About Me

About the Author

Catherine Cruzan grew up in Bloomington, MN, but California has been her home since 1984. She currently lives in Southern California with a spirited yet cuddly blue celestial parrotlet named Jasmine.

After graduating from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, she has worked as an engineer for several major corporations in the Los Angeles area.

Catherine’s interest in books began as a child with a voracious appetite for reading. She fondly recalls piling onto her parent’s bed with her two brothers while her mother read the Chronicles of Narnia, Little Women & its sequels, Nancy Drew, Treasure Island or Black Beauty. She moved on to The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings as a young teenager, and Fantasy stories remain her favorite to this day.

Her writing career started with poetry and short stories published in the school newspaper. As an adult, she writes character driven Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction short stories and novels. Her writing education includes Long Beach City College creative writing courses and the UCLA Writers Program. She is currently a member of the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society and Orange County Writers.

Some of her other many interests include Travel, Steampunk, Victorian London, her Yamaha FZ6R motorcycle, Archery and Tribal Style dance.

Kinkaku-ji, Kyoto, Japan

Vegetarian Sushi in Shibuya, Tokyo

RANDOM Q&A with CATHERINE CRUZAN

Why do you write?

The short answer is: To placate my imagination.

If I don’t give the voices in my head somewhere to play – on the page, in the moment, in the farthest reaches of time and space – they would manifest themselves in other nefarious ways. And no one wants that, folks, trust me. Except perhaps the men in white suits trying to drum up business in these hard times.

Ultimately, I’m happiest when I get to share a story with my friends. I believe we connect with one another via juants into other facets of the human condition which may be wholly unfamiliar to us except through literature.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

You have to write what moves you. Forget about the marketing models, the angles and the platforms. If you’re not enjoying the process, the product will certainly suffer. It’s important to me to be writing books I want read. If someone else happens to enjoy what I do, it’s the icing on the cake.

And always try to hone your craft. Writing is a skill like any other. It requires nurturing and growth. Take classes, join writers groups, spend time with other professionals, and most importantly, READ, READ, READ. Read your favorite genre, read something unexpected, read your resources when you research.

The more you learn, the more you grow. The more you grow, the better your writing will be.

What do you like to read?

There are the obvious cannons – Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter.

I’m also a Wheel of Time junkie. That series is like crack for me. I love it. I also love anything by Tad Williams, China Mieville, George R.R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, Tim Powers, Terry Brooks and Raymond Feist. I'm starting to get into Brandon Sanderson now too. Piers Anthony got me through my teens. Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Ernest Hemingway and Isaac Asimov also rocked my world growing up.

Other names on my shelves include C. J. Cherryh, David Brin, Anne and Todd McCaffrey, DeAnna Cameron, Cassandra Clare, Cherie Priest, Dru Pagliossotti, Barbara Hambly, Denise Dumars, Tony N. Todaro, Ace Antonio Hall, Mike Robinson, Leslie Ann Moore, Aaron Mason, Oscar Wilde, Emily Dickenson and Edgar Allen Poe to name a few.

What can I say? I've got lots of bookshelves and I'm still wedging the darn things in with shoe-horns, stacking them every which way, standing them up and laying them flat. When you open a drawer expecting socks, you get more books!

Visit me at Good Reads if you want to see what's on my nightstand on any given day!