Writer. Editor. Mentor
Something is drawing Jena Benedict’s family to darkness. Her mother, father, brother and baby sister are killed in a barn fire, and Grandmother Rose banishes Jena from the farm. Now, twenty years on, Rose is dying, and Jena returns home wanting answers about what really happened on the night of the fire and why she was sent away.Will, Rose’s live-in caregiver, has similar questions. He hunts for the supernatural, and he knows something sinister lurks in the Benedict homestead. Together, Jena and Will unearth the mysteries around a skull, a pocket-watch, a tale of the Dark Man and a tiding of magpies. And in doing so, they set loose an evil entity determined to destroy Rose and her whole clan.Full of tension and psychological thrills, Butcherbird is a novel about uncovering truths and unshackling guilt.
WHAT IS CASSIE UP TO, 2026?
Working On Her Craft
I've stepped back from mentoring and editing for other people in 2026 in order to focus on my own craft, and I have the wonderful opportunity to do this in two important ways.
Firstly, I am starting the Master of Creative Writing at Massey University (where I have been paired up with Whiti Hereaka, who mentored me while I revised Butcherbird), in order to stake time and space to work on writing craft.
Secondly, I've been awarded a Michael King Writer's Residency, where I will get to spend two weeks in Auckland working on my first young adult horror novel - the girls and I are so grateful for this opportunity! (the girls being the characters of the book - they definitely let up a cheer of excitement about it, though they may have another opinion by the time I am done with them...).