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| Author and artist Natalie Buske Thomas (left) and her daughter, artist Cassandra Thomas |
Mother and daughter team Natalie Buske Thomas and Cassandra
Thomas drove from Hudson to share their talents at the Augusta Public Library’s
Booktoberfest celebration on Sep. 14. Mother Natalie spoke about her career as
an author and artist, and then daughter Cassandra—an accomplished
cartoonist—taught the audience her techniques for drawing human figures.
The two women have produced a diverse array of work both
independently and collaboratively. Natalie, an author and artist, has written
two trilogies featuring fictional private investigator Serena Wilcox. In
addition, she’s a prolific painter; among other artistic projects, she’s
currently working on two Dr. Who-themed oil paintings for a charity auction.
Natalie has been greatly aided in her writing by Cassandra,
who edits the manuscripts. She’s uniquely qualified for this job; in addition
to being Natalie’s daughter, she’s one of the few people to have aced the
verbal section of the SAT. Natalie attributes Cassandra’s excellence with
language to her prolific reading habits. “She would wipe out the library’s
summer reading program of all their prizes,” Natalie remembered. “I think they
had to re-write the rules for her.”
Although Natalie is now the author of two trilogies, her
writing success didn’t come easily. After completing her first novel, she
received rejection slips that were often so impersonal, they started with “Dear
Blank” instead of her name. One company accepted her Serena Wilcox series but
wanted her to commit to traveling to 50 book signings a year; unwilling to
spend so much time away from her family, she decided to focus on other
priorities.
Natalie devoted considerable energy to raising her 3
children: Cassandra, 20, an accomplished artist and editor; Nicholas, 16, a
computer whiz and gifted musician; and Savannah, 11, a talented fashion
designer and aspiring photographer. As
the children got older and more independent, though, she decided to re-visit
her writing career.
When Natalie re-joined her former group of mystery writers,
she was pleasantly surprised to discover that she still had many fans. Her
readers especially liked Serena Wilcox, a character she’d serendipitously
introduced to resolve a plotline in her first novel. They wanted more of
Serena, and she obliged them by featuring the character in two trilogies; the
first book of the third Serena Wilcox trilogy is already available on Kindle
and will soon be coming out in paperback and audio book.
Like her mother, Cassandra also has a significant fan base.
Her original on-line comic series, Ki La iLo, has gained considerable
popularity. Her success isn’t surprising given her long history as an artist; she
taught herself to draw when she was 11 years old and did so well that a Disney
artist encouraged her to apply to their art school. She seriously considered
the offer but decided to pursue a math major at UW-River Falls instead.
Natalie and Cassandra also collaborate on the Dramatic Mom comic strips. Natalie, who
is on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and other social media, had noted that she
got the most “likes” and comments when she posted about her mishaps and
pratfalls. She decided to oblige her fan base by creating the comic; Natalie
provides the storylines based on real-life incidents, and Cassandra illustrates
them. They intend to publish a Dramatic
Mom book once they’ve created 100 strips; in the meantime, the comics are
available on-line to interested readers.
Natalie and Cassandra have already produced a
considerable body of work and have no intention of letting up. Anyone
interested in Natalie’s artistic and literary productions can find links to Dramatic Mom, images of Natalie’s art,
and a lot of other information at www.nataliebuskethomas.com.
Cassandra’s work can be seen
at http://cassiethomas.deviantart.com/.
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