In this compelling Q&A, we delve into the journey of Asha Nyr, a writer who turned to fiction as a means of processing and healing from profound trauma. A self-described "accidental author," Asha's path to writing was unconventional, marked by a career in animation and a subsequent health crisis that left her disabled. Through the transformative power of storytelling, she has found a way to confront her past and offer solace and understanding to others who have faced similar struggles.
Her debut novel, The Mistake and the Lycan King, has resonated deeply with readers, many of whom see their own stories reflected in its pages. In this interview, Asha shares her personal and creative journey, the inspiration behind her work, and the powerful messages she hopes to convey through her writing. She also gives us a glimpse into her upcoming projects, revealing a fantasy world where healing, growth, and resilience are at the forefront.
Tell us a bit about your background and career.
I’m an accidental author who writes to process unspeakable childhood trauma consisting of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. I look back and still can’t believe how I got here because I felt like the odds were always against me. I grew up with PTSD, ADHD, and syndromes like POTS and hEDS, but I studied hard, earned two bachelor’s degrees(valedictorian for the second one, somehow), then worked in the animation industry until I ended up at a nine-to-five silicon valley desk job. However, my health deteriorated when I developed a spinal leak, and I lost my job, unable to get better in time.
At first, I didn’t know what to do with myself after I became disabled, but when my therapist taught me about exposure therapy, I realized that I could approach my healing through a new, safer avenue. I’d never done creative writing before, but somehow it worked out perfectly. I could write in the small windows I could stay awake and use the fantasy genre as a buffer against the intensity of exposure therapy. When I finished my first book, The Mistake, and the Lycan King, I started receiving so many reviews from other survivors saying how much they related to my story and found their healing in it, and people began to ask for printed copies. I thought maybe this was a new, more meaningful path for my life, and I went all in. So, here I am now, working on publishing the ten books I’ve written to restart my life and—hopefully—move those who may benefit from the same healing these books offered me.
Tell us about your new book "The Mistake and the Lycan King."
This fantasy romance is about a young woman named Ragna who belongs to a pack of wolf-shifters, people who can turn into wolves. Now, the Moon Goddess gives everyone a soulmate upon their eighteenth birthday, but when Ragna comes of age, she is somehow paired with all the single men in the realm. Because the men start to fight over her and the women try to kill her, Ragna is banished. She then encounters the Sky Gods who tell her the Moon Goddess is missing, and because Ragna is the last person she was working with, the young woman must find her.
While Ragna looks for answers, King Zorian decides that in order to restore order to his kingdom, he must kill her. When he captures her, the Sun God interferes and aggressively reinforces Ragna’s mission by making King Zorian her champion and protector. So, they set off together, and during this quest to find the Moon Goddess, both Ragna and Zorian learn about and from each other. Not only do they eventually learn how to forgive, but they discover how finding peace can help them grow into the best versions of themselves. Beneath it all, this particular story focuses on coping with feeling hunted and how my anger about the past never allowed me to find peace. Zorian represents that anger, and Ragna embodies the driving force of therapy.
What was your impetus for writing your book?
As I mentioned, The Mistake and the Lycan King was written as exposure therapy to process trauma. Exposure therapy is when one exposes themself to their fear in small amounts until they can overcome it. For me, some of my fears aren’t something I can just walk up to. So, when I was thirty-five years old, I began to write a book, using characters to approach my fears instead. The only way I could deal with my particular traumas was to distance myself in fantasy. I could push uncomfortable topics when I needed to and pull them when it was too much, too upsetting. The pacing, and the intensity, were all under my control, so it was a safe place to explore feelings and memories. I’ve learned so much about myself, and aside from seeking professional help, writing this book was the best decision I’ve ever made.
What are the messages you want readers to take away from reading your work?
There are gifts in every book, profound realizations I’ve discovered along the way, alongside the characters themselves. I realize that’s a bit ambiguous, so I’ll give you an example. I want to give you the example from book 2, The Dragon Knight and the Coveted because it contains my favorite profound realization to this day. Elpis is a pleasure slave who was liberated by a knight, and she suffers from the same condition I do, the feeling of being touched when no one is around. It’s like, for Elpis and me, our skin contains its memories, making us feel dirty, stained, and violated.
I learned while researching that at my character’s age, skin renews itself—the cells shedding and being replaced—over the course of a month. At one point, to comfort the traumatized Elpis, her knight tells her this and then says, “It means that in a month or two, all your skin will have never known an unwanted touch. The skin that remembers the mansion will be completely gone.”
For me, it’s been years since the abuse, and my skin has regrown many times. It provided a shield for me. I want the reader to experience what I felt when I discovered that fact through my research. My books are filled with these gifts, and the reader will encounter them at the same point I did.
What authors have inspired you along the way?
I grew up rereading favorites like David Eddings and Garth Nix, so I’m not too familiar with newer works. Eddings’s The Belgariad was a lesson on the importance of worldbuilding and lore, having woven it spectacularly into the plot and flavored by the spice of compelling characters. What I wanted was to embrace something epic like that but incorporate what I needed for therapy into the mix. Little did I know, that creating deities and complex magic systems is a wonderful distraction from the pains of exposure therapy.
Garth Nix’s Sabriel taught me that darker elements could enhance fantasy, and add an extra edge to fantasy’s legendary blade, so to speak—something I’d never considered. I’m not talking about incorporating something strictly from the horror or suspense genre, but there are techniques right in the middle that can be brought over to intensify situations. I, particularly like Nix’s restraint, how avoiding certain details, can make a scene or creature more terrifying. I felt like it permitted me to push the rules… so I could explore tough topics and situations to the point where I could truly and deeply feel them.
What are you working on now and what can we expect next?
I’m juggling three big projects. First, The Packless and the Fae Prince releases this month, but after that, I’m preparing book four in the Healing Fate series for publishing. I’ve already written 8 books in the series and am publishing them all one at a time. They just need some editing love! Second, I’m currently finishing book 9, The Winter King and the Wilted, for my beloved Inkitt readers and will be starting the next novel in the series, The Fae Queen and the Deadman.Third, I’m going to start querying for an agent because I’d like to traditionally publish a second series I’ve written that focuses on heroines coping with my other health issues—POTS, hEDS, ADHD, BPD, and others. I’m rewriting the first two books of my The Summoner Chronicles series: So Familiar and How to Duet. Book 3, After My Sewn Heart, is still in the works too. So, there’s an enormous pile of heart-stopping, profound, and sensual adventures for my readers to look forward to, and I’m very excited about it!
Where can people find out more about you and your work?
I have my author’s website, ashanyr.com, where you can read a bit about me, and it links out to my books on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and KindleUnlimited, but I’m also on other social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
Inkitt is a great place to find the entire collection of my unpublished works, so just search for my pen name: Asha Nyr. On Inkitt, you can read all my unpublished and unedited books for free (I promised my original reader family that I would never put up a paywall because a lot of my readers don’t have a budget for books) until I have to, unfortunately, pull them down after self-publishing per my contract. I owe my Inkitt readers everything for my second chance at life, and they will always have access to whatever I can give them for the rest of my literary career, which I aim to do for the rest of my life.Thank you so much for this interview. It’s truly been an honor, and I’m deeply humbled. As I say to my readers, they say to me: "Starlight preserve you."
