Going on now until the end of June, the Grimluk series is on sale. A Demon in the Desert is 99 cents and Demon Haunted and The Demons Within are both half-off at $2.99. Remember to stay at home as much as you can, wash your hands, and disinfect anything you bring home. We’re all in this together.
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It’s Coming
Campaign begins March 1st. Click here to sign up for notification of launch.
2019 Year in Review
This…was a weird year. Professionally, I have very little that happened. I finished the first draft of By Demons Be Driven around the end of November. Then Rachel Sharp put together the Gay Apparel anthology and I put a Bakhor-POV flash piece in there. That’s really about it. Book sales have been low in the later half of the year. October was the worst month I had when it’s usually one of my better. I think that came down to not doing anything for Orctober. I’ve got the second draft of By Demons Be Driven started now and I’m getting everything set for the Indiegogo campaign. If you’re curious why I’m switching from Kickstarter, it’s because of Kickstarter’s blatant anti-union stances. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to finish in January and get it to some beta readers.
I shared some of my struggles getting this first draft done over on Patreon. Between Nici getting a new job, health stuff, sleep apnea, being unhappy with the ideas I was getting, it took me longer than I wanted.
Personally, I’ve been quite busy. February saw me run a GoFundMe for dental work, which was successful. I got a whole mess of fillings done, a tooth pulled, and then, finally, a partial denture. I ran another campaign for my partner, finally ridding them of their wisdom teeth. I also started going to yoga every week, which has been good for me. It’s a slow process though. I’m a bit of a mess. In July, I finally got a new bed. In September, finally got a new car. The new bed also, ironically, ushered in more issues with my sleep apnea, which prompted me to begin a third gofundme for that.
And over on r/Fantasy, I’ve been running a Dresden Files read-along. I managed to somehow pick the perfect schedule when I started in April. We read Dead Beat for October and now, with the Peace Talks release coming in July next year, we’ll be able to finish up Skin Game in June, read some of the short stories in July, and go straight into Peace Talks.
I also just celebrated my 7th anniversary with Nici. That’s wild.
And then there’s the unending hellworld bullshit that’s happened throughout the year. I can’t even remember everything that’s been in the news because of the sheer, ceaseless flow of it all.
That’s been my 2019, to the best of my memory. I hope your 2019 was good. I hope your 2020 will be amazing. Remember to take care of yourself and step away from the swirling vortex of terror that is social media and the news sometimes. I’m hoping my 2020 will be pretty damn good. June will be big. I turn 35 and it’ll be the 5th anniversary of A Demon in the Desert. I’m hopefully putting out a new one in October. I may get to do my first convention. Hopefully this will be a big year for all of us.
Big thank you to all my patrons and readers. Even the some of you who were friends to begin with. I’m incredibly grateful to have your continued support.
Take care of yourselves. And stay safe while partying!
Hark, some Holiday Stories
So, Rachel Sharp decided she wanted to put together an LGBT holiday-themed anthology of flash fiction. Because she’s punk rock like that. She asked me to include a story if I had one. I had an idea for another story I’m planning on doing and decided to make the little piece a lead-up to that one. There’s like twenty authors. You can get a copy from any of us by donating/pledging/backing/whatever. If you’d like one from me, I ask for a minimum of $2 to my sleep apnea gofundme campaign. I am a charity unto myself at the moment. Upon donation, I will send you a link with a zip file that contains an epub, mobi, and print-formatted pdf that you can print out for you own enjoyment.
Oh boy, GoFundMe Part 3
I said I was going to draw this month, and finish Grimluk 4 (that might still happen) but uh, I’ve been dealing with my sleep apnea a LOT lately. And by dealing with, I mean, it’s kicking my ass. So I started another campaign. I’ve needed to get my sleep fixed for a LONG time. It’s interfering with my ability to work once more so here we go again. As always, you can buy my books or become a patron as well.
Help Me Treat My Sleep Apnea
Happy Orctober 2019!
It’s 2019 and another Orctober is upon us! And I have some exciting plans this year. Boy howdy, are you gonna be thrilled. Maybe even chilled. I’m going to show you some sights.
Because all I have planned this year is to participate in the art prompts. I’ve been both busy and distracted this year and with no book or Kickstarter this year and a lack of plans, as I continue trying to get the By Demons Be Driven first draft finished, I never got around to planning. So this year, I’m gonna try to do all 31 days of this year’s Orctober prompt card.
Every week, I’ll post my work. This will also be good for me for practice. Should be fun. And probably a little frustrating. And hey, if you haven’t read any Grimluk yet, this is the perfect month to do it. Orcs fighting demons is pretty much what this month was made for.
Grimluk 4 Title Reveal
By Demons Be Driven
Goodnight, everybody!
I kid, I kid. So why this title? I’ve actually had this one for a couple of years. In this book, Grimluk will end up being hunted by demons. “The hunter becomes the hunted” will no doubt be in the blurb. It’s also a Pantera song and while I hate Pantera in my old age and wish someone would hurl Phil Anselmo into the sun, that title is fucking badass. So I’m stealing it. And while Grimluk will be hunted, he remains committed to being a hunter, stumbling upon a cult and setting about to shut it down. Wow, that doesn’t sound interesting because I’m skirting around giving away too many details. I don’t want to spoil things for you! But By Demons Be Driven will feature a wild hunt of sorts, a werewolf, some heavy use of Lovecraft filtered through my brain (explicitly more than what I’ve used so far), and probably the most action I’ll have written yet.
And hey, have a progress update: I’m currently hovering around 20K mark, which is not quite a third of the way to my minimum goal of 75K. It will probably end up being more. Demons Within got real close to 80K.
Four Year Anniversary Giveaway
It’s been four years since I released A Demon in the Desert and to celebrate, I’m doing a a month long giveaway. For all of June, you can get A Demon in the Desert for free in your choice of epub or mobi formats. I know by now that my first book was pretty rough but it got me started. It helped me start on a path to make me feel like a real person again and I’ll always be proud of that. Happy anniversary to my big green son.
You can get A Demon in the Desert here!
A Few Updates
Hey y’all! Blog’s been a bit quiet lately. Apologies. I come bearing a few updates, however!
Ashe Armstrong 