Cassie Stocks's Dance, Gladys, Dance merges the lives of a 27-year-old woman named Frieda and a ghost named Gladys. Together, the two form a friendship that celebrates unexpected connections, art and the notion that it's never too late to realize your dreams. The novel received the 2013 Stephen Leacock Medal for humour and is currently on the Canada Reads 2018 longlist.

Below, Cassie Stocks answers eight questions submitted by eight fellow writers in the CBC Books Magic 8 Q&A.

You have to be a little bent to pursue a writing career. You need to be tough as a diabolical ironclad beetle, soft as chinchilla fur, intensely dedicated, imaginative, driven, and a dreamer. Combining all those qualities would turn anyone a little odd; however, as Alice from Wonderland said, "You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are."

Sharon Butala was the first person to give me hope that I could actually write. Books themselves have probably been my biggest influence. I've lived half my life in the real world and the other half in literature.

Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut. A clever, multi-layered, gorgeous book.

I've always wanted to go to the Cadillac Hotel in Cadillac, Sask. (population 95). I recently looked the hotel up and it's for sale. If anyone purchases it, let me know, and I'll try and make it for a beer, eventually.

Comedy, tragedy and energy.

My biggest fear, because my writing contains humour, is that may be ignored critically. As Peter Ustinov said, "Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious."

That writers live far from the madding crowd in ivory towers, without bills to pay, cat litter boxes to empty, school lunches to make and lawns to mow.

I'd like to attend a literary event set up as very large kitchen party, with plenty of beverages, writers and readers, talking, discussing, arguing and laughing. Writers are often seen only on stage at readings. People should see us relaxed in our natural habit. Most of us are quite ordinary (albeit a little odd).