Hi, and welcome to Robo💜beat! If you want to get to know me a little more, here is my origin story. :)
Origin Story
I’ve been telling stories since I was in preschool. Back then, I carried a tape recorder around the house narrating them until I could actually write them down. So it makes sense that I’m still writing.
I was always a dreamer and a reader. I grew up on a healthy diet of Lord of the Rings, Dune, and historical romance novels. I also spent a lot of time playing invisible friends with my sister (not imaginary, just invisible, okay?!), which was such a fun way to create stories. My parents were awesome and let me hog the family PC as much as I wanted to type stories late into the night.
But as a shy, socially awkward girl, high school was rough — like, panicking about having no one to sit with on the bus. Writing was an outlet for me back then. And in college, I moved to London and met my people — geeks and nerds who just got me, for maybe the first time in my life.
But when college ended, I faced my first boss battle: finding a job.
The Grind (And Not the Good Kind)
The trouble with an English degree is that it leaves you very under-leveled for the real world. Pretty soon I was 25, patching together a living from freelance writing and nanny work, with no idea of where to go next. I felt like I was stuck grinding through a dungeon without making any progress.
That’s when I discovered video games — and everything changed.
The Game That Changed Everything
I don’t remember when I first stumbled on Dragon Age: Origins — only that I saw a video online of a woman fighting a dragon and had to try that. Live inside a fantasy world? Sign me up!
I fell in love. Not just with Alistair (okay, a little bit with Alistair), but with gaming itself: the quests, the characters, the joy of living in another world for a spell. During a stormy time in my life, games were an anchor. Whatever happened in the big wide world, I could come home to a familiar fictional place, with predictable rules, playing a character who would always triumph.
Gaming was an escape, but it also gave me a new kind of confidence.
Main Quest Unlocked
I felt so strongly about games that I started a blog to talk about them — and that’s how Robo💜beat was born! This was way back in 2012, in the wild west of blogging, when it was easy to meet people through your writing. I made friends with other geeks online. I started landing writing gigs for other gaming sites. I had the time of my life.
And games didn’t just save me emotionally. They helped me find my dream job.
It started with an internship writing video game instruction manuals — you know, those little inserts in the game case that told you to press X to jump. It was not the most riveting thing to write, but I did get to play a lot of my favorite video games before release!
Some other highlights of my time was attending E3 (back when that was a thing), flying to Poland to play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt at CD Projekt headquarters, and designing webpages for PlayStation.
But there was a side quest waiting for me I never saw coming…
The Side Quest That Became a Main Quest
Working in games is where I met the love of my life.
He started as my coworker and ended up as favorite co-op partner. We spent entire weekends playing Destiny, ordering takeout and never feeling the fresh air on our skin. (That doesn’t sound great, but it was romantic, okay?!) So, naturally, I had to marry him. More than a decade later, we’re still gaming through life together.
And that inspired something else for me, too: a love of gamer romance. I already played every romance in every RPG possible (Garrus Vakarian is the other love of my life, okay?), but I also wanted to write stories about geeks like me falling in love. I wanted to share how important games could be — not just as a hobby, but as a passion. And what better way to fall in love with someone than over a shared passion?
So now I write romance novels about geeks and gamers falling in love. My pen name is Ashley Quinn, and my first series is coming out in 2026; it’s basically a love letter to everyone who has ever felt most themselves inside a game. If you’re into that kind of thing, you’re welcome to check out the books here. :)
But just because every book ends in a happily ever after… what about real life?
New Game+
Life leveled up in the best ways. I was publishing books, a dream come true. I had a son — another dream come true. I was happier than I’d ever been.
But somewhere in the chaos, I put down the controller.
Being a parent and self-employed is also like playing life on hard mode. There are a lot of fetch quests (for baby bottles and diapers and toy trucks that got wedged under the couch again) and not a lot of free time for your own quests. (Remember just… going to the movies? The good old days!)
I was loving this New Game Plus — but I needed to reconnect with myself too.
Soon, I found myself missing video games. I missed the fun of role-playing, the power of play, the joy in immersing myself in another world for awhile.
So I picked up the controller and started posting on my gaming blog again. It brought so much color back to my life. I had hobbies again! I felt like myself again — just leveled up now, with much cooler gear.
That’s what Robo💜beat is really about now: what it means to be an adult who loves games. How they make us feel less alone, and how they shape who we are, long after we’ve grown up.
Thanks for being here. I’m so glad you made it past the loading screen.
Let’s talk about our favorite games, shows, books, movies — anything that brings us joy and makes us feel like kids again. Because that’s what life’s about, right? Enjoying the time we have, getting lost in adventures, and sharing that with friends, old and new. 💜
— Ashley
P.S. You may spot a cat wandering around here. Her name is Pixel, and she looks like this. Feed her treats and she may start following you around. You’ve been warned!
P.P.S. If you want to keep up with the blog, just join the quest to be notified of new posts! No spam, just geeky goodness — and you can unsubscribe at any time and leave me to the goblins. Don’t worry, I have pretty strong armor these days, and I’ll only cry a little. ;)