Weekly Update: Write Pack Radio Coolness

Week of 26 September to 2 October

Greetings all

Sorry for getting this week’s update out a couple of days late. This week has been somewhat discombobulated by the timing of the Write Pack Radio recording on Sunday afternoon.

This was my first podcast and I’m excited to hear it once it becomes live on 16 October. The recording session was laid back and fun. Basically, just five people sitting in a living room talking about writing. David Lucas was the host and moderator, then there was Brad Cook, Fedora Amis, Melanie Koleini (soon to be Lucas), and myself. The topic was writing noir and thriller. What the difference is, what the commonalities are, what they are defined as. We roamed around a goodly amount, hitting a variety of related topics, and I think it went well.

I also set up as a merchant at the Gryphon’s Fest SCA event. This was the first time I had set up my tent as a merchant booth, which is one of the reasons I wanted to do that. My normal arrangement works nicely, though I can absolutely see a number of tweaks that will make it much better. One cool note thing I am learning about merchanting at SCA events, at least the way I do it, is that I actually get to talk to my friends some. Most of the time I am such a moving target at SCA events, and so are many of my friends. This weekend, though, I had people coming by to chat for longer and more substantial conversations. I see these people a few times a month and we’re always so busy that this was a wonderful change.

One of the results of those conversations will bear fruit in a month or two. It’s a fun and silly idea, but I can’t wait to pop the cork on that secret when it’s done.

Friday I will be attending the Kansas Authors Club convention in Lawrence. I’ll have a reading on Friday night and then spend much of my time in the dealer’s room as I don’t really have a ton of other activities planned. I’m looking forward to meeting a bunch of other Kansas authors.

Well, I think that’s it for the moment.

Quote of the Week

Since I’m going to the KAC convention, I should have a quote about writing. I love this quote, and it totally applies to me, even if it means I’m weeping in the middle of Brewbaker’s with all the waitresses and patrons laughing at me.

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.”
― Robert Frost

News and Works in Progress
– Mostly I am just working on the next Edward novel, which will be called Where Now the Rider. Tentative release date is 30 November.
– The updated electronic version of The Eyes of a Doll is now live on Amazon. If you already own it, you can add wiki links by contacting Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/clicktocall (phone) or http://www.amazon.com/clicktochat

(chat).

Recent Blog Posts and Wiki Additions
– Sunday Scroll Text (Albrecht’s Chivalry Scroll): https://robhowell.org/blog/?p=474
Upcoming Events

– 30 September – 2 October: Kansas Author’s Club convention in Lawrence, KS
– 8 October: Calontir Fall Crown in Omaha, NE
– 14-16 October: Time Eddy in Wichita, KS
– 22 October: Horses and Heroes in Pineville, MO
– 27-30 October: World Fantasy Convention in Columbus, OH

 Spotlight

At Pennsic I had the pleasure of helping push Dave Schroeder’s Xenotech Rising books. Basically, the question it asks is what if aliens came here, gave us their technology, and charged us for tech support. I’ve only read the first one so far, but it’s fun, whimsical, and is in the tradition of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.

Let me know if you have any suggestions on the website, this email, or cool story ideas at rob@robhowell.org. Especially let me know of suggestions you have for the Spotlight section.

Have a great week, everyone.

Rob Howell
Author of the Shijuren-series of novels
Website: www.robhowell.org

Shijuren Wiki: http://www.shijuren.org/World+of+Shijuren+Home

Currently Available Works
A Lake Most Deep (Edward, Bk 1)
The Eyes of a Doll (Edward, Bk 2)

I Am a Wondrous Thing (The Kreisens, Bk 1)

Weekly Update Archive

Scroll Text Sunday – Albrecht von Trier’s Chivalry Text

Greetings all

It was a busy weekend and I’m only now catching up with the blogging. Here’s Sunday’s scroll text.

I have been blessed to get the opportunity to write scroll texts for a number of awards bestowed outside of Calontir. This one was written for a friend who now lives in the Outlands, Albrecht von Trier.

The text is modeled on that of the Hildebrandslied, an epic poem of the 9th century. Also serving as inspiration was the Ludwigslied. This was an example of a Preislied, a poem in praise of a warrior.

As I’m sure you can tell, it seems very much like that of Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon poetry. This is not surprising, of course, as they all come from a similar poetic tradition. About the only difference is that the Germanic tradition is a little looser on the location of the alliteration but much stricter in the language, preferring not to have much in the way of kennings or other word-play.

I chose this style as opposed to my initial expectation that I would be writing in the style of the Nibelungenlied because it matched better with Albrecht’s historical persona of a warrior in Saxony during the tenth century. Interestingly, as a result of the Anglo-Saxons wanting to convert the old homeland of Saxony, much of the literature and learning of Saxony especially was influenced by Wessex and Mercia.

Some words are glossed below. They are all in Old High German.

Albrecht – Chivalry

I have heard tell                                of heroic deeds
When armies stood                         arrayed against foes
Of a heriman proud                         wearing bright halsberg
Who stood in battle                        when stags shed blood
And held shieldwalls                       with soaring huscarls                   5
His sight so clear                               seeing all around him
No foe escaped his eyes                 except that lantwyrm
Lurking in southern sands            luring wandering souls
Though he stood tall                       even after it struck
And he heaped ruin                        on other hosts                                  10
With flickering spear                       and flowing blade
Such that falkkuning’s                    own sword was given
And on fields where                        blood flowed to three seas
Yet once more did                            Albrecht von Trier
Stand before many hosts              breaking linden-shields             15
There did Garick kuning                 gift-giving kneht
And Yasamin kuningen                  call to their host
That Albrecht be raised                 to his rightful station
So on this, the feast day                of St. Theotimus
In the XLIVth season                       since the stag first ran               20
Is Their word spoken,                     sealed and witnessed.

Notes

Line 3: Heriman: warrior
Line 3: Halsberg: coat of mail

Line 4: A reference to Estrella War

Line 5: Though getting this award in the Outlands, he was also a Calontir huscarl

Line 6: This line refers to his eyesight, which is terrible

Line 7-9: Lantwyrm: land dragon (in this case the culverts at the Florence Estrella site). This refers to his ability to stumble through huge obstacles which he cannot see yet somehow emerge unscathed. These concrete irrigation culverts are 4-5 deep and 6 or more feet across that required bridges for everyone but Albrecht.

Line 12: Falkkuning: Falcon king, and this line tells of the Sword of Calontir that was bestowed upon him.

Line 16: Kuning: King
Line 16: Kneht: warrior, obviously a cognate with cniht in Old English and knight in Modern English

Line 17: Kuningen: Queen

Line 19: Theotimus was a saint who preached through Germany in the 4th and early 5th centuries.

 

Weekly Update: Fun at DodecaCon

Week of September 19-26

Greetings all

Welcome to all of the new additions from DodecaCon 4. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did. You can find a link to my full after action report in the Recent Blog Posts and Wiki Additions section below.

Most everything here is self-explanatory, but I’ll explain a couple of things. The Recent Additions section are things I’ve added in the past week since the last update. The Spotlight section is where I link to artists or creators who I like that I think you should know about.

Also, don’t be surprised if I keep adding things. I appreciate every one of you who have agreed to join my mailing list and I will be adding cool things as I think about them to make reading this email worthwhile.

Quote of the Week

Today’s quote comes from Airplane, one of my favorite movies. Number 19 on my Wandering Signature Chart is a riff off of an Airplane quote (I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing printer ink), but throughout the movie the dialogue is so intricately brilliant.
Here’s one of many amazing interchanges:

“Operator: [Captain Oveur is on the phone with the Mayo Clinic] Excuse me, Captain Oveur, but I have an emergency call on line five from a Mr. Hamm.

Captain Oveur: Alright, give me a Hamm on five, hold the Mayo.”

– Airplane

It doesn’t get better than that, and now, I want a sammich.
News and Works in Progress
– I’m making progress on the next Edward novel, which will be called Where Now the Rider. Tentative release date is 30 November.
– The updated electronic version of The Eyes of a Doll is now live on Amazon. If you already own it, you can add wiki links by contacting Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/clicktocall (phone) or http://www.amazon.com/clicktochat (chat). If you purchase it in the future you’ll get those links automatically.

– I’ll be recording the episode for Write Pack Radio this upcoming Sunday.

Recent Blog Posts and Wiki Additions
– Scroll Text Sunday (Maren’s Champion Scroll): https://robhowell.org/blog/?p=460
– DodecaCon AAR: https://robhowell.org/blog/?p=462
Upcoming Events

– 30 September – 2 October: Kansas Author’s Club convention in Lawrence, KS
– 8 October: Calontir Fall Crown in Omaha, NE
– 14-16 October: Time Eddy in Wichita, KS
– 21 October: MCC Longview Festival
– 22 October: Horses and Heroes
– 27-30 October: World Fantasy Convention

 Spotlight
I’m going to point at this Kickstarter again because it’s in its last week. It’s been funded, but there are some stretch goals still available. It’s by my artist, Patrick McEvoy. As you know, I think he’s a fantastic artist and he’s lending his talents to another noir-themed mystery, this one a graphic novel that blends Cthulhu with Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. You can find more info at:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/309827462/casefile-arkham-her-blood-runs-cold?ref=project_tweet

Let me know if you have any suggestions on the website, this email, or cool story ideas at rob@robhowell.org. Especially let me know of suggestions you have for the Spotlight section.

Have a great week, everyone.

Rob Howell
Author of the Shijuren-series of novels
Website: www.robhowell.org
Currently Available Works
A Lake Most Deep (Edward, Bk 1)
The Eyes of a Doll (Edward, Bk 2)

I Am a Wondrous Thing (The Kreisens, Bk 1)

DodecaCon AAR

This past weekend I went to DodecaCon 4 in Columbia, MO. Despite some huge challenges for the con organizers, I had a great time.

One of those challenges is perhaps the worst thing that could ever happen to the con organizers a couple of weeks ago. They lost one of their daughters to complications from sickle-cell anemia. How they continued is beyond me, but despite their grief they kept smiling and working. Kudos to Toni Westbrook-Taylor and Randy Taylor for somehow plowing through.

Knowing that makes it no surprise that many of the things they wanted to organize ahead of time did not have a chance to get done. Despite this added work and extra adjustments on the fly, they managed to get things covered reasonably well.

A second challenge was the fact that the original football schedule had this weekend marked as one without a home game for Mizzou. The schedule changed. If you know Columbia, you know it’s awful for traffic in the first place for such a small town (the I-70 / US-63 is one of the worst interchanges I’ve ever seen, even counting some in places like Boston and Montreal). Home games, shockingly enough, makes traffic problems get worse.

Not only that, many of the people who might have come to the convention, especially students, were at the game or tailgating. I’m sure this dampened attendance from last year.

Finally, the other complication was the site itself. It was held in the big aisles in the middle of Parkade Mall. This meant extra security and less than ideal room arrangements. Still, they made it work, though they got an extra curveball on Sunday morning when the mall decided it was that morning they needed to paint new parking lines in the lot, meaning half the spots were roped off. I actually liked my spot in terms of how I was arranged, along a wall with an electrical outlet.

There were other issues, too, that I’m aware happened but not any details of what happened.

And yet, people had fun.

I was on two panels and moderated two others.  I like moderating panels where I’m not an expert on the topic, but still can periodically add things.

The first one I moderated was one about creating strong comic books, including characters, stories, and art. Two of the other panelists were both comic book artists and writers, while one was simply an artist. We had a lively discussion that went far afield, and yet I thought we had a lot of good information.

Rob Davis, the artist in that panel, said something that I thought was particularly important to add to my writing. He was talking about the way posture shows character, and his example was Superman as opposed to Clark Kent. My personal image was the character in a League of Their Own who was a great ballplayer but had zero social skills until the last scene at the Baseball Hall of Fame. It’ll be easy for me to do too much of this, like any other exposition, but I need to remember to be aware of it.

The second panel I moderated was on how to turn a cosplay into a contest-winning entry. I was actually surprised by how much I could contribute here because of the SCA, but the session was successful because of professional cosplayer Alexa Heart. I was impressed by not only her practical and crafting skills, but also the thought and philosophies that went into her cosplaying.

The first panel I was on talked about getting your manuscript published once it’s completed. It wasn’t a bad panel, but I think the panel would have been more successful had there been a designated moderator. Bryan Thomas Schmidt and I both had lots to say, and I think we threw too much at the audience in an overly scattershot way. Still, I think the prospective writers learned something.

The second panel involved creating strong characters. This could have benefited from a designated moderator too, but once I realized there wasn’t one I took over a little bit to make sure we didn’t go quite so far afield as I think we might have in the one before. I enjoyed all of the different perspectives from D.A. Roberts, Raz Wickham, and at the end, Liz Schulte. Certainly, I feel much better about having given useful information in this one than in the other.

As for sales, they were light. I happened to be at the far end of the arrangement and I suspect that hurt my traffic. Still, I got a few sales and about 20 names for my mailing list. That’s not useless, especially since it’s almost a local con for me. I’ve done a poor job of getting myself known in Kansas and Missouri, something this con went towards fixing.

I did make some good new contacts, as usual. I’ve some potential plans to do a show in Columbia in December. Also, I had a great conversation with Liz Schulte about some of the differences between writing fantasy and writing romance, even if it’s a genre romance.

My favorite new work that I saw, by the way, came from Scott Schmidt and his Steele Vs. comic book series. How did I never think of having mounties fight monsters?

DodecaCon did two things I thought were really cool, though I couldn’t take advantage of one because I eat low-carb. They came along throughout the day and offered us food. Bagels for breakfast, spaghetti for dinner, periodic candy bits, and then also brought us water as needed. It did not match the variety of things at many con suites, but bringing it around to people stuck at booths was very nice.

The more important thing was how much they reached out to the local jr. high and high schools. Friday for most of the day busloads of students came to the con. I’m guessing that the schools relaxed dress codes, as many of them came in costumes. Some of their parents joined them. From a merchant perspective, it was mostly just work with no real chance of sales, but it is the kind of thing that I think keeps all of this sort of thing going.

I don’t know if I’ll go next year if only because I might want to go to TopCon in Topeka next year if the two conflict again. We’ll see when they get scheduled, which they cannot do until they know the football schedule.

I initially went because several friends help out with the con, and they suggested I come. I’m glad I did. Despite all of the challenges, it was much bigger con than I expected and I think it will be even better in a year where things aren’t conspiring against it.

Scroll Text Sunday – Maren’s Queen’s Champion Scroll

Rarely do we give scrolls to champions as they step down, but Her Majesty Ariel wanted one for her champion Maren and this is it. It’s written in a Norse style with 5-syllables per verse, 2 verses per line, at least one alliteration in each verse, remembering that all vowels alliterate with all other vowels in Norse usage.

There are several of my favorite kennings in this one, especially some of the more complicated ones towards the ends.

Text

Glory’s brilliance waits                         beneath the sky’s gem
Bearing Thor’s sword-fame                and Sif’s cup-giving
This heartjoy named by                        noiseless stepping queen         (3)

Wielder of swift blood-worms          and bright god’s sharp spears
Storm-cleaver daughter                      stalwart heir of steel
Brightest jewel in                                    just ruler’s meadhall                    (6)

Aided by hind-helm                               heroic doomhound
She sees face and eyes                        of Heimdall’s offspring
Giving joy to moon-foes                      mindful of duty                               (9)

In highest of halls                                    holder of cup list
Delivers wolf-drink                                at days of sword-play
Kraki sowed less than                           this lady of mist                             (12)

With Valkyrie’s thorn                            valiant is her tale
With weaver’s sharp tool                    terrible her fate
Yet still in hearth-wall                           her heart stands dauntless      (15)

Thus Ariel queen                                    awards distinction
To battle-maiden                                    Maren Thorskabitr
Before the falcon thrones                   fair home of sworn oaths          (18)

Done thirty years since                         thirsty stormbirds drank
When glory of elves                              gives way to grassbane
In heath of heroes                                 held not by mind-fame                   (21)

Notes

Line 1: Sky’s gem is a kenning for the sun

Line 2: By listing the aspects of both Thor and Sif, I emphasize both martial and non-martial accomplishments

Line 3: Cats were known as noiseless steppers, and this is a reference to the cat on Ariel’s heraldry

 Line 4: Blood-worms is a kenning for swords, bright god is a kenning for Baldur, god of learning, so the whole kenning of bright god’s sharp spears is a kenning for pens and writing

Line 5: Storm-cleaver is a kenning for falcon, and this line is a reference to Maren being the daughter of Gawayne and Brialen

Line 10: The highest of halls would be the king’s hall, and the greatest faux pas in diplomacy was to give the cup of welcome out of order, so the holder of the cup list is a person advising the king and, especially, the queen

Line 11: Wolf’s-drink is a kenning for blood

Line 12: Kraki’s seed is a kenning for gold, and in this usage I am emphasizing her generosity, the lady of mist is a kenning for a Valkyrie or battle-maiden

 Line 13: Valkyrie’s thorn is a kenning for a spear

Line 14: Weaver’s sharp tool is a kenning for a needle, and thus an allusion to a sewing needle incident

Line 15: Hearth-wall is an oblique kenning, even for me, it’s a reference to shield-wall but in the context of the home, so it’s a kenning of working at arts and sciences

Line 19: This is a reference to the founding of Calontir

Line 20: The glory of elves is a kenning for the sun, and the middle of June to the middle of July is the Sun’s Month, the middle of July to the middle of August is Heyannir, or the haying month, so this is one long kenning for the middle of July

Line 21: This line is another long kenning for Lost Moor

Weekly Update: A National Holiday

Greetings all

I’ve had a productive week, though not necessarily with all of the things I had intended to do. Saturday I did a reading at the Kansas Authors Club meeting. Had a great time. You can find my AAR on my blog at: https://robhowell.org/blog/?p=447. Of course, Sunday was for me a national holiday, the first full Sunday of the NFL. While I was disappointed in the Cowboys loss against the Giants, I can take solace in the quality play from Dak Prescott. He looks very impressive.

Quote of the Week

This week’s quote is particularly apt, given that had the Cowboys had 3 more seconds, they might very well have one the game.

“We didn’t lose the game; we just ran out of time.”
– Vince Lombardi

Works In Progress
– Worked on making a list of future events and ensuring I was added to their panels.
– I am also making progress on the next Edward novel, which will be called Where Now the Rider. Tentative release date is 30 November.

 News
– The updated electronic version of The Eyes of a Doll is now live on Amazon. If you already own it, you can add wiki links by contacting Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/clicktocall (phone) or http://www.amazon.com/clicktochat
(chat).
– I’ve been working on some new events to attend. I can confirm I’ll be at Time Eddy in Wichita from October 14-16.
Upcoming Events
– Morning 10 September: Reading at Corinth Library, 8100 Prairie Village, Kansas for the Kansas Author’s Club from 9:30am to 1pm.
– Afternoon10 September: King’s Company of Archers in Smithville, MO
– 16-18 September: Dodecacon in Columbia, MO
– 23-25 September: Gryphon’s Fest in Warrenton, MO
– 30 September – 2 October: Kansas Author’s Club convention in Lawrence, KS
– 8 October: Calontir Fall Crown in Omaha, NE

– 14-16 October: Time Eddy in Wichita, KS

Spotlight
I’m adding a new feature to my email. Here I’ll be including a link to someone or something I think is cool. This week I’m pointing you at the Kickstarter that my artist, Patrick McEvoy, is working on. As you know, I think he’s a fantastic artist and he’s lending his talents to another noir-themed mystery, this one a graphic novel that blends Cthulhu with Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. You can find more info at:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/309827462/casefile-arkham-her-blood-runs-cold?ref=project_tweet

Let me know if you have any suggestions on the website, this email, or cool story ideas at rob@robhowell.org.

Have a great week, everyone.

Rob Howell
Author of the Shijuren-series of novels
Website: www.robhowell.org
Blog: www.robhowell.org/blog
Shijuren Wiki: http://www.shijuren.org/World+of+Shijuren+Home
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/robhowell.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rhodri2112

Currently Available Works
A Lake Most Deep (Edward, Bk 1)
The Eyes of a Doll (Edward, Bk 2)
I Am a Wondrous Thing (The Kreisens, Bk 1)

Weekly Update Archive

Weekly Update: Labor Day

Greetings all

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. I was up at an SCA event near Wichita, KS. There was a ceremony I helped write and one of my oldest friends got knighted. I also taught a class on kennings. However, I think I ate something tainted by fish and I spend much of Saturday and Sunday out of sorts. But I’m feeling better and excited about the upcoming week.

Quote of the Week

Today’s quote comes from George Burns, with a great quote about age.

“When I was a boy the Dead Sea was only sick.” – George Burns

 Works In Progress

– I came very close to having the wiki links added, but I’ve a few tweaks left before making this added feature live.
– I am also making progress on the next Edward novel, which will be called Where Now the Rider. Tentative release date is 30 November.

 News

– The big news is that I will be joining Write Pack Radio for their 15 October or so podcast. We’ll be talking about what makes a good noir or thriller novel.

Upcoming Events
– Morning 10 September: Reading at Corinth Library, 8100 Prairie Village, Kansas for the Kansas Author’s Club from 9:30am to 1pm.
– Afternoon10 September: King’s Company of Archers in Smithville, MO
– 16-18 September: Dodecacon in Columbia, MO
– 23-25 September: Gryphon’s Fest in Warrenton, MO
– 30 September – 2 October: Kansas Author’s Club convention in Lawrence, KS

– 8 October: Calontir Fall Crown in Omaha, NE

Let me know if you have any suggestions on the website, this email, or cool story ideas at rob@robhowell.org.

Have a great week, everyone.

Rob Howell
Author of the Shijuren-series of novels
Website: www.robhowell.org
Blog: www.robhowell.org/blog
Shijuren Wiki: http://www.shijuren.org/World+of+Shijuren+Home
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/robhowell.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rhodri2112

Currently Available Works
A Lake Most Deep (Edward, Bk 1)
The Eyes of a Doll (Edward, Bk 2)
I Am a Wondrous Thing (The Kreisens, Bk 1)

Weekly Update Archive

Weekly Update: Impromptu Remarks

Greetings all

I hope everyone had a good weekend. I was up at an SCA event near Lincoln, NE. I got to hear a scroll text I wrote presented and watch a ceremony I helped write in court. I also did some field heraldry, which is basically like what the “Let’s get ready to rumble” guy does. It was a good time.

Quote of the Week

Today’s quote comes from Winston Churchill, perhaps the single greatest quote machine of all time. This is one of his more whimsical quotes.

“I’m just preparing my impromptu remarks.” – Winston Churchill

 Works In Progress

– Still working on adding wiki links to The Eyes of a Doll. This will be completed early next week. Getting close
– I am also making progress on the next Edward novel, which will be called Where Now the Rider. Tentative release date is 30 November.
– More steps made on arranging for an audiobook. I’m at the point of just waiting until I get bids back from the providers. That will be several weeks until I hear anything.

 News
– Added another standard blog entry. I’ll be adding a scroll text I’ve written each week on Sunday nights.
– Added a new event. I’ll be doing a reading on the morning of 10 September at the Corinth Library, 8100 Prairie Village, Kansas for District 2 of the Kansas Author’s Club
Upcoming Events
– 2-5 September: Valor in Wichita, KS
– Morning 10 September: Reading at Corinth Library, 8100 Prairie Village, Kansas for the Kansas Author’s Club from 9:30am to 1pm.
– Afternoon10 September: King’s Company of Archers in Smithville, MO
– 16-18 September: Dodecacon in Columbia, MO
– 23-25 September: Gryphon’s Fest in Warrenton, MO
– 30 September – 2 October: Kansas Author’s Club convention in Lawrence, KS

– 8 October: Calontir Fall Crown in Omaha, NE

Let me know if you have any suggestions at rob@robhowell.org.

Have a great week, everyone.

Rob Howell
Author of the Shijuren-series of novels
Website: www.robhowell.org
Blog: www.robhowell.org/blog
Shijuren Wiki: http://www.shijuren.org/World+of+Shijuren+Home
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/robhowell.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rhodri2112

Currently Available Works
A Lake Most Deep (Edward, Bk 1)
The Eyes of a Doll (Edward, Bk 2)
I Am a Wondrous Thing (The Kreisens, Bk 1)

Weekly Update Archive

Weekly Update: New Beginnings

Editor’s Note: I don’t know why I didn’t start out posting my updates on my blog but I’m adding the ones I’ve done so far and will add them each week.

Greetings all

Welcome to my brand new mailing list. This email will give you an idea of what to expect. I’ll be looking to post each Monday or so.

Quote of the Week

This quote symbolizes my life as a writer. At times, I have rued not starting writing professionally sooner, but my mother has pointed out that the challenges I’ve faced along the way have helped make me a better writer. Don’t tell her that I agree with her.

Anyway, this comes from the title track of Clockwork Angels, the most recent album by Rush. And yes, the first quote had to come from Rush.

“All the journeys
Of this great adventure
It didn’t always feel that way
I wouldn’t trade them
Because I made them
The best I could
And that’s enough to say”

Clockwork Angels, Rush

Works In Progress
– I am working on adding wiki links to The Eyes of a Doll. This will be completed early next week.
– I am also making progress on the next Edward novel, which will be called Where Now the Rider. Tentative release date is 30 November.
– Catching up with WorldCon contacts.
– Baby steps made on arranging for an audiobook. It’s still vaporware for the moment, but I made contacts at WorldCon that should help.

 News

– You’re looking at the big news. I’ve added a mailing list.
– My WorldCon After Action Report is up at: https://robhowell.org/blog/?p=427

Upcoming Events
– 27 August: Cattle Raids in Lincoln, NE
– 2-5 September: Valor in Wichita, KS
Tentative 10 September: King’s Company of Archers in Smithville, MO
– 16-18 September: Dodecacon in Columbia, MO
Tentative 23-25 September: Gryphon’s Fest in Warrenton, MO
– 30 September – 2 October: Kansas Author’s Club convention in Lawrence, KS

– 8 October: Calontir Fall Crown in Omaha, NE

Let me know if you have any suggestions at rob@robhowell.org.

Have a great week, everyone.

Rob Howell
Author of the Shijuren-series of novels
Website: www.robhowell.org
Blog: www.robhowell.org/blog
Shijuren Wiki: http://www.shijuren.org/World+of+Shijuren+Home
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/robhowell.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rhodri2112

Currently Available Works
A Lake Most Deep (Edward, Bk 1)
The Eyes of a Doll (Edward, Bk 2)
I Am a Wondrous Thing (The Kreisens, Bk 1)

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