Ashley Beach-Author and Storyteller

Good Morning Everyone,
I wanted to jump on here and share an update about Beauty Revealed. Beauty Revealed, my fourth book in my Solstice Chronicles series is with the publisher. I finished editing and submitted the proofs/changes back to the publisher a week ago Friday. I did get the final changes back and approved and shared the official cover on my pages this last Friday, but here it is if you missed it. Publisher snags are always out of my control and this book seems to be taking longer than my other ones, but I can only do what I can. I can share a little bit more about the self-publishing process in another video, but anyway, I digress. It is coming and I’m hoping to have it in hand in the next couple weeks so I can get them sent out to those of you who have been so patiently waiting for them.

I was reminded of a passage in my second book, Beauty Redeemed this last weekend that kind of hit home with some things I’ve been thinking through and it prompted me to record a video of me reading the passage and sharing about how that passage impacted me. (Check out the video on my YouTube channel)

When I started writing these books several years ago, I wrote with the intention of showing hope to others who face different struggles and battles in life. The main character in my first book took a lot of my life story and brought it to life in the pages of Beauty Restored and I did that as a way to hopefully show others that they are not alone in things they struggle with. A lot of the things my character struggled with, I have struggled with personally, and books I’ve read over the years or movies or theater productions I’ve seen that resonate with me the most are the ones that relate to something personal in my life and I wanted these books to do that for others.  Some of the things I wanted to convey in my first book were things like chronic health issues people face. I’ve dealt with various health issues in my life from chronic back pain to endo symptoms and ovarian cysts that are extremely painful and truly feel like your insides are being ripped apart at times. Often these things make you tired or unable to participate in life and I’ve had the thoughts of “How can I take care of a family someday if I can’t even take care of myself?” or “I can’t burden someone else with these sometimes monumental issues.” You feel out of control with your emotions and can become overwhelmed by how consuming the pain and the emotions are at times and pray for moments to just feel normal and pray for relief and pray for release and healing and comfort. Erianna(the main character in my first book) is cursed to change into a monster every full cycle of the moon and experiences ripping pain in her muscles as she transforms and feels she has to hide herself away to protect herself and others from her monstrous form. In addition to the physical pain she goes through, she deals with feelings of unworthiness and feeling unlovable because of messages her mother has instilled in her throughout her life. Many of us, myself included, struggle with feelings of inadequacy or feeling like there is something wrong with us to make people turn away from us or treat us the way they do, etc. These messages are communicated to us in different ways but how many of us feel the same things? All these things are Satan’s ways of cutting down our beauty and preventing us from seeing the beautiful and strong people God designed us to be.

My other 3 books carry similar messages. My second book deals a lot with the struggle between light and darkness. The main characters both struggle with darkness and feel unworthy to be in the kingdom of light for various reasons. Julianna has grown up in the kingdom of light and is the princess of light, but she struggles a lot with what the real world would call secret sins, and they’re secret because she feels she can’t share them with people out of fear of how they’ll judge or condemn her for being a child of light and still struggling with these things. On the flip side, Darien comes from the kingdom of darkness and feels he’ll never have a shot at living a life in the land of light because of the darkness of his past. This is my story, guys. I have lived the life of covering secret sins and struggles and the battle that constantly rages between the light and darkness in me. You feel like jekyll and hyde because you’re supposed to be pulled together and Christ-like so you put on the facade of that life when you go to church or interact with the world, but when you go home and your secret desires become too much to overcome, you fall and give into them once again. You feel guilt and shame and sometimes don’t know how you can escape that life or wonder if you’ll ever truly be free. Will you ever truly be worthy of living in the kingdom of light or do you just give into the lies the enemy has told you your whole life and resign yourself to that life?

Book 3 talks about how easy it is to become complacent and comfortable in our lives. Nothing challenges us to step outside of ourselves and grow and we see no need to step out of our comfort zones. God has given each and every one of us special gifts and talents that were meant to be used to draw others to Christ and give the world a glimpse of His beauty and love, but how many of us live our lives in our quiet little boxes because we’re afraid to disrupt our complacent world or we’re afraid of putting ourselves out there and failing. God has given me a voice and talent to sing and write, but many years of my life I’ve spent keeping my talents hidden away from the world for the sake of humility and not wanting to draw attention to myself. God has been pushing me out of that comfort zone a lot the last couple years and continues to stretch me and push me to go farther and use my talents He has given me. It is scary as heck and my character in my 3rd book experiences similar struggles with being seen and accepting the great powers and gifts she’s been given.

My 4th book is chalked full of similar messages, and I was reminded of this fact when I was reading through my manuscript before submitting it last week. The characters face many hard and difficult things in this fourth book and their faith in the Mage and His Son will be pushed to the limits and tested. Some will be tempted to go back to their old lives and desperation will cause them to question things and tempt them to make decisions they know will lead down a path they shouldn’t go back to, but they go. Some characters have felt abandoned and betrayed and go after the wrong things in order to obtain happiness and their rightful place in the world. I’ve been told that my books have been used to spark conversations with kids of all ages and have been used to discuss some of the Biblical/spiritual elements I’ve woven into them. The scene I am referring too will hopefully do just that: provide a way to talk to kids about the fall and the garden of Eden and why/how sin entered the world and why God could allow bad things in our world. I used the Greek myth about Pandora’s box because it correlates so well with the story of the Garden of Eden and the fall and was what the Greeks used to explain how evil entered the world and I feel it gives a good picture that can spark those conversations that people have had with the other books. But, I also hope this fourth book touches people in a personal way and gives people something they can relate to in their personal lives and give them hope in knowing they are not alone in different things they struggle with or face. These books put me in a vulnerable spot as I share some of my life story within these pages, but I share because I want people to know they are not alone. I’ve faced my own battles and wars and I know others have too.

I’m excited for this fourth book to come out and I’ve been so anxious to share it with all of you, so prayers for the publisher to finish it soon would be great. There are moments that will make you cry. There are moments that will make you laugh. And, hopefully, there will be moments that hit home for you and give you a place to express something maybe you haven’t been able to express or scenes that bring something to life inside of you that maybe you’ve ignored or been ignorant of. Whatever you get out of any of these stories, I hope you find hope and encouragement amidst the darkness we all live in and as always, I hope you see a glimpse of God’s beauty and love for you in these pages.

I will update my pages as soon as I have final word from the publisher so check back! I’m also hoping to start doing some more live videos, so drop questions you would like answered or things you would like me to share about in the comments! I hope you find something beautiful in your story today.