Sneak Previews
Practically upon arrival at home in America in May, my nieces informed me I must see the Disney film Tangled, a movie my sister reported to me they watched every day. Jetlagged beyond belief, I could barely stay awake to eat a Snickerdoodle (though I managed it, repeatedly) much less throughout an entire film. As they do because I adore them, my nieces convinced me that I should sit down in front of the Tangled and I did. Then I promptly drifted in and out of sleep for the next two hours but I battled it because I was viewing an absolutely beautiful, funny, sweet, charming fairytale.
As a romance addict from the time I could read (almost), I loved this movie. It was, in my opinion, one of those few, perfect romances. Lovable hero and heroine, sweet story, humor injected liberally and fabulous ancillary characters you loved to love or loved to hate. Needing to see it in its full glory, I watched it twice while on holiday, laughed hysterically and cried like I always do.
Inspiration hits me all the time, if I’m not creating a story in my head, or thinking of new ones to write, I think I’d quit breathing. Therefore, Tangled inspired me to create a series of fairytales - these being adult, of course, and in my style, of course again.
I started with Fantastical and, as usual, as I was writing it, kept right on going. The series is based on the premise of every-women of our world, women like you and me, being transported to a parallel universe that is far from our world. They are either transported against without their knowledge, waking up in an alternate universe or they chose to go.
And what they encounter is nothing like they’d ever imagine.
This is how the series is panning out so far...
Wildest Dreams. I’ve no idea what got me going on this book. I was writing The Golden Dynasty (see below) and had so enjoyed doing it that I didn’t want to let go of this world. As I was creating the different countries, seas, oceans, their politics, governments and rulers, I created Lunwyn, a snow-covered country at the very top of the Northlands region of my parallel universe. Then for some reason I started to research Vikings and Norse Mythology. And I definitely wanted to do something with Dragons. The more I read, the more I was inspired, this book took off and Frey Drakkar and Seoafin “Finnie” Wilde were born. I adore Finnie, who has such an adventurous spirit. But I am really enjoying who Frey is coming out to be. As a rule (that is, my own personal one), my hot guys are off-the-scale alpha. But although Frey definitely has the alpha within (and his alpha comes out, frequently), Frey’s gentle nature is winning me over. This book is in progress, not finished and I’m obsessed with it. In fact, writing this, I wish I was with Finnie and Frey.
The Golden Dynasty. If you haven’t watched HBO’s Game of Thrones, do it. It is a phenomenal program. As I was writing Fantastical (see below), I was watching Game of Thrones. I loved the intensity of this series, the politics, the richness of the concurrently running stories and the background history interwoven in an intricate plot. It was all around lush. But the romantic in me loved best the arranged marriage between the dragon princess and her hot guy, rough guy, primitive horse lord. [Semi-spoiler!] I just didn’t like the way their romance ended. But this entire series spurred me on to take a chance and write The Golden Dynasty and introduce my readers to Dax Lahn, the king of a marauding horde in a barren country and Circe Quinn, the office manager of a moving business. I will warn you this is not my usual work, there are scenes of gore and brutality and Lahn and Circe’s relationship does not start on a high note (for Circe), but I got very involved in creating the fictional, barren Korwahk and its outwardly seeming primitive people.
With this book, I also further challenged myself to create a new language. This book is now complete and awaiting edits (in other words, waiting for me to get done with Finnie and Frey). And I hope folks will love it as much as me.
Fantastical. This is the first book I wrote in the series and I was inspired as mentioned above by Tangled. It tells the story of Cora Goode who goes to sleep in Seattle and wakes up in an animated movie where birds talk to her and the world around her seems to glitter. Alas, she unknowingly starts a curse and has to be protected by Noctorno “Tor” Hawthorne who, unfortunately, hates her twin in his world and thinks he hates her. Sparks fly, as they always do, even (maybe especially?) in parallel universes.
Or, at least those created by Kristen Ashley!
If you visit my website at www.kristenashley.net you can download working (unedited) chapters of all three of these books to see how this series is shaping up. If you check it out, let me know what you think!
As a romance addict from the time I could read (almost), I loved this movie. It was, in my opinion, one of those few, perfect romances. Lovable hero and heroine, sweet story, humor injected liberally and fabulous ancillary characters you loved to love or loved to hate. Needing to see it in its full glory, I watched it twice while on holiday, laughed hysterically and cried like I always do.
Inspiration hits me all the time, if I’m not creating a story in my head, or thinking of new ones to write, I think I’d quit breathing. Therefore, Tangled inspired me to create a series of fairytales - these being adult, of course, and in my style, of course again.
I started with Fantastical and, as usual, as I was writing it, kept right on going. The series is based on the premise of every-women of our world, women like you and me, being transported to a parallel universe that is far from our world. They are either transported against without their knowledge, waking up in an alternate universe or they chose to go.
And what they encounter is nothing like they’d ever imagine.
This is how the series is panning out so far...
Wildest Dreams. I’ve no idea what got me going on this book. I was writing The Golden Dynasty (see below) and had so enjoyed doing it that I didn’t want to let go of this world. As I was creating the different countries, seas, oceans, their politics, governments and rulers, I created Lunwyn, a snow-covered country at the very top of the Northlands region of my parallel universe. Then for some reason I started to research Vikings and Norse Mythology. And I definitely wanted to do something with Dragons. The more I read, the more I was inspired, this book took off and Frey Drakkar and Seoafin “Finnie” Wilde were born. I adore Finnie, who has such an adventurous spirit. But I am really enjoying who Frey is coming out to be. As a rule (that is, my own personal one), my hot guys are off-the-scale alpha. But although Frey definitely has the alpha within (and his alpha comes out, frequently), Frey’s gentle nature is winning me over. This book is in progress, not finished and I’m obsessed with it. In fact, writing this, I wish I was with Finnie and Frey.
The Golden Dynasty. If you haven’t watched HBO’s Game of Thrones, do it. It is a phenomenal program. As I was writing Fantastical (see below), I was watching Game of Thrones. I loved the intensity of this series, the politics, the richness of the concurrently running stories and the background history interwoven in an intricate plot. It was all around lush. But the romantic in me loved best the arranged marriage between the dragon princess and her hot guy, rough guy, primitive horse lord. [Semi-spoiler!] I just didn’t like the way their romance ended. But this entire series spurred me on to take a chance and write The Golden Dynasty and introduce my readers to Dax Lahn, the king of a marauding horde in a barren country and Circe Quinn, the office manager of a moving business. I will warn you this is not my usual work, there are scenes of gore and brutality and Lahn and Circe’s relationship does not start on a high note (for Circe), but I got very involved in creating the fictional, barren Korwahk and its outwardly seeming primitive people.
With this book, I also further challenged myself to create a new language. This book is now complete and awaiting edits (in other words, waiting for me to get done with Finnie and Frey). And I hope folks will love it as much as me.
Fantastical. This is the first book I wrote in the series and I was inspired as mentioned above by Tangled. It tells the story of Cora Goode who goes to sleep in Seattle and wakes up in an animated movie where birds talk to her and the world around her seems to glitter. Alas, she unknowingly starts a curse and has to be protected by Noctorno “Tor” Hawthorne who, unfortunately, hates her twin in his world and thinks he hates her. Sparks fly, as they always do, even (maybe especially?) in parallel universes.
Or, at least those created by Kristen Ashley!
If you visit my website at www.kristenashley.net you can download working (unedited) chapters of all three of these books to see how this series is shaping up. If you check it out, let me know what you think!
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