Hello, my name is Ashley. I grew up in the small town of Connersville, Indiana where I am still attending college with a major in English. I began writing as a child in my Lisa Frank diaries. The first time I received one of these was on my 9th Christmas from my grandmother. At first I was resistent. I had no intention of writing. After all, this was a vacation from school and writing was most definately school work. Alas, I began writing random thoughts into the diary in hopes of not hurting Grandma's feelings. She'd been so generous after all. I've been writing ever since. A big thanks to Grandma! My first publication was simply in anthologies. Now, there is nothing wrong with anothologies, but my poem was mixed right in with the other 9,000 or so that had been chosen. Of course, it seemed like so much more at the time. After a couple of those, I began writing what is now Cutting Out the Pain. It was written during what were the most difficult years of my life thus far. High school. The poems were written over a spanse of about three years. Aside from writing, I am foremost, a reader. Of anything really. Books, magazines, newspapers, the back of cereal boxes, whatever happens to be around. My purpose for writing this book was to tell others about this disorder. Many are still unaware that there is such a thing as self-mutilation, much less what it is or why/how people do it. It is also to tell the people who do it that they are not alone. When not reading or writing I enjoy doing animal rights work as well as advocating for environmental awareness. It has been a passion of mine since I was in high school. Thank you for stopping by my site and have an interest in my work. It means more than you know.