Today we are interviewing Troy Mason, Cass Davidson’s
security specialist from the book Saving Casey written by Liza O’Connor. Welcome Troy!
Maria: Troy, can you explain how you came to be responsible
for Cass’ safety.
Troy: I’m the head of security for Astervac. Dan Davidson is
the CEO. One day, he receives a text message saying his daughter is going to be
gang-raped when she leaves school.
Maria: That’s serious.
Troy: If true,
absolutely.
M: So you didn’t think it was a real
threat?
Troy: Honestly, I thought Dan’s daughter sent the message to
upset her father. He has a heart condition, and from my perspective, the kid
was doing everything possible to drive him into an early grave.
Troy: No. The text message came from a burner phone. So I
accompanied Dan to the school. When we
arrived, we learned Casey, or Cass as she now wished to be called, had gotten
into trouble on her first day back at school and had to stay for three hours of
detention. The principal invited Dan and
me into his office to discuss the matter further.
Maria: I imagine the principal
was concerned.
Troy: *snorts* Outraged is more like it. At Cass. He
insisted the only problem in his school was Dan’s daughter.
Marie: Did he say what happened?
Troy: According to Mr. Davis, without provocation, Cass
assaulted a fine young man with a stellar reputation. He warned Dan he was
fortunate the boy had chosen not to file charges.
Maria: Wow, she really is out of
control.
Troy: I’m pretty good at reading people, and I sensed the
principal was less than honest about the assault. I asked where it took place.
He said on the front steps. I’d noticed surveillance cameras when we entered
the school, so I asked to see the video. He insisted he had no video, but he
glanced at one of the wall cabinets, when saying that.
He continued to lecture Dan about Cass’ impossible behavior until
he received a call requiring his presence somewhere else. Dan rose to leave,
but the man insisted we stay, that he’d just be a minute. Again, I sensed something
off with the guy.
While he was gone, I checked out the cabinet, located the
security camera monitor, pulled up the morning video and watched Cass’s assault
from two different angles.
Maria: And?
Troy: She definitely kicked the kid in the groin, but to me,
it looked like self-defense.
I suggested to Dan we should forget the principal and locate
Cass. He agreed. We located the detention hall and waited by the door. Good
thing, too. The principal had given us the wrong time she’d get out. She would’ve
left the building while we sat in the principal’s office.
Maria: I’m not liking this
principal.
Troy: Nor I. When Cass came out
of detention, she looked shocked to see us.
I knew at once she hadn’t
sent the text message, and when we left the school, I was very glad I’d come. The entire football team waited for her.
Maria: What’d you do?
Troy: Fortunately, most of them left when the D-hall teacher,
who accompanied us, yelled at them. Only two of the boys remained. The clear
leader was the kid she kicked that morning. That jerk did everything he could
to get Dan to lose his cool and hit him.
Hell, I wanted to hit him. The kid left no doubt Cass’
safety was in serious danger. If they couldn’t get her today, then they’d get
her tomorrow.
Maria: I imagine Cass was frightened to death.
Troy: Cass showed remarkable calmness, even grabbing hold of
her father to ensure he didn’t go after the jerk taunting her. Honestly, she
impressed the hell out of me.
Maria: How so?
Troy: Beyond keeping her dad safe, once we got to the limo,
instead of breaking down and crying, she declares it’s her best day ever. At
first, I’m thinking she’s gone off the deep end. Then she shares her day,
focusing on all positive things that happened instead of crying about what
might have happened.
Once we got to Dan’s house, I spent a couple of hours with
Cass, trying to understand how this could be the crazy kid who was trying to
send her dad into an early grave.
Maria: And how’d you make out.
Troy: Dan had told me when Cass woke up in the hospital this
time, she no longer seemed broken and angry. He’s right. The young lady I met
impressed me. She’s smart, funny, confident, and determined as hell to turn her
life around. When Dan later asked me what I thought of her, I told him whatever
was wrong with Cass was gone. The young woman I met would turn her life around
and a year from now he’d be bragging about his daughter so much we’d be sick of
hearing it.
Maria: You fell in love with her that day, didn’t you?
Troy: *sighs* I did. But I was 30 and she was 17, so nothing
happened.
M: Did she love you?
Troy: Our attraction was mutual. She later declared us soul
mates. I never believed in that shit, but from day one, we got each other.
While neither of us was perfect, we were perfect for each other.
M: Except for age
Troy: An impossible barrier. And not just because she’s
jailbait. That would resolve itself in six months. The problem was and would
continue to be she’s Dan baby girl, and he would never forgive me for stealing
her chance to love someone her own age.
Maria: So you plan to find someone else to love?
Troy: No. I’ll love her ‘til the day I die. That’s the
problem when you find your soul mate but for some reason it doesn’t work out.
There’s no second choice. No one else will do.
Maria: And there’s no chance you two will get together in
the future?
Troy: I don’t see how, but a part of me still hopes…However,
right now, I need to focus on keeping her alive.
Maria: You mean from the boys at school?
Troy: No. Her problems have escalated at this point, but I
can’t go into that.
Maria: Then let’s focus on the book. According to the
reviews, it’s a ‘can’t put down’ novel.
Blurb:
Having been
diagnosed with cancer, Cass Goldman decides to opt out of any futile medical
care and end her life. While she has some thoughts on afterlife, she never
expects to reincarnate into the body of a seventeen-year-old girl named Casey
Davidson.
When she
awakens in a hospital, Cass discovers two disturbing facts: One, she is now
inside the body of a troubled teenager, and two, the former owner of this body
committed suicide, but only Cass knows that. Everyone else believes Casey has
survived, but suffered a complete memory loss. Cass has two choices: to take on
Casey’s life and turn it around, or to confess the truth about her
reincarnation and end up in a mental asylum. Given this second chance at life,
Cass decides to take on the future life of Casey—the frightening ghoul-faced
teen with short, black, spiky hair.
Every person
around Cass has an ulterior motive and discovering the truth of Old Casey’s
life is more complicated than the “new math” she is forced to learn in school.
In addition, Cass has to contend with raging teenage hormones and the prior
crimes of Old Casey, which she might not remember, but everyone else certainly
does. However, her biggest frustration concerns her feelings for her father’s
rugged security specialist who sees her only as a teenager and doesn’t want to
explore the mutual attraction between them.
As determined
as Cass is to turn this life around, Old Casey’s enemies are just as determined
to end her life. She has no idea whom she can trust, but she knows she’ll never
survive going it alone.
Liza and Troy are kindly sharing an excerpt:
Upon settling down on the toilet, Cass noticed the floor to
ceiling mirror facing her and screamed at the sight of the creature within it.
Short black hair spouted about its head, black circles surrounded both eyes and
fell like triangular knives down the cheeks. Black lips, stretched in horror as
if in a nightmare. Pulling up her pants, she moved closer to the mirror.
She was a ghoul, an honest to God ghoul!
The door crashed open and her father stared at her, fear
and panic clear in his eyes.
She touched her face. “Please tell me these aren’t
permanent.”
His panic remained a second longer as her words filtered
into his brain and then he pulled her into his arms. “Don’t worry, we will get
them removed—if you want to…”
“If? Oh, I definitely want them removed,” she said.
How can I turn around my
life if I look like the walking dead from a low-grade monster movie?
SAVING CASEY BY LIZA O'CONNOR IS AVAILABLE AT THESE
SITES:
BIO:
Liza lives in Denville, NJ with her
dog, Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow.
Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ,
hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive
with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky
dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania.
She’s an avid
gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts.
Yet through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing
novels. She loves to create interesting characters, set them loose, and scribe
what happens.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT
LIZA O'CONNOR &
SAVING CASEY:
