The Worlds of Ashley Stangl

A few weeks ago, Jenelle Schmidt announced a Spooky Story Challenge for Halloween. I am the world's biggest wimp when it comes to scary stories, but I thought this sounded like a fun way to stretch some new writing muscles. I've delayed (I wrote one story and hated it, and waited a while for a better idea to come to me), but now, in the last few hours before the deadline, I've come up with this little thing. This story was partially inspired by Jenelle's prompt of It was under the bed/in the closet. Now that I've written it, part of me thinks it's too silly, and part of me thinks it's too dark, but I'm going to be brave and post it anyway. It's definitely different from anything else I've written. Enjoy! And be sure to follow the link to read the other spooky stories!                                    ...

Five Magic Spindles has launched! I am officially a published author! I keep thinking I'll get used to that idea, but each step in the process has felt unreal. Now it's undeniable. "Out of the Tomb" has been published in a book--something I never thought I'd say when I started this story. Almost exactly a year ago, I stumbled across a Kindle sale for a novella collection called Five Glass Slippers . As a lover of fairy tale retellings, I thought the book was ingenious--five versions of "Cinderella", all gathered under one cover, each highlighting the original tale in a different way. It was the fastest purchase I've ever made, and one of the best. All the stories were enjoyable and unique retellings that captured my imagination. Then, at the back of the book, I found a single, fateful page: an announcement of a contest to fill a similar volume with retellings of "Sleeping Beauty". I'd never considered writing for contests before,...

I was tagged for the Quotation Tag by Rachel from Hamlette's Soliloquy. Thanks, Rachel! Here are the rules of the Quotation Tag again. Thank the person who nominated you  Nominate 3 new bloggers every day  Post a new quotation every day for 3 consecutive days.  Day One went well. Now it's time for Day Two, five days later. I understand that this is not following the rules of the tag, and I am humbled and ashamed. Nevertheless, I have returned with quotes for you!  Today's quotes come from this man. G.K. Chesterton, the man, the myth, the legend.  A writer in the early decades of the twentieth century, Chesterton wrote everything. Novels, poems, epic poems, plays, detective stories, biographies--the man was a fountain of words.  Reading Chesterton can fill a writer with sheer delight and awe at what you can do with words, and with despair at knowing that you yourself will never write anything to compare. I've read only a small fraction of Ches...

Rachel, one of my fellow Five Magic Spindles authors, is conducting a series of interviews with all of us authors on her blog, Hamlette's Soliloquy.  My interview was posted today. Check it out here if you want to see me fangirl about G.K. Chesterton and Agent Carter and other book and entertainment-related topics. You can check out last week's interview with Michelle Pennington, the author of "Spindle Cursed" here , and interviews with the other authors in upcoming weeks.