Kristen Ashley

American author

David Mark Ashley

(m. 2003; div. 2013)

Websitewww.kristenashley.net

Kristen Ashley (born Kristen A L Moutaw; April 8, 1968) is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than 75 books in 14 languages, with over three million copies sold. ^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] Two of her novels have been adapted into film.

Career

Ashley has always enjoyed books. At age 12, she began surreptitiously borrowing her mother's Harlequin Presents romance novels and fell in love with the genre.^[1] As an adult, Ashley began writing books in the evenings, after she finished a long day of working in the medical field - first at the Rocky Mountain MS Center, then the Colorado Neurological Institute, and then, after a move to Bristol, England, at The Pituitary Foundation.^[1] Over 15 years, Ashley wrote almost 25 romance novels. She attempted to find an agent or a publisher for her works but was consistently rejected.^[5]

Ashley finally decided to publish her work independently on Kindle. She released three or four of her previously written titles each month and found an audience relatively quickly. Her readership expanded after a major blogger reviewed one of her novels, Sweet Dreams.^[5] Between her day job and her writing and publishing efforts, Ashley worked, on average, 14–16 hours a day, seven days a week, for years.^[5] Once her writing career reached a certain threshold, Ashley hired help; she now has an assistant and works with graphic designers, proofreaders, and copyeditors.^[5]

In 2013, Ashley signed her first traditional publishing contract, with Grand Central Publishing's Forever line.^[6] As of 2019, she had released three series' worth of books through traditional publishing.^[5] Ashley chose to foray into traditional publishing for two primary reasons. First, she wanted to improve her craft by working with an experienced editor. Second, she wanted to make her books more accessible. With traditional publishing, her novels would be available in print as well as ebooks, which would expand her audience to people without ereaders and those who liked to browse bookstores and libraries.^[6] Ashley insisted that her publisher keep ebook prices low, at $3.99, to ensure that readers weren't priced out. In an interview in 2019, she noted that her "print sales are abysmal"; most of her income comes from ebook sales and merchandise that she creates based on her books.^[5]

Passionflix purchased the film rights to several of Ashley's novels. The Will, based on Ashley's novel of the same name, was released on February 14, 2020. It was directed by Louise Alston and starred Megan Dodds, Chris McKenna, Martin Dingle-Wall and Patrick Byas.^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14] In 2020, Passionflix will be filming an adaption of Ashleys' "Three Wishes".^[15]

As of 2019, Ashley had published more than 60 novels, which have been translated into 14 languages and sold a combined three million copies.^[2]

Reception

Her novel Raid was on the USA Today bestseller list. Own the Wind placed on the New York Times bestseller list.^[5] She won the Romantic Times Book Reviews Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Romantic Suspense for Law Man, and the Romance Reviews Reader's Choice Award for Ride Steady. She was nominated for Romantic Times awards for Best Independent Contemporary Romance (Hold On) and Best Contemporary Romance (Breathe). Four of her novels (Motorcycle Man, The Will, 'Ride Steady, and The Hookup) have been finalists for Goodreads Choice Awards in the Romance category.^[16]

Writing

As influences, Ashley cites Janet Evanovich, Judith McNaught, J. K. Rowling, Carl Hiaasen.^[17]^[18]

In interviews, Ashley states that she struggled with sleep due to an active mind, which she turned to creating stories that she continued developing over time. Her heroes are often Alpha males with the heroine bringing a strong character to match them.^[19]^[20]^[21]^[22] Her heroines run the gamut from independent women who run their own businesses to more traditional women whose utmost goal is to become a mother.^[2] Family, friends and music are recurring thematic elements.^[17] She claims that she does not tone down or restrict her characters into the typical hero and heroines found in romance novels, this being part of the reason for rejections by traditional publishers.^[2] She notes that "I celebrate imperfections. ...None of my characters are perfect. They don’t say the right thing. They get exhausted and they pick at each other and they bicker."^[2] She has written racially diverse characters, as well as LGBTQ characters.^[2]

Though mainly in the romance genre, she covers other sub-genres in her work, including; fantasy, erotica and paranormal.

Bibliography

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Prose (16 December 2015), Prose Interviews NYT Bestselling Author Kristen Ashley, medium.com, retrieved 14 April 2020
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Suriano, Jessica (17 August 2018). "Kristen Ashley shakes up the world of romance novels". USA Today. AZ Central. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
^ "E-Book Fiction Books - Best Sellers". The New York Times. 1 September 2013. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
^ "E-Book Fiction Books - Best Sellers". New York Times. 8 May 2016. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Dale, Brady (3 February 2016). "TITANS OF KINDLE E-Books Let Kristen Ashley Turn Years of Rejection Into a Self-Publishing Empire". Observer. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
^ ^a ^b Lamb, Joyce (5 April 2013), "Interview: Kristen Ashley, 'Own the Wind'", USAToday, retrieved 14 April 2020
^ The Will (2020) at IMDb . Retrieved 10 Feb 2020
^ "BREAKOUT ACTOR PATRICK BYAS TELLS ALL ON HIS ROLE ON HULU'S WU-TANG: AN AMERICAN SAGA SERIES". The Source. 8 November 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
^ Breeze, Dre (8 January 2020). "Patrick Byas Shooting New Movie In Boston". Beasley Media Boston. Hot 96.9 Boston. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
^ Clifford, Kambra. "The Young and the Restless' Chris McKenna cast as a boxer in new romance film". Soap Central. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
^ "Production to Begin on Film Adaptation of New York Times Bestselling Author Kristen Ashley's 'The Will'". PR Newswire. 27 August 2019. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
^ Pollock, Sarabeth (19 February 2020). "PASSIONFLIX IS HEATING THINGS UP ON THE STREAMING SCENE". FanSided. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
^ Kornits, Dov (2 September 2019). "Louise Alston to helm first US picture for PASSIONFLIX". Filmink.
^ Field, Sonya (12 October 2017). "'The Will' and 'Three Wishes' by Kristen Ashley optioned by Passionflix". Hypable.
^ Edwards, Shanee (18 March 2020). "The Passionate Entrepreneur". The Argonaut News. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
^ Ashley, Kristen, About, KristenAshley.net, retrieved 14 April 2020
^ ^a ^b Lamb, Joyce (5 April 2013). "Interview: Kristen Ashley, 'Own the Wind'". USA Today. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
^ "Kristen Ashley (Author of Mystery Man)". Goodreads. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
^ Monkou, Michelle (19 May 2014). "Must-read romance: 'Finding Serenity'; Emma Award winners". USA Today. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
^ Gonzalez, Vilma (23 June 2014). "Love in Suspense: The bad-boy allure". USA Today. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
^ Gonzalez, Vilma (7 July 2014). "Love in Suspense: 'The Promise' by Kristen Ashley". USA Today. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
^ Special for USA Today (9 October 2014). "Sharing some love for Bruce Springsteen, Kristen Ashley, Donna Tartt". USA Today. Retrieved 16 May 2019.