alarmeighteen

IMPORTANT UPDATE - Book progress

Hello my lovely Patrons!

I hope you are all keeping well and staying safe. The world is in turmoil (or should I say - continues to be in turmoil that is now being brought to the attention of the media) and I know that everyone is feeling the effects of 2020, whether directly or indirectly. Be sure to be kind to yourself and others at every given opportunity.

I am posting this update because - WHOOPS! A few weeks back, I drafted an update post explaining about production, shipping, etc, and how the pandemic has effected this at my end. Unfortunately, either through internet issues, or (more likely) me getting a little punchy when it came to deleting the replica PDF page posts, this post either never went live, or was removed soon after posting. I am so very sorry for that, and even more sorry that it has taken me until now to realise. Thank you to those who let me know.

Information below relates to all open T.o.M.E. and Books we All Need orders.

Firstly, here is a link to my Instagram update highlight where I have been keeping track of news regarding orders, production, and shipping. If you wish to take a look at this, you might want to skip towards the end where you'll find the most up-to-date information.

Also, there have been a couple of developments over the past few days. I will outline everything for you below:

- A Book of Recipes, Stories, and Self-Defence are now complete. A Book of History is mid-production, due to be completed by the end of the month, with production for A Book of Supernatural History due to commence at the start of July. This all depends on the lockdown situation here, as well as the international shipping situation, but fingers crossed!

- I will be receiving a sample of the bound pages for A Book of Supernatural History over the next week, so I will be able to share a flick-through with you all!

- Shipping is now opening up and becoming a lot more reliable. I have been holding fire on posting anything during the lockdown, as numerous items (especially those travelling internationally) have gotten lost or delayed. As such, I am planning to start shipping all open orders for completed T.o.M.E. items (the rune books) beginning next week. I am sending these first as I have a number of the books ready to go. 

- As I also have some of the Books we All Need copies ready, I will start putting together shipping forms for all orders that can be sent sooner rather than later (those containing only Recipes, Stories, and Self-Defence). Before I send any of these out, due to the time people have been waiting, I will be sending out an email to everyone I have listed. This email will ask for you to confirm your shipping address to make sure the one I have on file is still the best to use. PLEASE NOTE - if you do not confirm your address, even if it has not changed, this will lead to a delay in processing your order. This email will be sent from bookshelf@alarmeighteen.co.uk, rather than my info@alarmeighteen.co.uk address, to spare overcrowding my inbox!

- Sadly, due to recent events regarding the 'copycat seller'. I have been forced towards taking legal action. As a result, I also have to be a little more stringent with what I ask of you moving forward. Along with the address confirmation email, I will also be attaching a PDF form that will require your digital signature (typed is fine), stating that you agree to the terms outlined in the document. I am so very sorry that I have to ask this of you, however, I am sure those of you who support me and my work will not take issue with signing such a document to help safeguard it :] PLEASE NOTE - if you do not sign and return this form, I will not be able to ship your order. Should for any reason you not wish to sign it, I will, of course, fully refund you, but I sincerely hope that isn't necessary.

- As for Patreon itself, I have now reopened the two tiers ($10 part-payment and $160 full-payment) for the preorder of my books. This was voted for by a majority of you in the recent poll post. These tiers allow you to start paying for (or fully preorder) any of my books and will be live between now and the end of 2021, when I intend to start production again. PLEASE NOTE - any books paid for via this method (excluding Læraryna and Dangvingäsh which are in stock) will not be shipped until they are complete. Please check with me about delivery expectations for specific books.

I believe that's everything I have to say, for now! Thank you for taking the time out to read this long post. Please feel free to comment questions below should you have any and I will edit/add to this post, or reply publicly.

All the best, Jack.

Reopening Book Tiers?

A number of you, as well as many of my Instagram followers, have asked if and when I will be re-opening the 'book payment' tiers on here. The current situation has, of course, effected all of us financially, so I want to do all I can to help people out who are still looking to get their hands on my work. This is definitely something I intend to do in the future, in order to enable part (or full) payment for books over a period of time, just as I did before.

My question to you is - should I reopen these tiers now, to allow people to get started on part-payments (or preorder in full) as they wish, or should I wait until later? Or, should I not reopen them at all?!

I know many of you many still be on the previous tiers, so this may not effect you directly, but as my kind, supportive Patrons, your collective opinion would be welcome, if you're willing to give it :]

Please select one of the options below!

Thank you in advance - Jack

Tier Changes

Hello everyone! I hope you're all keeping safe :]

As you may havre noticed, I have now removed the Weekly Replica Pages tier. In its place, the $5 tier Tea and a biscuit is now available instead!

I am working on a number of 'behind the scenes' content ideas, including a sneak peek at how I went about creating certain rune/font sets, maybe even a little workshop on how you can do so yourself! I hope for the first of these to be posted very soon.

Thank you all for your continued support!

All the best, Jack.

The time has come :[

Hello to all of you, my lovely Patrons.

(This is a bit of a long post, but there is some very important information below)

I sincerely hope that everyone is keeping well and staying safe with everything that is going on currently. We're doing ok here. I'm filling my time completing A Book of Supernatural History (which is now ready for physical production, as soon as I can start that up), and The Potioneer's Pocketbook - Part 1 (the last few illustrations will be finished in the next few weeks). I am also working on The Potioneer's Pocketbook - Part 2 and Perfecting Potions as well... not to mention the board game, and two other as-yet-unmentioned book projects that might, or might not see the light in the coming months/years!

Sadly, this is not a happy post. After my last post regarding this issue, I have decided that I will no longer be sharing my Harry Potter replica pages via Patreon, nor via any other online platform. I need to explain a few things about this, so please read on if you'd like to know more.

Firstly:

Many of you may know that a while back, I decided to share a full password-protected PDF of my Advanced Potion Making replica page content for everyone's personal use. This PDF was not high quality, but good enough for online reading and printing to make your own pages if you so wished. I had kept it in good faith that people would be kind enough not to take advantage of this beyond the bounds of what I had asked - print and share for personal use is fine, but no re-uploading or selling. Sadly, within a month or so, it was clear that this faith had been misplaced in a select few.

For some time since, books and pages have been popping up on eBay, Etsy, and other online sources where my work (primarily Advanced Potion Making, but not solely) has been being sold, either in full or in part, by people who either do not mention the original maker, or worse, claim to be me outright. Most of these items stem from the full PDF I shared (I marked the pages in a unique way, so I could tell if such a thing happened), but others are scans/copies/reproductions of my work. A good example of this is a copy of Hogwarts: A History that has surfaced where my page design and content (that has nothing to do with any design used in an official prop) has been copied word for word, albeit poorly. There have also been cases where some pages from my yet-to-be-released  'A Book of Supernatural History' have been put up for sale. These specific pages were only shared here on Patreon.

In short, until such a time as these existing sellers are stopped, and new ones stop appearing, I will not be sharing my work online. I cannot tell you how sad this makes me, especially at a time of crisis like this, where I'm sure they would have been most appreciated.

NOTE - I want to raise the subject, as I'm sure some, if not all of you are aware. Much of my replica work falls under copyright restrictions by Warner Bros. as it mentions wording/artwork involved in the franchise. However, although I do use film-used cover art (by MinaLima), the interior design of the books are my own, as is the wording. This, however, makes it difficult for me to report/file anything against those reselling my work as, of course, I do not have full rights over all of it myself. I do, therefore, have to be somewhat cautious in how I approach the people selling my work, as I don't want to get into hot water with WB. I just wanted to point out that I am aware of this. I also do not plan to name or link those selling my work as I do not wish to promote them in any way. If you want to head to eBay, Etsy, etc. and search for the book titles, you will find them. You may take whatever action you wish (though I would advise against buying!), but I must ask you to do so on your own terms - I am not asking you to seek out and contact these people. I just want you to be aware of the situation. 

As a closing statement, I think the use of 'I am not angry, I am merely disappointed' hits the nail on the head. I try very hard not to be an angry person. I am most concerned that people do not get caught out by the fake copies, especially those being sold ridiculous prices. Please be careful and don't hesitate to contact me to check. But as a rule, if it's not through one of my two self-run websites, it's not me offering it!

Secondly:

I have been informed that some of you have not received page uploads for a little while, which I apologise for. This is not due to the above mentioned, but a problem with the upload at this end, and so a separate issue entirely. As such, I will either re-upload the missed weeks worth of pages until now, or I can refund you. Please just let me know which you would prefer.

I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you all. The support you offer here means so much to me! That is why I post this announcement with a heavy heart. BUT! I do not intend to close down my Patreon entirely. Therefore, I would be most grateful if you could let me know what else you would be willing to subscribe to :] I would love to continue offering you all content for your support, so please comment below with ideas of how I might best do this!

As always, please do comment below (rather than direct message if that's ok, as I want to be open with you all about the situation) and ask any questions that you may have. I will get back to you all as quickly as I can.

Thank you for your continued support, and thank you for taking the time to read this post.

All the best,
Jack  

:[ My Harry Potter Replicas ]:

Hello all!

Firstly, I need to apologies to you all for missing the past two weeks of replica pages!
The first week I scheduled the post and apparently it failed to upload, then last week I completely forgot! I am very sorry to leave you without, but I will be making up for it tonight by posting all 3 sets at once :] I will be doing so shortly.

Unfortunately, I also have to announce something a little less happy. Once again, I have been sent links to other people selling my content (my own work and designs, not including the minalima covers, etc) on Etsy, eBay, and other online platforms. Thank you very much to all who have done so, as it is important that I know about it. The sad thing is that upon looking into one of the links in particular, PDF pages were included in a sale that I have only uploaded here and nowhere else. I hate pointing the finger, and I honestly wish that it wasn't the case, but this means that one of my past or current Patrons is either the seller, or has provided the seller with these pages. This makes me sad :[

I want to be honest with all of you as I am so thankful for your support, but if this kind of thing continues, I may be forced to stop sharing my PDFs at all. I love that so many people want them, but selling them (in some cases pretending to me to do so) really hurts.

If you do come across any of my replicas for sale, or my work for sale anywhere other than via my official websites, I would really appreciate you doing all you can to stop it. Report, contact, or just let me know, whichever you are most comfortable doing

Thank you, Jack.

Only 20 Days Left!

Hello everyone! I hope you're all doing splendidly :]

This is a bit of a wordy post, but it is an important one.
Please take the time to read it if you have reserved books.

Thank you to everyone who has confirmed their book choices with me - your books are now reserved and secure.

However, there are still 19 of you who have not contacted me at all since pledging. This means that your payments have been made, but you have no books reserved! Uh oh! 

If you don't let me know which books you'd like within the next 20 days, I'm afraid that you won't be getting anything in return for your patronage. That's not me being harsh (I'll organise a refund if you so wish), that's just the facts of the deadline.

To avoid this, please respond to the emails I have sent you asking for your choice. I will also be sending you all a direct message via Patreon after posting this just to be sure.

IMPORTANT - If you do not receive a Patreon message from me in the next few minutes, you do not need to do anything (that will save me from getting too many responses to this post!)

Also, there are 17 of you who have told me you book choices in the past, but not confirmed recently as to whether this is your final selection. I would very much appreciate it if you could also reply to my Patreon message (sending shortly) to confirm this with me. If I don't hear from you, you will only receive the books I have previously reserved for you.

AS ABOVE - If you do not receive a Patreon message from me in the next few minutes, you do not need to do anything.

I would like to apologise in advance if I am mistaken in any of my messages, or if they feel repetitive. Over 150 Patrons have reserved books, and it gets a little confusing at times! I'd much rather spend the time contacting you and be correct, than assuming and getting it wrong! Better safe than sorry :]

Thank you for your time!

All the best,
Jack

LAST CHANCE FOR BOOKS!

ATTENTION! IMPORTANT NEWS!

To all current or prospective Patrons, this is your final reminder that the deadline to reserve books through this platform is fast approaching! 

After the next Patreon payment YOU WILL NO LONGER BE ABLE TO PAY FOR OR RESERVE NEW BOOKS in this way.

The payment taken on 1st December 2019 will be the last that can be used to reserve books through my Patreon. A payment of $10 per book is required (so say you want all 5 Books we All Need, you'll need to have pledged at least $50 by or on this date). If you have already paid to reserve a book, you will be able to continue payments for as long as you like, BUT NO NEW RESERVATIONS WILL BE TAKEN.

It is also of great importance that you confirm with me which book/s you want to reserve as soon as possible (by 31st December at the very latest), otherwise you simply will not be allocated any of them.

If you have any questions about this then please comment below, or send me a direct message :)

Thank you!
Jack

Important Email!

Hello again everyone! 

Sorry, this is another boring 'FYI' post... more cool stuff to come soon, I promise!

I have just sent out an email to all of my Patrons (I hope!) with important information and a few questions that I'd very much appreciate you all answering. Please send a reply as soon as you can, as this will really make my life much easier :]

Thank you in advance!
Jack 

MONTHLY PAYMENTS ENDING SOON!!!

Not quite as scary as the title might make it seem, but I needed to grab your attention!

Please note that if you are paying monthly for a book/s via Patreon, you must have the paid the first amount by the end of December this year. I will treat this as a deposit to reserve your copy until you have completed the full payment over however many months :]
You do not need to have paid the full amount, just the reserve amount, but I do need you to let me know which book/s you would like.

As such, please make sure that you confirm each new book you would like to reserve, as if I do not have this information, your book will not be reserved for you at all.

After 31st December 2019, you will no longer be able to use this pay monthly method if you have not already started it. I will make this clear in the tier posts for newcomers.

Any questions, do ask in the comments so I can respond publicly :]

Thank you!

Double Update!

Hello everyone!

Just a quick message to let you all know two things:

1) I'm aware there has been an issue with PDF page uploads again over the past week or so. I'm so sorry about that. I am going to delete the two previous uploads and re-post them tomorrow with this week's pages. Hopefully with more success this time around! Please do let me know if you can't get access.

2) It has been brought to my attention that some of these pages are being uploaded on external sites for free download, even sold in some cases. This is truly disappointing as I am offering my work exclusively to fans who support it. I do not intend to point the finger publicly (even if I did know who it was), but the fact is that these pages are only made available to my Patrons, therefore, it must be one of my Patrons doing so :[ Pages from my Sneak Peek of A Book of Supernatural History appeared on Etsy last week, but disappeared rather quickly - these pages were only made available on this site. In the same case as with the PDF and physical versions of my Advanced Potion Making replica (cheap, low-quality, stolen copies of which are still being sold on eBay and Etsy), if this doesn't stop, I will be forced to stop offering weekly pages to everyone on here. I really don't want to do this, so please do contact me if you see or know anything about such things.

I'm sorry this wasn't a particularly upbeat post, but it's important that I'm open and let you all know what's going on! It makes me sad :[

Regardless, there are most 'good news' posts coming up soon :]

Thank you, Jack.

Arrrgh! And Again!

Once again, I'm so sorry for missing the Friday page posts for the last few weeks. I'm really not having much luck at all with scheduling the posts! :| 

This Friday, I will be post 4 sets of pages for you all!

From now on, I am back at work properly and have far less going on in way of distractions, so I can keep a close eye on this! I'll make sure that you all get the pages that you're kindly supporting me for.

As always, if any of you have any questions, please ask in the comments below and I'll answer for all :]

My sincere apologies again for missing this!
Jack

Potions Books - Kickstarter!

Here are the 4 cover designs for the new Potions books, soon to be available via my Kickstarter (hopefully!):

Perfecting Potions - A potion recipe book to be used 'at the cauldron'. This is the core book from the project that contain hundreds of potion recipes, as well as history of potions, alchemy, symbols, runes, spells... everything you could ever want to know about the topic! This book is best described as 'Advanced Potion Making, but without the Harry Potter references and 3x the content"!

The Potioneer's Pocketbook - A book detailing how, when, where, and why to harvest ingredients that can then be used in recipes featured within Perfecting Potions! This book can be acquired as a whole (the purple Deluxe Edition) which contain both Plants & Creatures, and also in two parts (Part 1 - Plants, and Part 2 - Creatures) for those who wish to focus in on a specific route!

Firstly, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the covers and the books in general, and secondly, I'd be most grateful if you would help me bring these books to life! A share of the Kickstarter project, a pledge if you'd like (but no pressure)! I know that you all support me once a month already and that means an awful lot!

Thank you for reading!
Jack

The Potioneer's Pocketbook - Cover Reveal!

I have just finalised and released the cover artwork for the first of the new books from the Treasury of Magical Enigmas! This book is part of the Kickstarter I'm currently running.

I really hope you like it! I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments on this, as well as on the Kickstarter in general. I'd also really appreciate it if you could spread the word as much as possible to anyone who you think might be interested in my magical work :]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1111318456/the-tome-p-is-for-potions

I hope you're having a great weekend!
Jack

Giveaway Winner Announcement!

As promised, as well as posting the FAQs video to Youtube (see the post below if you haven't already), I also ran a Giveaway for reaching 100 Patrons!

I have just set the randomiser spinning with the names of my first 100 Patrons...

Aaaaaaaand the winner is: Christigale Mandapat! 

CONGRATULATIONS! You get to choose a free copy of any of my books - past, present, or future! I'll send you a message shortly to confirm.

Bad luck to the other 99 of you, but don't worry, I'm always running Giveaways so you're bound to get more chances of winning :]

Let me know what you think my next Goal should be?

100 Follower Reward - YouTube Video!

It's finally live! HOORAY!!!

Sorry it took so long, but here it is for your viewing pleasure.
I hope you enjoy it!

All the best,
Jack

YouTube Video Questions!

Hello everyone!

Thank you for posting all of your questions in my earlier post. I'm starting to put them all together now, ready to be answered in my YouTube video! I'm going to answer as many of them as I possibly can, without making an hour-long video!

I had a thought. If any of you would like to record yourself asking the question you have posted, please feel free to do so! I will drop in the footage and respond directly to your clip!

There are a few rules if so:

- Keep it short! I'll be pushed for time as it is, so just a quick "Hello" and the question.
- If possible, record the video landscape so it will better fit in with the video.
- Please only ask the question already posted, as I have already made a list of what and how I will answer you all! :P 

If you'd like to be a part of this, then please send your video clip along with your Patron name to info@alarmeighteen.co.uk.

I also need to ask you all if you are happy for me to mention your name (as it appears on Patreon) in the video. If you are not, please let me know and I'll post you as 'anonymous'!  :]

P.S. We're at the start of another month, so don't forget to arrange your tier selection as needed! An email with your book choice (if relevant) would also be fantastic!

All the best,
Jack

New logo for AXVIII!

As I am currently working more exclusively on magical content, I thought it was about time that I updated my logo to represent it! I'd love to know what you all think :]

Also... challenge on to count the number of triangles that feature in the symbol (not the wording too). You might discover an interesting secret...

Video & Giveaway - 100 Patron Goal Reached!

Thanks to your amazing support, I have passed the next goal of 100 Patrons!

This means that I will now organise the filming of a YouTube video to be added to my channel where I will answer a range of questions posted by you, the Patrons!

I will be asking each of you (as well as my Instagram followers) to submit a question, from which I will then select a number (I am unlikely to be able to answer every single one, unfortunately) to respond to in my video. Also, each person who submits a question will be automatically entered into a giveaway to win any one of my books!

Post your question below in the comments!

Thank you again for your continued support!
Jack

Discord Live Chat - Saturday 6th April 2pm GMT

Hello everyone!

Here's a link to the video for my (The Essential) Defence Against the Dark Arts replica, which will be the topic of discussion during tomorrow's Discord chat.

Take a look at the video to familiarise yourself with it, then ask away tomorrow!

I look forward to seeing/hearing you then!
Jack

Should I... or shouldn't I..?

I was considering releasing the earlier pages from DADA too; those that do not fall within the Spell or Creature sections. These relate to Spell Classification, Wand Use, History...etc...

The section is, however, almost 100 pages long, without anywhere especially sensible to break it up (the text crosses most pages), so I'm not sure how best to do so.

What do you think?

Just to double check...

Hello all!

I am just doing a little housekeeping and I need to check each of your reservations for books, those of you who have done so.

To make it easier, could you please send me an email to info@alarmeighteen.co.uk with your current 'paid-for' or 'part-paid' books. I'm sorry to ask you all to do this, but the system on here seems to keep changing. I want to be doubly sure that I have all of your orders correct!

Not far off at all now from the 100 Patron goal!
You might get to see my face in a video yet...poor you!

Thank you in advance :]
Jack

I am still alive! Just!

Hello everyone!

My apologies for not posting as much recently. The past two weeks through to the end of April are likely to be the busiest of 2019 for me, but all is going well at the moment!

I am planning to drop some sample pages from A Book of Supernatural History soon... I hope this will make up for my lack of activity :} I'd love to know your thoughts, as always! Would you like to take a look at these?

Later tonight I will be releasing the next DADA Creature pages!

Thank you all for bearing with me,
Jack

Positively P-ing myself with excitement!

As you're all so lovely in supporting me... here is a super sneak preview into the first text page from The Potioneer's Pocketbook, the next release from the Treasury of Magical Enigmas project! There are a few more stains to be added yet, but the content is pretty much finished!

What do you think? Would you like to read more?!

Discord Discussion Tomorrow!

Tomorrow (Thursday 28th February) at 8pm GMT I will be ready to take your questions in the Arcanium Imperium voice channel on Discord!

I know that the time difference is a bit annoying, but I hope that some of you will be able to make it! This time I'll be taking questions and chatting about any-old-thing, rather than a specific topic, so ask away!

I hope to see/hear you there :]

Are we all ready for a discussion?

Sorry for postponing last week's Discord chat. Are we all still looking forward to talking about Advanced Potion Making this coming Thursday? I'm still planning to go ahead with it as long as everyone is still interested!

As I've said, the voice channels are only open to Patrons from tier 5 or higher, but I will be hanging around in the #commontongue channel afterwards. There, anyone can chip in on the conversation :]

Comment below if you have any questions that you'd like me to answer during the chat, or if there is anything in particular that you'd like me to cover! After all, this is to thank you for your continued support, so what you say, goes (within reason)!

Discord Discussions - Thursdays at 8PM GMT

Thank you for letting me know your preferred times and days of the week. I'm going to go ahead and run the discussions every Thursday evening at 8PM GMT from next week (there are a couple more bugs to figure out yet, so not this week). I hope you can join me!

Remember, the voice discussions are for Elvan Patrons (tier 5 and up) only, but those of you in lower tiers can join the text discussion afterwards! 

Also, I have revamped the Discord page now and set everything up as it should be. When you head over there, you'll come to the Welcome channel that will explain all! Please feel free to share the invite link below to any and all as well, though it will only grant limited permissions to non-Patrons (known as Ashan - Goblins!).

There are channels for fan photos, questions, and suggestions if you have any, so please do come along and join us all here: https://discord.gg/ZJYmjfp

All the best,
Jack

Update - Discord Link

It seems that the Patreon links to Discord aren't working at the moment. I'm going to spend some time today trying to work out what the issue is here so that you can all access it easily!

If anyone is willing to share the errors or issues faced when attempting to access, it would be much appreciated, as then I can get a better picture of what needs sorting :]

Thank you for bearing with me!
Jack

Boosted Rewards - Discord!

You can now chat with me and each other live via Discord!

As you may well have noticed, last night I (with the help of my Discord Admin, Dietmar!) set up and linked this Patreon to Discord! In doing so, I have also enabled you varying levels of access to either a text-based channels (where you can type with me and other Patrons), or voice-based channels (where we can all speak on mic!). 

I'm new to Discord, so I'm still finding my feet there too, but please ask if you have any questions or suggestions! You should have all received an email link to join the service (if you want to, of course) which will automatically assign you to either a text or voice channel depending on your Patron tier. If this is not the case, please let me know and one of us will manually assign you.

The channels are as follows:

Text channels
- dangvingäsh
- elvagló

Voice channels
- Arcanium Imperium
- Arcan Assembly

As I said, access to these channels will depend on which Patreon tier you have. The two voice channels are there so that we can 'split' the conversation somewhat, in case 20 of you all join at once and no-one can hear anything!

If you have no idea what Discord is (as did I until a few days ago), then I'd suggest you take a little tour of the site, though the App versions are far more friendly. As I said, please feel free to send me a message if you have any questions in regards to your new reward option!

All the best,
Jack

Book of Choice 3-day Discount!

If you're interested in pre-ordering a book from me, then don't delay!

Until February 1st, the highest tier on my Patreon is set at $130 as I wanted to give my first few Patrons a lovely surprise in FREE SHIPPING. However, this is set to increase to $160 on February 2nd to include the shipping charge (sorry about that). This will take the books back up to their original price (approx £100, plus shipping. Patreon only works in USD).

If you have any questions then please feel free to send me a message.

All the best,
Jack

The creation of the Planítis Runes

This is the original page where I first designed the Planítis runes of the Elvar. As you can see, I started out by drawing many shapes and combinations, then shortlisted my favourites, then allocated them to letters depending on how they looked and sounded.

For example, the runes for N and M look similar, as the letters sound the same when spoken. The combined letters such as AE and TH use the two letters together.