Hi, I'm Ashlea, and welcome to my little corner of the internet! Part of the reason I started this website, beyond having an easy and customisable place to sell my books, was so I could start a blog, like this one. I'm starting The Eastwood Post as a place to share my experiences, challenges, and triumphs as I navigate the world of writing and publishing while still in school. If you love stories, and the messy, exciting process of becoming an author, you're in the right place.
I published my debut novel when I was 15, just before I sat my GCSE exams. But I wrote my first story much earlier. Only one story has survived my turbulent childhood of moving house, split parents, etc, and it was called 'Opal and the Witch'. A scrappy piece of paper, folded like a leaflet, creased from years of finding it every time I cleaned my room, migrating from one draw to another, to the bottom of a tote bag, to shoved in the loft. But every time I find it, I feel proud. It is terrible, about a witch and her friends and their tacky, childish adventures-- but I wrote it. With a pen and paper, and then I illustrated it, gave it a front cover. It's a book. That, I think, is when I realised I wanted to be an author.
As I grew older, from six to seven, to ten, twelve... my writing began to change and evolve alongside me. The whimsical, bright stories of magic and mayhem gave way to something a little darker, a little more complex. I found myself drawn to mysteries, thrillers, small towns with dark underbellies, secrets lurking beneath a scarred and rain-soaked surface. There's something about the quiet tension of the American small town, especially in the northern New England, Maine's foggy coastline, dark forests, and folklore thrumming like a struck tuning fork I love imagining places where everyone knows each other, but no one, except a grief-stricken and stubborn teenage girl, knows what happens behind closed doors.
Seaside Maine towns, and ones choked in forest, rivers that curve like riddles, cozy diners tucked away on sleepy streets, have become my home. There's a magic in these environments-- a blend of isolation, community, mystery and warmth, danger and comfort-- that feels like home to my stories. The soft glow of lamplight through rainy windows, the scent of pine and salt air, the hum of quiet conversations over steaming mugs of coffee; Maine grounds my stories in a world I want readers to feel wrapped up in, simultaneously comforted with a cup of tea, and their hearts torn from their chests... and then stomped on.
In the end, I suppose that these novels have watched me grown up-- as both an author and a human being. As I embark on the next chapter of my life, post-A Levels and hopefully at my dream university, studying my dream course (English Lit, of course), I hope that you will follow along, and stay tuned for my next post xoxo