Rhode Island Author Expo Spotlight – Ashley Richer

This post was originally posted on Martha Reynold’s blog and has been reposted here with author permission, minor revisions have been made.

Many ask me the question, “what made you want to write a book?”

Well, like most artistic professions, writing was, and always will be, a natural gift that I am blessed to have. The writing part came easy…it was taking the leap into publishing that needed a push.

I decided to pursue publishing after battling a rare medical condition. At 24 years old I survived a dissection of my carotid artery and multiple TIA strokes. This life changing experience will forever hold a bittersweet spot in my heart. The bitter…I battled a tough and long recovery, took a permanent medical leave from my job, and had to give up hobbies that I enjoyed my entire life.

However, after four years I found the sweet… I teamed with award-winning local illustrator Ryan Maguire to create the first book in the series. We fell in love, published our first book, and just welcomed our first child into the world in August. I hope to inspire everyone to believe that there is no obstacle too large to overcome, and sometimes the toughest obstacles lead to the biggest miracles!

Ryan and I are now preparing to launch the second book in the series. The first book in the series, titled Tyler’s TALL Tales: Chasing the moon, has a Rhode Island setting and focuses on teaching children about local Narragansett landmarks. The second book, Tyler’s TALL Tales: Journey around the world, will take readers on a global adventure and focuses on raising awareness of animals found all over the world. We hope to continue to educate children in schools and the community through literacy and illustration.

Ryan and I have a crowdfunding website to help offset costs for local schools and community establishments that wish to have us visit for one of our custom workshops. Together we have combined our teaching experiences to develop innovative workshops, which enforce creative thinking, artistic discovery, and movement. To learn more, or donate to our cause, please visit our  GoFundMe page.

You can contact Ashley via email (tylerstalltales@gmail.com), visit her on Facebook, and catch up with Tyler’s Tall Tales on her blog.

Rhode Island Author Expo Spotlight – Rachael L. McIntosh

This post was originally posted on Martha Reynold’s blog and has been reposted here with author permission, minor revisions have been made.

I graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a B.A. in painting in the mid 1990’s. I lived in a non-live-in painting studio in Boston’s North End when mafia were still huddled at the coffee shops and before the place was gentrified.

That’s when I started Entropy Press to make my artists books and zines seem more legit. Entropy Press grew. My artist’s books appear in the collections of MIT professor Noam Chomsky, jazz musician John Scofield, and Massachusetts College of Art and Design’s Library. The online version of the zine was getting more hits than the satire site The Onion at that time. Soon a real bricks and mortar gallery, with a digital recording studio, and a black box theater cropped up under the EP brand.

In 1995, my father was in a plane crash and although the Coast Guard searched for days, they never found him. The only thing to confirm his death was a running shoe and his business ledger checkbook. Those things were found floating in the water and collected by a lawyer on his yacht on his way to the Bahamas.

It was around this time that I was suddenly afflicted with a mysterious malaise which turned out to be Multiple Sclerosis. I left Boston and my loft and sought out a “normal” life in Connecticut.

I ended up working as a marketing director in Hartford, Connecticut. I also worked part time as the Urban Artist Initiative Coordinator for Norwich and New London. Ultimately, I secured a full time job, via a temp agency, at a defense contractor agency because I knew how to use email. (I kid you not.)

Then things got sticky. 9/11 happened. My job at the defense contractor became more defense-y. Generals and mercenaries were floating through. I was the youngest person there. My world became almost schizophrenic. Between not feeling my feet and legs and not knowing how to defend my day job to my artist friends, my marriage was falling apart.

Long story short: I was unexpectedly pregnant and became hugely concerned about the future. Maybe it was to avoid thinking about my miserable state of affairs, but I threw myself with all my creative and intellectual might into the Ron Paul campaign. I wanted to end the war and fix all the stuff I had seen at the defense contractor’s. I was elected to be an alternate delegate for the state of Rhode Island and attended the Republican National Convention.

My experiences at the RNC prompted me to write the Security through Absurdity series. I wrote every night for almost two years to produce the equivalent of 4.8 novels. I submitted it to a publisher who told me that they were going to break it down into a trilogy. They also told me to get life insurance. The books, although closer to Contemporary New Journalism, are funny in parts and are listed as fiction so that I don’t get thrown in jail.

The Security Through Absurdity series is #1 on Goodreads Best New Series. The books are available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and iBooks, as well as in libraries and high schools in Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Visit Rachael’s website, her Facebook author page, and follow her on Twitter.