Wren Ashby

Hi, I’m Wren.

I write stories about complicated women, terrible marriages, buried secrets, bad decisions, and people who probably should’ve asked a few more questions before trusting the person sleeping next to them.

Which is slightly ironic considering I’m actually very happily married.

Apparently, happiness at home just gives me more energy to ruin fictional people’s lives.

I’ve always been a writer in some form, although there were a few years when that part of me got pretty quiet. Life got busy. I fell in love, got married, built a home and somewhere along the way, the stories stopped demanding quite so much attention.

Then they came back.

Loudly.

Now I’m the person opening the Notes app in a parking lot because I just thought of a murder motive. I hear completely innocent things people say and think, Well, that would be creepy as hell in a book. I can be halfway through doing something that has absolutely nothing to do with writing and suddenly realize exactly what one of my characters has been lying about for the last twenty chapters.

My brain is a fun place.

Probably not a safe one.

The stories I love

Psychological thrillers and domestic suspense are my happy place, which sounds weird when you actually say it out loud.

I want secrets. Unreliable people. Relationships that aren’t what they look like from the outside. That moment when one tiny detail changes everything you thought you knew.

And please, for the love of God, give me a twist.

I’m fascinated by ordinary people getting themselves into very unordinary situations. I especially love writing women who know something feels wrong but haven’t quite figured out what yet.

Because once she does?

That’s when things get fun.

My current novel, What the Water Kept, follows a woman who returns to Bellweather seeking revenge for the husband she lost, only to uncover old money, buried family secrets, and proof that his death was never what it seemed.

I’m also publishing The Woman Who Subscribed right here on the site, one chapter every Thursday. It’s a 12-week psychological thriller serial about a writer, a missing girl, a buried past, and one subscriber who seems to know entirely too much.

When I’m not ruining fictional lives…

I’m usually living a considerably less dramatic one.

I’m married to my favorite person, which probably explains why he gets subjected to questions no husband should have to answer without context.

Things like:

“Hypothetically, how long do you think it would take someone to notice…?”

He’s learned not to ask too many follow-up questions.

I’m also a thriller reader, bourbon drinker, chronic overthinker, and Alabama football fan who yells at the television as though the coaching staff is waiting for my input.

I love dark stories, but I don’t take myself particularly seriously.

You’ll probably figure that out pretty quickly around here.

Why Wren Ashby?

Wren is where I get to let that darker, weirder, more creative side of my brain run around unsupervised.

This site isn’t only about books I hope to publish someday. It’s where I’m writing now.

You’ll find fiction, thoughts about writing, books I’m reading, works in progress, the occasional rant about thriller endings, and probably some things I haven’t thought of yet.

I’m figuring this part out as I go.

And honestly?

That’s kind of the fun of it.

So look around. Read something. Start The Woman Who Subscribed if you haven’t already.

Just remember one thing:

If you ever say something interesting around a writer, there’s a decent chance we’re going to use it eventually.

Names changed, of course.

Probably.

~Wren 🖤