1988: Author goes beyond the grave

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Tags: Arts, books, centenary-edition

Amanda Ashby, BA

Since graduating from UQ, Amanda Ashby has battled zombies and received messages from beyond the grave.

Amanda Ashby

As an author, Ms Ashby regularly delves into other worlds, and has had two novels published in the US.

You Had Me at Halo is about a girl looking down on her funeral. Her latest novel, Zombie Queen of Newbury High, sees Mia, desperate to get school jock Rob to be her date for the prom, cast a love spell that accidentally turns out to be a zombie virus which infects her classmates.

While still at university, Ms Ashby had no idea she would be writing novels, especially ones nominated for awards.

“Of course when I look back now all the clues were there. I was good at English, loved reading and had a bad habit of rewriting television shows and books in my head—normally giving myself a staring role,” she said.

But is the novelist and mother-of-two’s lifestyle all glamour?

“I wish! In fact when I sold my first book I put in an order for a naked pool boy to come along and peel my grapes but he never turned up,” Ms Ashby said.

“The truth is that I know a lot of authors and I’ve yet to see anyone who fits the stereotype. In fact most of them just look like normal people, apart from the vague look they occasionally get as their mind wanders off to grapple with a pesky plot point or a misbehaving character.”

By Amanda Sproule

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