About

The Link in Bio:

Link in Bio

The Quick Bio:

Ashley is a neurodivergent freelance writer and blogger from Saskatchewan, Canada who specializes in creative nonfiction and children’s writing. She is the author behind The ND Family blog and social media accounts.

Ashley holds a Bachelor’s Degree (in a box in her garage), serves on the board of the Estevan Writers Group, and is a Member in Good Standing of the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild.

She has contributed to various nonprofit magazines and newsletters, guest-posted on blogs (including The Lucas Project and Finding Cooper’s Voice), and hasn’t given up on publishing her own book someday.

Ashley is available for guest-writing and appearances. Please use the Contact Page to enquire.

The Rambling Bio:

My career as a paid author began in 1998 at the age of twelve, when a children’s magazine published my work and paid me $10 for it. In the same year, I came third in a children’s story-writing contest and won a prize. After that, I hit a bit of a lull.

Since everyone knows that writing doesn’t pay the bills, I got a BA in the hopes of continuing on to a Masters, and eventually becoming a college professor. I hoped I could channel my love of writing into lecture-writing, and maybe a few of my own textbooks.

I quickly learned that degrees don’t pay the bills either. They make more bills. So I pivoted again into working multiple non-writing, soul-sucking jobs to make ends meet.

I wasn’t paid to write again until 2012, when I was hired to do promotions and admin work for a local charity. There, I filled my days writing newsletters and grant applications. It was a happy season of life, where I could see my writing making a difference.

Later, I began contributing regularly to a local, (now defunct), non-profit magazine where I wrote my own articles, edited, and worked as a ghostwriter. Unpaid, of course.

In 2021, I launched the blog that would eventually become The ND Family under my own name “Ashley Lilley blog.” As of today, my blog has made zero dollars and zero cents.

Writing doesn’t pay the bills. But I can’t not write. It’s who I am.