Hello! I’m Stephanie Ascough, an author of fantasy, fairy tales, and other enchantments. I’ve been a writer since before I was ten years old, when I started recording terrible stories in my journal. Obscure fairy tales, hiking in the woods, and spotting mushrooms are among the things that make me shriek for joy. I live with my husband, our four kids, and our cat/fae overlord live in eastern Tennessee on unceded Cherokee and Muskogee land.
If you love celebrating the seasons + exploring folklore and fairy tales, you’ve come to the right place.
In The Purple Vale, I share sneak peeks into my current projects, the occasional thought on being a neurodivergent/neurospicy person and writer in a world that provides so much scope for the imagination, and yet a society which is not really made for us.
I see both beauty and injustice in the world and I believe that storytelling can heal so much.
When you sign up, you will receive an ebook of A Winter's Sleep, my short, sweet fairy tale about a young mother searching for her missing husband.
It’s a story about embracing seasonal changes, fighting for those we love, and it features some folkloric figures.
I hope you’ll join me in The Purple Vale. Its romantic title is inspired by Anne Shirley’s affinity for naming places dear to her heart. Purple, because it recalls the in-between time of twilight. Vale, because it’s a little valley between mountains, one of my favorite places, and a sense of place has always been important to me.
I think Anne, whom I’m convinced is neurodivergent, by the way, would approve.
If you believe in the value of my work and would like to support my writing financially, you will receive an exclusive extra post every month. This post contains one of the following:
personal journal entry about nueurodivergence/neurospiciness and/or writing,
a flash fiction inspired by fairy tales or folklore,
a download for seasonal reflections or stories, OR
another kind of enchantment!
If you’d like to check out my books, which are all inspired by fairy tales or folklore, you can do so here and here.
