Sprague author launches 41st book, and new thriller series

A local Sprague author launched her 41st book in February, a spin-off of a popular thriller book series she writes.

Ashley MacLennan’s new book, Tell Me Her Name, is the first book in a new series that’s a spin-off of an existing five-book thriller series under the pen name of Kate Wiley.

Detective Margot Phelon is a San Francisco police detective with a father who is one of the most notorious serial killers in American history. In the original series, she solves serial killer murders with the help of her estranged father, who is in jail.

Tell Me Her Name takes off where the last book in the original series ends. It finds Phelan, six years later, working with the FBI on cold case files that involve serial killers. She is also dealing with the fact that her common-law partner is charged with murder. He is also a police detective.

“I’m really into true crime,” shared MacLennan.

For several years, MacLennan tried to understand how it must feel to be the daughter of a serial killer and the effect it would have on one’s life and psyche.

In her research, MacLennan read books by the real life daughters of serial killers the BTK killer and Happy Face killer. While she read those memoirs, she felt she wanted to have Phelan be her own person, so she didn’t draw too heavily from those memoirs.

She said her Kate Wiley fans are very enthusiastic, passionate, and voracious readers.

“And I think they’re people who really want to be entertained and like to be taken on a ride. But they also want characters that they can connect with and care about,” she said.

“I think it’s the same reason people really love, you know, true crime podcasts because it’s so interesting to think about the darkness of the world, but then do it in a way that’s comfortable.”

MacLennan’s interest in being a writer started when she could first hold a pen. She would scribble in notebooks before she knew how to write, eventually writing her first book at age 12, which she said “was terrible and never went anywhere.”

In university, she started writing her first full-length novel, an urban fantasy novel titled Something Secret This Way Comes under the pen name Sierra Dean, which she published 15 years ago.

MacLennan writes under three pen names, each in a different genre. Her Sierra Dean novels are urban supernatural fantasy novels involving vampires that have adult content, while her Gretchen Rue titles are cozy mysteries that she said “your grandma could read them and not get offended.” Her Kate Wiley books are pure thrillers with dark themes.

“I think going in, if you’re reading one of my books, you’re going to have a strong female character at the core of it, usually tempered in there with a lot of humor, but that I’m going to consistently kind of take you on an interesting ride,” she said.

The benefit of MacLennan writing in three different genres is that she can protect herself from carrying the heavy darkness of a thriller by shifting her writing to a cozy light hearted mystery.

“I also listen to true crime podcasts for funsies,” she said with a laugh.

MacLennan’s full-time career is working as an admin supervisor for a government-funded non-profit. Under her real name, as a side job, she writes about professional baseball teams the Detroit Tigers, the Tampa Bay Rays, and the Chicago Cubs, for SB Nation, but she said writing her novels takes up more of her time.

Interestingly enough, MacLennan writes three novels at once making sure not to cross genres, tones, or characters. She said the only thing she has to worry about is transitioning character perspectives from first person to third person between novels and over-explaining concepts because she “can’t remember where I left off in the flow of the story sometimes.”

She also inserts her a little bit of her personality into her lead characters, which she said helps her stay grounded in their voice.

She said she can’t pick her favourite book series, but the Gretchen Rue novels are her favourite and most entertaining novels to write.

“Because I love the idea that I can spend like a page and a half talking about baking sourdough, and that readers of that genre just expect that. Like, I can spend a chapter talking about how great the heroine’s cat is, and it’s not like the editor will say, ‘Take this out.’ They’ll be like, ‘More, please,’” she said laughingly.

An avid reader, MacLennan reads about 100 books a year and has an extensive personal library. She favours the classics (Pride and Prejudice being her favourite), Agatha Christie novels, and the Dungeon Crawler Carl books by Matt Dinniman.

“I just like books that have really interesting characters or interesting scenarios that just make me want to keep turning the page and I don’t think that that’s restrained by genre.”

She said to be a good writer you have to be a good reader.

“I think especially you have to be well-read inside the genre you’re writing in. Because I think readers will know if you’re faking it…They want certain things…And I think you have to be a fan of, or at least a regular reader of, the genre to know what’s expected. If you try to write a romance novel without a happily ever after, fans will lose their minds on you.”

Her advice to new writers is to write continuously without going back and editing what was previously written.

“I think the only way you can ever get a book done is to just sit down and write it, whatever that looks like…But don’t go back and try and perfect it while you’re writing it because it’s the worst thing you can possibly do if you ever want to finish it.”

She said the secret to her success is consistency. Aside from one year, since 2010, she has consistently written between three and seven novels a year.

“The way you are successful, I think, is to always have something new that pushes people to the old. So, to have that back catalog really helps because it means I’m consistently selling my old books still all while releasing new stuff.”

MacLennan is currently finishing edits on the third book in that new Margot Phelan series, with the second book coming out on May 19. She is also working on the third Lucky Pie mystery series and the fifth book in her Jeannie McQueen urban fantasy series.

Tell Me Her Name is available electronically exclusively on Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited and in book format at any online or brick-and-mortar store.