About me

"At an early age, I fell in love with the suaveness of James Bond, the action of Mission: Impossible, the gore and badassery of Kill Bill: Volume 1, and the relatable female characters of Totally Spies! – all of which influenced the Take It YA thriller book series.

While writing has always been something I enjoyed, I was able to further explore my love for creative writing during my time at Columbia College in Missouri, where I received my B.A. in Communication and dabbled in screenwriting and directing under my Minors of English and Film Studies. In 2016, I was a guest speaker for a Freshman Poetry class for my own work written in my Creative Writing - Poetry class. The following year, I had the honor of being the Introduction Speaker for Author Sarah Manguso at a book reading put on by the CC English department. I was able to present more of my own unpublished work of poetry and creative nonfiction for two years in the Central Methodist University's Humanities Conference in 2017 and 2018. 

After a year of being an editor and managing editor on the Columbia College Literary Review, I was elected Editor-in-Chief in 2018. My time as an editor and managing the review helped me to realize that while I loved writing and presenting short creative pieces like poetry and short stories, I wanted my own work and the YA thriller action book series I had dreamed up since middle school published on even bigger platforms. 

Genesis Mortalis, Book 1 of the Take It Trilogy is my debut novel and was originally written as a film script based on my love for espionage and action movies. I am currently working on finishing the next two books in the trilogy, a novel about an orphaned cellist, and an action war thriller."

- Ashlea E. Hearn