CassAsks - Ashley Herring Blake

If you're like me, and you saw the name Ashley Herring Blake at the top of this, and then felt like you had to pinch yourself to make sure what you're seeing is real - believe it!

Ashley Herring Blake exploded onto the sapphic romance scene in 2022 with the fan-favorite novel Delilah Green Doesn't Care, which continued with the remainder of the Bright Falls series (Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail and Iris Kelly Doesn't Date).

This is my first CassAsks feature with a mainstream/trad pub author, so I was thrilled that she was willing to share some insight with us.

You can grab her new holiday release, Make the Season Bright, which came out October 1!

Without further adieu...

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1. Your Bright Falls series is one of if not the most popular sapphic romance trilogy (because… it’s an incredible set of books)! Was there a novel and/or a character you loved writing the most? 

Astrid was my favorite character and my favorite book. I really identified with her later-in-life bisexual awakening and drew on a lot of my personal experience to write her story. I also loved the haunted inn aspect, as well as the renovation. It was just a fun book!

2. What was your first fandom you ever joined (if you were into a fandom). Did you read fic for it? Have you ever written fic? 

I actually was never in a fandom, and have never written fic. :) 

3. What have you learned about yourself through writing?

I’ve learned I can do hard things. I can push myself and I can create really beautiful, fun pieces of art. I’ve also learned that I love observing and pondering human emotion, and really pouring that into characters who feel really real.

4. The Bright Falls trilogy features many different tropes throughout the books – fake dating, no-strings attached sex (oops-there’s-strings), small town, rivals to lovers, workplace romance to name just a few. When you started your process in writing this series, did you know the tropes you wanted to hit in different books, or did the characters drive the tropes used in each book? 

The characters usually drive the tropes, but it’s really a book by book basis. For Delilah and Astrid’s book, the characters really drove it, but with Iris, I wanted to do fake dating from the start. Once I started writing it, I knew Iris would never pretend to have a girlfriend, lol, so I had to adjust the trope to fit her, which was fun. I also go back to character, what works for the person I’ve created, even if I do pick the trope first.

5. Speaking of tropes, do you have a favorite trope to write? Is it different from your favorite trope to read? 

I love grumpy/sunshine the most. I just adore watching someone who is prickly and difficult soften for someone the’re falling for.

6. What is your favorite idea that you haven’t yet written? 

I really work on a book by book, project by project basis, so I don’t think I have one of these yet. :) 

7. What is your favorite meal/meal of the day? 

I love breakfast food, but can definitely eat it any time of day. Bacon, eggs benedict, biscuits, love it all so much.

8. If you could have dinner with one writer, dead or alive, who would it be? 

I’d love to sit down with Sylvia Plath or Emily Dickinson.

9. You’ve written not only adult contemporary sapphic romances, but also several young adult and middle grade books. What has your journey in writing looked like? What inspires you to change genres? 

I started in kidlit because I felt I had a lot to say to that age group, particularly queer readers. After my last middle grade in 2021, I felt ready to move on and explore characters who were more similar to me now, as opposed to who I was as a kid and teen. I’ve loved writing for all age categories!

10. Your upcoming release is Make the Season Bright – a second chance holiday romance. Can you tell us a little more about it? 

It’s about two musicians who used to be best friends, girlfriends, and fiancées. Then, oops, one of them left the other at the altar five years ago, and now they’ve collided at a house for Christmas. It’s about healing, taking risks, and going after the life you really want.

11. What book got you into reading? 

I’ve always been a reader, so I don’t really remember one particular book, but as a kid, I was into Judy Blume. Polly Horvath, a contemporary middle grade writer, wrote The Canning Season, which is the book that made me want to write.

12. What book got you into reading sapphic romance? 

Honestly there wasn’t a particularly book that got me into reading them--I sought them out because I’m queer and I wanted to read more romances that reflected me. Some of my favorite authors who write sapphic romances are Meryl Wilsner, Courtney Kae, Adriana Herrera, Rachel Runya Katz, Chencia C. Higgins, Mazey Eddings, Amy Spalding, and Anita Kelly.

13. If you could pick one song to epitomize your characters, what would it be? One song each, for as many characters as you’d like to answer with. 

I don’t usually make playlists for my characters--I do Pinterest boards instead, as I can’t listen to music with lyrics when I write lol. So this would be really hard for me to pick songs for them! There are so many!

14. What is your favorite Taylor Swift song and/or lyric? 

I’m not a huge Swiftie, to be honest lol. But my favorite album of hers is Folklore.

15. Have you ever read a book – or fanfic – that is criminally underrated? Now is your chance to advertise it: 

Body Grammar by Jules Ohman. It’s about an androgynous model navigating that world and it’s beautiful and fascinating and everyone should read it.

16. What would you title your auto-biography? 

Fire Sign. :) 

17. Finally – which 5 characters from sapphic romance novels would you pick to be at a dinner party together, and why? 

Erin from Mistakes Were Made, Dahlia and London both from Love and Other Disasters, Pepper and Opal from Late Bloomer. I just think they’d all be super fun to talk to and get to know!