- Thank you, Michael.

And you know, it's always so much fun when we have an author come by the studios and today is no different.

I'm joined today by author and photographer from the local area, Cassidy Thomas Cassidy, thank you for coming to the studio today.

It's an, it's awesome to have you here.

- I'm super happy to be here - And I wanna get the ball rolling right away.

For people that are not familiar with you, gimme a little bit of background.

Who is Cassidy Thomas?

For those not familiar.

- Well, I live in Cape Vincent, I'm 25.

I've written over 10 books for children and young adults.

I love to do a little bit of everything besides write.

I'd love to do photography, whether it's film, photography or digital.

I have, I love VHS tapes and archiving, and I love to do scrap muddling and lawn mowing.

I just, I like to, I love to do a little bit of everything.

- You looked a lawn mower.

God, I have a lawn mower in a minute.

Oh my goodness.

Now I enjoy it.

There's a lot of avenues to cover and that place alone.

But let's start from the author perspective.

You've got a couple of your books right here.

You're a children's author, but you're also a fiction author.

So I wanna start by asking you about your books, your children's book series, the event, the Adventures of Fernando and Sebastian.

First of all, who are Fernando and Sebastian?

- Well, they are my two plush puppies.

- They are?

Oh, oh, look at them.

They're - So cute.

They are.

They're happy to be here.

Look - At them.

Oh my God.

- Hey, where's his heart?

On his feet.

Is that Fernando?

That's Fernando.

- Fernando, how you doing?

Is this your first time on camera?

- Yes.

It's, oh my goodness.

Yep.

That's Fernando.

This is Sebastian.

- What about you, Sebastian?

Are you excited to be here today?

- Yep.

- Video.

- Yeah, they're, they're old puppies.

They are, well, well over the age of me.

25.

They're 36, about, about to be 37.

Wow.

And, well, they go on old fashioned adventures.

You don't see any technology in the books.

They just go on little fun.

We go around the area, we kind of go outta state at times and they just find the little places.

- Do you have a personal favorite adventure that that Fernando and Sebastian have gone on?

- I found a little bit of a favorite in everything.

I think when I'm with my grandparents is the best fun.

I think it's just the joy when I, when I just set them somewhere or I just like, it's the people that you're with and you see the smile on their face and then people ask about your books and then if they read a book or you tell them about it, it just makes their day.

And it's like one little comment can help out someone.

- And now you're also a, a fiction author.

You've got a couple of your books here, like Knights in Black and Blue Seagulls That Dance by the Sea.

I wanna know when, when you start making your books, whether the Adventures of Fernando and Sebastian or these books, where does it really begin for you?

Where's the inspiration come from?

- That starts way back when I wrote a story in kindergarten about snakes.

I just kept writing ever since.

And I just, I never really, I was more into writing than friendships, I'd say in elementary school.

And I just started writing and writing little stories.

And then finally when I was in ninth grade, I just saw this bad stuff going around all around the world.

I thought, you know, I wanna write a story and make sure that somebody knows in the world that something's okay.

So at 15 I began nights in black and blue.

And finally in 2020, late 2020, I found I do self-publishing through Amazon.

So I finally wrote my book and I wrote a series on it so far.

And it's like 16 on up.

I wanted to make it realistic.

I wanted to make it raw and yeah.

And - Now you're also working, are you working on any books currently that you'd like to share with the public?

Right now - I'm working on a few from high school actually, that I still had like in like paper.

I've got like paper everywhere.

And I just wrote, wrote one recently.

It's so new that I don't have it out.

It's called Pine Memories in an Elegant Box.

It is based off of a short story that I wrote senior year, and it was, the title of it was that two people in a room and we had to create and create a writing class, two people in a room.

And I thought, you know, I'm gonna make a whole book on this.

And I changed it up a little bit 'cause it was kind of like a ghost story.

So I just made it about this, this guy that's like a, these guys in a band.

And he goes up north and he finds an old book in a box.

- Interesting.

And now I wanna also dive, I wanna start diving into your, sorry, you're photography a little bit.

Where'd the inspiration for that begin?

- I just saw, I'm always, I live out in the country.

I saw this nature and I always saw how like you can capture a memory just once.

It's like a sunset.

You can't capture a moment again.

That same way with, with with the person that you're with too.

So I thought, you know, I'm just gonna take hundreds and hundreds of photos.

That camera that I brought with me today, that's probably had over 10,000 photos with it since 2018, since I got it.

Wow.

And I also do film photography too.

- Ooh, that's fascinating.

Tell me a little bit more about your film photography.

What's some of the stuff you shoot on film versus on digital?

- I kind of try to get the same perspective, but I love how grainy it is.

Like I just, it captures what I really love, just old fashioned stuff.

And it can kind of fool people at times.

Like, yeah, that was taken in 2025, but it was really like, not the camera's, 1995, you can pull people, - Don't worry.

No one's gonna know.

It's gonna be a secret.

This was actually taken in 1925, not 2025.

Don't, don't confuse it.

Yeah.

Now you also have a YouTube channel.

I do.

What is this about?

- So this tape right here is one of my many.

I got started with that since my, my obsession came from, well, my second obsession from writing books.

I began watching the movie Shrek over and over again.

It was my favorite movie.

And I thought, I wanna preserve this.

And I found out we had even more recorded tapes.

That is a PBS tape.

- Oh no kid.

Yeah, I'm seeing some programs on here.

You got no Nova?

Ooh, that's a familiar one.

It's a Zoboomafoo.

- Yeah.

Like Kratt Brothers.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I wrote it kind of really quick so you can't see it too much.

But I was just, I, I love how you, it's like a picture.

You can't get that same footage twice.

So I thought I'm gonna archive this.

And my late third great uncle recorded a lot of these for family and for him.

So I thought, you know, in his memory, I wanna put it out there, these old commercials.

And I've had local people telling me, Hey, thank you for that.

And - What other, what other vintage tech do you use for like, stuff like this?

- Oh, I have VHSC also those little tinier ones.

- I've never, What is VHSC?

I've never heard - Of it.

It's like, it's a tinier version of like, it's like on a camcorder mostly.

And there's like other devices you can put into a VHS tape to watch.

It's just another camcorder basically.

- So you're pretty much like an every woman from YouTube to VHS tapes, to authors, to photography.

And you know, Fernando and Sebastian are like glowing right now.

Is 30, 60 average life expectancy for a dog?

- No.

- Darn.

No.

Yeah.

You guys are, you guys are living like long, - I mean, they've got brothers and all that that are like, I mean, they're probably like from the fifties, but they're not that old yet.

They, they might get embarrassed by their age, but - Do they get to, do they get to, do some of their siblings get to show up in some of your books?

- Yep.

They're in the future.

Yep.

We got a, they got a sister that's all white and we keep her kind of safe because she gets dirty very easily.

These boys - Are get in mud.

- Yep.

- Now, you know, I'm hearing a lot of what you're doing and what I really want to know is, you know, for somebody, the aspiring artist, somebody who wants to get into this field but doesn't know where to start, what's some words of encouragement you would suggest to get started in writing?

- I would say to keep going.

Don't give up on it.

You gotta just keep going and you'll find your niche.

It might not be now, it might not be tomorrow, but keep going because you'll find somebody like it's all for you.

Like just whether you wanna self-publish or you wanna go out there, like there'll be, there's opportunities all around you no matter where you are.

Whether you're in a, a bad home, a good home, there's, there's a light somewhere.

You're gonna find it.

There's gonna be people that'll help you.

- And for people who are curious about your books, where can people go to purchase your books and learn more about you?

The author, the photographer, the VH s enthusiast.

- You can find me on Amazon.

You can find me in some local libraries like Kate Vincent.

You can find me at the farmer's markets in Chaumont mostly, but I'm also seen in Cape Vincent.

- And where can and what can people expect in the coming few, in the coming days?

Coming months for Cassidy Thomas?

- Well, I'd like to be a little bit everywhere.

I like to travel just a little bit further, have different ideas for books, whether it's my puppies or the chapter books.

I just, as my book says, you have to do a little bit of just do your own thing, dance by the sea.

- Well, Cassidy, this has been so much fun.

Folks at home, you know exactly where you go, where to go.

If you're curious about Cassidy or her books or even if you wanna learn more about her VHS collection, I don't know if that's on your YouTube.

YouTube, have you - Taken a little bit everything?

- Are you going through a tour?

- Yeah, I still got so many more tapes.

I try to do a little bit of each, but if you're interested in old commercials, whether it's Watertown or there's even old Canadian commercials, you can find me as C Cucumber.

- That's a fun name.

- Yeah.

Good.

Well, - Cassidy, we appreciate you coming to our studios today and thank you so much for your time.

This has been awesome.

- This has been great.

Thank you so much.