Welcome to the worlds of Asher Black ®
This is the lair of the Ashermost.
Asher Black is a fabulist living in Brooklyn.
By day, he is a self-employed corporate storyteller. When darkness falls, and even the long shadows are inevitably swallowed in black, he turns on the lights in Asher's Haunt, shapes a fire on the hearth, and tells other stories—of pitiless men, and malice, and ordinary people who resist them. At various times, Asher is a maximist, raconteur, genre hacker, and literary performer.
"I write, because I dream while I'm awake — about things that have actually happened and things that need to. I write fiction, because I can say things about the world that can't be heard another way. I need to be heard, because I want to be loved, and no one can truly love a person if they don't know the truth that is in him. I write stories in particular, because I can't stop telling them. They are the language I have for that truth." — Asher Black
Querying Agents Manuscripts Ready
Bamberry's World
A self-governing community of boys comes of age under the loose but iron auspices of a boarding school in rural Appalachia. The main character is thrust repeatedly into exotic situations and desperate confrontations. He has run from those battles until now. He defines himself as an individual in the context of an interdependent group, and learns to stand for himself in the course of standing for others. First in a planned series. Autobiographical fiction inspired by the author's experience of youth.
Milo Frayne
Milo left a career in the military and civilian intelligence services to launch a minuscule private investigative practice in an obscure Midwestern city. No longer willing to reinforce the moral ambiguity of the Cold War, he relies on a principled human network of his own. However, he's again confronted with his past when the daughter of a general walks into his office demanding he find a missing girl in South Korea. He would refuse but, in the course of that conversation, he learns his closest colleague and friend in hiding has resurfaced in the ROK and is marked for death. First in a series. Fiction based on the author's experiences in Korea.
Jacket Bio
About the Author
Asher Black is a storyteller, musician & karateka satisfied with the life he always wanted. He spent several years as Editor of MYTHOLOG and Managing Editor of The Green Man Review. Asher is a polymath artist with degrees in History and Educational Psychology who invented a system for studying instrumental music. He has lived in the Midwest, the American South, New York City, and the Pacific Rim. He grew up in the central swath of the United States that forms the Great Plains and is nourished by the many tributaries of the Mississippi River. He writes almost entirely outdoors and deeply about context. He currently lives in the tree-lined neighborhood where Walt Whitman edited the Brooklyn Daily Eagle while writing Leaves of Grass. Asher is a film festival, Broadway theater, and standup comedy enthusiast, art collector and ballroom dancer with a penchant for boating. He endeavors to create vivid, thoughtful, and action-filled stories—of pitiless men and malice, and ordinary people who resist them. His literary writing has appeared in Hummingbird Press, Lilliput Review, The Lamp-Post, Wiglaf Journal, and The Pipe Smokers’ Ephemeris. His non-fiction has appeared in Forbes and other periodicals. By day he works as a corporate storyteller, sales consultant, and digital ecologist.
News And Project Updates
QUERYING: Actively Seeking Agent May 4, 2024
The agent who works with me is onboarding a novel-writing machine, comfortable with both literary and genre fiction, prolific, conscious of what it takes to sell, and committed to the best possible end result. Let's sell books together.
GENRE NOVEL REWRITING: Good to Great April 3, 2024
Now the Lit Fic Novel is edited/complete, I'm tearing through the first book (genre fic) at the best pace I can muster. Enjoying the read. I'd pay to read this.
LIT NOVEL REWRITTEN: Final Polish Complete March 7, 2024
Rewriting was a feat. 7mo from September to March, but it's a much stronger book, with nuance it didn't have in the initial manuscript. I'm thrilled with the end result.
SUBMITTING: Short Fic for Periodicals August 24, 2023
One accepted and six more in the market. Most are autobiographical fiction—my own spin on lit fic with action, and one is a genre fic piece. A couple intersect with current political themes and contemporary social dynamics through the lens of past events.
SEQUELS PLOTTED: Lit Fic & Genre Fic August 12, 2023
Same primary characters as the first two novels. Intended to be next iterations in a pair of long-running series. Strong plot premises, fascinating characters, and I've cooked the 'digest' of the books (outline, characters, etc) to work from..
LIT NOVEL MANUSCRIPT: Upmarket / Lit Fic August 11, 2023
Came together well. I think it'll appeal across genres. Lit fic you can read if you like action, standoffs and battles, the mountains, the forest, and the culture of boys. I had been wanting to write this novel for years.
LIT NOVEL STARTED: Drafting December 7, 2022
Coming of age tale (autobiographical fiction) set in an exotic "Lord of the Flies" environment. Interesting cast of characters and, rare for the form, some explosive action.
GENRE MANUSCRIPT: Genre Fic with Literary Chops October 19, 2022
Finished the hard-boiled crime novel / action thriller. Compelling characters, continual action. When you do good work, it just sings to you. I'm so grateful.
GENRE BOOK STARTED: Beginning of a Series December 5, 2021
A pair of old friends, a distant culture, a kid in trouble. Conventional trope: "gal walks into my office" but, from there, it blows up fast. I've been cooking these characters in my mind for a while, and it's time to give them ink.
Art is rebellion.
Tell your story while you can.
Dead men tell no tales.