves creative writing, and wrote fiction and poetry on her own throughout high school. After starting with ChristiansonTutorials, she was able to write “seriously”, because tutoring allowed her the time and flexibility to really dig into this creative endeavor. She had her first short story published in Seven Deadly Sins: A YA Anthology (Envy) in 2016 and has since had three other short stories published in online journals. Her favorite is probably "The Chinchilla Affair," which was inspired by an episode from her adolescence, wherein Kassandra and a friend found a chinchilla in the middle of a country road at midnight. She says, “The fictional account remains pretty true to what actually happened, at least until fairies get involved.” Another of her favorites, "Muddy," is scheduled to be featured at Flash Fiction Magazine on January 7, 2018. She also has another short story, "The Spider And The Honeybee," scheduled to be published at Fterota Logia in the new year (publication date TBD).
Kassandra has written one young adult fantasy novel, "A Garden Of Light And Shadows," which is currently under agent consideration, and she is working on her second, tentatively titled “In The Dark Of The Moon." She explains, “it speaks to my own heritage and interest in Greek mythology and folklore. The story follows Chrysa Markou, a Greek ex-patriot who returns to Greece as a teenager and encounters all sorts of fairy tale creatures, including vrykolakes, which are something like ghouls or vampires, and neraides, or nymphs.” She is planning a research trip to Greece for June, 2018.
In hopes to raise some money to offset the cost of various writing workshops, conferences, and writing classes, Kassandra is running a campaign on Patreon, a site that allows creators like her to accept small but regular donations from fans. In return, donors, or Patrons, enjoy various perks that are not available to the public. In Kassandra’s case, that means "behind the scenes" access to works in progress, editing services, and more. The reward thresholds are generally pretty low. For example, her tiers are $1, $3, $5, $8, and $10. She’ll also be posting mini grammar tutorials that are available at no cost.
You can check out Kassandra’s Patreon page at www.patreon.com/flamourifiction or learn more about her published works and current projects at www.flamourifiction.com, where you can also subscribe to her blog to get updates about her work and upcoming publications.
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