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
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
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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