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. 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 A romance novel or romantic novel generally refers to a type of genre fiction novel which places its primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and usually has an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Pre ...

and fell in love with the genre. 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 Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

, and then, after a move to

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, England, at The Pituitary Foundation. 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. 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. 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. Once her writing career reached a certain threshold, Ashley hired help; she now has an assistant and works with graphic designers, proofreaders, and copyeditors. In 2013, Ashley signed her first traditional publishing contract, with

Grand Central Publishing Grand Central Publishing is a book publishing imprint of Hachette Book Group, originally established in 1970 as Warner Books when Warner Communications acquired the Paperback Library. When Time Warner sold their book publishing business to Hachett ...

's Forever line. As of 2019, she had released three series' worth of books through traditional publishing. 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. 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.

Passionflix Passionflix is an OTT entertainment streaming platform and production company. The platform was created and co-founded in 2017 by director and producer Tosca Musk, producer Jina Panebianco, and writer Joany Kane. Passionflix focuses on rele ...

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 Louise Alston is an Australian film director and producer best known for the movies ''All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane'' and '' Jucy''. Biography Alston was born in Wagga Wagga, and studied at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School ...

and starred

Megan Dodds Megan Lynne Dodds is an American actress. She played Kate in the 2006 series ''Not Going Out'', alongside Lee Mack and Tim Vine, and has appeared in the series '' Spooks'', ''House'', ''Detroit 1-8-7'', and ''CSI: NY'', and the films ''Ever Afte ...

, Chris McKenna,

Martin Dingle-Wall Martin Dingle-Wall is an Australian actor, producer and screenwriter. He originated the role of Flynn Saunders on the Australian soap opera ''Home and Away'' in 2001. He departed the show in 2002. Dingle-Wall has appeared in '' Satisfaction'', ...

and

Patrick Byas Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name *Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint *Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick or ...

. In 2020, Passionflix will be filming an adaption of Ashleys' "Three Wishes". As of 2019, Ashley had published more than 60 novels, which have been translated into 14 languages and sold a combined three million copies.

Reception

Her novel ''Raid'' was on the USA Today bestseller list. ''Own the Wind'' placed on the

New York Times bestseller ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times ...

list. 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.

Writing

As influences, Ashley cites

Janet Evanovich Janet Evanovich (née Schneider; April 22, 1943) is an American writer. She began her career writing short contemporary romance novels under the pen name Steffie Hall, but gained fame authoring a series of contemporary mysteries featuring Steph ...

Judith McNaught Judith McNaught (born May 10, 1944) is a bestselling author of over a dozen historical and contemporary romance novels, with 30 million copies of her works in print. She was also the first female executive producer at a CBS radio station. Early ...

JK Rowling Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to 2007. The ser ...

Carl Hiaasen Carl Hiaasen (; born March 12, 1953) is an American journalist and novelist. He began his career as a newspaper reporter and by the late 1970s had begun writing novels in his spare time, both for adults and for young-adult readers. Two of his no ...

. 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 male In biology, a dominance hierarchy (formerly and colloquially called a pecking order) is a type of social hierarchy that arises when members of animal social groups interact, creating a ranking system. A dominant higher-ranking individual is som ...

s with the heroine bringing a strong character to match them. 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. Family, friends and music are recurring thematic elements. 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. 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." She has written racially diverse characters, as well as LGBTQ characters. Though mainly in the

romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

genre, she covers other sub-genres in her work, including;

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

erotica Erotica is literature or art that deals substantively with subject matter that is erotic, sexually stimulating or sexually arousing. Some critics regard pornography as a type of erotica, but many consider it to be different. Erotic art may use a ...

and

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...

Bibliography

References

External links

*Official Website
KristenAshley.net
* * Kristen Ashley o

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashley, Kristen Living people 1968 births 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American novelists American romantic fiction writers American women novelists Women romantic fiction writers Novelists from Arizona Purdue University alumni