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.
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.
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…
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!
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.
Ashe Armstrong 