This week YA author Ashley Poston took over our Twitter as a part of our weekly Thursday Twitter Takeover. Ashley Poston is the author of Bookish and The Beast. (See YEM’s interview of Ashley Poston here.) See highlights from the takeover below.
Hellooooo everyone! I'm taking over for a few hours! My name is Ashley Poston (@ashposton) and I’m the author of Bookish and the Beast! Feel free to follow me also on TikTok/Insta at heyashposton! https://t.co/JypdswwDD4 #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) August 19, 2021
Although Bookish is the third book in the Once Upon a Con series, it’s written as a standalone. It helps to have knowledge of Geekerella and The Princess and the Fangirl but if you read Bookish first, the other two will have happy surprises when you read them! #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) August 19, 2021
The Princess and the Fangirl is dear to my ❤️. It’s about two girls who switch places at a comic-con, and the power of fandom—both the good and the toxic—and there’s a few first kisses along the way. #YAauthorTakeover https://t.co/eyCwk6Qezd
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) August 19, 2021
If anyone has any questions about my books or writing process, ask away and I'll try to answer! Otherwise, I'll just tell you about my firsts. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) August 19, 2021
Oh, I also wanted to write about the utter INJUSTICE of Lumiere and Cogsworth not getting together. Like, HELLO. THE CHEMISTRY IS RIGHT THERE! C’MON DISNEY. Sigh. Still bitter, all these years later. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) August 19, 2021
Then I found myself in my first fandom. I was 12-ish. I sat down for my Saturday morning dose of 4Kids on the CW when the strangest thing happened. Yu-Gi-Oh! came on. I’d seen commercials of it during Digimon and Pokémon, but I thought it was just a rip-off. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) August 19, 2021
It blew my 12yo brain. This was back when the internet was still on dial-up and I had to print out fanfic b/c my mom needed the phone. I didn’t know about the history of fanfic, that it originated in the 60s with Star Trek zines. I just knew I’d found my place. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) August 19, 2021
My first fanfic was a Yu-Gi-Oh! fic. It had four OCs, lots of love triangles, duels that were glossed over because who wants to write about card games when you can just get straight to the fluff??? And you know what’s cool? #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) August 19, 2021
I wrote my first original novel at 14. It was 300k words long. Never finished it. For the record, most YA novels are between 60k-100k. So, like, I overshot that by a MILE. Overachiever status: achieved. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) August 19, 2021
And, if you want to be traditionally published, you have to learn about it. The whole nine yards — and it feels overwhelming sometimes. The querying, the agents, the publishing process itself.
Pro-tip: one step at a time! #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) August 19, 2021
Okay! Back to firsts. My first Comic-Con was a local one. I cosplayed as a Rare Hunter (keeping with the YGO theme y’all) and I had the absolute best time of my life. The 1st time I went to a BIG con was when I worked at Kodansha and they sent me to Anime Expo. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) August 19, 2021
I started querying agents about the time I went to my first big con. My first real rejection came from an agent who told me — publicly, on their blog — that I wrote like a knock-off Nicolas Sparks. Which, yeah, okay, sure. That’s fair. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) August 19, 2021
And there you have it! Those are the firsts that led from Geekerella to Bookish and the Beast. Every author’s road is weird and winding, so don’t compare yourself to other people too much. Eyes on your own road. You got this! #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) August 19, 2021
Thank you all for sticking around with me for two hours! I enjoyed talking a bit about my firsts. If you ever have questions, you can always find me over at @ashposton where I tend to fangirl a lot. Take care!
xoxo – Ash https://t.co/kmKdTAGtbh
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) August 19, 2021
