#4 Ashley Poston: The Power of Fandoms, Magical Realism, and Negative Reviews

#4: The Power of Fandoms, Magical Realism, and Negative Reviews

The Everygirl Book Club hosts interview New York Times bestselling author Ashley Poston about her novel The Someday Garden, in which Sophie, the new head gardener at Lilymoor, discovers a secret garden and a mysterious man trapped inside. Poston explains how growing up in fandom and writing fanfic shaped her voice and led to her magical realism romances. She shares her craft process: using fanfic-style scenarios to test character chemistry, then ensuring the magic serves character growth. Poston reflects on The Seven-Year Slip’s personal origins, its reader-driven “long tail” success, coping with grief while writing it, handling reviews (including a harsh Kirkus line as motivation), researching gardens despite having a “brown thumb,” drafting The Someday Garden’s time-based magic through multiple versions, and teases a forthcoming romantasy duology.

0:00 – Introduction

2:03 – The Dead Romantics & Discovering Romance

6:27 – Fandom, Fanfic & Reylo

12:47 – Characters, Magic & Writing Process

15:35 – The Seven-Year Slip's Success

28:20 – On Reviews, Ratings & Reader Taste

35:20 – The Someday Garden & The Secret Garden

41:12 – Sophie, Grief & the Garden's Magic

47:10 – The Challenge of Writing Time Travel

51:52 – About Time & Character Inspirations

57:23 – Easter Eggs & the Ashley Poston Universe

58:20 – The End of an Era & What's Next

1:00:59 – Book Recommendations & Closing

Books mentioned:

The Someday Garden – Ashley Poston

The Dead Romantics – Ashley Poston

The Seven-Year Slip – Ashley Poston

Heart of Iron – Ashley Poston

Geekerella (Once Upon a Con trilogy) – Ashley Poston

Novel Love Story – Ashley Poston

Bishop Takes King (Hawkeye) – Ashley Poston

Priory of the Orange Tree – Samantha Shannon

Howl's Moving Castle – Diana Wynne Jones

The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

A Little Princess – Frances Hodgson Burnett

Fourth Wing – Rebecca Yarros

Dearly Departed – Chip Ponds

The House of Now and Then – Edward Underhill

The Summer Girlfriend – Kristina Forest

Romantic Hero – Kirsty Greenwood

Movies/TV shows mentioned:

Star Wars (franchise, plus Ashley's upcoming Star Wars novel)

Avatar: The Last Airbender

About Time

Fairy Tale

Dimension 20 / Dropout (TV series)

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