For those curious, I’ve posted a second update on Kickstarter.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ashearmstrong/demon-haunted/posts/1486428
orcs
Kickstarter is Live
And with that, we’re off and running. Grimluk 2’s official name is Demon Haunted. You can look at the campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ashearmstrong/demon-haunted
Christmas Sale
I know I might not like Christmas a whole lot but December is a busy month for gifts and kind of important to a budding business. So, I’ve cooked up a couple of deals. But first, THE BLURB:
A Demon in the Desert
The Wastelands mining town of Greenreach Bluffs is deteriorating: with each passing day its inhabitants grow more fearful and paranoid, plagued by…something. They suffer nightmares and hallucinations, there are murders at the mine; the community is on the brink of madness and ruin and, as events escalate, realization dawns: the town has a demon problem. Two attempts at hunting it down fail, Greenreach Bluffs is at breaking point…and then Grimluk the Orc strides in out of the Wastes to answer their call for salvation.
So, holiday deals. Unfortunately, it’s a bit complicated due to certain issues with Amazon. Regular prices are $10 for print and $3 for digital. Now, KDP isn’t a huge fan of allowing anyone who isn’t enrolled in their exclusive (as in, sold nowhere else but Amazon) program, KDP Select, to have promotional codes. So, for folks who regularly use Amazon, sorry, I would love to include my biggest source of income in with holiday savings but, here’s what I can do:
For paperbacks, if you order directly from the Createspace store, you can use the code TKPXVPAV to get 25% off.
For digital, head over to Smashwords and use the code XL49R. If you want to load it to your Kindle, just use your Send To Kindle address (can be found in your account settings, manage your content, settings) or app.
Unfortunately, those are the only venues I have direct control of for promotional deals. That said, since Amazon has Kindle Matchbook, you might watch and see if A Demon in the Desert goes on sale if you’d like the ebook as well as the print. If you DO prefer to use Amazon, then I would encourage you to use the version that donates to chairities. It’s not as good as a direct donation, sure, but it’s somethin. Other sites might put the book on sale as well (B&N.com and Kobo for instance), so keep an eye out.
I still have about 25-30 paperbacks for signing as well, so if you’d like a signed copy, contact me and we’ll work something out. I send through 2-day priority mail, which is $5.25 in itself. Add another $2 and you get a print copy, signed, for $7 bucks.
As for extras, well, I’m all up in goodreads, where you can find more reviews as well. You can read the whole first chapter there or on my site too. On top of all that awesome stuff, you can find the OFFICIAL BOOK SOUNDTRACK and stuff it into your beautiful little ears while you stuff my book into your beautiful little eyes. Happy reading and happy holidays.
New Stories!
Bit of an update to go with these new stories as well. I’ve shut down my Patreon. After the security breech, and the fact that I’ve only had one patron, I figured I should just put it on the back burner for now. In the meantime, I’ll be uploading everything I posted there and then occasionally adding new pieces as well. The most important two, however, are the ones I’ll be linking below, as the first was going to be a part of this month’s postings, and was a request from said patron, and the second is the short story I had submitted for publication and was so excited for over the summer. Happy reading, y’all.
Patreon and an Update
While I haven’t gotten tons of writing done this week, I did get more plotting done for the second Grimluk book, which will help. The book’s coming along at near 15,000 words, almost a fifth of the 80K goal. And in only a month a half, that beats the hell out of my pace for the first book.
In other news though, it’s Friday and September so it’s time for a new story. “From Tusk Til Dawn” is now up on Patreon. Part of me kind of hates doing this because I really really want folks to read this story and realistically, putting it as backers only means few people will, buuuuut I’m also trying to be a professional here. So, for those who haven’t heard, this story is about a lady orc wanderer who ends up having a close encounter of the fanged kind.
First piece of Fan Art for Grimluk
I’m so fuckin stoked about this still.
A Demon in the Desert Reviews – Some Favorite Snippets
I figured that with a combined total of 8 reviews between Amazon and Goodreads that I’d share some of my favorite pieces of each. All but two at the moment are from kickstarter backers, but I’m still excited that anyone has taken the time to review at all. I’m giving a name, whether they were a backer, and where the review came from.
Steph Lehenbauer was nice enough to do a review for her column over at Rock and Hill Studio (and posted a short version on goodreads and Amazon). My favorite bit from her review says, “Grimluk, the main character, is an intriguing guy. He’s an orc, but a nice one. A friendly giant. I always love these sorts of characters. (Hagrid springs to mind.) He’s also plenty bad-ass. Early in the book is a scene in which he pistol whips some zombies, always good fun. He has a very honorable sort of character that I enjoyed; he’s kind of the anti anti-hero. He’s Captain America in the Hulk’s body, which was a fun combo.”
“The supporting characters are a fun bunch, and you get a good feel for their different personalities and a bit of their backgrounds. I really enjoyed reading it, and the final battle had me with goosebumps and giggles (as an avid D&D player, I was picturing my group and I in the same situation and it was magnificent).” – Samantha, kickstarter backer via Amazon
“I have to say I found this a fun, action-oriented, pulpy read that’s great brain candy. It features a diverse cast of interesting weirdos, and the underexplored weird west genre is celebrated fully within it’s pages. I’m excited for the further adventures of Grimluk!” – Pope, kickstarter back via Amazon. This was also his entire review haha.
“This is Ashe’s first novel, and it’s a very promising first effort. I love the Grimluk character, and I love the setting. It’s a post apocalyptic wasteland loaded with monsters and demons. This fits into the ‘Weird Western’ genre, as it’s basically a western storyline. However, it’s also loaded with elves, orcs, and magic, so there are fantasy elements too. There’s also horror, so we get a blending of several genres.” – Quentin, backer via goodreads.
“I can’t remember reading any Westerns before, but I’m glad that my first one was a Weird Western. The concept of this book grabbed me the moment I heard about it, so much so that it became the first project I ever backed on Kickstarter. Nice deconstruction of fantasy tropes. There’s orcs, humans, dwarves, and elves, and yet each of the characters felt like they had personalities of their own, independent of common fantasy race characteristics.” – Ariel, backer via goodreads.
“Another aspect of the novel that I enjoyed was its general tone and subtle/dry sense of humor. No, it’s not a “comedy,” but there were some spots that garnered chuckles from me. I think my favorite line is still (the understated),”I hate ghouls. They’re so…tedious.” And I have to say that I can see that as being the truth, and I’ll probably consider that every time I see a ghoul in a story from here on out.” C, backer via goodreads (and better known as wilburwhateley for tumblr folks).
“I really enjoyed the fight at the end. I was hoping there was something big to happen to warrant the amount of time spent on investigation. Ashe certainly delivered on that. I also really liked how everything was connected in the end and even though the ‘battle’ was won in the end, there was so much tragedy that it didn’t really feel like they had. I really like when books do that, because the ‘everything worked out and everyone is happy’ type of ending get a little boring sometimes.” – Heather, backer via goodreads.
“The protagonist was likeable and interesting, being a Hellboyish “big scary guy with enormous gun that is actually very nice once you know him”. All the action scenes were cool and the little horror stories through the book were deliciously creepy.” – Felipe, via goodreads.
Most of the reviews have been 3-star, and I’m pretty pleased with that (couple of 3.5s, a 4, and a 5 as well). The full reviews were very constructive and I appreciated it a lot. I actually ended up talking with Heather more in-depth after she volunteered on facebook to read the short story I was working on for submission to a magazine and some of the perceived harshness of her full review was altered. The biggest thing I’m happy about is how well received the characters were and that, despite what could be counted as a rough start, everyone seems to be fully on board for seeing more of Grimluk.
And boy oh boy, you’re gonna see a lot more of him in the next one.
IT’S RELEASE DAY
FEAR RELEASE DAY, MORTALS.
That’s right. A Demon in the Desert is done and up for release. For my kickstarter backers, you will be getting your digital copies within the next 24 hours, and the paperbacks will arrive next week. I’ll get to work signing them and shipping them as soon as I have them.
For everyone else, well, you have several choices. For paperbacks, there’s the Createspace store, which nets me the most royalties. Then, there’s Amazon, which has the advantage of Kindle Matchbook, which means you can get the Kindle version for free to go with the paperback. Word of warning at the moment though, the formats are still in the process of merging so if you order as soon as you see this, it might take a day or two to claim the digital copy. I’ll try to make sure everything’s aligned this week. Your final option for purchasing a digital copy is Smashwords and the avenues they distribute with. So, for instance, you could find the book on Apple, Kobo, Scribd, and (sometime after this posts) Barnes & Noble. Some places are still getting set up.
Hopefully, for my European and International readers, Book Depository will have it fairly soon. That will ultimately be the best option for anyone outside of Europe because of their free international shipping. It’s also one of the venues I don’t have any control over.
I’m proud and a nervous mess but hopefully I wrote a story you’ll enjoy. And I guaran-damn-tee the next Grimluk will be bigger and better. In the mean time, if you’re more interested in shorter stories, check out my Patreon. I’ll be running a promotion this month too. The first 5 patrons for level 1 can claim a request for a flash story (max of 1000 words) for any topic. The first 2 patrons for tier 2 or tier 3 can request anything they’d like for a longer story (max of 5000 words).
Happy reading everyone!
Snippet #5 – Spacial Terrors
We come now to the end of March and snippets from A Demon in the Desert. I hope you’ve enjoyed the little excerpts and background info. April should see me busting my ass at a new level with the help of Camp Nano. I’m almost done with rewrites and then the serious editing can start. I’m hoping to have the thing as close to done by May as I can. I’ll probably post Camp Nano status reports, maybe weekly.
Anywho, I was trying to think of a last snippet to post and I think I’ll go with another nightmare. This one in particular is very near and dear to me as it will be one of the nightmares/hallucinations that I suffered from. They lasted a long time too. I didn’t really stop having them til I was 25. I call them “spacial terrors.” In this scene, Grimluk is talking to a local Halfling named Thomas and asks him to give him an idea on what things have been like in Greenreach Bluffs through Thomas’s story. As always, this is not the final edit.
“I guess the best place to start is to say that I never had any sleep problems before all this. Occasionally, you eat somethin’ that don’t sit well and you have a weird dream but that’s normal. Natural even, right? I didn’t even notice the dreams at first. Figured it was just somethin’ I ate. Shrugged ’em off. Now…” He downed half his pint and belched. “It’s like the world goes wrong. Sometimes I see things while it’s happening but mostly, it feels like reality’s been pulled inside-out and gone tipsy. Everything, and I mean everything, goes far away but not. You ken it? The whole world skinny, stretches leagues away. It’s all still close enough to touch though. And touching, gods.”
A small moan escaped Thomas’s throat.
“The size of things goes wrong. If you were near when I had one of these, you’d be my size but you’d be so much bigger too. Like you’d shrunk but grown to the heavens all at once. All wrong. And everything feels that way. A splinter feels as big as a the biggest tree. A pebble would sit in my hand and feel like I was holding a mountain. The only thing that seemed to fight it off is light. So I’d light my lamp back up. Or try to. Some nights, it’s all too much and…and…I just lay there. I use to scream at it. The madness of it.
“It’s all worse now though. I avoid the bed but that’s just making it worse. I said I see things sometimes and I do and the things is worse. I think I see glowing eyes sometimes. Or some sort of light. It’s so hard to tell but sometimes it feels like something’s watching me. Sometimes, when everything stretches out to eternity, I can see…gods damn it, things. I don’t know what to call them but things. I can see them in the dark edges of everything.”
Thomas sighed heavily. “Fuck,” he croaked. “It’s so much worse than I thought. Sayin’ it all like that, out loud.”
He swallowed hard and for a moment, it looked like he would start crying. Grimluk remained silent. He wanted to let Thomas catch his breath. Everything had tumbled out of him like the rush from a broken dam. The Halfling laid his head down against the table and sucked in a deep breath.
The Sliver stood silent save for the sound of the wind that slipped through the windows every so often and the sound of light snoring coming from behind the bar. Grimluk and Thomas sat in the quiet and drank their ale.
“Thank you,” Grimluk said when he felt Thomas had recovered.
Snippet #4 – Souffles and Jackasses
This little section introduces two of the main characters. What you see here is a little silly but after, things start getting serious again. The original scene was just Grimluk showing up at the door. I hadn’t created Trilgor yet. Hadn’t even named the Mayor yet. I knew I wanted a little Halfling woman though and then I got the idea of her yelling at Grimluk and it made me laugh so out it came. Enjoy.
As the pair reached the gate of the mayor’s house, a big gust of wind blew through the town, sweeping down from the bluff behind the house. It kicked up several dust devils and with several more gusts, they spun harmlessly through the center of the town. Trilgor unlatched and pushed through the gate as another gust threatened to take Grimluk’s hat off. The hunter lifted a hand and kept it in place.
The courtyard was pitiful. Dry, overgrown grass jutted out of planters with the occasional, sickly-looking group of flowers. The purple petals of one flower in particular could be pretty in the right season but in their current state, looked more like leaves made of dried blood.
The house was built in similar fashion to the Silver Sliver. It started in stone and peaked in wood. The foundation was much bigger, appearing to have been built up from a basement or cellar. It was three stories in all and, like the Sliver, had an ironwood door as well, though much more ornately carved.
A small set of stone steps lead up to a wooden porch. The Orcs stepped up to the door and Trilgor gave two, strong knocks. After a minute or two, the door ripped open. There stood a Halfling woman, red-haired, hazel-eyed, glaring up at him.
“You ruined my souffle, you jackass!”
It caught Trilgor off guard.
“I’m sorry, Sadie. How was I supposed to know?”
“The hell do you want, comin’ up and bangin’ on doors like you’re comin’ through?”
Grimluk stood there a moment, surprised at the ferocity of the tiny woman and her anger at a deflated souffle.
“I need to speak with Selbie,” the young captain said with a sigh. “I found a new hunter.”
He motioned towards Grimluk. The hunter touched the brim of his hat.
“Hullo, miss.”
Sadie looked the hunter up and down, like she was sizing him up.
Then, without warning, she slammed the door in their faces. They stood there, unsure of what just happened, and waited.
“Is she always like this,” Grimluk asked Trilgor.
“Actually, yes. Whatever issues Sadie’s suffered, she’s one of a few who hides it well.”
The door ripped open again as he finished speaking. This time, a older man with graying hair and round spectacles stood next to the irate baker.
“Here are the dummies,” she almost hissed before she disappeared back into the house.
Grimluk grinned to himself. He couldn’t recall anyone ever calling him a dummy, much less someone small enough he could pick up with one arm.
Ashe Armstrong 