Our Journey Begins
Somewhere outside of time and space lies the Akashic Library, its spectral shelves stretching off endlessly into the distance. What forbidden knowledge shall we find there? Read on . . .
Hi, I’m Leighton Connor, welcome to my newsletter!
A few years ago I started a mailing list to help promote the short fiction I self-publish on Amazon. But I don’t just write stories, I also write comics, draw comics, write role-playing games, draw for games . . . different fields, though as you can see, they’re interconnected. Should I have been more focused in my creative endeavors? From a business perspective, absolutely. I would be more successful in fiction, comics, or games if I had just picked one and stuck with it. But—and this is the key point—I don’t want to. I really LIKE fiction, comics, and games. All three of them!
Anyway, I’ve turned the mailing list into a newsletter. The functional difference here is that you’ll get lots of little pieces of information all at once, on a monthly schedule. So let’s see what we’ve got going on here in the Akashic Library.
MY KICKSTARTER FUNDED!
In February I launched a Kickstarter fundraising campaign for Akashic Titan: Blue Bolt, a follow-up to my earlier RPG zine Akashic Titan, which is about giant magical robots that soar through the void. Blue Bolt is based on the Joe Simon & Jack Kirby comic book series of the same name. It’s a setting, for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. The project funded, and I’ve been working on it steadily ever since. It’s on track to be finished by June.
James Hornsby drew the cover, and it’s beautiful: 
I’ve also gotten great work from Josh Burnett, who wrote a couple sections of the book and is doing a few illustrations. I’ll share some of that next time.
Also, part of the Kickstarter campaign was that anyone who receives a print copy of the book will also get an index card drawing of an akashic titan. This meant I had to draw 70-something robots, which was not a huge burden to me, since I draw robots all the time. Behold the results: 
I AM SERIALIZING A NOVEL
Can it be, a serialized novel, like back in Victorian times? Reader, it can. The novel is called Armistice Hawkins and the New Architects of Creation. That title is too long and I really want to shorten it but, that’s the thing, once you’ve started serializing a book you can’t go back and make changes. Which is kind of what makes the whole endeavor so exciting. Normally when you're writing the first draft of a novel everything's fluid. If you get to chapter 18 and you think, wow, this character should've been introduced earlier, you can go back and insert them into an earlier chapter. If you realize a particular plotline isn't going anywhere, you can just cut it. Nothing is written in stone! But when you're releasing each chapter out into the public as you go, you've committed to it. So readers not only get to follow a story, they get to watch me do a high-wire act of keeping this story moving and trying to avoid mistakes that will derail it. When I foreshadow something, set up a mystery, or set a plot in motion and then pay it off a dozen chapters later, you, the reader, can feel the unique satisfaction of watching it happen in real time.
Which is to say I think you should read the book a chapter at a time as it comes out, instead of waiting for it to finish.
What's it about? Well, there's a woman named Sarah, who's an academic in Lexington, Kentucky, and takes a job in New York working for the mysterious Armistice Hawkins. Hawkins is, it turns out, a scientist-adventurer in the tradition of Doc Savage, Tom Strong, and, to a lesser extent, Batman. Sarah joins the crew just as the Architects of New Creation launch their plan to tear down reality as we know in order to create a new and better world. There's action, adventure, unrequited crushes, evil billionaires, apocalypses, and more!
But what's it really about? It's about how it feels to be alive in 2022, man.
The novel's being serialized through a platform called Kindle Vella. The main page for it, where you can see all the chapters listed, is here. The first chapter is right here.
There's 20 chapters out so far. Check out these catchy titles:
I should probably mention the price. The first three chapters are free! Check 'em out! After that you have to pay, but it's only about 30 cents a chapter. Am I showing my privilege by saying "only" 30 cents? Sorry. But it doesn't seem exorbitant to me.
Some people have been confused by the app. You should be able to read it on your phone or your computer, clicking on the link above should get you where you want to go, but if you have any problems, just let me know. Email me! I will do what I can to help.
I DREW A COMIC BOOK
Back in October and November I serialized a 30 page comic book on Facebook, one page each week day. It’s called Lightning Man. I’ve been meaning to print copies but before I finished it my scanner died. A couple of days ago, however, I got a new scanner. Hurray! Now I've got everything done except for the front cover, and that's underway. I hope to finish it up and order some print copies this week. It just doesn't feel like a real comic book until you can hold the stapled copy in your hand, you know?
If you're happy with digital, though, you can read it here. A new page posts every weekday; as I’m writing this it’s not all up yet, but it’s getting there.
HEY, YOU WANT A FREE GAME?
A few months ago I released a mini-game called Save Dave! I wrote it, illustrated, all that stuff. It's available for whatever price you choose on itch.io. So if you choose for it to be free, it is! Get your free (or more, if you'd rather) copy here. 
Here's what it's about:
Your little town is lame as hell, total nowheresville, a dead-end burg with nothing going on . . . except for one shining beacon of awesome. His name is Dave. Dave is the coolest guy around and he's got friends from all walks of life. But now the worst possible thing has happened: Dave has been kidnapped. As his very best friend, the least you can do is rescue him.
Save Dave! is a complete mini-game, including:
*Character creation rules;
*An original coin toss-based action resolution system;
*Random tables to determine Who Kidnapped Dave, Where to Look for Dave, and Obstacles for the PCs to face.
GODZILLA CLUB UPDATE
Enough beating around the bush, let's talk Godzilla. There are 36 live action Godzilla movies, including the American ones. I have seen 33 of them. My son Jackson has seen 30. He and I watched the whole Showa series (that's the original series, from 1954-1975) and most of the Millennium series (which ran from 1999-2004; I've seen all of them, he's seen all but Final Wars, which I tell him he doesn't need to see because it's terrible, but he wants to for the sake of completion). We recently started watching the Heisei series (1984-1995) with our friends Ray and Stacy.
Ray, Stacy, Jackson, and I are the founders of the august organization known as Godzilla Club. We started meeting in 2019 but quickly got derailed by the pandemic. Happily we've started meeting again, and were scheduled to meet in March but, alas, we had to postpone. Now we're scheduled to meet in April and watch a double-feature of Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla II and Godzilla Vs. SpaceGodzilla. Then I'll only have one to go! Ultimate Godzilla mastery is within my grasp! 
BOOKS I'VE READ SO FAR THIS YEAR
Enigma: The Definitive Edition, Peter Milligan, Duncan Fegredo, and various
Six Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton, Kyle Starks and Chris Schweizer
Human Target: Chance Meetings, Peter Milligan, Edvin Biukovic, and Javier Pulido
The Many Deaths of Laila Starr, Ram V and Filipe Andrade
A Visitor’s Guide to the Rainy City, Rich Forest
The Liberty Brigade, Michael Finn, Barry Kitson, Ron Frenz, and various
Moon Knight volume 1: Lunatic, Jeff Lemire and Greg Smallwood
Moon Knight volume 2: Reincarnations, Jeff Lemire, Greg Smallwood, and various
Moon Knight volume 3: Birth and Death, Jeff Lemire and Greg Smallwood
Penultiman, Tom Peyer and Alan Robinson
Human Target: Second Chances, Peter Milligan, Javier Pulido, and Cliff Chiang
Superman: Action Comics Volume 1: Warworld Rising, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Daniel Sampere, Christian Duce
The Nice House on the Lake volume 1, James Tynion IV and Alvaro Martinez Bueno
Thursday, Eli Seitz
The Mighty Crusaders, Ian Flynn and Kelsey Shannon
The Mundane Adventures of Dishman, John MacLeod
The Red Hook volume 1: New Brooklyn, Dean Haspiel
Old Head, Kyle Starks
Quasar Classic volume 1, Mark Gruenwald, Paul Ryan, Mike Manley, and various
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Becky Chambers
JLA/Avengers, Kurt Busiek and George Perez
WHAT I'M READING NOW
The Kaiju Preservation Society, by John Scalzi
Show Your Work!, by Austin Kleon
SHOWS I’M WATCHING
Star Trek: Picard
Our Flag Means Death
RECIPE CORNER
I don’t have a lot of recipes. I’ve shared this one before, but that was a long time ago, and those of you who recently signed up deserve to have this in your life. I’m telling you, this is a big hit at potlucks. Take a big bowl of pimento cheese and some crackers, mmmmm, you got yourself a party!
Pimento Cheese Spread
Ingredients:
1 cup shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese
1/3 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons cream cheese
2 ounces jarred diced pimento peppers, drained
1 tablespoon bread and butter pickle juice
1/2 tablespoon creamy horseradish sauce
1 teaspoon yellow mustard
Directions:
Put the ingredients in a bowl, and mix them.
For a mind-blowing culinary experience, top a burger with pimento cheese, honey slaw, crumbled kettle chips, and bacon. Be sure to toast the bun!
OKAY, I THINK THAT'S ENOUGH FOR NOW
The next mighty installment comes out next month. What do you want to see more of? More recipes? Index card drawings? Game design philosophy? Excerpts from works in progress? Forbidden knowledge? Thirst traps? Let me know!
Thanks for reading!
Your Pal,
Leighton
www.leightonconnor.com