From the Desk of Ashleigh Stevens: Better Late than Never

Ashleigh's YA Reads Ashleigh's Romance Reads Ashleigh's Whodunits
This week's newsletter contains the following features:
(Feel free to skip ahead to what you want to read)

What's new with Ashleigh?

Hartfield Chronicles

Free Books

Other Books on Sale

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What's new with Ashleigh?

First, I must apologize. This newsletter was supposed to go out this past Friday and I completely dropped the ball. But, here it is. Better late than never, right?

One of the reasons I lost track of time was because I have been so busy preparing two books for publication. I complied all my reader feedback and am making changes accordingly. One book called for a new ending, so I had to rewrite the entire last chapter. The other book required more subtle changes, but many of them.

Both books are going to need another round of readers. If you think you may be interested in beta reading, make sure to join my advance reader club.

As I prepare these books, I have been thinking a lot about the dinkus. Do you know what that is? When you're reading a book and there is a scen change in the chapter, some authors like to use astricks to denote the change. Others use an extra space. But some authors like to use an image. This image is known as a dinkus.

I am very pro dinkus. I like to use images that have something to do with the book. For example, for Kayaks, Kisses & Monsters, I used an image of a river monster. In my dual POV, I use different images for each narrator.

Usually, my choice of dinkus is easy. However, for the two books I am currently editing, I am having trouble deciding which dinkus to use. My mystery is a single POV, but each chapter ends with an excert from the story within the story I debating whether to use a different dinkus for each or perhaps astricks to separate the story from the narrative, saving the dinkus for true scene breaks.

The other story occupying my mind is the second Hartfield Chronicles book. In book one, Melinda and Pat had separate dinkuses, both of which related to their story. However, in book two, their story has changed and neither dinkus really works. So I am again faced with the question of using one or two dinkuses.

So, my question this week is:

Feel free to
email me your answers to this question,
comment on twitter,
leave a comment on this conversation on my blog.

Hartfield Chronicles

Season 4 of Hartfield Chronicles has arrived!

When Melinda is invited to join a new dance class, she sees this as her big break, a chance to advance her skills. Before she can accept, however, another kind of break stops her in her tracks.

Pat wants to be the supportive boyfriend, but his efforts seem to be making Melinda uncomfortable. He can’t go to his own friends for advice, because they can’t understand.

After Melinda calls for another type of break, she and Pat must examine their relationship to determine whether they are meant for each other.

Hartfield Chronicles follows the lives of Melinda, Pat, and their friends as they navigate their way through boarding school life. Each episode features two stories, one from Melinda's point of view and one from Pat's, along with an excerpt from Melinda's writing journal. New episodes are published every Friday.

Here's what you missed:
(Click on the chalkboard to read)

Episode 99:		Episode 100:
Rumors abound and Pat gets a surprise visitor		More rumors leave Melinda heartbroken

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As a thank you, you will receive access to bonus chapters from the Hartfield Chronicles.

Want early access?

Members of the Hammerhead club receive episodes one month early.
Check out the website for more information.

Free Books

Starvation
A powerful Young Adult Contemporary novel

For every princess, there should be a peasant boy

16-year-old Wes McCoy is not the favorite child.

He does not have a wrestling scholarship to Stanford nor does he live up to the family legacy as an athlete, unlike his brother, Jason. But when Jason dies in a car accident on the way to the state high school wrestling championship, Wes turns to food to give him the control over his life he didn't have before-- the kind of success he never tasted.

Wes must take back control from his eating disorder as he learns more about himself and the mystery surrounding Jason's accident, before he loses his life and those closest to him.

The Death of Hope
A Scolaris Short Mystery

Family can be murder!

When Ted’s daring plan to put an end to his father’s brutish ways backfires, Dad ends up dead, and he’s not the only one.

To make matters worse, the local guard arrests his defenceless sister for the crime, ignoring the never-ending list of suspects with a motive.

Sleuth along as Ted uncovers secrets buried in his family’s past to unmask a murderer and save the only family he has left.

Would you like some free books in exchange for an honest review?

Want more free books? Check out these giveaways!

Do you have Kindle Unlimited? These books are free for you!

Other Books on Sale

The Untamed Duke
The Secret Crusaders Book 3

When a Scottish duke targets her brother, Sophia will do anything to protect her family, including kidnapping the powerful lord. What happens when the duke kidnaps her instead?

Welcome to book 3 in the bestselling series The Secret Crusaders from the talented Melanie Rose Clarke!

Social justice crusader Sophia Hawkins will do anything to protect her family. When Kenneth Macleod, the new Duke of Foxworth, forges a feud against her brother, she doesn’t care how powerful he is – or that neither man wants her involvement. If he won’t abandon his revenge, she’ll take matters into her own hands.

Perhaps a little kidnapping is in order.

Kenneth would much rather be in Scotland, the gorgeous country of his mother’s ancestors, than in prim and proper England. Only the father he never knew leaves him a title, wealth, lands and the responsibility to care for it all. It’s the life he never wanted, and there’s one man to blame: the Duke of Bradenton. Now he will exact his revenge. Only something lovely, vibrant and entirely delectable stops him.

Lady Sophia is everything he wants in a woman, and the only woman he can’t have. She is beautiful, brave and brilliant, and the more she defends her brother, the more he wants her. Yet how can he forgo his revenge? He is a man accustomed to getting what he wants.

Perhaps it’s time for a little kidnapping of his own.

Ruby Red

Sometimes you find love only after you lose everything else.

One night stands only need apply.

Ali Stinson is having a bad day. Her afternoon tryst was interrupted (before they got to the good part) to discover her investment manager ran away with all her money. Now she has to keep up appearances with her high society friends, find a dress for an upcoming charity event, and not fall in love with Sam, the cute bartender, who insists on helping her. Thing is, she’s 90% sure she doesn’t want help. Adulting is hard.

Looking for work, not love.

Sam Freemont is having a strange day. He was in the middle of the best kiss of his life when his boss walked in and halted the fun, which is not helping with the low profile he’s trying to maintain. Now he can’t get Ali off his mind or out of his dreams. Good thing she’s a regular at the swanky resort he just started working at. Gives him time to find a way back to her lips. Or better yet, into her heart.

Rejected

Echo Paisley has been on her own since her fiancé, Nash, died three years ago. She soon discovered that she didn’t know the man she was going to marry. He had cheated on her with the one person she thought had her back. But that wasn’t the only secret.

Echo is about to leave her past behind when she discovers one last secret Nash left behind, which threatens to turn her life upside down. Echo is forced to seek help from her estranged mother with no one else to turn to.

Grave Dangers
A Thriller, Suspense, and Horror Collection

What’s dead doesn’t always stay buried.

Whether it be in a small town, an abandoned asylum, or a bustling city, no one is safe from the ugliest parts of human nature. A social media influencer, a college student, a detective – titles make no difference when death plays Russian Roulette.

Question is, who will be next?

Fourteen bestselling authors offer up their sacrifice in GRAVE DANGERS, a collection of thriller, horror, and suspense stories that will chill you to the bone and encourage you to double check that window lock.

Authors included in this set are: Maegan Beaumont, S.K. Gregory, Kayla Krantz, Elena Blake & Killian Wrathmore, Melissa Keir, Jennifer Wedmore, Chandara Blackwell, Zaire Knight, J.C. Layne, Sheri Chapman, Spiro Griffith, Lori Joseph, and C.R. Strong