Born and raised in Central Florida, Cassie now makes her home on the banks of the Suwannee River in North Florida with her husband of twenty-five years and their tiny but terrifying chihuahua. A late-bloomer, Cassie worked in several careers before settling in to the writer's life. These included ten years at Merrill Lynch, several years as an Outreach Coordinator for a tri-county public library system, and several more doing marketing for her brother's company Anderson Crane and Bridge (now Anderson Hydra). An empty-nester after 34 years of raising three daughters, Cassie published her first novel, The Pecan Man in 2012. This work has since sold over 150,000 copies, been produced as an audio book by Blackstone and optioned for film rights to BCDF Pictures. This self-published novel is one of Amazon's best sellers and allowed the author to quit working full-time and return to college to earn a BFA in Creative Writing at Goddard College, which was a lifelong dream. An avid photographer since the 1980's, she is known as the Yayarazzi, so-named for her tendency to follow her grandkids around with a camera. Cassie's upcoming novel What Matters in Mayhew will be released in the fall of 2016.