My sincerest apologies for being so neglectful, guys, but I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Anyway, I found this the other day and, recently inspired by the best fan letter of all time—thank you, Sarah B.!—I thought I might share it with you all. It’s a description of my target audience for “Rising Shadows” that I wrote up for my publisher at the very beginning of this whole process. Kind of curious to see how accurate this is for some of you. Oh! And since today’s update is Shadow-based, keep in mind that I love to hear from my fans. If you have ideas or hopes about where the series should go and what you expect from Book II, please shoot me an email at ashleytownsend.author@yahoo.com. It’s been so fun to get your input on this next installment as I write, and also very helpful! And I finally added the link to my Pinterest boards on the left (under Blogroll and “Pinterest”), so you can keep up-to-date on what I’m doing though my Novel Inspiration board. I think you all will be very excited over where the Shadow Trilogy is going; I’ve never been this giddy and surprised in any of my previous writing, and I honestly cannot wait to reveal some of what I’m working on. But until then! Ta-da!

Target Audience:

My audience is centered on young men and women who read to escape and de-stress. Though they have adventurous spirits and dream of excitement, my readers have had very few opportunities for adventure and live vicariously through the stories they read. They love to sit in their favorite chair in a quiet corner with a book that is filled with humor, fantasy, adventure, and romance. To them, a book that flows nicely has to have multi-dimensional characters and a “creamy” mixture of detailed descriptions and dialogue; they can become detached from a story if there are unnecessary details or a lack of dialogue between characters. They are intelligent and read historical fiction because it can be both entertaining and educational. In order for them to fully lose themselves in a story, it has to be filled with strong but realistic characters who have the ability to overcome evil. My readers are fixers by nature and are drawn to wounded heroes and heroines with a darker side and a deep longing for the light. They love to see their favorite characters heal from past hurts and learn to love and trust again. These avid readers are attracted to relatable characters and constantly wonder how they would react in the same situation. Reading not only allows my audience to relax and escape, but it also helps them to sort out life’s problems; they feel hopeful when they see characters overcome obstacles that they themselves are facing. My readers know that I write to provide entertaining, quality adventure stories that kids would not be embarrassed or ashamed to share with their parents.

P.S. My sister, Katie, wrote an amazingly encouraging post that I thought you all should check out. http://booksandwonderfulthings.wordpress.com/2012/11/25/fallen-leaves/