Sharon CassanoLochman Author Interview

Stranded on Thin Ice follows Richie and Tanner as they set out to win the Ice Fishing Derby but instead end up fighting for their life. What was the inspiration for the setup to this thrilling novel?

I’ve always been an avid angler having spent many years on the ice and open water trying to hook the big one. One day I was heading out for an afternoon of ice fishing when I passed a dad leaving the ice with two young children in tow. I could feel the children’s excitement of having shared a morning on the ice with their dad. Their noses were running, and their cheeks were beet red as they eagerly scuffled next to dad swooshing their bulky snow boots across the ice. That afternoon I sat in my ice-fishing hut and started recording the condition of the ice and all the sensations that I had taken for granted for so many years. The story unfolded as easily as the canvas on my hut.

Richie and Tanner are interesting characters with a relationship that I found genuine What were some themes you wanted explore with their relationship?

I wanted to explore the child-like honesty that these two boys shared. They came from different backgrounds with different interests, strengths, and weaknesses, but found common ground in their friendship because of those differences.

Tanner feels overlooked by his father and Richie is accompanied by a hateful uncle. How do you feel the family dynamics affected the characters development as you were writing?

I felt that the emotion-driven dynamics in Stranded on Thin Ice, either real or perceived, are commonplace with many children and teens as they teeter between youthful overconfidence and adult situations.

What is the next book that you are writing and when will it be available?

I am currently working on an adult fiction action/adventure that I hope to have released early 2020 along with several picture books. A sequel to Stranded on Thin Ice is in the early stages of the revision process.

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Twelve-year-old Tanner Phillips fishes the Oneida Lake Ice Fishing Derby every year with his dad. Last year, he ruined everything — losing the competition and losing some of his grandfather’s gear. This year, Tanner is determined to not only prove his skills on the ice, but also show his dad, once and for all, that he’s no longer a little kid.

But as soon as they get out on the ice, the competition turns disastrous.

When one of the competitors goes missing and another gets injured, Tanner’s father must leave Tanner and his new friend, Richie, alone on the ice. After their ice hut comes unhitched, Tanner and Richie find themselves blown across the frozen lake in a blinding snowstorm.

Alone. Without their cell phones. Trapped, on thin ice. Suddenly, it isn’t just about the winning the derby — it’s about life and death. In one perilous night, Tanner will have to prove not to his father, but to himself, that he has the courage and determination to survive.