Author: Ashe

Keepin this train movin

Ashe News, Personal, Writing , , ,

This week has been an interesting one.  Let’s take a walk through, shall we?

  • Sunday saw me come up with an idea for A Demon in the Desert that adds a nice new layer to the World.  That idea is included in the previous post.
  • Tuesday saw my facebook likes jump.  That in itself isn’t so strange considering there are two or three social media threads on goodreads.  The big event was Stan Nicholls both liking my page and even commenting on a post.  For those who don’t know, Stan Nicholls is the first name that comes up if you search “orcs” on Amazon.  Back around 99/2000, he put out a trilogy about a band of Orcs and their evil Queen.  I still haven’t read them yet but even still, that’s one hell of an ego boost.
  • Tuesday also marked one year since I started writing Demon, which started off as a half-formed idea built entirely around the concept of Grimluk after talking with a friend one night about an idea I was having that was overshadowing the Orc-swashbuckler story I had tentatively begun.  I may eventually go back to that.
  • Wednesday saw my likes shoot up some more and there have been silly twitter shenanigans all week.
  • Yesterday only really has personal news in two areas.  The first is that a doctor visit got my lovely partner some meds she was in need of.  Which puts my mind more at ease in the “stress of life” arena.  The second was that I weighed myself while there and over the past year and a half, I have lost a total of 83 pounds.  That is its own story and I may post about it at some point but the ultimate point of it is that I lost the weight because I righted something else wrong with my health.  I’m still a fat guy but most of my fat was a symptom, not a cause.
  • Overall, while I didn’t get as much work done this week as I’d have liked, I still got work done and I got my manuscript back up over the 38K word mark.  I suspect I’ll end up somewhere between 50K and 70K total, which does make me feel good but the only real goal for word count is 40K as that’s the minimum viewed for most of the awards.  I’m still making good progress.

I had semi-planned on doing a Throwback Thursday post yesterday and then thought I’d do a Follow Friday today but I will do those next week.  I felt this was more important today.  Also important, at the beginning of March, I’ll be posting some snippets of the book.  If there’s anything you’d like to see that’s not in the first chapter, which is up for your viewing pleasure in my Works section, give me a shout.  I’ve had a request for a fight scene and I’ll be happy to post one.  Anything else is a welcome suggestion.

That’s all for now, folks.  Remember, Orcs are friends, not cannon fodder.

My zombies are different

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I got a great idea for the use of zombies in the book. I’ve been using “ghoul” instead, and I’ll continue to. I just don’t want to use zombie. So I decided to look up ghouls again and then zombies and read through. Boom, light bulb.

This idea lets me do three things. First, it gives me a great set up for Grimluk’s experiences. How? By using the original usage of ghoul or most of it anyways. Originally, they’re jinni that inhabit graveyards and “uninhabited places” (according to wikipedia). If you’ve read the first chapter, you know I had him talk about how tedious ghouls are. Why? Because in this context they’re super weak demons that inhabit corpses.

So, secondly, it lets me have zombies with a theme. Ghouls are weak demons, all they can do is shamble and bite. The demons might be smart but they’re operating busted vehicles. Bites don’t spread. They just kill and devour a body and if another demon gets to the body fast enough, it can reanimate and continue on. And there’s usually a group of them, so they can potentially spread quickly. The presence of a demon also gives the eyes a green glow.

Thirdly, it lets me potentially have deadites later on. Or at least something similar. That would involve either another, more powerful demon, and/or a powerful necromancy or lich. Good times.

Excited about this little detail. It cements my ghouls more and gives them a nice flavor of old and new.

Map work

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I haven’t posted about the map I started for the book on here yet so here’s that, because I decided to work on the other continents.  The new ones being the smaller, central-east and beginnings of the other eastern one.  I can’t decide if I want to make that little one smaller.  The one on the right will have its other side on the left.  You know the weirdest thing about mapmaking?  Trying to make one involving towns and settlements is way fucking harder than a world or regional map that’s just land and water.  Also need to swap out the compass star since I found some good brushes for that.

Tentatively naming the world “Arkod,” A friend said it sounds “hella biblical.”

Follow Friday #2 – Wilbur Whateley

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the elder signObviously, this is not the real Wilbur.  Wilbur died decades ago, as we all well know.  Or maybe it is the real Wilbur, reincarnated but much friendlier.  In any case, the blogger and Weird lover known as wilburwhateley around Tumblr is, without a doubt, one of my favorite people.  Why?  Well, aside from basically being a Lovecraftian scholar, they’re just a lovely person.  I don’t know if that friendliness is some abominable ruse planted in them by their father, to lull us into a false sense of security this time around, maybe to appear as a non-threat to animals, whose senses are attuned to the otherworldly in ways our vapid human senses are not, and succeed with their previously failed plot to free the terror lying hidden beyond the veil at Dunwich.

Or maybe, they’re just a lovely person with a fascination with all things Horror and Weird.  We started corresponding more when, after seeing my posts about funding my kickstarter, they messaged me and offered to post/reblog the information.  At one point saying, “As much of an ass as the old man could be (ha), he was nothing if not encouraging to and supporting of fellow Weird writers and relied on others for support for his own work when he needed connections or encouragement, etc. I think that’s a positive aspect of his personality that’s worth replicating.”  On top of that, they’re always happy to answer questions from readers.

So if you wanna look at some eldritch art, discuss some weird fiction, or discuss the state of horror movies today, why not drop on by and Wilbur a holler.  What’s the worst that could happen?

Five Movie Challenge

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5 Movie Challenge, originally from fiveflickfix on Tumblr

Your favorite 5 movies based on comics. (No books, just comics/graphic novels)

These are in no particular order.

Hellboy – Before seeing the first movie, I was only vaguely aware of Hellboy due to some ads in some old Dark Horse AvsP reprints I’d gotten.  After seeing it, I was instantly in love with the character and the concept and once I read the comics, whoo boy, that is good stuff.  I still need to read BPRD though.

So I saw Hellboy when it came out in 2003 with my then girlfriend.  This was also the start of my love of Guillermo del Toro and his fucking love vision of monsters.  This was also my first touch of Cosmic Horror and Eldritch Abominations, unless you count Ghostbusters.  I could probably make that argument if I wanted, but for now, Hellboy.  I like the second movie best because there’s more to see, but the first one got Hellboy’s personality right.  At least, it feels that way after reading the comics some.

And, as a side note, Doug Jones has been in damn near everything I’ve ever loved that required a guy in a suit.  Doug Jones is a wonderful human.

The Crow – The Crow is a, well, a francchise now, and it’s one that had a huge effect on younger me.  I got to see it a few years after it had come out and onto video.  I watched it a lot.  I took in the scenery like a sponge.  The soundtrack is still one of my favorites, the score is unique to say the least.  Even the worst actors in it still did a great job.  I would count Anna Thomson’s acting as the weakest but she was still believable and honestly, her weakness lent to that aspect for me.  I might have a soft spot for her given she showed up in Angus as Angus’s soon-to-be step-grandmother.  Angus could occupy its own post for me.

Then there was The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, which was great.  I also watched the second movie, The Crow: City of Angels, and shortly after that, the mostly terrible Salvation, which includes a forced use of the irony mask via the main character’s electrocution mask.  Also around 2000, I discovered the trades for The Crow: Dead Time and Flesh & Blood.  Years later, I got the trade of the original book, and then recently replaced it with the new Author’s Edition where James went back and added a very important piece to the end and some cut content from the original run.  Very important series for me.

Blade – My first experience with Blade was on the 90s Spider-Man cartoon where he shows up to track down a, ahem, defanged Morbius.  For those who didn’t watch the show, vampires ripping into people’s throats was, of course, deemed too violent and scary for our little Saturday Morning Minds.  This lead someone at Fox or Marvel to suggest something far more terrifying:  Morbius now had suckers on his hands.  Blade was still all about killin vampires though.  Somehow, he had a lightsabre and Ghost Rider’s jacket though.

So then, I start seeing promo material for Blade.  It comes out in 97.  My best friend’s dad takes us to see it, because RATED R and we are 12.  Holy shit.  Blade is intense and fun.  Little Ashe was easily frightened by horror stuff, so there was plenty that scared me, but the only part where I actually had any trouble was the “zombie” scene.  That scene is still one of the scariest undead motherfuckers out there, in my opinion.  I like a lot of shit in Blade 2 but there’s also shit that annoys me.  Mostly, Whistler’s return and the thing with the vamp princess.  Technically, that was also my first exposure to del Toro but I didn’t know it.  I’ve never read any of the Blade comics however.

Wonder Woman – Now, I double checked myself first so I could accurately make this statement.  This is the first and currently only Wonder Woman movie.  There was a movie/pilot for the 70s show, but it was completely different from what actually ended up on TV.  No Lynda Carter, no costume, secret agent stuff.  And this movie was lots of fun.  It was great.  It handled the origin and first adventure quite handily, and since this was the FIRST one ever, you can still appreciate the origin stuff.  As opposed to Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man, whose origins are so worn out at this point it’s ridiculous.  Though, Diana’s origin story is pretty damn cool.

So why include this on my list?  Well, again, FIRST AND ONLY WONDER WOMAN MOVIE.  Secondly, I love it and the jokes about “armor clad models” are great.  The voice acting is on point for what you’d expect from DC animated stuff (the queen, Andrea Romano at the helm directing the actors).  The animation is solid.  The story is fun.  And most importantly, it fucking destroyed all the arguments about Wonder Woman’s story being “tricky” before anyone had started making them.  You could seriously take this movie, translate it for live-action, cast it, shoot, release it, and it would make some bank.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Yo, I’m almost 30, that means I grew on Ninja Turtles.  So much Ninja Turtles.  Three movies, like 28 seasons of cartoon, toys, shitty musical special, a shitty musical tour, the Archie comics.  Rob Paulsen (who was in every other cartoon I watched as well).  UNCLE FUCKING PHIL.  There was no stopping it.  That’s why they gave it to Michael Bay.  He already made an action series out of one 22 minute toy commercial already.

The original movie though?  It’s still so good.  The fight choreography is great.  The music is great.  Elias Koteas is great.  Elmo is great.  Elmo?  Yes, Kevin Clash, who made Elmo famous voiced and puppeteered Splinter.  It’s connected enough to the cartoon that we could all recognize it.  The guys had their colored bandana-masks.  They never outright murdered the Foot soldiers.  They could be silly (Mikey’s role as the party dude has been a staple since).  But the movie still has maturity to it.  It’s teenagers struggling with their place in the world.  Struggling with their identities.  Struggling with loss and acceptance.  Sure, it’s 4 humanoid turtles kicking the crap out of people, but there’s still a story in that first movie.  There’s still emotional impact.  That started to go away in the second one.  By the time the third rolled around, you could see there was no life left by the fact that the suits no longer had any life in them.

And now we have Shrek Turtles.  Who apparently do murder people from what I’ve heard.  I don’t know.  Just go watch that first one.  You’ll have a better time.

Construction Continued

Ashe News, Personal , ,

So, on twitter today, my new friend, fellow author, and weird western enthusiast, S.A. Hunt decided to toss my name out in his Follow Friday post. He included the phrase “great writers.” Well shit, now I need to try to live up to that, right? So I spent the afternoon adding old shorts and a flash fiction piece to the Works section.  Also reformatted the Chapter 1 excerpt for Demon as it didn’t hold any of the formatting from open office. I’m still working on making the place look less fucking boring, but until I can upgrade (and figure out what I want in the header section), that’s all I have for now.

Throwback Thursday #2 – Mega Man X2

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I fucking love Mega Man.  I have been playing Mega Man since I was 6 and first had an NES.  Mega Man 3 was my first, 4 was my favorite (nevermind that I missed 5-7), and I still have my copy of 8 for the ps1, which also celebrated the Blue Bomber’s 10th anniversary.  When I discovered the X series, I fell in love all over again.  Which is amusing in retrospect because that was literally 4 years later.  I love the X series just as much as the classic.  X2 is not my favorite though.  X3 and X4 fight for that spot.  X2 is still very important though.

Mega Man X2 cover
Mega Man X2 cover

Why?  Because it inspired my first attempt at writing prose.  Yes, I’m saying I wrote Mega Man fan fiction here, except it was less fan fiction in the sense you usually picture.  I didn’t create my own characters or my own storylines, things that a lot of us might start out doing and are important to building our own voices.  What I did instead was turn the gameplay into prose.  It started in my 7th grade English class.  The teacher wanted us to do 10 minutes of writing at the start of class every day.  Whatever we wanted.  I had been playing this recently and it was on my mind so I went for it.

The jet bike on the cover?  Featured prominently in Overdrive Ostrich’s stage.  I started there.  I wrote about the level, about X’s traversal through the base, driving through the artificial sandstorm, taking down the missile, and finally battling the big bird himself.  It was fun.

I did it again at 14, though more in a terrible rip-off of Ocarina of Time than a proseing of Ocarina, but that’s another story.  That little experience of using my writing journal to explore prose was a very strong foundational exercise for me as I ended up doing it again in late 2013/early 2014.  And while X2 is not my favorite, it’s still a fun time.

I love Mega Man.

Follow Friday #1 – S.A. Hunt

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First Follow Friday and I’m gonna put my buddy SA Hunt out there for everyone.  SA is a recent winner of the /r/Fantasy Stabby Award for Best Self-Published/Indie Book of 2014 for the third book in his Dark Tower inspired Outlaw King series, Ten Thousand Devils.  In his own words, “I am a U.S. veteran with very little money and far too much free time, which is now spent telling lies about time-bending cowboys and brainwashing witches. I live in a shack in the woods in Summerville, GA, where I write books, drink moonshine out of a clay jug, and play music with spoons.”  Currently, he’s working on a new, standalone horror novel and trying to gather funds to attend the World Horror Con and Dragon*Con this year (and you should definitely kick him a buck or two).

You can find him and all the places he frequents on his site, The Usual Madman and his works on his Amazon shop.  And if you’re a fan of weird westerns, you should hit up goodreads and join our upcoming February group read.

Throwback Thursday #1

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I’ve had a rough few days after a cold front decided to roll through.  It feels like the Oklahoma weather followed us to Alabama and that sucks.  So, given that, I’d almost forgotten that I wanted to start this little bi-weekly tradition (along with Follow Fridays that’ll start next week and that I already know who I’ll be promoting).  So what am I gonna write about?

How bout an underrated show that was my first introduction to both westerns (long before I really got into them) and the weird west?  How bout a show with one of the most entertaining actors out there?  How bout The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.?

Why was this show so great?  Well, just going off my little 8 year old self’s memories, it was fun.  It was a lot of fun.  It was silly and there was action and a smartass horse and before I knew who Bruce Campbell was, I thought he was fun to watch.  Interesting.  Now, technically, Back to the Future 3 was my first weird western, but that was part of a trilogy.  I only partially count it but it shared something that got expanded for me with Brisco County:  science in the west.  This was also a very early introduction to steampunk before it really had a name, before anyone really knew what it was.  There’s probably some of you who had this experience as well.

So you have this show starring a smartass bounty hunter seeking revenge for is father’s murder and getting into all sorts of shenanigans.  You have a whole host of various characters with various tropes, and you have anachronisms out the wazoo.  Action, romance, drama, comedy (and slapstick at that, which Bruce has always been amazing with), literally everything you could want.  I really need to watch the whole series as I never saw the whole thing.  It made a lasting impact though.  Part of that impact came from this:

Brisco and the Orb

There’s a scene, I couldn’t tell you which episode, where that damn thing is glowing and sparking and maybe I’m remembering the whole scene wrong but it made an impact.  It seared itself into my brain.  So, for a throwback, for an early work that influenced me and others no doubt, look up The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. and give it a watch.  It’s gonna be silly and cheesy and very early 90s, but that’s part of the charm.  And Bruce Campbell.

Back in the saddle

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Got back to writing again last night.  It felt like a year since I’d last done it but while I didn’t write a whole lot, what I did write came out without too much prodding.  That felt good.  Starting the new year right.  That said, a few things extra to try and get my little one man empire running.  Throwback Thursdays and Follow Fridays are fairly popular thing around the net.  And why not, they’re fun little memes that help people connect with each other more.  You probably know that already though, so what I’m gonna do is use them for my own purposes.

For TBT’s, I was thinking of doing a mini-review/recommendation of an older piece of media.  Something that had an influence on me or pop culture at large.  Simple enough.

For FF’s, well, this one’s not really gonna change, except that I’ll focus on just one or two people at a time.  This will mostly be fellow writers or artists.  We’re a community and we gotta stick together.

I’ll probably stagger them too.  TBT one week, FF the next.  That’s really all I got to say today.