Meet the Author

Hello. My name's Ashton, but my chosen pen name, if you'd call it that, is A.R.W. Baker. The R and W stands for Rose (my middle name) and Widdison (my maiden). If you were to look me up by Ashton Widdison, you'd probably find my old blog and learn that I self-published a book in 2014 called Out of Orbit. Confession time: I haven't reread this work in a long time, and I'm afraid to because I think it's not very good. I was a different person then, and I would make so many changes to it now. So I don't talk about this novel very often. I actually made it so that no one should be able to purchase the paperback--but I do think the eBook is still floating around.

I digress.

After self-publishing, I slammed into a wall of self-doubt, awkwardness, and imposter syndrome. I struggled to complete anything that I truly loved, with the exception of my current work-in-progress. Fast-forward a bit and I met the guy of my dreams, got married, was pregnant a little over a year later, had my daughter, tried to keep up with the ground shifting under my feet every day as a new mother, made the decision with my husband to have a second baby... Now here I am, almost 27 weeks pregnant with Baby Girl #2, a full-time stay-at-home mom, committing to my goal to find the love of writing again.

I wrote in my journal that if I love writing again as much as I once did, that love would be loud enough to drown out the fear, the doubt... I would find the words simply because I enjoy finding them, not because in my head, I hear, "You're doing this to be published, and you'll never be good enough to be published, so why bother?" What's the worst thing to happen if I never publish anything I've written? That I've spent time on a hobby and passion that makes me happy? Not too bad of an outcome, if you ask me.

I have a pretty privileged, happy life. I live in Utah, and I think it's beautiful. We're fortunate to be surrounded by family from both sides, which makes the location even sweeter. We like our neighborhood, where I can often look out the window to see families or a sole person with their dog taking walks, and I've met several people who are so kind and welcoming. We are active in our church, and I get to serve the children that go to our ward.

My life's mission is to leave the people I meet better for having known me, even briefly. This is made challenging due to the fact that I'm awkward in most social settings, and I guarantee I will overshare or overtalk in attempts to fill the silence with something. Either that or I will come off as uncomfortable, maybe even antisocial. There is no in between.

I'm a people pleaser, but I'm trying to challenge that instinct a little, to set boundaries for my own good. I admire women who speak their minds and, while they're always kind, don't allow anyone else to run their show.

When I'm not attempting to write, I am chasing my one-year-old around, sneaking in reading time, groaning about adulthood's challenge of having to figure out what to eat for dinner for the rest of our lives, talking to my dog like she understands me perfectly, chatting my husband's ear off, and scrolling on social media for an unhealthy amount of time. I wear pajamas most of the time. I don't know how to do hair, nor do I care enough, so you'll often see me with hair pulled back. I have a secret hope that the clean clothes waiting in the laundry basket will sort themselves out if I ignore them for long enough. I want to eat all the baked goods, and right now all I want is a Dr. Pepper and a bag of chocolate cinnamon bears.

One of my greatest weaknesses is buying books when I already have so many at home I haven't read yet. I've actually improved this! But the temptation is always there... Waiting for me to see a sale online or have reason to step foot into a bookstore...

If you're new here, it's nice to meet you. If you know me well, I hope that you found that I captured myself well. And have a selfie. I don't take a lot of these, but today I snapped a shot of what I usually look like: