Diary
of a Sorceress
by
Ashley Dioses
Genre:
Dark Poetry
The
young poet Ashley Dioses has already established herself as a leading
voice in contemporary weird poetry. Known for her meticulous use of
rhyme and meter, her deft melding of the strange and the erotic, and
her novel treatments of such age-old themes as the vampire, the
witch, and the ghoul, Dioses now gathers the best of her recent
poetry into her first collection—a scintillating assemblage of
nearly 100 poems short and long, published and unpublished.
With
this single volume, Ashley Dioses takes her place as a worthy
successor to the long line of California Romantics, beginning with
Ambrose Bierce, Clark Ashton Smith, and Nora May French, and carrying
on with Donald Sidney-Fryer and K. A. Opperman (The Crimson Tome),
with whom she has worked closely.
Ashley
began writing at the age of 12. Upon discovering the macabre work of
Edgar Allan Poe, she took a borderline obsessive interest in writing
horror and dark fantasy poetry and even a few fantasy novels. Her
favorite authors of horror and fantasy at that time were Stephen
King, Dean Koontz, J.R.R. Tolkien, Piers Anthony, and Brian Jacques
who also influenced her work.
She
wrote up until her senior year of high school and then took a break
before starting up again after college in 2011. With a nudge from a
new friend, she discovered a new kind of horror, dark fantasy, and
weird work from authors such as Clark Ashton Smith, H.P. Lovecraft,
George Sterling, Donald Sidney-Fryer, and David Park Barnitz.
With
this new treasure trove of horror and weird authors, she began to
broaden her writing.
Aside
from writing, her other passion is martial arts. When she was 12 she
started practicing a shotokan Japanese karate mix (called 'American'
karate) and Judo at Red Dragon until she reached 3rd class brown belt
at 15. At 18 she started practicing Soo Bahk Do, a Korean karate,
where she stayed for four years, getting her black belt and taught as
an instructor for a brief period of time before leaving.
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