Hello all and welcome to my very first newsletter.

Thank you for subscribing!

If you have subscribed, I would assume you are interested in either myself, my writing, or a little bit of both. Thus this bimonthly (every other month. Man, we need a different way to distinguish that…) newsletter which will give you updates on my writing process, information about my travels, book reviews, and maybe a few pieces of my own writing. If there is anything specific you would like to read more about with those topics, feel free to reach out to me!

About me

Some of you may know me in person and some may not, so I figured I’d give myself a brief introduction.

My name is Ashley and I am about 3 years into my writing journey. I hail from Scottsdale, Arizona but currently live in the Bay Area. For more than a decade I have been traveling the country performing and working at Renaissance Festivals. While on the road and at home, I generally enjoy writing and reading (duh), as well as Morris Dancing (a traditional English folk dance) and trying my damnedest to figure out how to play my multiple accordions. I enjoy good period movies and great coffees. I am a plant mom with a 75% success rate and I am an avid seamstress when I have the attention to actually finish the project. I also live with an executive function disorder aka ADHD, can you tell?

Life of a Rennie

I travel for a living. Well, I travel because of my living. I have just planted myself in Wareham, Massachusetts for the next two months. I work at dream job managing for Moresca Clothing and Costuming at King Richard’s Faire. During the week I have my workshop set up to make jewelry for my primary job at Muses of Da’oud. Though our booth at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, I can’t seem to pull myself away from KRF. I love being near Cape Cod and Boston in the fall. Being a history buff (colonial era American history is an old favorite of mine), Boston is one of my favorite places to be.

What am I reading?

NINTH HOUSE by Leigh Bardugo

I found this treasure at a Goodwill in Apache Junction, AZ. If you have the time to go through the generally unorganized bookshelves at a thirft store, you can find some great titles!

NINTH HOUSE is Leigh Bardugo’s first foray into adult fiction, though I might argue that SIX OF CROWS and KING OF SCARS are barely YA. It is about Alex Stern (short for Galaxy, NOT Alexandra) who finds herself thrown into the elite world of the Ivy Leagues when she is given the chance to attend Yale in New Haven, Connecticut. The reason she, a drug-addicted deadbeat in the streets of Los Angeles, is given this opportunity: She can see the dead.

At school she is initiated into the Ninth House amongst Yale’s secret societies. Their house was created to keep the eight other houses in line, since they all dabble in various forms of the occult.

I previously mentioned the town’s name, as New Haven itself really becomes its own character in the book. The use of its history, layout, and architecture gives it life in a way New Haven notoriously lacks.

I will be honest, I didn’t like the beginning very much. It jumped around in the timeline and felt like it was just a grab for the readers’ attention. It wasn’t until later in the book that I saw the benefit of such a structure. It flips between her time before Yale, her fall training with Darlington, and then her winter dealing with the aftermath of some previous events (no spoilers!). By doing this we can uncover who she was before, alongside the recent and current events unfolding before us. It is really quite clever. I would never accuse Leigh Bardugo of anything but. The SIX OF CROWS duology is a spectacular, and one of my favorites in print and in audiobook. Her ability to fold character development into the plot enriches both ingeniously.

I would recommend anyone who loves the author to read this one; it is not to be missed! If you haven’t jumped on the Bardugo train yet, this is a great start. It is a supernatural, mystical, gothic semi-horror that can find itself comfortable amongst a variety of readers’ shelves.

Even more books!

I have opened up an affiliate shop on Bookshop.org! If you want a recommendation from me, check out my own curated bookshop and support, not only small, independent bookshops around the country, but your soon-to-be favorite author as well! (Me, that’s me.) Keep checking in as I add new reads and old favorites!

Thank you for enjoying my first ever newsletter! See you again in November!