A new month means a new progress update on any and all things From Ashe! Let’s not waste any time and just jump right into things!

Volume 3 Progress

Last month, I still had a bit to go when it came to writing the book. This was because I was doing a pass over the first four chapters which encompasses Renji and Ashe’s backstory. I wanted to clean it up, change some things up, and all that fun stuff.

I could have done it after writing chapters 5-7; however, I was afraid that if I redid chapters 1-4 and made them too long, I would have to break them up, thus pushing some of the planned content into Volume 4. Thankfully, I managed to balance things out and while the first four chapters are a bit longer, they are fleshed out in a way where I’m happy with it and I didn’t have to sacrifice the rest of the book’s story.

So, yes. The writing is done and Volume 3 is in first draft!

This meant that the next step in the process is the artwork! I did up my commission sheet and sent everything over to Alex and in true Alex fashion, he busted out 9 commissions in 10 days. If you follow me on Twitter and/or Instagram, then you were introduced to Emily and Dean Sawyer, Ashe’s parents, as well as Satoshi and Akemi Keita, Renji’s parents! You also got to see one of the scenes in the book of Ashe and Renji standing out by the pond behind Ashe’s house!

The last four remaining scenes; however, had to be kept hidden as they contained MAJOR spoilers from the book… including parts of Ashe and Renji’s backstory as well as a scene dealing with another conflict and a bit of a cliffhanger ending scene which will be a double-page spread!

So, what comes next?

Editing.

Lots and lots of editing and grammar passes to try and get this as error free as possible. A couple of them do slip through the cracks but I do the best I can without having to fork over precious money. Limited budgets and all that.

Volume 3 Release Date

With the book just needing editing at this point, and allowing for some leeway for a bit of marketing, I am hereby announcing that the official release date for From Ashe Vol. 3 will be….

September 1, 2021!

I should have everything wrapped up beforehand but I still need to make promo art, craft a press release, send it out and have it thoroughly ignored by every news outlet, open up pre-orders for autographed copies, get it approved by Amazon so I can get the books here to sign by the release date, make the eBook and hardcover editions…

Oof… I’m getting tired thinking about it but… I am quite used to it as this is my 20th lap around the proverbial sun.

The A.C. Stories Reviews From Ashe Vol. 1

The A.C. is back and at it again! He’s reviewed and/or discussed every book I’ve put out (sans the A.R. Dragonfly art book) and his videos are always a pleasure to watch! This time, he tackles the first volume of From Ashe and since he switched from discussion to reviews, I can say that there are no spoilers in this so feel free to check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEghhO-wKDI

Volume 4 Preview

I am going to try and get the editing done for Vol. 3 during July. This way, I can start outlining Volume 4!

As a bit of a Volume 4 preview… whenever I talked about From Ashe… whether it’s here on my blog or on a podcast (book me if you want to chat about any of my books!), I always mentioned that the sole purpose of From Ashe is Ashe’s journey to becoming a published author and one of the things she would encounter would be a writing competition.

Well, Volume 4 will be the beginning of that competition and you will get to meet some new characters in the form of her competition rivals!

Without saying anything about their personalities and/or their backgrounds, the characters you’re going to meet are Noah Allen, Jessica Cunningham, Mineko Hoshikawa, and Sebastian Graham.

Wait… did I say Sebastian Graham?

Yes, I did! If you were wondering where my Sebastian character was for this series, there you have it! He makes a brief cameo in Volume 3 but begins to play a more prominent role in Volume 4 and in future volumes!

World Expansion

I asked a question on Twitter. Since A.R. Dragonfly took place in the final world line from Final Hope, should I continue that connection and have From Ashe take place in the same world as A.R. Dragonfly?

I asked Twitter, some people on Discord, and a few of my friends on Facebook. Every single person gave me a resounding “Yes!”

Therefore, I made the decision to have From Ashe within that same world which opens up the potential for a crossover. I was able to pull that off in A.R. Dragonfly by having Final Hope’s Serah Annhearst and Ryunosuke Saigo play a role in the story to where readers did not need previous knowledge of who they were in order to enjoy them.

So, if any crossover happens, it will be the same way. I don’t want readers to have to know the entire story of A.R. Dragonfly to understand a character making an appearance. I haven’t fully decided how many characters I will have crossover but I did decide on one and that one character so far is concrete.

Maybe one is enough and that’ll be it? Maybe this one character will naturally cause others to show up?

I will say that From Ashe takes place a few years after A.R. Dragonfly so if we do run into a character or two, it will be their mid to late 30’s version of them. Amber wouldn’t be running around with her wild hair colors, Sebastian wouldn’t look like an anime version of Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, etc.

We’ll see. I don’t want the cast to invade this story for the sake of having a crossover fest, though. This is why I think one is fantastic. Two is iffy but acceptable and anything more than that might just be dumb.

Although, even though I made my choice… who would you like to see make a cameo?

Until Next Time

These updates seem to feel shorter and shorter but as I’ve said before… now that I’m focusing on one series… one book at a time… updates feel shorter because they are. The work I put into a book; however, never feels as short as these updates do.

I’ll catch you all in August!

Until then,

Ja ne!