What This Site Is, and What's Coming

What This Site Is, and What's Coming

Hi — welcome to the Ashmarch.

If you've found this site, you're early. Nothing's published yet — not the book, not a single story. This is the very start of something, and I wanted this first post to explain exactly what that something is, and how it's all going to work.

The book itself

The Trader's Reckoning is Book One of a fantasy series I've been building for a while now — low fantasy, grimdark, no dragons or grand wizards, just people caught between a corrupt crown and a religious order that answers to no one. It's finished. It's currently out with beta readers, getting the kind of honest feedback that makes a book better before it goes any further. Once that's done, it moves toward proper publication.

The stories, and the schedule

In the meantime, this is where the wider world starts coming to life — and I wanted to build it out here, with you, rather than just posting a finished product one day with no warning.

Starting Sunday, July 19th, a new short story goes up here — and on the Facebook page — every two weeks after that, same day, like clockwork. Standalone tales set in the same world as the novel, following people who only get a passing mention in the main story. None of them require you to have read the book first, since it isn't out yet. None of them will spoil it once it is.

You get a say

Once a month, I'll open up a vote — three story ideas, and you choose which one I write next. Whichever wins becomes the next tale.

And if you're one of the first ten people to vote for the winning idea, your name goes in the dedication at the end of that story once it's written. Small thing, but it felt right — if you're helping shape where this world goes, you should be named in it.

Why build it this way

Here's the honest bit: none of this exists yet in its final form. The book is finished but not yet published. The world is still being mapped, drawn, and written, piece by piece. If you're here now, at the very start, you're not just reading something that already happened — you're actually part of how it gets built.

First story: Sunday, July 19th.New tale every two weeks after that. Vote once a month. Book announcement to follow once beta reading wraps up.

Thanks for being early. It means more than you'd think.