Tope asked Cole McCade:

When did you start writing? Have you always done so? What was your motivation to publish ASCAP and go pro, so to speak? Also, why are you called growly? And why do you like cats? Sorry for the many questions

Cole McCade I've been writing since I was a boy. Pretty much since I was old enough to pick up a pencil, I've been coming up with little stories, from scripts for cartoon ideas to a 40-page "novel" I wrote in 6th grade as part of an assignment in the special English program I was put in for gifted and talented students. I didn't start thinking of it as a potential career option until my early twenties, though, and some rather odd but un-subtle nudges that came during some projects I was working on during a corporate 9-5 job.

Since then I've been writing books, submitting to agents and publishers, practicing, getting better, and looking for the right story. There wasn't so much motivation to publish ASCAP as just finding yet another story inside myself, made up from pieces of memories and daydreams and utter randomness, and realizing this story just might be the right one. I have a million half-finished books in a folder, things that just petered out, but ASCAP carried me through to the end in a rush that said I shouldn't let this one go.

I'm called growly because I growl a lot. I rarely smile, though sometimes you can startle a brief laugh out of me. I'm territorial and scowly and solitary and let very few people infringe on my space, and my general reaction to affection is a snarl and gruff, grudging acceptance.

I like cats because they're independent and fickle and beautiful and graceful. And cute. And spastic. And they always seem to know just the right moment to stop being little arseholes and come butt their head under your chin to shake you apart with their purr, right when you need it.

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