The Ashley Donahue Character:
“For me the Ashley character became all about what we are most afraid of. And also about the gunfighter story in the western movies that are such a part of our Americana. Ashley is our young gunfighter. We quite literally first meet her at the gun range.
While our ghost cowboy characters and our modern ranching family the Hammonds are the more obvious western family saga components of This Is Dismal as a western, Ashley is the core of that gunfighter sort of western story.”
“So Ashley is afraid of being incarcerated underground without a trial. She is afraid of her family disappearing. And she is afraid of living out her life never knowing what happened to them.
Ashley has spent her young adult life under the coercion of the high level operative David. As he moves to bring her more closely under his authority she must move to prevent her ability to extract information from being used in ways she never intended.
Ashley will save herself ultimately through resilience and grit but even that is rarely that straightforward.”
“Her story, her gifts and her problems, did not start with her. Therefore in this fiction story, she will not fight alone but instead we will find that her ancestors will pursue justice far beyond her own circumstances. So there is this profound connection and also this persistent disconnect because she can’t ever know all the things that happened before her.”
-Bunny Hammond
Ashley is the center of the science fiction and thriller aspects of the modern timeline in This Is Dismal.
“Mother and daughter stopped to admire the merchandise display and smell the bags of coffee beans. Simone took an order from a smart looking woman she had never seen before.
Then time slowed for Simone as the woman who had just ordered grabbed Ashley forcefully by the elbow and Ashley produced a handgun from nowhere and put it in the woman’s shoulder.
“David’s waiting for you outside, come with me, he wants to talk to you.”
Ashley had seen the black SUV park on the curb in the no parking zone moments before.
“Like hell he is.”
That’s when the agent had grabbed Ashley’s elbow.
Ashley spoke with a pleasant smile in her voice.
“Give me any reason. I will never stand trial.”
The woman’s eyes widened just perceptibly as Ashley kept talking.
“Actually this could be good for me, bring me into the public eye. So many witnesses.”
The agent’s pulse changed just a little and Ashley smiled.
“You really screwed up this time didn’t you.”
Then Ashley shoved her hard with her palms in both shoulders.
“Get out of here. Don’t bother me again.”
The agent’s face was unreadable. She even paused to collect her hot drink from the counter as if nothing had happened. Ashley called out sarcastically after her as the agent pushed on the coffee shop door.
“Say hi to David for me.”
Simone could feel Barb looking at her and she met her gaze on her own terms. Their tiny baby girl, their genius in a little backpack, they had lost her. The woman in front of them, this was someone they didn’t know at all.”
-This Is Dismal, Chapter 21