Today I’m thrilled to bring you one of my dearest friends and favorite authors, the absolutely fabulous Ashley Poston. I fell deeply in love with Ashley’s writing while reading GEEKERELLA, and when we ended up sharing a hotel room with some mutual friends at a conference last fall, we fell into insta-BFF status. I love this interview with her, and I know you’ll love her books. Buy her two most recent books, Heart of Iron HERE and Geekerella HERE.
Ashley Poston loves dread pirates, moving castles, and starry night skies. When not lost in a book, she’s lost in real life, searching for her next great adventure. She is the author of Heart of Iron and Geekerella and can be found online at www.ashposton.com.
On to the interview!
Who is one of your favorite (fictional or non-fictional) characters?
I love Zuko. I love his redemption arc. I love everything about his treatment in Avatar the Last Airbender. How he was unsympathetic at first, how he had to earn the trust of his comrades, how he had to wrestle with his inner demons—his family and his own worth, and how in the end he becomes an instrumental character in the series. I just love all of it.
The road to publication is twisty at best–tell us about some of your twists.
We went on sub with Heart of Iron first, but PLOT TWIST! Geekerella was the first to sell. Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey, amirite?
When you were a teenager, what did you think you’d be when you grew up?
I always wanted to be a writer—I don’t know why. It was always the one thing I knew I wanted to be no matter what, and I would fight tooth and nail to get there. So I wrote for me for years—I wrote fanfic and I wrote my own fic—until my mid-twenties when I was finally like, “It is time.” Next thing I know, I’m waking up in a ditch—no, wait. Wrong story. Next thing I know, I’m writing full time. It’s weird, bruh.
Tell us a secret about the main character in your novel — something that’s not even in your book.
In Heart of Iron, Ana loves strawberries. Like, she will kill a man for a strawberry. Mostly because fresh fruit is rare on spaceships, and strawberries are rarer in the world of Heart of Iron.
What’s the strangest job you’ve ever had?
I’m not going to say it’s strange, but it is really cool. I interned at Kodansha USA where I helped with the production of volumes 6 and 7 of the re-translation of Sailor Moon. I think it’s the coolest thing I have done, and will probably ever do, in my life. My fangirl heart was beating OVER 9000.
You had me at wibbly-wobbly!