Author: Ashe

Fall Newsletter

Ashe News, Newsletter, Personal , ,

There’s not a lot to report for the fall. I’ve stalled out on the new book for the time being. Life has been lifeing extra hard lately. With all that in mind, the major thing to report is that I’ve decided to take a tech break for October. Extremely limited social media use, no tiktok, limit gaming or viewing time to two or three hours a day, bar myself from a big swath of the internet. Ideally, my choices will be Work, Create, Exercise, Rest, or Read. My nerves have been fried most of the year and I just need to try to reset myself.

For the folks on my Patreon, this mostly means I’ll try to actually post some drabbles while I play with trying to write new types of stuff. I’m still figuring out what I want my schedule to look like for the month but I’m about to have a lot more space to fill if I’m not just sitting on youtube or tiktok or whatever. I’ll forced out of procrastination habits (I hope). Maybe I’ll try using some writing prompts again. Don’t know. Gonna be a bit of an adventure.

Wish me luck!

Summer Newsletter

Ashe Gruflek, News, Newsletter, Writing , , ,

Still Persisting

It’s July. April, May, and June feel like they flew by. Some of that was some good life stuff happening. Some of that was the continued onslaught of fascists fashing everywhere. Some was just the weather. But, here we are, about to celebrate Legal Explosions Day. I’m now 40, I had an amazing birthday, and I managed to hit an important goal. If you’re curious about my reflections on hitting the big Four Oh, you can check the Patreon for a free post about that.

So, the biggest piece of news is that The Secrets of Bloodhenge is over the 50K word mark. Brilliant. Took me longer than I thought but I hit a point in the story that also makes me feel confident that I can finish the first draft by November. I think this book is going to end up longer than previous Grimluk books, and the second draft is going to have a lot of work but honestly, the first draft is the hardest. That’s exciting. I let a friend do some beta reading too and despite the current mess, she let me know she kept forgetting to take notes because she was so engaged. That was also a much-needed morale boost.

In other good news, it looks like I should be able to get some very important artwork bought soon. My side gig has been decent enough, and along with some new and temporary patrons, I haven’t been quite so broke lately. It’s been nice. Hopefully I can get that squared away and debuted in the fall.

Not much else to talk about currently outside of the usual “what the fuck is going on in the world” shouts and tirades. I just don’t have the energy for that right now. I don’t feel like being a doomsayer. Support your communities, practice mutual aid, show radical kindness to yourselves and others, love, empathy, and kindness in all things.

We’ll see what things look like in October.

Ten Years of A Demon in the Desert

Ashe News, Personal , , ,

This month marks the tenth anniversary of my releasing A Demon in the Desert. And I still don’t know what to do with that.

I kind of had a whole realization about this on Bluesky. I still struggle with validating my own accomplishments. I finished By Demons Be Driven and basically took a month off before the nagging feeling of “okay, onto the next project, hurry the fuck up” got a hold of me. “You’re not gonna make any money without getting more books out” plays in my head on a loop. Despite writing four books, A Demon in the Desert remains the one most folks find first. I have attempted to make sure they can be read as stand alone books but people like to read chronologically (and hey, I’m no different).

What does it mean to feel proud of your accomplishments? And for this book in particular, pride and shame walk hand-in-hand, and are even enforced to a degree by my readers. There are a few people who like this book, my objectively least well-crafted book, better than the sequels. Most enjoy it but prefer books 2 or 3 for the greater emotional weight and storytelling ability. Some people have bounced right off it, citing the sharp edges. It’s a first book. It reads like a first book. It’s existence is worthy of pride because it’s one more book than most people who say they’re gonna write a book have. It’s existence is, well, maybe not worthy of shame, but causes a certain amount of shame because of my limitations and how I’m fairly certain they’ve hurt my career.

I am, however, deeply aware that publishing, and the entertainment industry as a whole, is deeply fickle and requires a similarly deep amount of luck for a creator to achieve any sort of livable wage. Popularity does not necessarily equate Making a Living™ but it sure helps.

There are several ironies to my career because of these facets. The first is that I kind of hamstrung myself from the start. In the big picture, Grimluk is a Fantasy series. From there, I consider it a Dark Fantasy series, in the vein that I’ve always known: covered in shadows and touched by horror, maybe even grim and dark without being Grimdark. In marketing, I tend to use Weird West, however, as it has the quickest visuals. It still doesn’t entirely fit though as it seems like most people hear Weird West and think “Steampunk Cowboys”, which is fair. The genre is either Steampunk or Cowboys vs Zombies for the most part. I’ve always like Sixguns & Sorcery for Grimluk but I’ve never managed to get it to take off.

And this brings us to the first major irony: Weird Westerns are an incredibly niche genre. Especially the horror ones. Getting people passed that hump is the biggest problem and I’ve had a ton of reviews that start or include, “I never liked Westerns but I liked this!” Even with an orc on the cover, people hesitate.

Now we get to irony number two: I’m kind of floating alone in my own little bubble. Things get a bit odd in the bubble. People bump up against me sometimes. I have friends and peers and a few folks who have been absolutely instrumental in my growth. I think self-publishing probably peaked with losing the stigma in 2017-2019, which is when I did the Fools of Fantasy sale (April 2017) with several other (at the time) self-published writers, including Will Wight of Cradle fame. The Demons Within dropped in 2018. Hell, I’ve influenced a couple of folks to write their own Weird Westerns and they’ve done better than me. More reviews, more sales, more popular.

Again, luck. But also effort. Being in a bubble and being a little too self-aware also meant that I’ve not taken chances when I’ve probably needed to. Also ten years ago, Mark Lawrence started the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-off. Six years ago, it still would have been possible to find a spot with A Demon in the Desert. But I never tried because I knew it wasn’t strong enough. The Blog-off is what helped so many of us up our game. That 2017-2019 era being the strongest was because a lot of my peers at the time were stepping in and were determined to put out books of the same quality as the big 5 publishers. Not to say I haven’t been determined to put out quality but A Demon in the Desert never got proper editing. Probably needed another year of work before being published, if I’m honest.

But that fear held me back. I was so sure I’d be ripped apart, told I’m part of why the stigma remains in self-pub. Oh greatest irony of ironies that now, in 2025, I could reasonably be called a champion because I fucking refuse to use generative slop.

I’d also considered rewriting the goddamned book. Fought with myself about it even. Part of me has refused to give in to that desire because I’ve always (stubbornly) felt like it should remain as a testament to where I was as an artist. I was once taught that Art is never finished, it’s just released, and that’s how I’ve approached things. And now here I am, the ten year mark, when I said I would want to re-release it if I ever rewrote it and that time is now past.

The worst part about all this? That I’ve written four books that are relatively well-liked, still read (and infrequently reviewed) and all of this is what weighs on me after a decade. This is the real shame about the book. That I can’t celebrate it because I’m in my little bubble. I’m not letting ten years come and go like this though. I refuse. I turn 40 later this month too and I’m not letting things just pass, sad and unacknowledged.

So here’s what I’m going to do. I want to ask anyone who’s ever read A Demon in the Desert to tell me something they liked about it. Whether it means a lot to your or whether you just really like Grimluk or a particular scene, or description, whatever the hell it is, share it. I know the book isn’t garbage. It can be a struggle to say that sometimes but it’s not and even if I haven’t put out a book since 2021, I’ve still been busting my ass for ten years and people have been reading this book for ten years.

That’s not nothing.

So, please, celebrate with me. Share whatever love you have for my good green son and his first adventure.

Spring Newsletter

Ashe News, Newsletter , ,

Tryin’ to Persist Over Here!

Holy shit. Why is this year? WHAT is this year? It’s only April!? I expected some fuckery when the Idiot Reich took over but fuuuuuck am I tired.

This will be one of my least favorite types of newsletters: where I have very little to tell anyone. I’ve been making progress on The Secrets of Bloodhenge, but even there, less than I’d like. Only another 10K words since January. Which, okay, that’s still ten THOUSAND more words than I had at the start of the year, but I was hoping to be into the 50Ks by now. I guess that’s still pretty good given the horrors persisting and my attempt to do so as well. Honestly, my mental health is still not the best and my sleep is still not the best and I’m still not sure how to fix things there. And it doesn’t help that we’ve got the full fascist breakdown of this country and everything that comes with it, including the likelihood that I may very well not have insurance by the end of the year.

I did decide to book a spot with my editor and my artist for next summer. The idea was maybe if I have them booked, it would help spur me on to get more words done. I’m still hoping maybe I can finish the first draft by the fall, take a month off, and start the second draft. I could plan the Kickstarter while doing that, launch Spring 2026, and try to release in Orctober as I have since 2016.

Everything is hard but I’m trying to find the little joys where I can. I’m trying to remember to get off social media and outside again and move my body and be social. It’s still hard to do the social part sometimes because, as some of you may remember, there’s still a fucking plague about. Turns out, it’s just real hard to live your life with all of THIS going on and not just stick your head in the sand about it. None of this is good for anyone’s mental health.

So this is all the update I have for now. Please take care of yourselves. As I keep saying, hold tight to love and hope and community. It’s the only way to survive.

Oh yeah, and this summer will mark the 10th anniversary of A Demon in the Desert so that’s…wow, that’s something. I should probably do something for that.

Until then, go listen to Myth Carver, a new epic heavy metal band out of Texas with some absolutely TASTY fuckin’ riffs. Highly recommend!

Winter Newsletter

Ashe News, Newsletter , ,

The End of 2024

Today is a new day in a new year. Two thousand and twenty-five of the Common Era. Sure to be a year of big changes, though few of them as were even imagined fifty years ago. By 1975, the views of the future being like the Jetsons, a show set in 2004, had fallen away. The 80s saw a small resurgence in what the 2000s might look like. Blade Runner was set in 2019. Back to the Future 2 partially took place in 2015. But even with electric cars running around, 2025 looks…the same. No flying cars, no holographic 3D movies (though we might be thankful for that one), something called a hoverboard that doesn’t really hover, no factory built people. Curiously, the thing Back to the Future got right is the Nostalgia Industry that’s built up.

But, the world just feels the same as it has. That’s what it feels like 2025 will be for me. The same as it’s been the last four years before. I’ll be turning 40 in the summer and…I don’t feel like that’s coming. In a lot of ways, I still feel like a stupid, wayward 20-year old trying to figure out what the fuck to do with myself and my life. There are differences but some of them feel so similar that it seems only aesthetic. There are actual differences though. Things are just still difficult and hard and likely to get harder soon. But, this isn’t about the future, it’s about the past year.

I started 2024 with a burst of power. December 2023 saw me have my big realization after finishing Hbomberguy’s Plagiarism video. I felt renewed, I felt excited. I started The Secrets of Bloodhenge in earnest and moved forward into full production. I thought I would have this book ready to put out in 2025 for sure. But it was not to be. My mental health did an about face for a few months between March and June due to some things going on in my personal life. Then I rolled into July and had to junk the van and we had to figure out how to buy a new car. It took a major toll on my partner, who was already at the edge of burnout. The whole experience seems to have pushed them over that edge, bringing changes to their mental health that are still a struggle to deal with. Things that effect me in material ways. And that’s not even touching some of the struggles I continue to deal with with my own physical and mental health.

Truth is, sometimes I still think about giving up on the whole pro writer thing. I stay exhausted so much and I don’t know how to fix it anymore. But I can’t really. I need the money that comes from Patreon too badly. Book sales barely factor into my budget, to be honest. I’m stuck in a rut at the moment. I know where I’m going in the the book, I know where I need to go, I’ve taken notes on things I need to change in the next draft, but the energy to work is missing. And yet, both for my career and finances, I need to finish this book to the best of my ability and for it to have a successful crowdfunding campaign. Ouroboros of suck. It’s a little easier to focus on making art than it was before but…

But, I’ve got my local community, I’ve got my online community, my writer friends. I can do this. I think it’s just going to have to be slower than I want. Especially slower than Amazon wants. But hey, in good news, I’m starting treatment for the neuropathy in my feet and by all accounts, I should start seeing relief in the near future and by the end, be nearly pain free! That should help immensely in a lot of ways as chronic pain is a black hole, even when it’s only just minor pain. Dealing with it all day, every day, but especially when I’m trying to sleep is hell. So the end of 2024 isn’t all bad.

So where am I going from here? The major things, especially with turning 40 this year, is a major focus on my physical health. I won’t bore you with specific goals but I’m a little desperate to fix a few things and nail some goals and I think that’s going to have to be my major priority going forward. All of that should help with what matters to my readers, though.

The big one: finish The Secrets of Bloodhenge. Finishing the first draft is the hardest part. Everything after that gets progressively easier to deal with (even when it’s not actually easy). I wish I could say I was halfway done with it but at 32K words, I think, the way it’s shaping up, I might only be a third done. I still think this is gonna end up bigger than the last two Grimluk books. I wonder if it’ll make me finally hit 100K in a completed work. We shall see.

And speaking of Grimluk: I want to finish pre-production for Grimluk 5. I’m roughly halfway done. I realized at some point in the middle of 2024 that my “story summaries” are actually just rough drafts. They’re too long to be anything else and I use them too extensively to help form what goes into the first draft and the rough draft for this one (which has a title) is somewhere in what I think is the middle of the book. Admittedly, and I think I’ve said this already, I’ve had a lot of Grimluk 5 bouncing around my head since I started working on Demon Haunted. I’ll get there. It’s just a lot of working learning about a whole new world, with so many vast new shiny bits to play with. Grimluk is relatively consistent now. I’ll get there.

And to help me get there? I need to read again. I want to read again. I miss it. It helps fill up the creative juices, too. Which is why I’m sharing it. I’ve basically only read comic books for the past two or three years, with the occasional novel sprinkled in. In 2023, I finished the year reading A Princess of Mars. This year, I’ve only read He-Man comics as a means of inspiration and I stopped doing that in June so I’ve read 7 of my 12 for Goodreads yearly challenge. I need words. What does that mean? Am I going to just start devouring books again despite my brain’s apparent refusal to do so? No. No, I need to make this goal something small and achievable. The goal is just to read at least 30 minutes a day. Whether short or long form, just 30 minutes. If it takes me a few days to read 10 thousand words, then so be it. That’s the goal.

And finally, I need to embrace just writing for fun. Drabbles, flash fics, random scenes, whatever. Visual artists sketch, I bet sculptors will just play with clay sometimes (or whatever other media they might use), and since I’ve chosen to be a wordsmith, I feel like I need to dedicate myself to that more and the best way to do it is to actually set aside time to just do shit for myself. Or use time I’d otherwise be on tiktok or instagram to make some words. Doesn’t hurt that the US has officially banned Tiktok for spreading support for Palestine privacy issues, and will be shutting down US servers in the near future but hey, I’m an artist, right?

So that’s where I’ve been in 2024 and that’s where I hope to go in 2025. I want to tell you, if you’ve been following me for a while, if you’re a paying patron or just like to keep tabs on me, thank you. Thank you thank you thank you. I hope you’ll keep stickin with me. I hope your year was a good one. I hope the following year will be just as good, if not better. Take care of yourselves and remember to always be excellent to each other.

Fall Newsletter

Ashe News, Newsletter, Personal , , , , ,

It’s October! The Spookiest and most Orc-tastic month! Usually, it would also be my most comfortable month with the weather but uh, it’s supposed to get up to 90 again this week. Sucks! Here’s hoping Actual Fall rolls in soon.

Music

I honestly haven’t been listening to one artist or another in particular since the last time I shared something. While writing, it’s still been a lot of Bear McCreary because of the playlist I started building for Gruflek. And now that we’re deep into Fall, I’m rocking my spooky season radio on Pandora. There is, of course, also the Pizza Thrash playlist I made and was shouting about in August (that I can’t add anything else too because I accidentally made the total playtime 4 hours and 20 minutes). Buuuut, it is the Halloween season so let’s talk about a band I’ve been listening to for a long time now who’s been putting out Halloween tunes for nearly 20 years: Creature Feature.

Well, I say band, but as I go look in on them again, it seems that at some point around the third album, it seems the keyboardist and other half of the original duo, Erik X, left and now it’s just singer/guitarist/composer Curtis RX running things. Though I suspect it was mostly always his baby anyways. Back in 2006 they dropped their first album (just before reissuing it with some minor changes the next year), The Greatest Show Unearthed. I discovered them through a friend’s ex that year. They’re very synth-driven for a horror punk band. The guitars are far, far less aggressive for the more straightforward punk fare and sit somewhere like The Cure but edgier. They’ve got songs referencing everything spooky. The Twilight Zone, Edward Gorey, John Carpenter, everything you could think of. But, most importantly, they’re fun. They’re just plain fun and a welcome addition to your spooky season rotation.

News

What’s new for news? I guess the most important thing to bring up is that The Secrets of Bloodhenge is over the 32 thousand word make. The exact number is in the sidebar to the right. I’ve only managed roughly 6000 since early June, which I don’t like but given how the summer went, it is what it is. July rolled around and knocked the wind out of my sails with car problems. Ended up having the junk the van and then my partner and I had to figure out something new. This was extremely stressful, to say the least. Was also experimenting with stepping off one of my meds and it didn’t go well so July was basically a big nothing for anything but a new car and trying to get some of my health straightened out.

August was a lot better and I made a good chunk of progress there, while still figuring out more health stuff. It never stops, the health stuff. I am currently waiting to see if my insurance is going to cover a new med the doc wants me on. It’s been a few weeks since I saw her now so who knows that’s going to happen. Regardless, I started losing steam as September went on. I haven’t written much the past two weeks. I know why. It’s a familiar scenario and I’m talking about it in therapy. My creative fuel tank is running on fumes again. On top of my own health stuff, my partner has some of their own going on and it’s affecting me as well, especially with sleep. On top of that, since money has been extra tight thanks to the new car and the subsequent bump to the cost of car insurance (a pretty big one at that). There’s also been a lovely new covid wave rolling through the country, both conspiring to make sure I basically sit at home and rot. The first time I went out after the car situation got sorted out, someone there reported they’d tested positive for covid so I spent the next week waiting to see if I had caught it too, which just further pushed me into not going out.

So, basically, I’m heavily stagnated at the moment and not really getting what I need to create. I’m desperate to figure out some way to get back into reading as well as I’m still struggling to do that at all. I’ll figure it out. I have before. At least this time it’s not an overwhelming anxiety holding me back, it’s just purely an empty tank. I don’t think Hbomberguy can fix this one, though.

That’s all the news that’s worth sharing. I wish there was more and better. Ah well. Take care of yourselves, have a safe and happy Orctober and Halloween!

Summer Newsletter

Ashe Gruflek, News, Newsletter, Writing , , , ,

Howdy, y’all. Wait, this isn’t a Grimluk related post, I should do that again. Hail and well met, friends. It is once more time for the Letter of News. I hope you’re all doing well. Let’s get goin.

Music

First up, I shared Neon Odin’s “Allfather” album last time. This time, especially with what’s below, it seems smart to share one of the major driving forces for writing this book: Bear McCreary’s Masters of the Universe: Revelation soundtracks (volume 1 and volume 2). Both sides offer a variety of pieces for a variety of moods that fit the show wonderfully. It’s orchestral, bombastic, epic, with a metallic edge thanks to McCreary incorporating heavy guitars throughout. “He-Man Transforms” is a theme that runs throughout most of the bigger pieces too. The guitars and horns work so well together that it’s hard not to get hyped when Adam says the words and calls down the Power. Volume 2, similarly, has “Birth of the Savage“, a shift in the “Transforms” theme when Adam decides to call down the Power without the sword. Sure, Savage He-Man is basically the Hulk, but you see, I’m a huge Hulk fan and the driving drums feel so good for any barbarian writing. Just really makes you wanna punch a Skeleton Wizard in the face, ya know? But hey, if you’re familiar with McCreary’s work at all, then that’s not surprising. He’s REALLY good at his job. And this is not the last time you’ll see him mentioned for the Gruflek series considering he’s done the Norse saga God of War soundtracks and Godzilla: King of Monsters. He knows how to give some damn good barbarian/warrior themes. Highly recommended these two volumes and I’m hoping we’ll get one for Revolution volume 1 as well, though that seems unlikely at the moment.

News

Now, to business. The first book in the Gruflek the Crimson series is over the 26,000 word mark. Part of me is frustrated that I’m not farther along after six months but I also haven’t whole hog written a book since the second draft of By Demons Be Driven in 2020. The past four years have been hard so the fact that I’m this far is still cause to celebrate. It’s just hard not to worry about being able to bounce back after four years between releases (provided I CAN get this thing funded and out by next October). My saving grace, I think, is that even with with my neverending quest to mash genres together, this one has a more conventional genre at its core. Science Fantasy that still leans heavily on the Fantasy in ways that will be much more recognizable than “orc gunslinger,” ya know? No matter how heavily I lean into the Fantasy elements with Grimluk, I still have to get through the average reader’s disinterest in Westerns. But Gruflek? A big ol’ orc holding a magic sword aloft is a much easier sell in the Fantasy market.

Which brings me to the next order of business: the public reveal of the title and logo for this book. I think I’ve still got some tweaking to do with it but it’s 98% complete and I’m still in love with it. On top of that, I have a logo for the series as well, which may also get some extra work, but as a brand thing, I’m happy with it so far. (And hey, if you haven’t seen already, hit up the Grimluk page and check out his fresh new series logo as well!) I already revealed these on Patreon, so some of you may have seen them already but here we go! First, the series logo.

"Gruflek the Crimson" logo in an angular red font with a double outline of white and charcoal.

I played around with a variety of different styles for that one. At first, I went for a metallic look but I never could get it to look right and then I remembered something I tried with the title logo and combined that with some inspiration from the aforementioned soundtracks (the word Revelation as seen on the album cover), which produced this. Part of me wonders if I should do a taller, stacked version or just a tall version of this but I like it. As for the title…

The Secrets of Bloodhenge logo in a fantastical serif font, overlaid in shining gold with a smooth, black stone base for the letters. The stone is filled with blood red veins.

Gruflek the Crimson, book 1, The Secrets of Bloodhenge! I’m so stinkin proud of how this turned out. I think I want to tweak the bloodstone inner some, just to add some bigger veins in certain areas, but it turns out, if you take a marble block and turn the veins red, it looks really good. And the gold border is mostly from a tutorial I found on youtube from TextureLabs, with a generous amount of tweaking to make my particular use case work. At first, I wanted something with an iridescent rainbow sheen, but I never could figure out how to make that work. I tried silver too, but when I tried the gold, everything just popped.

And hey, let’s talk about that title: The Secrets of Bloodhenge. I already knew that Bloodhenge was going to be my Grayskull, thanks in part to a friend of mine telling me to use the name from a location sacred to an orc clan in his D&D homebrew setting. I needed something evocative. I was stuck, originally, on something to do with the Crimson Blade of Blank or the Crimson Warrior of Blank. The more I workshopped titles, I finally realized I needed to pull further inspo from He-Man. What is it Skeletor has spent so much time trying to gain? The secrets of Grayskull! And I’ve said this before, just from a pure, instinctual reaction, Castle Grayskull is fucking metal. It sounds cool, feels cool, LOOKS cool. Bloodhenge will look metal and sound cool (I hope), and currently, it’s a secret thing. Gruflek is going to spend most of the book just getting there. It’s hidden and ancient and little is known about it. Just a legend. I typed it out in that font and it just CLICKED. Now here I am, 26 thousand words into the story and finally sharing the title and the logo with the public.

I’m still very excited about this book. Some days I only manage a small amount of words and others, much more, but I’m making progress. I’m still wondering if this one might end up around the 100K mark when it’s all finished. We’ll see.

That’s all I really have to tell at the moment. Grimluk 5 also has a title but is still very much in preproduction. I haven’t manage to do much work on it at all and I’m still debating switching gears to the space western book instead but as it stands now, I can still only manage one book at a time. Take care of yourselves and have a good summer!

Spring Newsletter

Ashe News, Newsletter , , ,

Well, it’s time to get one of these out now that I’m just gonna be using my site as the newsletter. There were some new security measures put in place that means Mailierlite no longer allows free email hosts to send out newsletters and since I can’t afford my own domain email currently, we’re switchin here for the time being. I may end up trying to host my own site at some point too. I’ve been thinkin about a site update and, unfortunately, it seems all the current WordPress themes are restrictive garbage. I suppose I could migrate to a different hosting platform but honestly, if I’m gonna go through the effort to do that, I’d rather figure out hosting my own site that I can build how I want it.

Now then, what’s new? Well, I used to have a section in the Newsletter about Cool/Interesting things and while I want to keep something non-business related in the newsletters, I think I want to make that cool thing music. This is especially relevant considering how much music I listen to while writing so to some degree, these recommendations are going to be related to the book. And hey, you already know I like building soundtracks/playlists, so that’s hardly surprising. Sometimes it’ll just be a cool new album I’m excited about. And hey, it won’t even always be metal either! So how bout some sick music?

I recently found this album on youtube and I love a good synthwave album, especially the darker stuff. The artist is Neon Odin and is a side project of someone who’s primary focus is atmospheric black metal that is, unsurprisingly, also Norse-themed. “Allfather” is a slick darkwave album and I highly recommend giving it a listen.

Now for some news: Gruflek the Crimson #1 has hit 10,000 words and I have no signs of slowing down. That’s fucking rad. I also figured out the title for it recently while playing around with fonts for the future cover art. I’ve been blatant about this new character and series being heavily inspired by He-Man, Stargate/Stargate SG-1, John Carter of Mars, and even Thundercats, so I looked to those for inspiration along with a few other things that fit the vibes. I’m still toying with things but I did finally pick out a font for the title. I’m also building a series logo, one for Gruflek and Grimluk, as well. I figure it’s a nice bit of branding/marketing and will come in handy once I’ve actually got the book out. Help me keep the site organized a little more too.

So, title and 10,000 words, what does this mean currently? Mostly that I’ll start posting worldbuilding and snippets to Patreon. Patrons get first serve for everything, though snippets remain exclusive past the first couple of chapters. This book is comin along though. A little slower than I’d hoped but I’ve been making consistent progress, having some really good writing days lately. Nearly hit 1000 for the day on Thursday, which put me at 9997 for the total. I had to laugh at that. Friday saw me finish with something enough to hit an even 10,500, and now here we are. I’m really wondering if this one might end up closer to 100K than I’ve gotten before. Demons Within and By Demons Be Driven are both in the 78-79 range. I guess we’ll see how this one turns out!

That’s all the news that’s worth mentioning at the moment. Got some health stuff comin up but it’s mostly some hoop jumping for other things. Hope y’all are doin well. I know times are fuckin tough right now but take a little love with you and pass it along.

New Year Newness

Ashe News, Personal, Writing , , , , ,

It’s been a…few months since I posted anything over here. Last year was kind of a lot. Like…a lot. My partner spent the first half of the year dealing with health problems but we didn’t know they were health problems until mid-July. I spent most of the fall trying to fix some health stuff that turned out to be medication side effects. As some of you may know, I’m diabetic. I’ve been trying to get a handle on my blood sugar again and part of that was being put on Ozempic. You might recognize that as the hot new fad weight loss drug. It is, in fact, a diabetes medication. It also fucking sucks. Do not recommend.

After that, my social life took an unexpected but very welcome shift. I’ll talk about that another time as the road getting to this shift is its own story. But it’s all good stuff.

And what else has happened? Well, I posted most of what I went through over on Patreon. I spent part of the summer being productive until the Ozempic fully knocked me on my ass and once I got off that I started dealing with some of my issues with my lack of writing and the giant fucking wall of suck I felt stuck behind. I wrote about those struggles here. After that, I basically spent November and December trying to think and enjoy the new people in my life and soak up all the time I could with them.

And early December, something finally shook loose. That wall of suck fell away. The size of it even shrunk. And a few things finally clicked into place for one of projects I’d been trying to get off the ground. You can read about all that here. I finished the year feeling good, feeling hopeful, and ready to go. And hey, wouldn’t ya fuckin’ know it, giving myself a little grace with my word count goals as I get back into the swing of things has been good and I’ve got the first 1500 words down for this new book. The He-Man/Stargate/John Carter mashup idea I’ve talked about previously. I’ve also got the next Grimluk book in preproduction. I’m hoping to get them both done this year but I’m more focused on the new character at the moment so we’ll see.

So that’s pretty much all the noise that’s worth sharing at the moment. At least without getting into lots of details and I don’t feel like digging into all that and you probably don’t want to read it. So here’s to a potentially great 2024. Despite everything that’s happening with the socio-political-economic climate…and the literal climate, I going to make this year a good one for me personally. Here’s hoping you can do the same.

Summer Updates

Ashe News, Personal, Writing , , ,

What’s up, my lovelies. Hope you’re doing well. Hope you’re not roasting alive in the summer heat. It’s currently a big fat 100F here in Tulsa and I hate it.

So, some updates. Diabetes is gettin managed. Been doing rehab on my shoulder and making progress. Started rehab on my legs, slower progress but also only started two weeks ago and I’ve been trying to figure out my daily schedule. Sleep is mostly good, though I’m wondering if I’ll need to do another sleep study next year. Therapy is going well.

So, if you didn’t see on Twitter or even Tumblr, I’ve posted a few stories up on Patreon based on writing prompts from r/writingprompts. They’ve been fun and a nice, easy way to get back into the groove of things. I’m still struggling a bit with choosing a new novel project to start. Most of that struggle is the same as it has been but with less burnout and more just struggling to figure out what I want. It’s a bit frustrating.

Currently trying to decide between Grimluk 5, and the Orc John Carter Stargate He-Man thing. Though one of the Patreon stories could also be a thing pretty easily now but I would definitely want that one to be a comic book so I’d have to track down an artist and that seems like a lot of work right now. We’ll see where I land. Worst case, I’ll pick something for Nanowrimo and just run.

Oh and I also deleted my discord server. It mostly saw use while I was trying to be a streamer and had sat dead for a year. That’s fine.

Anywho, figured I should send one of these out about now. Take care of yourselves in this heat. Go watch My Adventures With Superman. And don’t forget to be excellent to each other and party on.