PD CACEK INTERVIEW (6/14/00 at 6pm PST) by MiHi Ahn

Bookface:  What is a horror writer like as a little girl?  Were you an 
unusually morose child?

PD Cacek: Well, let's just say I was "not quite your normal kid."  Because I 
was always tall (5'11" now ... about 5'9" when I was 12) I always got to be 
the monster.  Not that I minded it.  As for being morose -- I grew up in a 
Russian-Jewish household dominated by Alpha Females whose philosophy was 
"Life is hard and then you die ... and it gets worse."  I ask you, with this 
kind of background can you honestly see me writing light fantasy?  Of 
course, my parents still wonder.

BF: Did you read a lot of horror stories when you were a child?

PDC: I read a lot of Dracula.  Frankenstein was a little beyond me.  I knew 
at age five I was going to be a writer and I knew at age five I was going to 
write scary stories. In fact, I wrote even before I knew how to write (a 
problem the members of my writing group here in Colorado, the Northern 
Colorado Writers Workshop, still comment on).  I would sit down with a Big 
Chief writing pad and pencil and scribble for hours.  The twist was that I 
remembered each and every story I wrote ... scribbled.  I do remember my 
first "real" story:  I must have been in second grade and our assignment was 
to write a Christmas story to be displayed at the upcoming Parents-Teachers 
Night.  I wrote a story called "The Little Christmas Tree" which was about a 
little tree in the forest that was unhappy about being left behind while all 
his tree friends had been taken into homes for the holidays.  Well, one day 
he gets his wish and a family cuts him down and takes him home and decorates 
him for Chirstmas.  Only then does the little tree realize he'd dying 
beneath the tinsel and lights.  Well ... I did say I was not your typical 
kid.

BF:  So knowing from an early age that you were going to be a writer, how 
did you set out to make that a profession?

PDC: I wrote.  Of course, most of the stuff I wrote "back then" has long 
since been reduced to ash -- I don't believe in keeping trunk stories.  And 
I studied -- I hold a degree in English/Creative Writing Option from the 
University of California, Long Beach.  My plan was pretty simply:  I'd learn 
my craft with short stories and then move into novels.  Sounds easy, right. 
Well, I've only really been a "professional/full time writer" since 1980. 
There have been some detours, but I've always managed to keep the dream 
alive.  I'm a big believer in dreams ... and dreamers.