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Interview for In Her Own Backyard with The Avid Reader & A Give Away!

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I had the pleasure of chatting with The Avid Reader for the blog tour of In Her Own Backyard. She’s hosting a *give away* to win a gift card, so head on over to her site to check it out! Here were our interview questions:

Interview with Ashley Hanna-Morgan

Could you tell us about any research trips you took for this story? Which places did you visit, and what made them essential to your writing?

Yes! I lived in Reno, Nevada for 7 years and I had never read a novel with Reno as the setting. Called the “biggest little city,” it is a gorgeous place in every season—spring blooms, summers at lake Tahoe, autumn leaves, and snow-capped mountains. I thought Reno would be a fantastic backdrop for a mystery that can only take place in a small town. The fun part was putting real places in the book for readers to enjoy and really get a sense of place, almost like Reno is another character. See the back appendix for the real places to visit in Reno list!

What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever had to research online for your book?

Researching human remains search and rescue dogs was fascinating and a little queasy at times! Dogs are incredible creatures and I love how they help us humans discover things we’re not capable of detecting. The strangest part is their training… how can they tell between scents of placenta and decay? Truly amazing.

What research (history, mythology, science) goes into your world-building?

In this case, a lot of walking! The main character’s experience of walking the streets looking for relief from her anxiety and depression then gave me the idea to have where she is influence what she is thinking about in the case, and what she takes action on. I imagined important scenes taking place around Reno in particularly interesting spots—at the Nevada Museum of Art, at the Playa Art Park, and along the Truckee River—that would heighten the suspense or the intensity of what is happening there in the story.

Have any of the people you’ve known, past or present, left a lasting impression on your writing journey? If so, we’d love to hear about a memorable experience that stands out to you.

Definitely my mom and my Nana, who taught me how to read. I’ve been writing stories and poems since I could read, at 5 years old. Nancy Drew books were a favorite back then, thanks to my mom, starting the lifelong love of mysteries! Poetry has also been a faithful companion throughout my life starting with my Nana introducing me to Shel Silverstein and Mary Oliver. My high school English teacher, Mrs. Ladd introduced me to Barbara Kingsolver’s book, The Poisonwood Bible, which was life-changing for me in high school. I had never read a book with a rotating cast of narrators to portray different perspectives about the same events, and I LOVED it. I thought, I want to write a book like that someday!

Do you write in the same genre all the time?

No, I’ve written three books that are all different! I wrote a volume of poetry, I Gave Birth to My Heart, and a support group curriculum called The Afterglow.  I feel like a parent trying to tell their children, “I don’t pick favorites!” Haha! Postpartum Depression is dubbed the “smiling depression” and people who have not been through it often wonder, “what are parents so sad about after they have a baby?” In I Gave Birth to My Heart, I wanted to draw back the curtains and give readers a glimpse into what recovery from Postpartum Depression and Anxiety actually feels like in this collection of poems. With or without Postpartum Depression, if you have had children and experienced the breaking down of your life and rebuilding from the ground up, you will find yourself in some of these lines of verse. If you have gone through infertility or the loss of a child through miscarriage, stillbirth, illness, or making an adoption plan for your baby, these poems reveal a process through grief and loss. Even if you have never had children, you will get a glimpse into the secret anguishes and innumerable joys universal to parents, and one mother’s reinvention of herself after Postpartum Depression and Anxiety. The Afterglow has allowed me to connect with folks all over world who have reached out about starting a support group. I’m so grateful for that opportunity and am so encouraged every time that happens! But during release week for the novel I spent 5 years working on, I have to say In Her Own Backyard is my favorite. I LOVE the five mama characters individually and collectively, and I LOVE the idea of a group of mom friends solving a cold case.

If so, have you ever consider writing in another one?

I didn’t consider it at first, but when my editor said, “you should definitely write a sequel from each of the mama characters’ perspectives,” I liked that idea! Amaya’s voice has already started talking to me as the narrator of the next book in the series and that is fun because she is spicy!

Which character, supernatural or human, do you enjoy writing the most and why?

Honestly, it was really fun to write a villain. I’ve never done that before! I can’t tell you who it is—no spoilers—but let’s just say, it was fun to play around with the villain’s voice in a crucial scene at the end!

https://magickofbooks.blogspot.com/2026/04/In-Her-Own-Backyard-04-08–BT-RABT.html

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Books, Healing through Art

Nevada Author Network Podcast Episode Now Available!

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The Sierra Arts Foundation started a podcast called the Nevada Author Network and they invited me on to talk about In Her Own Backyard! The episode is now available on apple, Spotify and youtube. The hosts, CC & JT, were such warm and welcoming interviewers. The podcast coming out today makes the launch week for my novel feel so special! For me, this book is a love letter to all parents who have gone through perinatal mental health journeys, and I’m thrilled to continue the conversation with readers, moms groups, and book clubs! I hope you enjoy it, my fellow mystery lovers!

This podcast episode is available to watch on their Youtube channel, as well as on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen!

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Postpartum Anxiety

Coming soon to a bookstore near you…

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Exciting news, y’all! As some of you know, I’ve been working a novel–yep, it started as a pandemic project!– and it’s about to become reality! I’m so grateful I connected with the awesome folks at Acorn Publishing at the San Diego Writer’s Festival in April. They caught my vision for a novel about a woman who feels lost, in the midst of postpartum depression and anxiety, and tries to find a missing woman.

If you know me, you know I’m passionate about perinatal mental health and true crime, so why not write about both?! And yes, it includes original poetry, pays homage to Reno where I imagined it all happening, and a few of my recipes to boot. What can I say? I love what I love!

Working with their team has been a treat! I can’t wait to share the book cover with you. When I first laid eyes on it, I’m talking about full body chills. The designer nailed it! For now, the back cover blurb gives you a sense of what’s in store! And in a fun numerology moment, the release date is going to be 3.26.26. Perfect timing during National Social Work Month, and just in time for Mother’s Day! Mark your calendars: In Her Own Backyard will be available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble on March 26, 2026

In Her Own Backyard

Every street holds a secret . . .

New to the neighborhood and reeling from the traumatic birth of her second child, Marlowe Moore is barely holding it together. Battling postpartum depression and anxiety, she’s desperate for stability.

But when she learns that a woman who once lived in her family’s new home vanished without a trace, Marlowe becomes obsessed. As strange things happen and neighborly smiles feel like veiled threats, Marlowe can’t shake the feeling that someone is hiding something.

She spirals further into paranoia fixated on the abandoned case and determined to seek justice. But how can a woman who feels lost find a missing woman?

Juggling the demands of her beloved family and her harrowing mental illness, Marlowe doesn’t realize she is caught in a cat-and-mouse game that could cost her everything … including her life.

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Coping Tools

Afterglow Week Six:  A Meditation to Be As You Are

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Since the free app that I recommended for my curriculum guided meditations, Stop, Breathe & Think, went out of business earlier this year, I want to offer some lovely alternatives for you to use instead. I love this self-acceptance meditation by Cheryl Jones, founder of the Mindful Path. Feel free to read this aloud in the group, or click on the link to access the free audio available on mindful.com

1. Find your way to an upright and dignified posture. Close your eyes or lower your eyes in a soft gaze. Place your feet on the ground and relax your arms at your sides. Rest your hands in your lap. Draw your shoulder blades subtly toward each other, allowing the chin to be parallel with the floor. Lift the crown of your head toward the sky. Perhaps soften the belly and the jaw.

2. Notice what it feels like to stop. Notice what it feels like to be sitting in this purposeful posture in this moment, in this space. And perhaps now take a moment to welcome yourself to your practice, acknowledging your willingness to be here for yourself in this way.

3. Notice that you are breathing. There’s no need to change or manipulate the breath in any way. Allow the breath to be just as it is right here, right now. Simply follow the breath in and follow the breath out.

4. Notice where you feel the sensations of the breath. Perhaps you’re aware of the air moving in and out at the nostrils and the upper lip. You could possibly be sensing the gentle expanding and contracting of the chest and ribs. Maybe you feel the abdomen rising and sinking. Allow your attention to rest on the sensations of the breath as it flows in and out of the body.

5. As you’re sitting here with the attention on the breath, you may notice thoughts going through the mind. There’s no need to block thoughts out. Rather, see if it is possible to allow thoughts to pass through the mind one by one. Let go of any need to label thoughts as positive or negative. Good or bad. Find a neutral way to be with your thoughts. See if it’s possible to be aware of thoughts without grasping or clinging to any one thought. And also without rejecting or denying any particular thought.

6. Shift your attention now to any feelings that may be present in this moment. Breathing in and breathing out. Acknowledge any feeling just as it is. Sometimes we have feelings about our feelings. We may feel that one feeling is OK or acceptable while another is not. All feelings are acceptable.

7. Now, bring your awareness to sensations within the body. Warmth. Coolness. Tingling. Tightness. Pulsation. Relaxation. Hunger. Fullness. Notice what’s happening within the body in this moment. Do this with patience and kindness. Explore sensations both strong and subtle with curiosity.

8. As you breathe in and breathe out, notice if your posture has shifted. And then make any adjustments, if you’d like. Allow yourself to tune in to the body just as it is.

9. Center your attention on only the breath now. And as we near the end of this practice, follow three more full cycles of breathing. Be as present as possible for each one. Remember this place of awareness is always available to you because it’s within you.

10. As you feel ready, allow your eyes to open gently if they were closed. Get reacquainted with your surroundings and prepare to reengage with the day. Perhaps set an intention to bring awareness to all that you do and into each interaction.

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Coping Tools

Afterglow Week Four: A Meditation to Find Calm and Equanimity

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Since the free app that I recommended for my curriculum guided meditations, Stop, Breathe & Think, went out of business earlier this year, I want to offer some alternatives for you to use instead. I love this calming meditation by Diane Winston, director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA. Feel free to read this aloud in the group, which may be more time efficient if there are fussy babies present, or click on the link to access the free audio available on mindful.com

 1. Let’s begin with a few deep breaths. And as you take these deep breaths, let yourself soften into the present moment. Let go of whatever was challenging for you today and help yourself arrive more fully right here and now.

2. Notice your body wherever you’re seated: maybe you’re sitting on a chair or couch or bed. Feel your feet on the floor, feeling the solidity of the floor. Can you feel the connection between your feet and the ground? Feel the support and always remind yourself that you can go back to the sensations of your feet on the ground when you need a sense of grounding. When you start to feel anxious, when you start to feel some despair, irritation, frustration, come back to the present moment through feeling your feet on the ground.

3. Notice other parts of the body softening, resting. Feel your legs supported. Feel your pelvis and feel your back against the chair. Or just notice your back and stomach area.

4. Take another deep breath while softening your stomach area. Feel your hands and fingers and let them be soft. Let your arms and shoulders soften, too. Relax your neck, throat, and facial muscles.

5. How are you feeling now? Check in with you heart, your emotions. See if you can let whatever is here be here. This is space and time for you.

6. Turn your attention toward the sounds around you. Listen to sounds as they come and go. There may be a sound of silence where you are. We’re not getting lost in a story about the sounds. Instead, we’re just listening.

7. Now, shift your attention to your breath and your body. Feel your abdomen or chest rising and falling. Let your breath be natural at its own natural rhythm, and exhale through your nose. Notice the air moving in your body: at your abdomen or chest or nose.

8. To help us find some stability and calm, and come back to ourselves, let’s go back to the breath. Choose an anchor of attention that is easiest or clearest for you to follow. Or if you enjoyed listening to sounds, you can continue doing that. It’s helpful to have one thing to focus on. Our attention will wander and we simply bring it back.

9. As we continue meditating, we’ll shift to the practice of cultivating equanimity. To begin, bring to mind a time in your life when you felt you had some equanimity. And this may have been very recently or it may have been a long time ago. It may have been something major when you handled something in a way that you surprised you. It may been something small, like a moment when you felt present.See if you can remember that time well. Remember where you were. Remember what you could see. Remember what you could hear. Remember what you could smell. Most importantly, what did you feel in your body?

10. Bring your attention to what you felt in your body. Notice what qualities you could discern. Did you feel strong or centered. Powerful, relaxed, or open? Feel that right now. Feel that experience. And if you want to use phrases to remind yourself, you can say something like, “I could be with this as it was.” “I could handle it.” “I handled this with ease, with equanimity.” “It might not have been easy, but with balance I got through it.” Listen to sounds as they come and go. Notice what you’re feeling. Notice a sense of balance and even-mindedness.

11. Now, let’s see if there’s a part of our body that feels at ease. And if there’s nothing that feels good in your body right now, maybe open your eyes and look for something attractive in front of you, like a flower out the window or something else that’s pleasing.

12. And now try to think of a way in which you’re not having equanimity these days. If you’re newer to this practice, just start with something simple in your life. Someplace where you don’t have equanimity. It could be in relation to another person, it could be in relation to yourself. Bring that situation or that person or the place where you don’t have equanimity to mind. Notice how it feels in your body right now. Notice how you’re feeling. You can also notice the part of you that feels at ease and let yourself connect with that part of your body. And we might say, “Things are as they are.” “May I be with things as they are.” “You are as you are.” “May I be with you as you are.” “Life is as it is.” “Can I be with this as it is?” “May I one day be with life as it is.” “May I consider the possibility of being with things as they are.” “May I know I’ll get through this.”  

13. As you say your own phrases or my words, notice what’s happening in your body. And if you start to feel more of this quality of equanimity, really let it be here.

14. Remember how it felt in the previous memory? Can you bring that here right now for this difficult situation? You can be with things are they are. Things are as they are.

15. There may be a voice inside of you saying, “No, I can’t be with things.” “It’s unfair.” or “Things are really bad.” Can you bring some kindness and compassion to yourself right now for that voice? It’s so understandable, so real, and we’re all feeling that at various times. For whatever I’m experiencing, can I hold myself with kindness?

16. And whether or not there is strong equanimity, if you want to bring back that earlier memory where there was equanimity, let’s send it out into the world. Equanimity is even-mindedness, balance, and courage. So, in your mind, generate the quality and send it out throughout the world, touching all the people who need it right now.

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Afterglow Week Three Meditation: A Moment of Loving Kindness

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Since the free app that I recommended for my curriculum guided meditations, Stop, Breathe & Think, went out of business earlier this year, I want to offer some alternatives for you to use instead. I love this liberating, loving kindness meditation by Dr. Shelly Harrell. Feel free to read this aloud in the group, which may be more time efficient, or click on the link to access the free audio available on mindful.com

1. Invite your body to relax, rolling back your shoulders. Open up your heart space. And allow your breath with every inhale to move through the heart. And every exhale to move back to the heart. I have recently learned that the heart actually sends more messages to the brain and the brain to the heart.

2. Drop your gaze or close your eyes, inviting the body to relax. Please let these phrases wash over you, replenishing, refreshing, and nourishing your soul. May you live in truth and be free. May the light of truth open your eyes and liberate your soul to express its highest calling. May you hear your inner wisdom voice and discern its messages from the illusions, projections, hype, and lies.

3. May any imprisoned part of your being be liberated, unchained, and unshackled from all that keeps you in bondage in any way. May you release and let go of habits, patterns, and behaviors that no longer serve you. May you transcend limitations, those imposed by others and those you have imposed on yourself.

4. May you know that within each moment lives the freedom to choose and to begin again. May you know the divine truth of who you really are, your worth and your value, your gifts and your purpose. May you be free.

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Afterglow Week One Meditation: R.E.S.T.

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Since the free app that I recommended for my curriculum guided meditations, Stop, Breathe & Think, went out of business earlier this year, I want to offer some lovely alternatives for you to use instead. This simple yet profound R.E.S.T. meditation by Rashid Hughes is a great place to start. Feel free to read this aloud in the group, which may be more time efficient, or click on the link to access the free audio available on mindful.com

“Find a comfortable posture of your choice. This could be a sitting posture, standing, or lying down.

If you choose to keep your eyes open, let your gaze rest, lowered on a point in front of you. If you choose to keep your eyes closed, rest your eyelids comfortably.

Set your intention toward relaxing and effortlessness. 

Whenever you notice yourself shifting into “doing” or “thinking,” simply return back to your original intention, and begin again.

Relax your attention. Release any fixation that you might have on any object. Be as ordinary and natural as possible. If you notice that your attention becomes fixated or distracted, simply relax.

Exhale all striving. Empty yourself of any effort toward achieving a particular outcome or result. Remain open and accepting to the present moment. Let your experience be as it is.

Sense the silence. Surrender all attachment to what you notice, and feel the intuitive sense of silence within you. Be aware of the silence and feel the vastness of the silence.

Tune in to awareness. Recognize that you are naturally aware, and you are conscious of this awareness. Trust this effortless knowing and the silence. There’s nothing to do, and nowhere to go. Just rest.

When you are ready to end the practice, gently bring your attention to your surroundings and invite simple movements to your body.”

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Afterglow Week Two Meditation: A 5-Minute Body Scan Meditation for Nurturing your Heart

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Since the free app that I recommended for my curriculum guided meditations, Stop, Breathe & Think, went out of business earlier this year, I want to offer some lovely alternatives for you to use instead. I love this nurturing meditation by Jonathan Fishler. Feel free to read this aloud in the group, which may be more time efficient if there are fussy babies present, or click on the link to access the free audio available on mindful.com

“ Find a comfortable position. Adjust your posture to bring a little bit more comfort in. Set the spine upright and relaxed. Take a few nice deep breaths into the abdomen, filling up the belly and exhaling slowly. Take a deep breath in through the nostrils. As you breathe out, let your eyes gently close or gaze softly in front of you. Arrive fully in this moment. Let go of thoughts or stories as we return back into this body.

Feel into the soles of your feet or wherever your body makes contact with your seat. Notice any sensations, any vibration, pressure, tingling in your body. Feel a sense of support from the ground or seat beneath you. Shift your attention to your thighs and feel gravity pulling you down slightly. You may remember that you’re supported and safe in this moment.

Now, bring awareness to your shoulders. Allow a sense of relaxation and softness throughout your body. Bring attention to the space between the eyes and the muscles of the face and jaw, just allowing them some kindness now. Allow them to relax.  Listen into the space around the heart. Listen deeper into the space of the heart.

Ask yourself: What am I needing most? See what arises. Perhaps it’s a sense of calm or balance. Or maybe it’s growth or strength or self-trust. Perhaps it’s a sense of connection. Maybe it’s love. Whatever it is, allow that intention to grow in strength. Allow that intention to fill up the space of the heart. Like a golden light, let it fill up the space of the chest. Allow that intention to find what you are most needing right now to fill up your body. 

Let your intention spill out beyond you. And in this next moment, offer yourself some compassion. Compassion for the challenges that you’ve faced and continue to face. Offer yourself a sense of ease, a sense of nurturing. See whether you can begin to treat yourself like you would treat a child or a close friend who is going through a difficult moment. And in any difficult moment asking yourself: Can I simply be kind to myself right now? Even in this moment of uncertainty, pain or discomfort, even in this moment of fear.

Now, let go of that intention. Come back into the body, into the environment, feeling supported by your feet on the floor or your thighs on the chair. Offer some gratitude to your body sitting here breathing, and gratitude for the community that is sitting here together. Just breathing. Just being with a sense of connection.  When you’re ready, gently open your eyes and bring some movement back into your shoulders, fingers, and  hands, if that feels right.”

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