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Rob’s Update: Happy Holidays

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Week 50 of 2021

Greetings all

It was a very productive week here. I finished the first pass through Embers & Ash, the third book of the Eldros Legacy. This one is by Marie Whittaker, who’s a fantastic writer.

I also finished Fleece Navidad, which will be going out to my subscribers on Saturday. I really do appreciate all of you who have subscribed to my mailing list, and I hope you enjoy these Nick Patara, PI stories.

I got about 5k in The Door Into Winter. That’s not really reflective of how easy this story is to write. I’m having trouble finding time to write on it during the holiday season with so much going on, but man I’m chunking out words whenever I do. I really like where it’s going.

I also started the real editing for The Keen Edge of Valor, the next of the Libri Valoris anthologies.

My sweetie and I went on a big hunt this past weekend. The game? The right loveseat and couch for the big TV room downstairs. Wednesday night is date night, and more often then not we enjoy watching BBC mysteries together. We’re such party animals. However, we hadn’t really had a way to sit together. But we found a great set, on clearance, and it comes tomorrow. It is exactly the right thing for us, and we both got in our steps on Saturday and Sunday hunting for it.

Plus, of course, all the Christmas prep. We’re not doing a huge thing, in part because it’s just me, my sweetie, my mom, and my stepdad. Still, I’ll grill steaks, we’re cooking a ham, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and a bunch of other fixins. The sweetie has decided to make not one pie (blackberry, her favorite), not two (bourbon pecan, not quite my favorite, but close), but three pies (she found just the right lemons at CostCo to make her special lemon pie.

So much for my carb count. Ah, well, it’s the season for eating… errr… I mean giving. Anyway, I hope you all have a great holiday season.

What I’m Listening To

Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I had a chance to see them with the Marshall Tucker Band in Wichita a little more than two years ago. I’d never seen them live before, and I’m really glad I went, as it was a heckuva show.

Quote of the Week
This is one of my favorite quotes, by one of my favorite people. If you want a fun story about Charles Schulz, by the way, go look up the time that Stephen Pastis, who writes Pearls Before Swine, fanboyed him.

“Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.”
― Charles M. Schulz

Dudes In Hyperspace

Follow the Dudes In Hyperspace here:
https://www.sharkflight.com/dudes/

The latest show includes an interview with Emily Bernson of the USO, our memories of 2021, and what we’re looking for in 2022. Side note, Ian definitely hadn’t gotten the memo of my plans for 2022.

Cool Stuff In Eldros Legacy

Get five free stories and signed up with the Eldros Legacy mailing list! Here There Be Giants is at: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/qabsr57lq3+.

Seeds of Dominion
Seeds of Dominion

I finished my pass on Embers & Ash, the next Eldros Legacy book. This one’s by Marie Whittaker, and it will introduce the continent of Pyranon.

Of course, we’re all looking forward to Seeds of Dominion, by Quincy J. Allen, in less than two weeks.

Next week, we’ll have the Daemanon map reveal, so stayed tuned for that.

New Mythology Works in Progress

We have no current open anthology calls but will have a new one in January.

I’m currently working on The Keen Edge of Valor, the third in the Libri Valoris anthologies for release at FantaSci.

Rob’s Works in Progress
  • The Door Into Winter (63,611)
  • Rick Blaine (8,845)
  • CB (8,418)
Upcoming Events
New Releases

This week’s big new release is Ally, the next 4HU novel, by Kacey Ezell and Marisa Wolf. The Depik are back! And they brought friends. Get it here: www.amazon.com/dp/B09NN53QLN.

Tracked Items

Today’s Weight: 331.8

Updated Word Count: 382,460

Eldros Legacy Archives: 804 entries (expect this to jump next week as we get close to Seeds of Dominion)

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

Founder in the Eldros Legacy series

Weekly Update

Rob’s Update: Happy Holidays!

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Week 51 of 2020

Happy holidays to everyone!

Your Christmas gift, Under a Midnight Clear, will be in an email immediately following this one. It’s a 5.9Mb Zip file with the story in .pdf, .epub, and .mobi  formats. That should cover most, if not all of you, but if you need it in another format, let me know. My e-book creation software can let  me do just about anything.

Also, if you have any issues receiving that email, including not getting it at all, problems with a file that large, or anything else. Let me know, and I’ll make sure to help you. I’ll assume, by the way, that you’ve checked your Spam directory, which it might shunt to for a variety of reasons, of course.

My sweetie and I opened our presents last night and snuggled on the couch watching Youtube videos of Rowan Atkinson, Monty Python, and Victor Borge. We also tried the gluten-free low-carb pork rind panko breading on Buffalo strips. Delicious.

Today we’ll be doing some Zoom calls, like I suspect many will do. I’ll do some more re-editing on A Lake Most Deep as well. Then we’ll have steak and a fixings for dinner. Yeah, it’s not traditional, but even a small turkey and ham and all the rest is too much for me. At least now. There were days in the past, though…

This was not my most productive week, but I did stuff I needed to do. Stuff that consolidated and organized a bunch of things. I cleaned up my file structure on my computers, which needed straightening up. This has the benefit of double-checking all my backups. I did, of course, finish Under a Midnight Clear and get it ready to deliver.

Anyway, I hope you all have a fantastic day and holiday season.

What I’m Listening To

Wizards in Winter by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I’m really a fan of Christmas music, especially hard rock and metal versions. TSO is the best of this, having made a living melding genres into something spectacular.

Quote of the Week

This seems like an appropriate quote after 2020. I think we all need a little extra, and that means we all need to try and do a little extra for each other.

“Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.”
― Charles M. Schulz

News and Works in Progress

  • The Ravening of Wolves (29,784)
  • Rick Blaine (8,845)
  • CB (8,418)
  • Cynewulf (8,642)
  • Gato (2,312)

Recent Blog Posts and Wiki Additions

  • I spent the week cleaning up a few mistakes on the wiki. I did add one new page, though. Interestingly, research for that one page gave me a bunch of new ideas because I stumbled across a fable sunken city. Heck, yeah, I’m gonna use that someday.
  • Inland Seas: https://shijuren.org/tiki-index.php?page=Inland-Seas

Upcoming Events

New Releases

This week’s spotlight is on Nick Steverson, who has jumped in with both feet. This week, he releases his second novel in the Salvage Title universe, Action. You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08R7T6DP5.

Today’s Weight: 348.6 (Not a typo)

Updated Word Count: I’ve decided I need to keep track of wiki entries better. My new backup process allows me to track how many words I use on the wiki, but that is someone misleading because that includes a variety of things like “BOX(width=”250px” align=”left” float=”right” bg=”#1f2e52″ style=padding: 10px” which shouldn’t really count.

However, given some of the feedback I’ve gotten, the wiki *is* contributing to Shijuren’s readership so it should count for something, especially since part of the reason I keep these word counts is to reward myself when I do work. Hence, I’m going to start counting the Wiki word count at 1/4th. I did over 100k words, or a full novel of exposition that isn’t dragging down the stories.

Anyway, here’s the updated total: 293,605

Shijuren Wiki: 724 entries

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

Currently Available Works
Shijuren

Nick Patara, PI

  • Silent Knight (Nick Patara, PI, Book 1)
  • Under a Midnight Clear (Nick Patara, PI, Book 2)
Four Horsemen Universe
The Phases of Mars
Short Stories

If you think you received this email incorrectly or wish to be unsubscribed, please send an email to shijuren-owner@robhowell.org

Weekly Update

Rob’s Update: The Star of Dogs

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Week 2 of 2018

Greetings all

This week I’m on the road, and travel has been a little discombobulating. While I had planned to leave when I did, I had also planned to go through Fayetteville, AR to visit a friend. That would have worked out nicely.

However, one of my favorite dogs ever will probably get put down before I return from my current trip so I changed plans and went to see him. His name is Sirius, and he is the Star of Dogs. He’s been a great dog, always happy to see me, but this time he is in so much pain he can’t quite wag his tail properly. I’m glad to go see him and pet him one last time, but it was tough.

To get to him, I had to accelerate part of my schedule, meaning that I didn’t get much sleep on Tuesday night. Hence, when I reached Tupelo, MS, which was a reasonable stopping point, I basically ate something and passed out.

I’m now in Perry, GA, getting ready to go to Meridies 40th Year Celebration. Meridies is one of the kingdoms in the SCA, and I’ve a number of good friends here, so when I realized I could combine coming to this event and then go to ChattaCon next week, it was an easy choice.

My publishable word count won’t go up much this week, because I realized what I meant was “published.” I’ve got a short story that is complete and just needs editing, so that will jump the count up, but only when I send it out.

I made some progress on Brief Is My Flame last week, but I didn’t think to email me my progress email, so I don’t actually know how many words are written, and won’t until I return.

Tonight I’ll do some more work, watch the Shockers play if I can find the game, and get ready to sell all weekend long.

I’ll also think of Sirius and the great pets that have graced my life.

Current Playlist Song: “Wild Rover” – Dropkick Murphys. This seems an appropriate song for roving around Georgia this week.

Quote of the Week

“Happiness is a warm puppy.”
—Charles M. Schulz

News and Works in Progress

  • DOR (3972)
  • Brief Is My Flame (28834)

Recent Blog Posts and Wiki Additions

Upcoming Events

Spotlight

Today, Jason Cordova released Devastator, the sequel to his recently re-released novel Corruptor, tomorrow. I haven’t actually read Corruptor yet, but I read and loved Wraithkin. Also, if you like Kaiju fiction, he has a bunch of stuff about big lizards. You can find his stuff at: https://www.amazon.com/Jason-Cordova/e/B004CZHHPU/

Today’s Weight: 355.4

Updated Word Count: 1670

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

Currently Available Works

If you think you received this email incorrectly or wish to be unsubscribed, please send an email to shijuren-owner@robhowell.org