Ashley
A New Jersey native, raised by two teachers alongside two brothers, Ashley became a New Yorker by adoption upon attending Manhattan University in the Bronx where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in English.
With her laptop in hand—purchased with the prize money won for her first-place essay on “What it Means to be an American” for the Grand Lodge of Free Masons of New York’s Frank M. Totton Essay Contest—she followed her love of words to the City that Never Sleeps. She met Kevin the next day.
Twenty years, a few jobs, a fifth-floor apartment, one beagle-whippet, a campus wedding, a tiny house, a bigger house, and three kids later, Kevin encouraged (mostly pushed) Ashley to pick up creative writing again. A diligent editor with a discerning voice, Ashley’s role in this writing duo is to hone and polish the fantastical and frenetic ideas developed by her equally fantastical counterpart.
A mom by day, night, and all other times, Ashley’s professional career has been rooted in the design field. For the past twelve years, she has worked at an architecture firm in Westchester, NY. As the practice’s Marketing Coordinator, she is the keeper and cultivator of the words that embody the firm.
Aside from her husband and children, her two biggest loves are the beach and Henry David Thoreau (and maybe also James Bay, teenage television programs, skiing, romance novels, and Dax Shepherd’s Armchair Expert).
Some of her favorite words: intrinsic, deliberately, and Steve Miller’s pompatus.
Kevin
Kevin is a second-generation New York City first responder. The son of a FDNY Captain, Kevin has been a Police Officer for more than 18 years and currently serves in the department’s Intelligence and Counter Terrorism Division. The middle child of five siblings, Kevin cut his teeth where Long Island’s Northern State Parkway ends before attending Avon Old Farms in Connecticut, where he was the suspected leader of a group of nighttime pranksters. He then aptly studied Criminology at Manhattan University.
A dedicated athlete, Kevin has played hockey since he could walk and was a member of the New York City Police Department’s team until Dad-life forced him into early retirement in 2018. Through his wife and children, he is now also a skilled skier, golfer, and tap dancer.
Kevin stumbled upon picture book writing through his steadfast refusal to grow up and the right sizing wonder of seeing the world through his children’s eyes. What started as notebook margin scribbles during downtime on the midnight shift, escalated into a snowballing of ideas—often in need of melting down but always full of fun—endeavoring to answer his children’s questions about the world.
He is a self-proclaimed ‘great cook,’ a lover of Planet Earth, he is a wealth of knowledge (of indeterminate value) on space, animals, and rock n’ roll, he has an affinity for chicken cutlet sandwiches, his favorite read is historical non-fiction, he would leave his wife for Eddie Vedder, and he is 51% Irish – ask him about it.
He hates police procedurals, turning around after he’s left the house, any shoe that isn’t a flip flop, the Long Island Expressway, dishes in the sink, cucumbers, and the end of any good time.