It's time for The Dead Romantics!
And it's the Good Morning America Book Club Pick for July!
Surprise everyone!
The Dead Romantics is Good Morning America’s Book Club Pick for July! I’m so happy I can finally share the news with all of you! This has been the most surreal and wonderful experience of my life.
Really, like, someone pinch me?!
How it Began…
In early 2020, I started writing a fanfic. Yes, that’s right—a fanfic. Because that’s how most of my ideas start: either with a fanfic, or with a scene I want to write.
This one began with both.
So, it went down like this: I had this idea in my head of two characters alone at midnight in a graveyard. One a ghost, the other alive.
So I wrote it, and then I went back and began to figure out the first few chapters… and loved the idea so much that I pulled the idea out of the fanfic, shook it a bit to get the wrinkles out, and went back to the drawing board.
Two characters in a graveyard.
One is a ghost.
The other one is alive.
Why were they there? Who were they? What did they want with each other? With their lives? The world?
At some point, I found Florence and Benji. I wandered with them through graveyards at midnight. I shouted with them in the rain. I hiked up to a ridge with wildflowers.
I cried with them. I laughed with them.
I gave them terrible puns.
The Dead Romantics is my ode to ghost stories—but I also wrote it as a conversation with myself about grief and moving on, because I had recently lost a very close family member at the time. I was at a strange part in my career, too. I didn’t know where I wanted to go, so I wanted to write a book that gave me joy.
So I chased these words. This plot. This strange, quirky novel about Florence and her ghosts.
But most importantly, I wanted to write a book about celebrating what is, about human connection, about love and family and dancing to good goodbyes.
I wanted to write a book about what makes us fall in love—with each other and with life and with the wind in our hair.
How it’s Going…
Filming for Good Morning America has been one of the coolest experiences of my life. And because it’s their book club pick, they’ve partnered with Little Free Libraries around the US and given them a few copies. Which is so cool!
I’m a rather private person, so I have been nervous for months about it all. I like keeping to myself and talking about my weird little fandoms, so being hosted on such a large platform made my brain go all wibbly-wobbly, but I’m so thankful for this opportunity to have my book read so widely.
It’s truly a humbling experience, and I’m so thankful for the opportunity.
I’ve read and loved romance novels my entire life: the promise of happily ever afters, and how they so readily and so confidently heal our fractured hearts. So I am infinitely happy to finally have one out into the world! I love my young adult books—and a part of my heart will always be there—but there is something really wonderful about finally being shelved next to authors who kept me company all throughout high school and college.
I came into romance novels right when the big supernatural boom hit. Twilight was all the rage, and then I found Charlaine Harris and her southern vampires, and from there I devoured every paranormal romance I could get my hands on. Heather Graham, Nora Roberts, Melissa Marr, the Nevermore trilogy by Kelley Creagh—and many, many more. I’ve always been a sucker (ha) for paranormal stories, but it’s always been a little bit harder to find a good ghost romance… or at least one that ends in a Happily Ever After. (Shout-out to The Mediator Series by Meg Cabot, and every ghost!AU fanfic in the various fandoms I’ve devoured over the years.)
So I knew at some point in my career, I wanted to write a ghost romance. And I just included all of the things I loved about ghost stories. I’m not reinventing the wheel with The Dead Romantics—I’m just paying homage to it, and all of the spine-tingling and swoony romance authors who shape my bookshelves.
I hope you love The Dead Romantics as much as I loved writing it, and may all the bad puns haunt you for years to come.
Happy reading!
Obviously the Good Morning America bit, but there’s another bit of news coming in the next few days that I can’t wait to share! Until then, The Dead Romantics has been getting around! (*wiggles eyebrow suggestively*)
In-Person Event in Greenville!
I’ll be at Fiction Addiction in Greenville, SC, on July 9th at 2pm! Come out and see me! Let’s chat about all things ghosts and graveyards. Sign up here!
UK Edition!
Along with the release in the US, the UK edition was released in ebook and audio as well yesterday! The physical edition is coming in September, and my editor at HQ Stories, Emily Kitchin, has a beautiful sneak peak at the cover!
Around the Internet…
Carly Lane included The Dead Romantics in her roundup post for Best New Romances of June!
If you haven’t listened to The Dead Romantics as an audiobook, Eileen Stevens (who also voiced Elle in Geekerella!) made a fantastic Florence. I love it so much!
Go check out my interview in The Laydown Podcast! We chat everything from ghost romances to swoony scenes to fandom!
Buzzfeed also featured The Dead Romantics in their newsletter for this week’s releases!
And PubLunch gave me a shout-out as well, as the GMA pick! (No link, sadly.)
Current Favorite Reads…
Eric Smith wrote a fantastic essay about raising his neurodiverse child (and bees), and it’s incredibly beautiful.
If you haven’t pre-ordered Sangu Mandanna’s The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, do it! It’s soft and cozy and definitely scratches that House in the Cerulean Sea itch!
Another recent favorite of mine has been Megan Bannen’s The Undertaking of Hart & Mercy. So good! Also soft fantasy! Western! Pen pals! Sunshine and grump! What’s there not to love?
I recently devoured every volume (so far) of Witch Hat Atelier, which is perhaps my favorite manga of 2022. If you’re looking for a whimsical and hopeful read and itching for that magical school story—this is it.
Yesterday was a wild and wonderful release day.
I saw my face on national television! I was introduced by none other than the Eva Pilgrim! And bookish people gave The Dead Romantics so much love and support, my heart is still overflowing with gratitude. Y’all are amazing.
Thank you so, so much, from the bottom of my cold undead heart!
xoxo,
Ash