The Hot Author Report

Guest Author Malana Ashlie on ‘A Peek Into the Future’

Just over thirty years ago I was given an intuitive reading as a birthday gift. The reader of runes told me that she saw papers all around me and asked if I was a student or a writer. Since I had dragged myself through school and deplored any form of script my response was a resounding “NO WAY!”. I was known to refuse gifts rather than write a thank you note. At the time I was a busy wife, mother of three and a horticultural entrepreneur. I immediately threw all credibility related to psychics out the window.

My elementary school librarian was the influence that saved me from myself by introducing me to books about animals. I read about the wild Chincoteague Ponies that inhabited islands not far from my Annapolis home. Black Beauty aroused my first curiosity of faraway places but it was when my interest expanded from hooves to paws that I moved into the world of adult reading. I discovered “White Fang” and the rest of the Jack London series. They planted the seeds of adventure in my soul.

Along with the librarian’s dedication was the pressure of having a teacher for a mother. My mother loved words; I found writing and composition B-O-R-I-N-G. However pressure from each of these women finally wore down my rebellious resistance. I’m sure that Mom’s steady influence and chronic correcting saved my grades in grammar and English.

The fifteen years that followed the psychic reading were filled with numerous life events that altered my philosophy and direction for life. My horticultural experience introduced me to medicinal herbs. I began the study of natural healing and earned a degree as a doctor of naturopathy. My husband and I began a monthly natural health newsletter which we still offer on-line. Later I was asked to write articles on health and healing for a local monthly publication. But these were all short (1,300-1.500) word articles. The first writing of any size was my thesis and dissertation. They were the hardest projects I had ever faced yet they helped dispel the negative belief system I had formed around writing as well as psychics.

Writing “Gringos in Paradise: Our Honduras Odyssey” was an adventure in its own rite. It was the first non-clinical piece that I had attempted and was by far the most fun. It was an exciting challenge to find words that could draw readers into the emotional roller of our transitional experience. I wanted others to experience the alternating waves of near-panic to exhilaration. Who would have ever thought that writing could be so much fun?