Beyond the Pages of Ashbury

I really am the worst at sticking to a schedule... For example, my blog. I'm supposed to be posting regularly, but hah... that certainly isn't happening. You get what you get with me! I can be sporadic and impulsive with anything in my life. So let me catch you guys up on what's been happening in my life! Book-Related news: My second book, More Than Wolf, was entered into a cover contest on AllAuthor during the month of December. It was a tight run, but we came out on top winning first place! What a great way to end the year. I am so thrilled for my best friend who designed the cover. She deserved that award! It really is a fantastic cover, and I'm not just saying that because it's on my book. I just recently unlocked a new author milestone by reaching S1,000.00 in total online royalties! That is counting from Nov 2020 when I first published More Than Human to Jan 2023. I never thought I would actually reach that number. I have sold a total of 932 books online - som...

 I finally have something worthwhile to share with you all. The 20th of September was my birthday and for that I offered up both of my e-books for free on Amazon. This promotion made me hit some major milestones as an author. I will gladly share all of the details from my promo, but first I want to share the milestones that I hit. First, both of my books reached the Top Ten Best-Selling in two different genres. More Than Human hit #10 in the genre Dark Fantasy Horror and More Than Wolf hit #10 in the category New Adult & College Fantasy . Once my books reached the top 25 on the first day, they both stayed there during the duration of the promotion. They fluctuated, of course, but never went above 25! I "sold" over 300 copies in the first three days of my promo. That is a lot of new readers! And because of this promo I have officially surpassed the 500 mark for total books sold and am quickly approaching the 1k mark! Did I make any money from this? No, it was a free promo...

 *Takes a deep breath*  I had planned this book release months in advance. I got everything in order and scheduled from editing, to cover, to ARC readers, to signings, to book orders and swag stuff to sell. Everything meticulously thought out. Then, it all came crashing down on me. I checked the status of my book order for 30 copies of More Than Wolf, and it disappeared. It was as if I never made the order. I'm fairly certain that was my fault - I had unpublished my book too soon after making the order. Lesson learned. Needless to say I went into full-blown panic mode. To realize that my planning had been brought down by something so stupid wrecked me for a good hour. I pulled myself back together and figured out what I needed to do next. First, I had to re-order my books, add extra cost for expedited shipping, and see if my order would arrive in time for my signings. Well, Amazon calculated the delivery for more than a week after my first signing on release day. Damn. So, I r...

Well hello everyone! It is Monday and I feel like Garfield. "I hate Mondays."  I am still in the first editing stages of my second book, More Than Wolf. I am nearly finished with the first run-through, then I will be re-reading it over to myself aloud before sending it off to my wonderful team of editors. I, personally, think that the more eyes you can acquire on your project, the more mistakes can be found, and the more flawless the finished product can be. I'm not saying that my book More Than Human is flawless, perse, but it went through the ringer and I fixed the issues brought to attention. Now, if you find anything else in More Than Human that is incorrect, frankly at this point, I don't care. I will probably revisit the book and make a second edition with adding some details and rephrasing some things, but for now I just don't care. It's good enough, to me. I had my first podcast interview the other day. It lasted for over an hour. I wasn't too happ...

 The last few days have been rough for me... but I'm not going into detail on the matters that occurred, rather I'd like to move forward and focus on things happening this week. Coming Up! This evening I have my first podcast interview! I will share the link to the podcast in my next blog (or maybe the comments in this one). Looking forward to it but I'm not quite sure what to expect... Not only am I an author, but I am also a freelance photographer. I have been involved in photography since I was very young, using disposable cameras until upgrading to a digital point-and-shoot, then studying film photography in high school. Film photography has been one of my absolute favorite things to learn so far in life. Not only does the image depend on how you frame it when you initially take the shot, but the effects you make to the paper while treating the image as well. So many different possibilities with the same image in the dark room, with such hands-on methods. Honestly, I pr...

 Hello everyone! I am giving this blog thing another whack! From here on out, I will be trying to make blog entries at least every week, providing writing and life updates to whoever reads this. Starting with today: NEWS!! My audiobook just released on the 9th and I have made 51 sales so far. Between publishing the audiobook and today, it has reached the top 100 spot in two different categories. I have since dropped in rank and am now over 100 and even 200 in those categories. Oh well. It was a nice, fleeting moment of excitement and pride. Maybe it will reach the top 100 again? Who knows... In relation to the released audiobook, I have several UK codes for free listens through Amazon! So, if you'd like a code for a listen (in return for a review) let me know! You have to be a UK Amazon customer to redeem.  Book 2 Update: I have redacted about 14k words of a flashback state in my current book. I felt that it was exceeding the proper word count and would take away from the main...

  In the last year since publishing my book, More Than Human, I have learned tremendously. I would like to share with you what my experience has been. Publishing a book is not cheap, by any means. It’s expensive in both time and money. Sure, you write a whole book (by the way, it took me about 6 years to get this book out of my head, piece it all together, and complete it), but through writing you’ve made subconscious typos and mistakes. Therefore, you have to read it over again and again and again, catching new errors every time. Then, you’re too familiar with your own work to find all of the inconsistencies and misspellings, so you need someone else with fresh eyes to look it over. Sometimes this takes several people, which is why having beta readers is a phenomenal asset. Once a few other people have read it over and made their suggestions or corrections, you need to read it over yet again. This takes a lot of time. Reading a 50k word novel can take at least 8 hours for most r...

 In my books, I honestly try to tackle common stereotypes that I feel have been misrepresenting certain groups. One example is my main character, Jule. In the book More Than Human, it should be fairly obvious that she is bisexual. Not, through a lot of different literature and movies and shows, very often if a woman is portrayed as bisexual, she falls into one of two categories. She is either kind of "butch" or masculine whether it be in appearance or personality, or she is feminine but still falls for another woman. In either case, both seem to always end up with the woman. Jule, however, is a bisexual woman in a committed hetero-sexual relationship. Yes, people, it is possible.  I'm attempting to put more emphasis on choosing a person rather than a gender. This topic is a very personal one, to me, as a bisexual woman myself. Can we just stop stereotyping all-together? Maybe?

 So, a few days ago I had my first interview. Now, this interview wasn't designed for me nor was I particularly sought out for said interview, it was more of an offer from another blogger for any new authors to help get their name out there. Nonetheless I was ecstatic! I mentioned to the author that it was my first interview ever and she reached out to another friend of hers who also conducts interviews for his IG and scored me second, more involved interview. I still don't know when the interview will be published, but this new one will be advertised and hyped up for about two weeks leading up to the drop of the entire interview. I'm super thrilled because I was also able to include two excerpts from my book (the two that I have previously shared here) getting a sample of my book out to new potential readers. I worry, though, that the segments that I chose don't do my story justice or aren't a good representation of what you're getting in my book.  I'm real...

  Chapter 13 Pain shot through Jule’s head as she regained consciousness; the effects of the drug that was pumped into her bloodstream still lingering. She strained to open her eyes. The sunrise, with its blinding pink and orange light, peaked over the hill. She struggled to her feet, her body sore from lying on rocks and sticks for hours throughout the night. Still in a haze, she took in her surroundings and tried to piece together her broken memory. She remembered being with William by the fire, and then having to pee. “Oh no, William!” Panic swept through her again as she wasted no time in rushing back to the house. She burst in through the back door and frantically began searching for a phone. “The kitchen,” she said to herself as she darted towards it. A phone hung on the wall just inside the kitchen across from the sink. Jule grabbed the phone and immediately started punching in Loki’s number memorized by heart. Not a single signal came from the phone. Not even th...

Chapter 14 ... Jule, panting heavily, stepped back and looked down at the body, giving it a hard nudge with her nose. The body gave no response, confirming that Jule had killed the threat. She turned back towards William and trotted up to him. Positioning herself underneath him, she attempted to relieve the weight of his body from the hooks and supporting him on her back. William mumbled something incoherent, too weak to be able to speak. His breaths were slow and shallow. Blood still steadily dripping from his wounds onto Jule’s back, staining her brown fur. She could feel he was slipping away. She whined frantically as she didn’t know what else she could do to help him. She knew she needed to return to her human form, but her adrenaline rush prevented her from calming her mind enough to do so. She was still on edge and needed to be ready to fight off the next threat if one happened to appear. ... Order your copy here: More Than Human

 Honestly, as far as I'm concerned, my book More Than Human has exceeded all of my expectations. I didn't anticipate this much wonderful feedback that I have received nor how many new "fans" I have acquired. As of right now, I have 12 positive reviews on my book on Amazon (11 5-star and 1 4-star) and 2 positive reviews on GoodReads. I am still waiting for that one person who hates my book and leaves me the worst review. If/When that happens, I can promise you that I will be printing that review, framing it, and mounting it on my wall for inspiration. I recently added my book to Kindle Unlimited (temporarily) and have so far gotten about 295 pages read (my book is 183 pages). In the near future I am hopefully doing a promotional deal, assuming I don't run into any more snags delaying the idea, that should increase some sales. Book 2 is painfully slow-going and I am lacking the mental capacity and creativity to make much headway. I am really excited for this story t...

 My husband has been an invaluable help to me as a writer, but my oldest son is my biggest fan. Considering his age, I've been hesitant to allow him to read More Than Human. He has been the most enthusiastic about my book and he listened in on me discussing my ideas, plot and characters with my husband every chance he got. My son is an avid reader who reads high above his own grade level, so my book would surely be no challenge to him. Since I received my proof copy he has been begging me to read my book (LOL). I kept telling him that I'd have to think about it, as I was. Finally, on Christmas eve, I handed a copy to him and gave him the permission he's been dying for. Without a single second's hesitation this kid's nose was buried in the book. I hope he likes it. 

 Thanks to Facebook memories I was reminded that three years ago today (December 21) my husband found my notebook containing all of my story notes which went missing. Three years ago today (December 21) I officially started writing More Than Human. Seems like a long time to write a short 57k word novel. The thing is, I didn't write every day for those three years. Several times I walked away from it, leaving it untouched for weeks sometimes months at a time. Many people out there think it's easy to just sit down and start writing. Many don't take into consideration the simple and common issue of writer's block, the hurdle of sitting down to write only to be met with a blank, silent mind. In addition to my brain just not wanting to create this story flow, I'd often shut down due to depression. I couldn't find even the most minute energy required to complete the simplest daily tasks during a deep depressive state. In addition to writing and mental obstacles I ...

 Struggles of a Poor Author I am not a wealthy person. My family barely gets by. To even complete my book for publishing I had to rely on donations from friends. My sales have been stagnant and I'm beginning to feel that I've sold all that will be sold. I do not have the funds for expensive advertising  (even just $5 a day adds up FAST) and therefore, once again, rely upon my friends.  I've had wonderful support during this journey, but now when I need people to step up the most it is dwindling. I have a few loyal friends who share my work every opportunity they have, but if every single person who just "liked" my post could also share it, I could potentially reach an audience in the thousands. My drive to continue my story is not at risk; I am continuing the next book and the third. I just wish I could live comfortably, without financial worry. 

  "Author, Herbalist and More" In addition to being an author, I am also a mother, farmer and entrepreneur. My real passion lies in herbalism, which is what I've built my business on. Don't get me wrong, I firmly believe that Western medicine and natural medicine go hand- in-hand. If I break my leg, I'm most certainly going to the hospital. However, in non-emergency cases I turn to herbalism for treatment. I have psoriasis, for instance, that I can keep a better control over with my own homemade salves rather than expensive medication. Once in a while, the psoriasis gets really bad. I was prescribed an ointment that costs about $40 a bottle to treat. It doesn't really help. After doing some research I've come up with my own emergency treatment for aggravated psoriasis with incredible success, getting rid of it within 3 days. My asthma is another condition in which I have completely substituted medication with herbal treatment: mullein. This wonderful he...

 "The Universe: A Cruel Mistress" It seems that my life is cursed with delays and teases. The most recent regarding the paperback copy of my book. I requested to receive a proof copy of my book to take a look at it and make sure there aren't any major errors and that it printed correctly. My copy will arrive on 12/7. This being my first time publishing, I made an error and the paperback was available to order immediately, before I approve the final publish. I quickly fixed that issue but not before 2 copies were already purchased. Today, December 1, one of the books ordered by a reader arrived. Of course. In what world would things actually work accordingly for me? Fun thing to add, my reader is shipping the paperback copy to me (there is a mistake that can easily be mended) and it will arrive on Thursday four days BEFORE my proof copy arrives. The only issue visible has been fixed and the book is now complete and officially ready. What was it that I mentioned bef...

 "Patience" Patience is, admittedly, not a strong suit of mine. I cannot stand waiting for things to happen. It's six days counting down until I hold my first novel published in my hands. Honestly, I wish that I could just go to sleep and wake up on Monday when my book (hopefully) arrives. I'm more anxious about this than anything else in my life, and it's driving me crazy. Unable to do anything but watch the clock, the seconds ticking slower than usual, the days creeping by. Six days until I hold my book. Two-and-a-half weeks until my work is officially available to read. Then come the reviews. I have been waiting for this moment since mid-August. I'm fairly certain that I am driving my poor husband crazy with my anxiety. I know that riding shotgun through this emotional ride with me hasn't been too fun for him. I'm pretty sure he started screaming to be let off the ride a few months ago, but he's strapped in. 

 "Low Expectations, High Hopes" With More Than Human being my first novel, I honestly don't expect it to do well. I'll be happy if I can sell 50 copies. I hope that the series, as it continues and evolves, pleases the majority who read it. I have been warned and am prepared for the inevitable haters and backlash for whatever reason, but those negativities will fall on deaf ears. I look forward to honest criticism of my work. What did I do wrong? What could I have done better? This is all a learning process that I don't think ever truly ends. What I look forward to and hope for the most is not the sales, not the praise, but rather the inspiration sparked by my words. I look forward to fan-made art. I hope to see how my readers interpret my characters,  how *they* see them in their mind. That, to me, is the most exciting part about this whole thing. I do, however, dream that my book will become popular. Maybe not a New York Best Seller, but popular. I've...

 "A New Chapter" Two days ago I officially became an author as I completed publishing my first novel, More Than Human -the first of a 3-book series. I have dreamed of this day since I read "Demon in My View" by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes when I was 12 or 13. I remember on the inside of the back cover there was a small blurb of info about the author, mentioning that she first published as a teen. I really think that's what sparked my interest in writing. After that, I started creating short stories and poems and even started working on my first book. Unfortunately, I was discouraged with my book in progress and ceased writing, abandoning it forever. For many years I wrote only poetry, never seeking to publish in fear that my words weren't "good enough" and keeping them hidden away in a private notebook. I lost that precious notebook many years ago. I'm not sure exactly when it happened or why, but some time after high school I stopped writing alt...