grimluk demon hunter

New Year Newness

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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.

A whole mess of news!

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First things first, you’re gonna want to come and join me on reddit for the By Demons Be Driven cover reveal! I’m so excited to finally get to share this cover! It’s up for pre-order on Amazon now.

On top of THAT, I’ve also permanently lowered the price of the ebook of A Demon in the Desert to 99 cents AND, with Amazon rolling out hardcovers, I’ve added hardcover editions to the first three books. There will be a hardcover for By Demons Be Driven as well, available along with the paperback on October 1st! I’m still waiting on Demon Haunted to finish its review as there was an error with the spine text but that should be done some time today.

I’ve also updated books 1 and 2 somewhat. I cleaned up a bit of formatting in A Demon in the Desert that I had missed, to try and at least nudge it towards my current standards without just rewriting it, and I updated the cover font and back art. I updated Demon Haunted to have the elder sign POV separators like in Demons Within (and soon, By Demons) as well as the front cover font. Mostly this is a “branding” thing as the Kirsty font used in the title of Demons Within was one I really liked and looks good in a variety of sizes. Now everything matches.

I’m also planning on doing some sort of shop thing for bookmarks and stickers and whatnot once my partner and I find a house and get moved. That will probably be a next year thing but it’s in the works after I figured out I just need to buy a crafting printer to print my own bookmarks.

That’s all the news for now!

By Demons Be Driven Kickstarter Redux

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I tried this a year ago and then COVID-19 dropped on our heads. So here we are a year later, trying again. Goal’s a little higher this time because I’m going with a different artist. I hope you’ll join me and back the project! Join me over on Twitch today, too! And on March 30th, I have my first OFFICIAL Reddit AMA on r/Fantasy!

You can check out the campaign here!

A Demon in the Desert Fifth Anniversary

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A Demon in the Desert cover

It’s been five years since I published A Demon in the Desert. Some time after I put it out, I blogged about everything I’d learned from. Five years on, those things still hold true but I’m not taking active lessons from it anymore. It serves as a very mixed gateway into the life of Grimluk and his adventures, with some people loving it and a few thinking it’s garbage. It’s a first book. And I don’t know what else to say on it.

I could talk about how sometimes I think about rewriting it but my desire to let it stand, as its own thing and as a sign of where I started mostly wins out there. It will stand as it is.

I could talk about how my friend, Krista Ball, told me about the five-year issue. It takes five years before you really get anywhere. But my fifth year is also the year of COVID-19 and I still only have three books. By Krista’s fifth year, she had 12 books out (or, as she put it when I asked, “A lot, and probably not enough, but also way too much.”). In self-publishing, quantity DOES matter, at least more than in traditional publishing. It’s also not smart to compare my journey to someone else’s. While Krista’s level of success is where I’m aiming, I’m also not her and I don’t write what she writes. Also at least one of those was a non-fiction and those always sell.
 
The truth is…this doesn’t feel like a big deal to me anymore. I’ve written and published three books and written a fourth that just needs the money for editing, proofing, and artwork (along with another couple of drafts). Releasing a book is still a big deal. Releasing a book is a big, nerve-wracking event where I push another piece of my very silly soul out into the world for people to consume, come what may. But the march of time? Not really.
 
The biggest thing about having been doing this for five years now is that…I can’t see myself not doing it anymore. Paying for the publishing sucks and is the hardest part of this, followed by marketing, but I love doing this. I love writing. I love creating. I love entertaining and it still makes me feel real. So even with COVID-19 rolling around, and the US absolutely DUNKING on itself, that hasn’t changed. Sometimes I feel like I’m being frivolous writing Grimluk and not like, some politically-charged, current events commentary sci-fi story. Which is kind of silly considering Grimluk is politically-charged in a different way. Part of a recent review for The Demons Within read:
 
I also like how Ashe has pretty seamlessly incorporated queerness and gender diversity into these books. In that respect, I do actually think I’d recommend these as good fantasy for middle school age queer/trans teens and early high school age queer/trans teens. Though gender and sexual diversity aren’t the main focus, Ashe incorporates them in a way that makes them feel normal and a part of the world, rather than make those characters anomalies or always in danger of persecution and ridicule. Not many other fantasy series featuring genderqueer orcs or queer elven or dwarven couples as a normal and accepted part of the world!
 
And that is a huge thing for me with this. So, sure, it’s trash adventure stuff but I’m still putting myself and my friends into it. Even if I was just writing pure adventure trash, oh well, people need that sometimes.
 
I’m just gonna keep going. In another five years, I’ll reflect on a decade as an author. Hopefully I’ll find 2025 a more welcoming place. A more stable and secure place. Here’s hoping we all do.
 
Now, given that I wasn’t really sure what to talk about and have rambled, mostly, I’m happy to answer any questions anyone has. I know most of you don’t really read these, but if you do, and something pop up, leave a comment or tweet at me or whatever and I’ll compile them together in a Q&A.

Stay safe.

Grimluk 4 Title Reveal

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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

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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!

New Patreon Content

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Hey y’all. I just wanted to post a little update talking about some of the new stuff up on my Patreon. For the past little while, I’ve been working on the much-maligned Ranger class for D&D fifth edition. I recently posted the first pass for a chunk of the subclasses, with two more to come individually. I also tried my hand at giving the Storm Herald subclass for the Barbarian an overhaul, along with a few other Fighter subclasses. I will also be starting an adventure module this year that I’ve had bouncing around my head for a while. It’ll be big on story and very orc-centric. Because I have a brand.

For fans of Grimluk, though, I’ve posted a few snippets from what I’ve been writing on Grimluk 4 (and the first draft is now over the 10,000 word mark), along with a worldbuilding post on time, and a new post today that will start a series of worldbuilding posts on the races of Arkod, beginning with elves!

On top of all that, I’ll be trying to get some new cooking posts going and I’m hoping to start a new trend revolving around Fantasy foods, along with any diabetic friendly foods I find. I’m going to try and begin doing fantasy foods by doing a potentially easy recipe from The Demons Within: goat jerky. I’m pretty sure I can get goat meat from a local butcher, so it should be doable.

And a reminder, I do take requests for content. I recently added a new request tier for $5 where I make a magic item for your game. I still have the idea request tier, too, where you can request a story or a topic for me to talk about for $25. You get access to all content for just $1, though, and my gratitude.

So come check it all out and feel free to leave comments and questions!