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Ashley's Tale
Group Reads: Guest Author Invite
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June 2022 Group Read with Guest Author Mike Duke
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Mike, welcome to HA and thank you kindly for hanging out with us :)
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Thank you all for having me! I’m glad to be here and excited to discuss these books with the group!
Wow, this is so cool! I might join you all but question, is this trilogy it for this book series? Will there be a fourth installment or that's it at three?
LTJ, There’s only three books within this series.
Hey Dallas! Good to see you here. Thanks!
Great to see you here, Mike! I've seen you around the Books of Horror Facebook group before, but we've never really chatted. Thank you for joining us, and I just bought the first book! I'm looking forward to reading it together.
@Char I’m so excited to be here and can’t wait to discuss the books with all of you. There’s some definite moral quandaries you’ll be stepping in up to the hip. Lol. It’s been interesting in the past to see how different people respond to the characters, especially the “bad guy”. Thanks so much for checking my work out! 😎👊
Hi all! I’m so excited to be here and have this group read my work, and especially reading my Ashley’s Tale series, which I think is some of my best work, and has the highest ratings overall out of all my works. Okay, so here’s the somewhat quick background on me. I started writing in high school but got out of it shortly after graduation (in 1990) when life got crazy. Numerous years later I started writing again with just poetry for some time and in 2008 I started working on a novel, which became my book LOW. In 1994 I became a cop in a small city and was well respected by all, even the criminals who thought I was fair and preferred to talk to me often. In 2006 I got into the professional training industry. Since then I’ve been teaching high speed, tactical, and off road driving full time, as well as hand to hand and blade Combatives occasionally, to military, LE, bodyguards, and some private citizens. I practiced martial arts for thirty years but haven’t done much since Covid hit. I miss it but I’ve poured myself into writing more in the meantime and produced several works in the last three years. I’ve been married for almost thirty years, have grown kids, and now my German Shepherd Ziva is my baby and best bud.
Now, about Ashley’s Tale. When I was shopping LOW around I decided to go ahead and write something short and self publish it so I could start trying to develop a fan base networking on FB. Ashley’s Tale was that short work, a quick two hour read novella. I originally intended it to just be a one shot work, but after several readers said they wanted to know more about the “bad guy”, I decided to write book two (another short novella) Making Jake to reveal the backstory of how he came to be who he was. And then I decided to take the original story forward and wrote the novel The Initiation, which Stitched Smile Publications picked up along with reprinting the first two books. This series has some definite themes surrounding sexual and physical abuse, and fair warning there is some violence against animals in the form of pigs / hogs. But what you’re stepping into has some significant moral quandaries and I’ve found many people respond differently depending on their belief system and can make for some interesting discussion. Lastly, these books have one particular theme that runs through them. When I sign copies of book one I aways write the same line in it: “Be strong, for the wicked always hunt the weak.” Ashley is a weak person. Abused in her childhood and never recovered from it. The question is now, can she find the strength to endure and overcome.
I’m looking forward to following your journey through these books and discussing with you all what you think about these characters and their stories and what’s right and wrong as you see it. Thanks again for having me. 😎👊👊
Ashley’s Tale sounds like an interesting read! I’m looking forward to reading it with you all. Thank you for this opportunity, Mike.
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@Rikki Thank you! So glad you’re joining in. @Alan Thank you sir! 🤘
Wow Mike! Thank you for joining us and sharing that wonderful intro! Happy you're joining us!
@Sally. Thank you! I can’t wait to get into this with y’all, so I can see your reactions and discuss your thoughts. 😎👊
That's awesome! I think I'll try to participate in this one especially as you suggested this story for my daughter, some time ago, when I was asking for help on FB with finding good brutal readings for her <3
Thanks for the intro, Mike! Now I feel like I HAVE to read this book!
@Anja - I remember! Glad you’re joining in! @Char - Awesome! I can’t wait to hear what you think. 😎👊
cant wait to start these reads!! welcome to the dungeon Mike!
@Laura - Thank you! I’m excited to hear what y’all think!
Day One is here! If you have started reading Ashley's Tale, then you know i drop you right into the proverbial mix. I just want to say one thing. I have had several ladies who were sexually abused or assaulted contact me after reading this book. Every one of them said it evoked intense emotions and past experiences but they all said they were glad they pushed through and continued reading because they were very surprised by where the story went and the emotional and moral roller coaster it took them on. So, good reading to you all, and i cant wait for the discussions to begin!
Thank you for the heads up about that Mike, it's very kind of you. It helps to be warned in advance for things like this so I appreciate you for saying that. Looking forward to starting soon!
I finished my last read and will be starting this tonight.
@Sally You're most welcome. @Char Woot!!🤘🤘
This is pretty rough so far, but I’m hanging in.
Ok, done with Ashley's Tale! I'm glad I stuck with it! It truly did not go where I thought it would. Why did you leave the police force and go into professional training, if you don't mind my asking? I don't think those action scenes would have played out as well in the book if you hadn't had that training.
I'll will be starting the next book soon-hopefully over the weekend! Speaking of which, I hope everyone has a great one!
@Char a really shitty, power hungry, and corrupt administration. I did my part standing up but sometimes the bad guys win out. My integrity and reputation were intact and an opportunity came up. I had taught hand to hand combatives at the police academy off and on for several years so i jumped at a part time gig doing that then got a chance to do driving and they offered me a full time job shortly thereafter. Plus it paid a lot more money. Lol
@Char And thank you! Glad you loved the action scenes! I pride myself on all my action / combat scenes etc i incorporate into my work. 😎🤘
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That's so cool Mike, about the combat training, my dad taught some basic combat and also Karate and Judo at the army base when I was a kid back in Poland in the 80's & 90's, I had fun watching it many times... I just got my copy of Ashley's Tale and about to start right now :)
@Kasia That's sounds like you had an interesting childhood, living overseas and seeing what goes on in military training with your dad being an instructor. Very cool! Im excited you got the book. Look forward to hearing your thoughts!
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Just read the word "lamentations" at 20% in and made me think of Conan the Barbarian, of course my favorite childhood movie.
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So funny my dad actually called me while I was reading this just now, talk about coincidence.
I'm 43% in and wonder if (view spoiler)
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It's incredible how many books would take 300+ pages to get this story told and you make it feel alive in such a short format, that's such a skill, I am beyond awed! Also like others I need to know what it next, luckily that is the next book :) omgosh thank you for an intense treat to read, that was great. Deep and mentally visceral and touches on some really intense stuff, I did love it tho!
@Kasia Thank you so much! Thats an incredible compliment! I really enjoy writing the novella to short novel format. Ive written several novellas in the 16k-35k range and four novels in the 40k- range. Ive got three longer novels - a 70k, 108k, and 125k, but i so love the shorter format. Its easier to maintain an intense pace the whole way thru after the set up.
@Kasia Also, book two, Making Jake, gives the backstory on Jake. Lots of people kept telling me they wanted to know more about Jake. So i wrote his backstory, how he came to be the man he is. After that i wrote book three, The Initiation which picks up two years after book one.
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Sorry I'm hogging the thread but I have really enjoyed, than you Mike for being here and for writing this tale! And thank you Alan for hosting Mike :)
Ok Mike, just got the first book. About to dive in. A little nervous about the beginning but you've prepared me so I can do it!
@Kasia Wow! You have made my day and it's just starting! Such a huge compliment! ☺️ Thank you so much! I need gif options here i can send you a virtual hug! 😎👊 And is there a way to discuss things without spoiling the story for others who haven't read it yet? Im not entirely familiar with all the options available in Goodreads discussion groups. @Sally You got this!! 🫣😱😎🤘🤘Thanks so much! Can't wait to hear what you think. 👊👊
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A little over halfway through (view spoiler)Also, Mike the instructions for using spoiler tags are under the (some html is ok) tab above the comment box.
Kimberly wrote: "The warning had me a little nervous, but after reading these comments, I'm ready to purchase my copy now!!"Same Kimberly, but the hard parts start to make sense as the story evolves. I'm only a bit over halfway but I was ok since I had some warning.
I have to agree regarding how lean ASHLEY'S TALE is. I've long thought that the novella is the perfect size for a horror story. Every word has to be carefully chosen. Also, I often have problems visualizing action scenes. I love action books now that I've discovered them on audio. Joe Ledger and the Evan Smoak, (Orphan X) series are among my favorites to listen to on audio, due to the issues I have with picturing the action.
However, in this book I didn't have that problem! I'm not sure exactly why, but I think it might be the precise prose. Well done!
Sally wrote: "Kimberly wrote: "The warning had me a little nervous, but after reading these comments, I'm ready to purchase my copy now!!"Same Kimberly, but the hard parts start to make sense as the story evol..."
I'm glad I had that warning too, even though I don't generally care for trigger warnings. I don't want to know too much going into a story. If I had not had that warning, I might've ditched this one since extreme horror isn't my thing these days.
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Books mentioned in this topic
The Initiation: Ashley's Tale Book 3 (other topics)The Initiation: Ashley's Tale Book 3 (other topics)
The Initiation: Ashley's Tale Book 3 (other topics)
The Initiation: Ashley's Tale Book 3 (other topics)
Ashley's Tale (other topics)
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https://www.amazon.com/Ashleys-Tale-M...
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Jake-As...
https://www.amazon.com/Ashleys-Tale-I...