Most readers know Ashley Herring Blake for her Bright Falls. What started with Delilah Green Doesn’t Care turned into a phenomenon in the queer community with readers who loved having representation in literature. Delilah Green, Astrid Parker, and Iris Kelly became well-known characters in the community, making the series very successful.
Now, Herring Blake is starting a new series. The first character readers will get to meet is Ramona Riley in Dream On, Ramona Riley. The book will tell the story of Ramona Riley, a woman who dreamed of Hollywood and ended up finding herself stuck in her tiny hometown.
Herring Blake spoke to us about her new upcoming series and the importance of having queer representation in literature.
Eulalie Magazine: You had a very successful series that people loved, and they loved the characters. You’re moving on to a new series. How do you decide to end one and close the lid on that to move on to something new?
Ashley Herring Blake: When I did the Bright Fall series, I knew from the beginning that I wanted to write Delilah’s book and then Astrid’s and Iris’s. What their stories were going to be, I did not know in advance, but I knew it was going to be the three. Three was always the number in my head for this loosely connected series. So, I never really considered pushing forward after Iris. There were definitely some characters that I got asked about quite a lot, but to me, it just felt from the beginning that I wanted this friend group, and I wanted to write their stories, and then I was going to be done. It just felt like a natural place to end it.
Starting something new felt like the right path. I wanted to write another connected series. It was really hard to let go of the Bright Falls characters, but I was excited to start something new. And I was excited to build another queer community and start from scratch. There are pluses and minuses to both writing a series and standalone. With a standalone, you get to start fresh every time. And with series, you get to keep coming back to something familiar. I like both aspects, but it felt like a natural place to end Bright Falls and a good time to start something fresh and new.
Eulalie Magazine: With the previous series, you knew where you wanted to start and where you wanted to end. Is it the same with this one? Is that how you approach a series?
Herring Blake: This one was a little bit different because I started Ramona, and I knew that book one was going to be Ramona’s story. Book two will be April’s story, Ramona’s best friend. But as I was writing Ramona, I didn’t have a third character, and I kept trying to think of a natural place to fit in, someone whose story I might want to tell next. Ramona has a younger sister who’s 18, but to me, that’s just really young. I didn’t want to write someone that young, and I didn’t want to jump ahead in time so much to where she would be an age I would want to write.
I wanted to do three books again. It feels like a good number for a loose, connected series. I know a lot of romance series are three books, so I decided to save this person for April’s book. I had a vague idea of who I wanted her to be and what situation I wanted her to be in, but it didn’t fit into Ramona. I didn’t want to do the exact same thing that I did for Bright Falls, with three women who had been friends since childhood and had grown up together and been through all of this stuff together. I wanted to get the same feelings of community in this new series, but I didn’t want it to be the same. In the beginning, it was just Ramona and April, so the third book is about someone named Sasha, and she’s not introduced until April’s book. They become friends, and they all connect. I still have these themes of community and found family.
Eulalie Magazine: Is there a particular reason why you decided to start with a character like Ramona and make her the first one in the series?
Herring Blake: No, she’s the character that came to me first. It was a blend between her and the love interest, Dylan, in terms of who I wanted to write. I wanted to explore someone who had given up a lot of things for her family and decisions that she doesn’t regret. But what happens when the reasons that had kept her in this town are no longer there? Her sister’s going to college now, and she’s free. So what does that mean for her? Do you keep going with the status quo, or do you try to pursue something that could change your life?
Those are the questions I was answering or wanted to explore with Ramona and then with Dylan, who came to me at the same time. I’d never written a super famous person, and so she was an inspiration. Thinking about what the child of two very messy 90s rock icons would be like as a 30-something-year-old and what her history would be like. What had her childhood been like? What kind of adult would that make? That was the inspiration for who Dylan eventually became.
Then what happens when those two people come together. It was similar to Delilah. I didn’t plan all three characters and then chose Delilah to be first. Delilah came to me first, and then Astrid and Iris as her friends, or as her stepsister, and Claire as well. Ramona is the same way. I thought of Ramona first. Then I thought about what kind of person her best friend would be, and that’s where April came from. Sasha comes from some things that April is dealing with in her book. It’s an organic process.
Eulalie Magazine: When you think about these characters, is there any part of you that transcribes into them? Or do you try to separate what your life is from what you’re writing?
Herring Blake: I would say that nothing that they’re probably dealing with is from my life. My life’s just not that interesting. But every character I create has some parts of me in them. Some are more similar to me than others. There are some who I wish I were more like. All of them hold something of me, even if it’s not an actual part of my personality. It might be something that I admire or a personality type that is interesting to me, messy to me, or that I don’t think I would get along with at all and want to explore that. Every character has parts of me in them.
Eulalie Magazine: It seems that queer representation has been much better in literature than it has been on screen. Do you think it’s because there’s more room for queer writers to express their stories?
Herring Blake: I don’t know the reason, but it is true. We see it’s harder to find nuanced representation on the screen. That is the issue; it lacks nuance. There are a lot of binary ideas about what being gay or queer or bisexual means. Publishing is having a time exploring those nuances. And I hope that TV will catch up to that. I see it similarly to books written for kids and for adults. Books written for kids embrace more diversity, and different kinds of people in marginalized communities are represented on the page. Adult literature is catching up or trying to, especially in this climate. I hope the screen is the same; it’s behind what literature is doing. Because literature is always the first thing to blaze a trail.
Eulalie Magazine: My last question is a two-parter. The first one is, do you think it’s really important for queer voices, especially in climates like this, to step up and share their stories?
Herring Blake: It’s critical. It’s needed now more than ever. We still need to be writing these more than ever now. This is resistance to continuing to tell your story and understanding that it is important, vital, and a human story. It’s always been important and critical. We’ve always been here, and we always will be, so that will not change, no matter what happens in the political climate. But political climates will make it more pressing, vital, and critical. We’re at one turning point where being quiet is not the answer. Every queer voice would agree with that.
Eulalie Magazine: The second part of that, is there any advice that you would give to queer writers who are starting up and might be afraid to share their stories?
Herring Blake: Yeah, community is really going to be what carries us through this. Having a group of people doing the same thing, who are in the same place you are, and understand the fears. Even if it’s just getting on a Discord group or Whatsapp group or whatever it is and venting about what you’re afraid of will give us the courage. Our stories motivate us. Our desire to make a change in the world motivates us, but we’re not going to have the energy for that if we don’t also get fed ourselves. Getting involved in local things that are going on in your place, focusing on one or two things, causes, situations, or issues that are going on that you care about. Putting your energy in there and just making sure that you’re continually getting fed as well by your friends.
Dream On, Ramona Riley comes out in May.
Lara Rosales
By day, Lara Rosales (she/her) is a solo mom by choice and a bilingual writer with a BA in Latin-American Literature who works in PR. By night, she is a TV enjoyer who used to host a podcast (Cats, Milfs & Lesbian Things). You can find her work published on Tell-Tale TV, Geek Girl Authority, Collider, USA Wire, Mentors Collective, Instelite, Noodle, Dear Movies, Nicki Swift, and Flip Screened.
