Beyond the Pages of Ashbury

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...