AUTHOR INTERVIEW FRIDAY – WITH W.A. ASHES

Posted on February 24, 2023 by kernerangelina

Hello! Today with us we have the amazing W.A. Ashes! *Applause*

Angelina: Introduce yourself please.

W.A. Ashes: I’m W.A. Ashes, author of YA and middle grade fantasy.

Angelina: Did someone inspire you to become an author?

W.A. Ashes: My sister. My first, youngest sister (I come from a big family) has dyslexia and always had trouble reading when she was growing up. I started writing stories to read to her and it all kind of snowballed from there.

Angelina: How long does it take for you to write a story?

W.A. Ashes: Haha, that depends. If I’m working on my preferred story length, in my preferred style, it takes me about a year. That’s because I like novels that use purple prose, or flowery language. My novellas usually only take me about 6 months (including editing time).

Angelina: Where do you get your information or ideas for your books?

W.A. Ashes: I’ve always been a big fantasy and science fiction nerd. A lot of my inspiration comes from video games or sci-fi concepts. Tales from Morzania was inspired by Bioware’s Dragon Age, I have a kid sci-fi series in the works that’s heavily inspired by Star Wars.

Angelina: What does your family think of your writing?

W.A. Ashes: My siblings love it, my mom reads it but doesn’t always agree with some of my character choices. My dad isn’t much of a reader. But overall, they’re pretty supportive.

Angelina: How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?

W.A. Ashes: I’ve written 14. My favorite is probably either White Lies or The Jewel of the Wasted Glades.

Angelina: Who’s your favorite character you created?

W.A. Ashes: Juliana and Matt. Juliana is who I want to be. She’s brave, strong willed, and outspoken. Matt…he’s my baby. He’s the first character I published in a novel and anytime I write about him it feels like coming home.

Angelina: Who’s your least favorite character you created?

W.A. Ashes: Ugh, Caliban. First off, I wish I’d done a better job figuring out his backstory before I started writing the story. Second off, he’s literally chaos. About 99% of the things, he does doesn’t make sense to me or the reader. He’s very hard to understand.

Angelina: Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?

W.A. Ashes: I love when my readers talk to me. Usually, it’s good things. I’ve heard a lot about Juliana and my book The Strange and Unusual History of Eden Estate. They talk about characters they relate to and what parts of the story were their favorites. I’ve had a few reach out and tell me, “I like your books but I’m not reading this one because one of the themes in it bothers me” and those comments are good to hear too.

Angelina: What do you think makes a good story?

W.A. Ashes: Relatability. It doesn’t matter what world or time your story takes place in as long as the characters themselves defy time. Meaning, they have to be relatable. They have to do and say things that the reader could see themselves doing or saying.

Angelina: Tell us about your WIP.

W.A. Ashes: I have a couple. Right now I’m working on The Daily Dead (a paranormal, clean romance), The Gilded Mirror (the 4th installment in Tales from Morzania), and a sci-fi kids series that’s title I’m not ready to share yet.

Angelina: Thank you for hanging out with us. Please share your social links where readers can follow you.

W.A. Ashes: https://www.amazon.com/W-A-Ashes/e/B01J89B8NG?

https://www.tiktok.com/@ashes2ashesweriseandfall?lang=en

https://www.instagram.com/author_wa_ashes/

and https://www.facebook.com/W.A.AshesBooks

See you next Friday with next Author – Eileen Troemel!