Goodreads asked Ashley Wilda:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Ashley Wilda I wrote around this story just about every way I possibly could.

I started with poetry and a young adult fantasy. Then a short story. Then a middle grade fantasy. Then a young adult contemporary. Even a picture book. Everyone was telling me my writing was good. But in the end, nothing resonated with me.

Then, I listened to a graduate lecture at @vcfawcya by @mercerblack about grief and the writing process. About the stories we NEED to write, for ourselves. The stories we may be avoiding. The stories we may be afraid to dig deep and tell.

I slipped out at the end of the lecture and found myself in the farthest corner of the campus library basement, surrounded by the musty smell of old books. I sobbed. I cried for all the pain I was living through, for the story I wanted to write, for the fear of writing it. But I knew I had made up my mind.

When I left that library, I started writing what would become THE NIGHT FOX.

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