The Ashmarch
The Ashmarch

The Author

Richard A K Martin

A business owner, a husband and a father, building a world in the open, one tale at a time.

My sincere hope is that I get the chance to be there on the rainy days for someone else.

I'm Richard — the person behind The Ashmarch. By day, I do the kind of work that has absolutely nothing to do with wool traders, excommunicated inquisitors, or grimdark border towns. By evening and weekend, I've spent the last while building a world I couldn't quite let go of once it started taking shape in my head.

I grew up in a family that believed in imagination and a good story. From an early age I lost myself in the lands of Middle-earth, and on rainy days I found solace with David Gemmell. I've now taken the plunge and written my own book. The Ashmarch is the world I want to share with anyone who wants to read it.

The Trader's Reckoning is my debut novel — the first book in a planned series, finished, with publication news to follow. If you enjoy grounded, character-driven fantasy in the tradition of Joe Abercrombie, David Gemmell, or Bernard Cornwell's Last Kingdom — stories about ordinary people making hard choices, rather than chosen ones and prophecies — this is built for you.

This site, and the short stories going up here, are as much a part of the project as the novel itself. I wanted to build the world out in the open, with anyone curious enough to follow along, rather than just dropping a finished book on a shelf one day with no warning.

From my early days I always enjoyed the choose your own adventure books reading each one over and over watching the story unfold, this is the ultimate version of that and you get to help me choose.

Thanks for being here. There's a lot more of this world still to come.

A cover for Ghost: a gold recurve bow and arrow drawn in fine lines over gold rings on black, lettered “Ghost, written by Richard A.K Martin, illustrated by Jenna-Leigh Saelens”.
Ghost: one of Jenna’s covers for an Ashmarch short story.

Meet the artist

Jenna-Leigh Saelens

Illustrator for the Ashmarch

Jenna is a young, self-taught artist who has been drawing for most of her life. She works entirely freehand, moving between pencil on paper and drawing on a tablet, so each piece keeps the feel of something made by hand while gaining the finish of digital work.

I’m lucky enough to have partnered with Jenna on all of my books and stories, and her illustrations will be appearing across the Ashmarch from here on. Watching her take a scene I’ve only ever seen in my head and put it on the page has been one of the real pleasures of this project. She’s working on The Woodsman and the back catalogue of tales now.

Jenna currently has a few open slots for new clients.

Write to JennaHer commissions

Her work

Illustrations by Jenna-Leigh Saelens

  • A close-up of a single bloodshot green eye with the red and white Umbrella emblem in its iris, wreathed in grey smoke and faint scrawled words: “You are my hope”, “Release Elpis”, “Promise me you’ll end this”.
    This piece was for a family member who shares a love for Resident Evil as much as I do. I sprinkled in references from the game throughout.
  • An anime-style girl with long auburn hair and round green sunglasses, sticking her tongue out, washed in green light, her T-shirt lettered “Spit on”.
    This is a piece I did for a profile picture. To say she’s one in a million is an understatement.
  • Two wolves drawn in fine dark lines against a huge yellow moon, one howling with its head thrown back, the other gazing up with glowing gold eyes.
    This was a collab, not in art but in ideas. I have always loved foxes and my friend loves wolves, and so this was born.
  • An anime-style boy with tousled golden hair and blue eyes lying on his side, hugging a black teddy bear, with small handwritten notes and question marks around him.
    This character spoke to me in a dream. It kept begging to be drawn, and I like to think it has a bit of me in there somewhere.
  • A cover for Ghost: the black silhouette of an archer with a braid and a quiver, a bow at her side, in a rain-streaked pine forest, lettered “Ghost, written by Richard A.K Martin, illustrated by Jenna-Leigh Saelens”.
    GhostTier 2This was a book cover for a short story for the Ashmarch called Ghost. Ultimately not used, but I loved it.
  • A teal line drawing on black of a winged dragon coiled around a downward-pointing sword, with four-pointed stars around it, signed “Dragon”.
    DragonTier 1A simple line. This is tier 1 work.
  • Two girls asleep in an embrace on a dark blue bed, one with white hair, one with long brown hair, both in purple T-shirts, lit warmly from one side.
    The LoversTier 1This was for a friend’s book, to show the closeness of two characters.
  • A violet line drawing on black of a long sword whose guard opens into fairy wings and curling tendrils, with a heart at its centre, signed “Fairy”.
    FairyTier 1A simple cover design.
  • A horned dragon’s head and neck in fiery orange, jaws wide, breathing a billow of flame against a smoky sky.
    The DragonTier 2Done for Richard Martin. This took me one whole day, with many alterations: a complex piece.
  • A goddess drawn in glowing blue lines, with wild curling hair and white eyes, rising from mist between two orbs of blue light, mountains behind her.
    The GoddessTier 2This was drawn to give you an idea of the type of work you could get at tier 2.

Commission Jenna

What she does

I can hand draw, within reason, most things you require. The more technical, the more time it will take. Unlike AI work, this is real handcraft, and as such I need some time, with some works taking up to a week to complete.

But if what you’re after is real, honest artwork at a price that is fair, I am your artist!

Jenna-Leigh Saelens
Commission Jenna

jennatheillustrator06@gmail.com · Southampton

Tier 1£99
A fixed-price, one-off drawing. You tell me what you want and I draw my version of that brief. You can say no once and make alterations twice. This is for those on a budget who just need artwork in a hurry.
Tier 2£299
Real artwork from a full brief. I design to your brief and suggest changes, with multiple rounds and a lot of freedom for you, the purchaser. There is a fair-use limit on changes, but this is about making it right.
Tier 3, larger scalePOA
For larger-scale projects, like the works I am undertaking with Richard Martin. If you want me on retention, or to process works on a monthly basis, we can do this via subscription.

Contact the author

Write to Richard

Questions, theories and kind words are all welcome.

Write to Richard

tales@theashmarch.com

Or follow Tales of the AshMarch on Facebook

Or commission a tale, and I'll write you into the Ashmarch

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