gruflek the crimson

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.