About Denise Fitzgerald Cassino

Favorite books:

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

The Bleeding Heart by Marilyn French

Family Pictures by Sue Miller

The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon

The Gold Coast by Nelson DeMille

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

The Stand by Stephen King

Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Favorite movies:

Gone with the Wind

The Great Santini

Cannery Row

The Fortune

The Deer Hunter

National Lampoon's Vacation

Dirty Harry

When Harry Met Sally

Favorite Music:

The Beatles

Frank Sinatra

George Strait

Carly Simon

Les McCann

Denise is the Senior Editor of Long Story Short, an ezine for writers as well as Director of Production and Curriculum for the Long Story Short School of Writing. She is also Editor/Publisher for the Long Story Short Publishing Company. Denise is a professional website designer and web marketer specializing in websites for authors and book marketing - check out her Wizardly Web Designs.

What inspires a writer? What makes those words pour onto the page?

Why do I write? I write because I love words. I love our language. I love the amazing images created from mere black ink on white paper. I have loved words all of my life. I started reading avidly as a child utterly consumed by worlds and characters I would never see or meet but finally grew to know intimately. I fell in love with Rhett Butler. I discovered the Hidden Staircase with Nancy Drew and George and Bess. I am fascinated and awed by writers like Pat Conroy whose words make you smell the sea salt and taste the boiling shrimp; writers who can evoke images and emotions so profound and powerful that they linger in one’s mind forever. I love the characters that tug at you to return to them, to pick up the book and enter their realm again. I love that I yearn for those characters and places long after we’ve parted, as though homesick, wishing I could have just a few more moments with them. I love all that I learn from reading, the historical characters and events that I now know so well. I want to be able to give back what I have loved getting from others throughout my life – the joys of reading and writing.