We had the pleasure of chatting to Ashley Farley about her new novel Only One Life, which follows the story of a dysfunctional Southern family where an estranged mother and daughter come together again after tragedy strikes. Ashley spoke of her inspiration and challenges while writing the book, along with giving some writing advice, book recommendations, and her writing process!
Tell us a little about yourself!
I’m originally from coastal South Carolina, but I’ve lived in Richmond, Virginia for the past twenty-three years. I grew up deep-sea fishing in the Gulf Stream with my father. I was a daddy’s girl. I miss him as much as I miss the salty marshes and moss-draped trees, which is why I’ve chosen to set the majority of my novels in Charleston and the surrounding area. Every day when I sit down at my computer, I get to visit the Lowcountry in my mind.
My husband and I will celebrate our thirtieth anniversary in September. We have two young adult children, a daughter and a son. I’m proud of the hard-working respectable people they are becoming. I’m a photography enthusiast—Instagram is my preferred social media platform—and an exercise fanatic. I don’t travel as much as I’d like, but I’m thrilled to be going to Spain on a fly-fishing trip with my son this summer.
How did you become an author? What was your journey like?
I’ve been an avid reader since my early Nancy Drew days, but my interest in writing came about in my forties. I refer to my writing journey as my mid-life career. After my brother died of an accidental overdose in 1999, I struggled to cope with my grief. I turned to writing as a means of releasing those pent-up emotions. I worked my way through the courses available at Gotham Writers Workshop. I abandoned my original idea of writing a memoir when I began to feel as though I was betraying not only my brother but my family as well. Instead, I wrote a young adult novel, Saving Ben, about a brother and a sister during their college years. I chose this setting as college was the time in my life when I was closest to my brother. I hired a retired editor from Random House, a woman who was recommended by an author I met in a writers’ chatroom and who is still my editor today. After several rounds of edits, when I deemed the manuscript polished, I sent it off to a dozen literary agents. But I’m not a patient person, and after my first couple of rejections, I hired the best cover designer I could afford and self-published it on Amazon.
Once I started writing, I couldn’t give it up. I’d found something I loved to do that belonged only to me, that I didn’t have to share with my husband or children. I vowed to master my craft to the best of my ability, and to reach as many readers as was humanly possible. Saving Ben was a labor of love, therapy for my broken heart, but I longed to write what I love to read—women’s fiction. For my next project, instead of writing about the bond between a brother and a sister, I wrote about the sisters I’d always wanted. Two months after publishing Her Sister’s Shoes, I was fortunate to secure a BookBub promotion. I wasn’t surprised when the book received several thousand downloads. After all, that’s why we pay the big bucks to advertise on BookBub. But I was thrilled when, a month later, Her Sister’s Shoes was still climbing the charts.
Readers relate to the Sweeney’s sisters. Most women find something of themselves in the three main characters—Jackie, Samantha, and Faith. When they begged for more, I continued to write installments for the series, and before I knew it, I was receiving offers from traditional publishers. Over time, I settled into the role of hybrid publishing, which enables me to retain a modicum of control over my work while having the editing and marketing support of the professionals.
Your new novel, Only One Life, is set to be published this week! Can you tell us a bit about it?
Only One Life is the story of a dysfunctional Southern family. When tragedy strikes, Julia Martin is left with no choice but to return home to her estranged family. Drama unfolds and a long-ago secret is revealed. Told from mother’s and daughter’s alternating points of view, Only One Life is a story about friendship, family, reconciliation, and new beginnings.
Did anything inspire you to write this book?
During the conceptional phase of a novel, I develop an intriguing character, a woman I’d like to befriend, and place her in a challenging, high-drama situation. I’d settled on the basic premise for Only One Life when I began working on my first draft, but I wanted a different setting, something less glamourous than Charleston. At the time, I was rereading, for the millionth time, Pat Conroy’s A Prince of Tides. Inspired by Conroy’s lyrical language, I planned a research trip to his hometown of Beaufort, South Carolina. In many ways, the locale itself inspired me. I hadn’t been to Beaufort since I was a child, and I was deeply moved by the beauty of its historic neighborhoods, antebellum architecture, and stunning marsh views of the Beaufort River. There’s not much there. You can see it in a day, but it’s so worth the visit. The live oaks are some of the most majestic I’ve seen.
Were there any challenges you faced while writing this book?
My original intent was to write several flashback chapters to portray Iris’s marriage to Max and their early life together in the mid 70s and early 80s. As often happens in writing, I gave Iris the reins and let her lead the way. As it turned out, she was keeping a big secret I felt my readers needed to experience. By the time I’d finished the first draft of that plotline, I’d written way too much material to weave in with Julia’s early chapters. Taking the advice of one of my editor’s, I divided the chapters into three parts, which was a bold move but I think it really works.
What’s your process when it comes to writing?
I’m blessed to belong to a facility that offers its members year-round swimming in an outdoor heated pool. My best plotting takes place while swimming laps in what I’ve come to think of as my think tank. I usually swim first thing in the morning, and when I sit down at my computer a couple of hours later, my thoughts are at the forefront of my mind. Now, after writing fourteen books, I’ve established a process that works for me. In the first edit, my objective is simply to get the story out of my head and onto my computer document. I’m a panster. I give life to my characters, throw them into a situation, and let them show me the way. I create goals for myself. Depending on what else is going on in my life, I try to write a chapter every two or three days. I use Scrivener, a writing software program that allows me to keep all my research—maps, images, calendars—as well as my chapters themselves in one place. This allows me to work from anywhere. Have laptop will travel. An enormous amount of checking and rechecking takes place in the second draft, and sometimes it goes painstakingly slow, but it’s amazing how everything comes together for my characters at this stage in the project. Using the text to speech feature, I have my computer read the third draft out loud to me. Hearing is much different than reading. Repetitive words and inconsistencies pop out using this feature. After a thorough three rounds of drafts, I send the manuscript off to my publisher. And that’s when the real editing begins.
Do you have any interesting writing quirks?
Every last word of my writing takes place within Scrivener. I don’t consider this a quirk in our modern day of technology, but compared to many of my peers, it is. I’m blown away by the number of authors who print their manuscripts for editing. Seriously, track changes is way more efficient than a red marker. Why go to the trouble of having to sift through hundreds of printed pages when you can delete words and move text around within in a software program? Maybe this isn’t a quirk as much as it’s a pet peeve of mine. God save the trees.
Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Lots. The most important being, never ever give up. If you’re passionate about your writing, keep at it until you get where you’re going. Set mini goals for yourself, objectives you’re certain you can achieve. And reward yourself. I purchase a new piece of photography equipment every time I release a new book. I spend an enormous amount of time researching what equipment I want to buy. It helps break the monotony of long periods of writing in solitary confinement.
Today’s world of publishing is changing to the author’s advantage. If something isn’t working for you, try something else. There is a wealth of information available online for every level of writer. Sign up for webinars. Make friends with like-minded authors on social media. Remember, it’s never too early to begin building your brand and your newsletter.
What’s next for you? Any upcoming projects?
I recently finished my third and final manuscript for my current contract with Lake Union Publishing. The working title is Life on Loan—the marketing department will decide whether to keep the title—and is currently scheduled for release on October 8th. Life on Loan is the story of two old friends who haven’t seen each other since college and meet by accident in the Delta Sky Lounge in the Atlanta Airport. For very different reasons, they are both running away from their lives. They decide to swap houses for the month of October. Lena travels to Charleston to stay in Olivia’s waterfront condo while Olivia moves into Lena’s cottage on Carters Creek in the Northern Neck of Virginia. Life On Loan is a story about middle-aged women reinventing themselves, of finding inspiration after their children have left the nest, of believing in themselves and rediscovering their passions.
I’ve started a new project that I’m excited about, a mystery set in Richmond and Washington DC. It’s too early in the project to share much, but suffice it to say, I’m really feeling these characters and this plot.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for us?
This is an easy answer. I recently read Where the Crawdads Sing. This beautifully-written novel is a must-read for all ages and genders. I had a forty-five-minute discussion about this book with a close friend’s husband at a Christmas party. Many aspects of this novel remind me of To Kill a Mockingbird, one of my all-time favorites. This book has it all. Lovely language. Intriguing characters. A plot that will keep you guessing until the very end.
Ashley has a very active Facebook Author Page and loves chatting with readers. She will also be hosting a launch party on release day on April 23rd. Readers can find out about all of her books on her website. You can also find Ashley on Instagram.
Only One Life is available as of April 23rd from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
