Author: Ashe

Throwback Thursday #1

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I’ve had a rough few days after a cold front decided to roll through.  It feels like the Oklahoma weather followed us to Alabama and that sucks.  So, given that, I’d almost forgotten that I wanted to start this little bi-weekly tradition (along with Follow Fridays that’ll start next week and that I already know who I’ll be promoting).  So what am I gonna write about?

How bout an underrated show that was my first introduction to both westerns (long before I really got into them) and the weird west?  How bout a show with one of the most entertaining actors out there?  How bout The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5RXO98zWno

Why was this show so great?  Well, just going off my little 8 year old self’s memories, it was fun.  It was a lot of fun.  It was silly and there was action and a smartass horse and before I knew who Bruce Campbell was, I thought he was fun to watch.  Interesting.  Now, technically, Back to the Future 3 was my first weird western, but that was part of a trilogy.  I only partially count it but it shared something that got expanded for me with Brisco County:  science in the west.  This was also a very early introduction to steampunk before it really had a name, before anyone really knew what it was.  There’s probably some of you who had this experience as well.

So you have this show starring a smartass bounty hunter seeking revenge for is father’s murder and getting into all sorts of shenanigans.  You have a whole host of various characters with various tropes, and you have anachronisms out the wazoo.  Action, romance, drama, comedy (and slapstick at that, which Bruce has always been amazing with), literally everything you could want.  I really need to watch the whole series as I never saw the whole thing.  It made a lasting impact though.  Part of that impact came from this:

Brisco and the Orb

There’s a scene, I couldn’t tell you which episode, where that damn thing is glowing and sparking and maybe I’m remembering the whole scene wrong but it made an impact.  It seared itself into my brain.  So, for a throwback, for an early work that influenced me and others no doubt, look up The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. and give it a watch.  It’s gonna be silly and cheesy and very early 90s, but that’s part of the charm.  And Bruce Campbell.

Back in the saddle

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Got back to writing again last night.  It felt like a year since I’d last done it but while I didn’t write a whole lot, what I did write came out without too much prodding.  That felt good.  Starting the new year right.  That said, a few things extra to try and get my little one man empire running.  Throwback Thursdays and Follow Fridays are fairly popular thing around the net.  And why not, they’re fun little memes that help people connect with each other more.  You probably know that already though, so what I’m gonna do is use them for my own purposes.

For TBT’s, I was thinking of doing a mini-review/recommendation of an older piece of media.  Something that had an influence on me or pop culture at large.  Simple enough.

For FF’s, well, this one’s not really gonna change, except that I’ll focus on just one or two people at a time.  This will mostly be fellow writers or artists.  We’re a community and we gotta stick together.

I’ll probably stagger them too.  TBT one week, FF the next.  That’s really all I got to say today.

Grand Opening and a 2014 Review

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This will be the first official post of this site.  I can use it to cross-post across social media and keep things nice and easy.  So hello from the new site.  It’s still being worked on but it’s functional and ready to go.

Which brings me to my next point, a review of 2014.

Last year (saying that on Jan 1 is always strange) was a busy year for me and, considering this post even exists, an important year.  While getting myself to write regularly technically began the previous December, January saw me pushing forward more.  February saw the start of A Demon in the Desert.  The whole thing spun out after talking with a friend one night about an idea I was debating.  Originally, I had tried to start a swashbuckling story about an Orc.  But then I started thinking about a gunslinger Orc and the discussion lead to ideas and I started immediately.  It was shaky at first but it got going.

The summer was spent in a weird stasis but things picked up again in September when I set up the kickstarter.  I probably should’ve waited a while yet but hey, ya live ya learn.  It still brought some good as I joined goodreads and started meeting fellow weird west writers.  Then meeting some new folks who backed the book, including another writer.  It seemed like my professional life just slid right into place.  I now know a slew of authors and have a little group of colleagues.  And that’s pretty fuckin cool.  The kickstarter also cemented relationships with a few people I already knew but not well yet.  Everyone has been awesome and it’s been amazing having professional support, personal support, and feeling like I’ve come into my own.

Now that we’ve gotten the big move finished (some of you may recall I was in Oklahoma and now I’m in Alabama), and things mostly set up, I’ll be able to get back to writing again.  I’m going to do my best to hold to the June release.  I don’t think I’ll have to push it back again, but no matter what, I want to make the story the best it can be and get everyone nice and hooked for future books.  So, I hope you had a good holiday and that your new year will be great and that you’ll achieve whatever it is you set out to achieve.

Let’s kick some ass.