Ashley E. Sweeney
Author Interview - Ashley E. Sweeney
Author of The Irish Girl
Forced from her family home in western Ireland after an accusation of incest, thirteen-year-old Mary Agnes Coyne endures an arduous sea voyage alone across the Atlantic in the fall of 1886. WIth only a few pounds to her name and a letter to a parish priest in hand, she begins a new life in America. From the squalid tenements of New York to the rough alleys of Chicago, Mary Agnes suffers the bitter taste of prejudice for the crime of being poor, Roman Catholic, and Irish. After moving west to Colorado, she again faces hardship and tragedy as she grapples with her future with indomitable resolve.
Author Interview - Ashley E. Sweeney
Author I draw inspiration from:
From the time I could first read, books have been my life. In fact, there are few pictures of me as a child without a book in my hand. I have lived through bitter cold winters with Laura Ingalls Wilder, walked through New York with J.D. Salinger, felt the sting of prejudice through Harper Lee, endured pangs of hopelessness through William Styron and Charles Frazier, ached for love through Thomas Hardy and Michael Ondaatje. Speaking of Michael Ondaatje, his "The English Patient" is the best novel I've ever read. Contemporary women authors I admire and read everything they publish include Barbara Kingsolver, Geraldine Brooks, Sue Monk Kidd, Amy Belding Brown, and Tracy Chevalier. I am also a fan of lesser known author Ellen Notbohm's "The River By Starlight."
Author Interview - Ashley E. Sweeney | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
In the corner of my reading nook, I plop down into an oversized chair with a view of my garden and the ocean beyond. What could be better? Tea in hand, a comfy throw, warm wool socks, and a cat on my lap as I immerse myself in other worlds.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
Love this question! My younger self would have loved to have been stuck in an elevator with bad boy Holden Caulfield of J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye." Who knows what might have transpired in that tight space?! Today, I would relish the opportunity to spend an unspecified amount of time in an elevator with real-life characters, especially Oprah Winfrey or Barack Obama. If I were to spend time with a fictional character, it might be one of my own characters, Eliza Waite or Ada Weeks or Ruby Fortune or Mary Agnes Coyne. I know them so well, I do, but spending time with them now that they are "out in the world" would be deeply satisfying. Have they fulfilled their dreams? What difference have they made? Is there anything they still long for? How do they fill their days?
Author Interview - Ashley E. Sweeney | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
I remember the exact moment, at age 12, the night after my father took me to a production of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" in New York when I told my 6th grade teacher, "I'm going to write a novel." I never lost that desire, and after decades in journalism and education, my first novel was published in 2016 at age 59. Being a published author has been the culmination of a long-held dream.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
Paperback is my go-to option, and I often wait for a novel to come out in paperback before I purchase. If I can't wait -- in the case of Barbara Kingsolver's "Demon Copperfield" -- I borrow from the library or ask for the title for a holiday or birthday gift. Because of severe hearing loss, I don't listen to audiobooks, and, anyway, I prefer to sit and give my full attention to a novel as I'm kidnapped by a story; I can't imagine listening to a novel as I do something else.
The last book I read:
"The Librarianist," by Patrick deWitt I loved it -- quirky, bittersweet, and at times laugh-outloud-funny and simultaneously sending me sprawling and on the verge of tears. Like "A Man Called Ove," readers are immersed in a curmudgeonly older man's life with its idiosyncrasies but also parallels to every life. Highly recommended.
Author Interview - Ashley E. Sweeney | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
Both work for me. During the fall, winter, and spring, I'm at my desk computer from 9-1 p.m. M-F (and often much later) as I write my work in progress. During the summer, while aboard our boat "Polaris," I fill up hand written black and white composition notebooks. It's a different sensory experience to write outside and I tend to write short, disparate scenes. Often, I'll go back and use one or more of those scenes (or iterations of these scenes) in new works in progress. If I don't use them, it's not wasted time or energy; I've used my mind to conjure new characters, new scenes, new worlds, like dreaming outloud.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
Hands down, Elizabeth Bennett of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." I love Elizabeth's pluck and outspokenness, both qualities I'm proud to exhibit. Her qualities also mirror mine being independent, intelligent, loyal, strong-willed, and honest. Sometimes these qualities get in the way, but when I first read P&P, I knew I had found a soulmate.
Author Interview - Ashley E. Sweeney | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
Master gardener! I love "playing in the dirt" and have had copious gardens for decades. Here in the Pacific Northwest, I spend many happy spring and summers hours tending to my various gardens. In the front yard, outside the fence, we have a lovely array of shrubs and trees bordered by Shasta daisies and California poppies. In through the clematis-laden gate, you'll stroll with me through a lovely, wild English garden replete with hollyhock, foxglove, phlox, delphinium, and climbing roses (lately, I've become smitten with dahlias). Winding down the oyster-shell encrusted pathway past the outdoor bath house and onto to the back patio, we'll sit among peonies and hydrangea and sip iced tea. And when we've had enough sun, we'll pass the vegetable garden and swing on the garden swing in the shaded woodland backyard.
Favorite decade in fashion history:
1910s. I've watched the movie "Titanic" more times than I can count, and what I love most about the film (and there are many highlights) are the dresses, hats, gloves, and accessories. When I travel now, I use one small suitcase; if I lived and traveled then, I would no doubt have required trunkfuls!
Place I’d most like to travel:
If it's a destination I love, Rome, time and time again. I could live there. If it's a destination I haven't been, I'd say a cruise around the Baltics, stopping at ports along the way: Berlin, Gdansk, Riga, Tallinn, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Oslo, Stockholm -- and Copenhagen and Amsterdam again. When I travel, I look forward to meeting people, visiting sacred sites, sampling regional food and wine, walking narrow streets, and taking pictures. And of course, souvenirs -- fabrics, books, icons, memorabilia.
My signature drink:
Whiskey Sour
Favorite artist:
Almost too many to count. But I do love the late 19th c and early 20th c Long Island painters like William Merritt Chase, who invoke a time long past in the place I grew up. To look at his "Idle Hours" or "A Fairy Tale" takes my breath away. Many years ago, I saw a collection of his at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, New York. The curator almost had to drag me from the room at closing time.
Number one on my bucket list:
A cruise around the world. My beloved grandmother took a cruise around the world in the 1960s and it's been a dream of mine since then. I spend hours poring over catalogues of exotic destinations and dreaming of sights I'll see (oh, and of course the outfits I'll wear and the food I'll eat and the souvenirs I'll find). As an amateur photographer, I can only guess to the number of photos I'll take. I do hope to make this a reality, although my husband doesn't share the same passion for it that I do. I told him he can meet me along the way, maybe in New Zealand or Hong Kong, Barcelona or New York.
Anything else you'd like to add:
If you want to buy me present, other than books, fabric, or gardening supplies, I love dark chocolate and strong coffee. And jigsaw puzzles. I've loved every stage of my life, and now love being a grandmother. I'm a fierce progressive and even fiercer friend. My hope is to make a difference in the world through my writing and still to be writing when I'm 95, like my author father, Gerald F. Sweeney.
Find more from the author:
On both IG and FB, @ashleysweeneyauthor
About Ashley E. Sweeney:
Author Interview - Ashley E. Sweeney
A native New Yorker, Ashley E. Sweeney is the Nancy Pearl Book Award winning author of four novels, Eliza Waite, Answer Creek, Hardland, and The Irish Girl. She lives and writes in the Pacific Northwest and Tucson.
