Ashley Poston still has the three-ring binders she filled with stories in high school. They’re still annotated with notes from her friends. The New York Times bestselling author reads them sometimes, remembering the teenager who dreamed of magic, romance and epic adventures.
“I know my craft is better now, but I still feel like I am that same teenager chasing the wonder of creating her first story,” says the 2012 USC alumna.
Poston’s books (she’s sold more than 1 million of them) are anchored in enchantment and wonder, but the South Carolinian doesn’t spend her days sighing wistfully at a windowsill.
“Ashley's work ethic is just amazing,” says Northrop Davis, a media arts professor who mentored Poston while she was obtaining an English degree at the University of South Carolina. “I really didn't think she slept at night, as a student, because of how much she worked. And I know she's carried that on into her productions of her books.”
From USC student to bestselling author
Poston has published 17 books during her 15-year career. Two of them published this summer — within five weeks of each other.
Her bestsellers are adult contemporary romances (with a touch of magic, of course), but she’s carved out a niche publishing novelizations of pop culture subjects, like Marvel’s Bishop Takes King, which focused on teenage archer Kate Bishop, and this summer’s Eyes Like Stars, a romance set in the Star Wars universe.
Eyes Like Stars explores “dark tourism” in a galaxy far, far away.
“You go to the graveyard of Alderaan, where billions of people died,” Poston says of the Disney World ride Star Tours, which inspired the book. “So, what does that look like? And what does that look like from the point of view of a tour ship captain who goes there, what's the morality behind that? And then you toss in the First Order and a lightsaber, and you have yourself a fun time.”
Poston’s other summer book release is Someday Garden, which is set a little closer to campus, a historic house in Maine. The new head gardener stumbles upon a secret garden — where there’s a brooding man trapped inside.
The novel, which touches on her usual themes of love, magic and grief, swiftly became Poston’s bestselling release, topping 55,000 units sold in its first week.
Magic and romance keep readers coming back
Her job keeps her plenty busy, but it hasn’t dulled Poston’s passion for storytelling.
“I have over a million copies of my books sold, but that's not why I'm writing,” Poston says. “Even if I didn't have any of that — I know because I've been there — I would be writing anyway.”
Even in her downtime, she writes. “I love how stories connect to people. I love how there's a certain kind of wonder and magic and love and romance in every story that's told,” she says.
She wrote the first draft of her next book, a romantic fantasy, in eight days.
“I have over a million copies of my books sold, but that's not why I'm writing. Even if I didn't have any of that — I know because I've been there — I would be writing anyway.”
She’d had the idea for a while — a woman goes undercover at her magical alma mater and meets a dark lord (who’s trapped as a cat and has been trying to get tenure for 500 years) — and needed to get it out of her brain and onto the page before she started working on Someday Garden. After she wrapped up her latest slate of works, she got back to work on Elodie and the Dark Lord, finishing it up in just a few months.
“It was very intense,” she says, “but I work pretty well under pressure.”
How USC shaped her career
Her ability to work hard, and well, under pressure is something Davis remembers. He first met her when she took his TV writing class. She then joined his Wemakemanga Club, and Davis was so impressed with Poston he helped her get a graphic design internship at Bloomsbury, which led to full-time employment.
“That internship got her feet on the ground in the publishing industry,” Davis says. “And that was a breakthrough for her.”
Though she’s a writer at heart, Poston worked as a graphic designer after graduating. At USC, she took a variety of classes that fed her endless curiosity — and still come in handy when she’s writing. Her forensic chemistry class helped her with Bishop Takes King. She leaned on lessons about blood splatter analysis at crime scenes to develop the plot.
“When you're an author, you keep on learning anyway. You just keep devouring new information,” Poston says. “So, it was a feast for me when I was taking different classes, and I just stored the knowledge and whittled it away. Someday I'll use it all.”
What’s next for Ashley Poston? Elodie and the Dark Lord publishes March 23, 2027.