Wednesday, August 3, 2022

20 Questions with Melody Ash, Author of 'Northern Echoes' #20Questions

Today's guest is Melody Ash, author of the novel, Northern Echoes. Melody is here today to answer 20 questions about her life, writing and goals.

1. Are you a morning writer or a night writer? Mostly a night writer – after the kiddos go to bed. But that’s slowly changing and, as they get older, I find ways to write during the day, too.

2. Do you outline or are you a pantster? I’m definitely an outliner, but how much depends on the project and what’s needed.

3. Which comes first – plot or character? Initially, the plot comes first, but as I begin writing, the stories are very much character-driven.

4. Noise or quiet when working on your manuscript? Noise. I know this sounds strange, but quiet is too distracting for me to focus on the story.

5. Favorite TV show? That changes! LOL! Right now, The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. Don’t get me started on Legacies.

6. Favorite type of music? I’m electic in my musical tastes. I listen to everything from Elvis Presley to Pop to Rock (think Def Leppard-style) to Christian. Only rap, most country, and classical seem to stay out of my playlist.

7. Favorite craft besides writing? Honestly, I don’t really have time outside of writing and family. There’s only so many hours in a day…

8. Do you play a musical instrument? I love to toy with playing the guitar. I’ve been playing since I was 11 or 12. But when I was younger, my hands weren’t large enough to wrap comfortably around the neck so playing chords was nearly impossible, so I never learned. I play single note lead, can learn a song quickly, but would love to take more lessons or teach myself to play better. But again, time…

9. Single or married? Married

10. Children or no? Yep, two kiddos I adore.

11. Pets? One Pomsky furbaby who is the sweetest thing on four legs.

12. Favorite place to write? My favorite place to write is at Disney World at night after visiting the parks and sitting on the balcony of my favorite resort. I don’t get to do that nearly often enough so I’m usually in my bedroom with the tv on in the background.

13. Favorite restaurant? Anywhere with crab legs!

14. Do you work outside the home? No. During the schoolyear, I homeschool, which is a full time job in of itself.

15. What was the name of the last movie you saw? Fighting with My Family. It was my husband’s pick, and I’m not a wrestling fan. But it surprised me, and I really enjoyed it.

16. Favorite outdoor activity? Hiking or hanging around the Disney parks.

17. Pet peeve? This is crazy silly but dirty mirrors or windows.

18. Your goal in life? My goal is to travel more with my family, especially as my kiddos get older so we can make some more great memories with them while they discover as much of the world as possible.

19. Your most exciting moment? As a writer, and other my other pen name of RM Alexander, one of my books was nominated for an award. I was invited to an award ceremony where I had to do a presentation and met an author who I’d been collaborating with for years. Impact ended up finishing in the top ten, and the experience was amazing.

20. The love of your life? My husband and I met while I was a travel agent, and he was a store manager in the same mall. My version is that he chased me around the mall until I finally talked with him. We ended up dating and, six months later, were married.

I grew up loving the endless possibilities Fantasy and Sci-Fi held between their pages or played on the big screen. Star Wars, Stephen King, The Neverending Story, vampires, Disney, I loved it all (and still do!) At age ten, I picked up a pencil and began coming up with stories of my own that toyed with other worlds and the mysteries of this one.

My first attempt at writing came at ten years old while, during a sleepover, I tried writing a ghost story. In sixth grade, I entered my school’s writing contest, and in college, my writing professor allowed me to work on a novel instead of following the curriculum.

But at the time, writing was only a hobby I enjoyed. I picked it up, put it down, sometimes for months or years at a time, but I didn’t think of it as a career. Instead, I majored in communications with the goal of a career in journalism. After a couple of years, I changed course and entered the travel industry. Travel had always been another love, especially to Walt Disney World, and the choice seemed the perfect fit. I opened my own travel agency and grew it from the ground up until the Great Recession of 2008 rolled in, along with the blessing of my first child.

With her birth, I left behind the office career and finally admitted what I already knew – I wanted to spend my life creating on paper what played in my head. A series that had already been haunting my dreams for months that I knew would be my first attempt to break into the publishing world.

After releasing romantic suspense under the pen name, RM Alexander, Caitlin Benoit started whispering in my ear and her story started forming. My passion for adventure and travel bled onto the pages as Caitlin was launched into the adventure of a lifetime. But because the story wasn’t focused on romance, I knew I needed a new pen name that would be focused more on UF / Sci-Fi, and Melody Ash was born.

As a complex PTSD and trauma survivor, I often write characters who often face the worse circumstances and must search for their inner strength. It is my hope readers not only connect with the characters and stories but also are encouraged, as they read the last word, that their real-world problems can be overcome.

Outside my writing world, I spend my time with my husband, two children, and Pomsky (who you’ll likely find posted on my social media) in Indiana. I still love to travel and am addicted to orange juice, Ghirardelli chocolate, and adventure.

You can visit Melody’s website at www.melodyash.com and connect with her on Facebook and Tik Tok.

Title: Northern Echoes
Author: Melody Ash
Publisher: Independent
Pages: 301
Genre: Scifi / Time Travel

Book Blurb

Caitlin Benoit assumed the next destination would be her time, her world. Instead, the stone thrusts her further into the past and onto a different continent.

Now in 1831 England, she’s discovered by William, the Duke of Lancaster. By sheer luck, he’s willing to allow her into his manor. While she fights to gain a footing in this new time, Caitlin discovers the stone also ripped John from Charleston.

Everything she thought she knew about how the stone worked is false, and neither John nor her understand how to escape the grip of the past. As they work to uncover the mystery of the stone, an acquaintance of the Duke plots an intricate scheme certain to destroy them all. She and John must solve the puzzle in an unknown amount of time or risk getting stuck—or buried—in 1831.