Kristen Ashley is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. She grew up in Indiana, but has lived in Colorado and the West Country of England. Thus she’s been blessed to have friends and family around the globe. Her posse is loopy (to say the least), but loopy is good when you want to write.
Kristen was raised in a house with a large and multi-generational family. They lived on a very small farm in a small town in the heartland and existed amongst the strains of Glenn Miller, The Everly Brothers, REO Speedwagon and Whitesnake (and the wardrobes that matched).
Needless to say, living in a house full of music, clothes and love was a good way to grow up. And as she keeps growing up, it keeps getting better.
Loren Kleinman (LK): Do you align indie with being a self-published author? Or do you think indie is a much broader term that suggests artists being true to themselves and the work they produce?
Kristen Ashley (KA): Considering my history, being self-published/indie then becoming a hybrid author, in the beginning, I really didn’t know anything except being true my stories and telling them the way they needed to be told. So even when I started working with Forever, I did this. So, I fell into indie being both, finding a way to get my work out there that is not traditional and writing the books I wanted to write.
LK: You write about “jumping genres.” Can you explain why you think it’s important to vary the stories you produce? Why should authors care about producing diverse texts?
KA: There are times when I play with formula. In fact, in the ROCK CHICK books, the characters even make fun of the formula that I’d been poking fun at behind the scenes. If you do formula, though, you must do it and be self-aware. Do it right, not make it bland, because it’s no fun writing the same thing over and over again unless you make it that way for you and for your readers.
But anyone in any field has to find ways to challenge themselves. Not only to expand their horizons and get better at what they do, but, for a writer, it’s a treat to their readers. If you take a risk, whether it worked or not (and sometimes it doesn’t work), that’s a huge thing to do and it feels marvelous (yes, even if it doesn’t work). It makes everything fresher, even when you go back to what you’re accustomed to doing.
However, if it works, it’s a beautiful thing. I love Johanna Lindsey’s work and back in the day when I had time to read, I read every one of her books. I knew what to expect and I knew I’d enjoy it. Then she came out with WARRIOR’S WOMAN, something way outside her norm, and I was blown away. It was plain awesome. That was the risk she took and as a reader, I got the reward.
LK: Why do you think readers are obsessed (and I’m deliberately saying obsessed) with romance titles? Are we lacking intimacy in our everyday societal interactions?
KA: Not at all. Many of my readers are happily coupled up. Or just happily whatever they may be. It’s just what they love. People can love to go to movies and that doesn’t mean they hate their lives and are trying to escape. Or they can love rock ‘n’ roll but that doesn’t mean they’re a closet guitar hero, frustrated with life because they aren’t onstage.
It’s just what they love and they love it lots, thank God.
LK: You talk about growing up in a house full of music. How has music inspired your writing? How is music similar to the writing process?
KA: Music is a huge inspiration to me. MASSIVE. I could hear a song and an entire book can be born. Or I could simply get a feeling or listen to the words from a song and know that that song is going to be included in a scene in a book. Conversely, I can be in a book and hear a song and know that song will be included in the book and I have to write a scene around it.
Currently, I’m writing a book that was inspired by a song and since then I’ve heard two others. All three will be included in the book as a way of demonstrating how the characters feel, what they’re learning about their relationship, this taking the plot forward.
Not being a musician, I can’t say how it’s similar to the writing process. I can say that there are songwriters, Springsteen, Vedder and Mellencamp being three of my favorites, who are consummate storytellers. They can tell a whole story, give you the feelings you need to feel, all condensed into a song. I can’t imagine having that talent. I can’t imagine doing what Springsteen did with “The Wrestler” and “Reno” (or practically any song he writes, but “The Wrestler” and “Reno” get me by the throat). Or Vedder with “Elderly Woman Behind…” or Mellencamp’s “Minutes to Memories.” It’s startlingly good.
LK: Someone once told me that writing is a language and in order to write we must learn the language of writing so that we might meet it at its home. Would you agree? Why? Why not?
KA: I wouldn’t agree. I think writing is creating a language and the reader either has to get it intuitively, be open to having it bloom in their mind or they’re blind to it forever. I write a certain way and I know there are those who don’t “get it.” That’s okay. There are a ton of things I don’t get. But the ones who get it really get it. And for me, that’s where it’s at!
I once had an English teacher tell me that in English, there are rules, lots of rules. And those rules are there to be broken. He said language is dynamic, ever-changing, and we should bend it to our will.
I know a lot of people’s heads will figuratively explode, reading that. They want commas where they’re supposed to be and don’t want anyone making up words. But if that didn’t happen, where would we be? If people didn’t break the rules of language, would we even speak? It certainly wouldn’t be as exciting, that I know. And as a wordsmith, that’s the part that’s exciting for me, telling a story in my voice, the way my characters live it, knowing that some won’t be into it, but others will fall and fall deep.
LK: Do you think the literary novel is dead?
KA: Absolutely not.
LK: What do you think readers are craving right now in terms of books, theme and genre? How are authors providing this for them?
KA: I don’t think they know. I don’t think anyone knows. Until it’s written and put out there.
That’s the sheer beauty of independently published books. I cannot say that I’ve studied this with any depth but from what I could see, there were very few risks being taken by traditional publishers. In some genres, the same formula was used over and over again. This is not to say that talented writers’ work didn’t stand out. But it was few and far between when something new and unique knocked our socks off. And the really good ones blew everyone away.
I get that as a publisher, it’s hard to take that kind of chance. It’s not like you can consistently spend huge amounts of dosh to pull together marketing groups to get a sense of what will be the next HUNGER GAMES.
That’s where independently published books come in. We can just put our stuff out there and pray we find the readers that love it.
So now, a writer can tell their story and get it out there. Truthfully, they’ll find readers. It might be massive numbers that want to read their story or it might be a small cadre who enjoy the story they tell. There’s something for everyone…now. Reading today (and I wish I had time to do more of it) is exciting because you never know what you’re going to get. You just know that if you look, take a few chances, you’ll find what you want. And the best part of that is, you didn’t even know you wanted it until you found it.
LK: What’s your opinion on the review trolling going on Amazon? How can authors and readers stand up to these reviewers who are NOT even reading the author’s book, and yet rating them?
KA: Well, my opinion is that it’s wrong and I cannot imagine why anyone would do that.
But it’s not up to the authors. I’m a girl who likes to bend rules but one that’s cardinal for a writer is that they don’t get involved in reviews. Good or bad, you gotta suck it up, and this means take the sting if it’s bad. And that sting stings. But it isn’t my place to take them to task. People are wont to do what they’re wont to do and with a review no writer should tell them not to do it.
Ultimately, it comes down to the vendors and readers. Amazon gives you the opportunity to read other reviews a reviewer has left and for the reader, if they look to reviews to make their choices, they have to read them intelligently. You can tell when a reviewer is “trolling” and you can do this by reading other reviews for a book that are thoughtful or passionate (one way or the other), know that they’ve read the book and are truly communicating their reaction. The reader should make their decision from the latter.
Recently, I read a review for my vet, all of his reviews were five stars with one being a one star. I read the review and the reviewer hadn’t even been to the clinic, though he did couch his language around a “vast” experience that was really just him making a phone call. He just couldn’t get in for an appointment on his timeframe and he was angered by this and shared it. He might have been angry and it would stink, not being able to get your pet into a new vet when you needed to do so. But he can’t review a clinic without any experience of it. And my vet ROCKS! So I blew it off.
I’m usually more of a mover and shaker, take the bull by the horns kind of woman. However, outside of vendors expending resources to assess reviews/reviewers and warn then ban people who do this, which would be awesome but perhaps not realistic to expect, I’m not entirely certain what can be done.
I didn’t get into reporting (something you can do on Amazon) because this could turn even nastier. Self-policing can work. It can also go very astray. So this should be done, as Tim Gunn says about the accessories wall on “Project Runway,” very thoughtfully.
LK: Do you consider yourself a “rock chick”?
KA: I consider every sister who has the backs of their sisters to be a Rock Chick. That’s what Rock Chicks are, that’s what that series is about. It is definitely a series of romances but the theme of the books is not the romance (entirely). It’s family, of blood and of the heart. But the foundation of the series is sisters taking care of sisters. And the sisters who do this are Rock Chicks.
LK: How has “home” influenced your writing? I mean to say, how has your geography influenced your work? And do you feel that home is always a source of inspiration, regardless of its past?
KA: I’ve rarely written a book about a place I have not been and when I have, I’ve learned not to do it again. You have to have the feel of the place because I believe places should be secondary characters in books. You must put the reader there. They have to feel it. They have to be transported there. They have to live it along with your characters. When I wrote the book I wrote (HEAVEN AND HELL) where it was set in places I had not been (North Carolina and Lake Como, Italy, to be precise), I had to do a boatload of research, looking at pictures, inspecting maps, reading travel logs. That was a pain in the patoot but the experience had to be valid for the reader. I, fortunately, have had folks from those places tell me I captured them and they were surprised I’d never been! That was good. But next time, before I write, I’ll go.
As for home being an inspiration, absolutely. Then again, anything is an inspiration. You just have to be open to being inspired!
Want to read more about Kristen? Find it here.