Tag Archives: Iron Maiden

Rob’s Update: Painting with Fire

Week 6 of 2023

Greetings all

Last week was so epic, this week had to pale in comparison. And it did.

Hunting the Hart
Hunting the Hart

Not to say it wasn’t productive, just not as epic. And this week, we have a cover. Here’s the cover for Hunting the Hart, book 5 in Jon R. Osborne’s excellent Milesian Accords series.

This one stars Erin, descendant of Cu Chulainn and Champion of the Folk. She’s trying to save her cursed lover before an ancient foe wreaks his revenge. Great stuff.

This comes out on February 21st.

I got another 3rd of The Eyes of a Doll edited. I should have it done next week and on to Where Now the Rider. Once that’s going, I’ll be rolling back into Farewell, My Ugly. I aim to have that draft finished by the end of March.

I also had a number of personal projects to work on this week that have taken some time.

To be honest, though, I’ve moved pretty slowly this week. Don’t know it was the change in the weather or if there was something else, but I’ve had achy, grumbly week. Nothing bad, just slightly off-kilter.

Ah, well, that means I better get back to it. Have a great week everyone.

What I’m Listening To

I have a cluster of performers who sit as 2nd best to Rush. Right now I’m listening to Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden. Part of that is the depth in their lyrics, the hammering power of three guitars, and Steve Harris. However, a big part is Bruce Dickinson. He and Ronnie James Dio are 1 and 1a of metal voices for me.

Quote of the Week

Frank Frazetta would be 95 today, so happy birthday to the most iconic fantasy artist ever. You may not know the titles Death Dealer or the Egyptian Queen, but chances are you’ve seen them and others here and there.

Here’s what he said he wanted to do. I think he got it.

 “I want to do something that nobody has done before me. And I want to do it in such a way that nobody will forget me for it.”
– Frank Frazetta

Rob’s Riddles

I have a Patreon where I write Old English style riddles and provide snippets of my work. You can find it here: patreon.com/rhodri2112, along with a sample riddle.

First Line of Next Riddle (Coming Feb. 13th)

I live in the ground                   but my greatest is high above

Congrats to David for guessing the riddle from January 23rd. Great job.

Latest Snippet: Chapter 2 of Hunting the Hart, by Jon R. Osborne.

New Mythology Works in Progress

Hunting the Hart is the next new release, coming out on February 21st. This is book 5 in the Milesian Accords by Jon R. Osborne, and here is it’s blurb:
Magic has returned to the world, but so has an ancient foe.

Erin Donnelly, descendant of Cu Chulainn and Champion of the Folk, searches for Nechtan—her lover cursed to live as a stag for a year and a day. Enlisting the aid of allies, Erin maintains a vigil, turning back hunters and predators who might harm Nechtan in the wilds of the magical otherworld.

But when Stangr Iron-skinned escapes his imprisonment in the River of Time, he has one thing on his mind—revenge on Nechtan. Stangr’s thirst for vengeance takes him from the Seelie courts of the otherworld to the windswept Great Plains.

Can Erin find Nechtan before Stangr tracks him down? Erin beat Giwargix the Dragon-Slayer, but can she defeat a jotunn-blooded Viking impervious to blades and bullets?

Rob’s Works in Progress

  • Sowing Spring’s Wrath (3,213)
  • Farewell, My Ugly (58,812)
  • Rick Blaine (8,845)
  • The Feasting of Vengeance (3,405)
  • The Wordbringer (3,082)

Upcoming Events

New Releases

This week we have Prince: Peacemaker, book 4 in the Prince of Britannia Series by Fred Hughes. Get it here: amazon.com/dp/B0BTL4NFLC.

Your pre-release this week is another book 4. This time it’s Apprentice to the Gods, 4th in D.T. Read’s Seventh Shaman series. Get it here: amazon.com/dp/B0BV62LJCV.

Tracked Items

Today’s Weight: 341.8

Updated Word Count: 60,381

Firehall Sagas Archives: 737 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

Creator of the Firehall Sagas Universe

Rob’s Update: The Day After

Week 42 of 2021

Greetings all

I’m home! Yesterday I drove back from Coinjock, NC to Kansas City. Was a heck of a drive, made all the more enjoyable to have fellow Eldros Legacy contributors, Mark Stallings and Jamie Ibson as co-pilot and bombardier.

The House Between Worlds
The House Between Worlds

The House Between Worlds came out on Tuesday! This is the fourth in Jon R. Osborne’s excellent Milesian Accords series. Some books are challenging to edit, but this was not one of them. It was a joy to be a part of it because it’s so good.

I didn’t expect anything else, because I’ve long enjoyed Jon R. Osborne’s writing. He has a calm demeanor that comes through in his writing and sometimes you don’t realize until the end of a major action sequence just how much you’re on edge until you reach the end. And then you’re breathless as you try and catch up with the power of his prose that’s was driving you, even if you didn’t realize it.

For myself, I worked a goodly amount at FactoryCon. A bunch of it was publisher work, but I managed to write about 6000 words, including sharpening up the first four chapters into what I’d guess are basically final form. So far, no lockups wondering what I need to write next, which is what I was hoping for, though my primary lockup section is the third quarter of the book. We’ll see, but it’s promising.

And now, I’m signing off. Lots to do, including another nap after getting home. Long drives take it out of me more than they used to and that was a hike, but I’m really glad to be home with sweetie, dog, and kitties.

What I’m Listening To

Senjutsu, the new Iron Maiden album. I’m odd because I thought Book of Souls, their last album, was perhaps their best, top to bottom. I’m still just learning this album, so I’m not ready to make any grand pronouncements yet.

But I will say this, one of the things I loved about Book of Souls was that these musicians have had a lifetime to get better and they have. It shows here too.

Quote of the Week

A crew of us closed out FactoryCon by watching Dune in Elizabeth City. I really enjoyed it. It’s hard to make a definitive judgement, much like I couldn’t really make a definitive judgement of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers until after Return of the King had come out.
But I can say this. So, so good. So really good. At the very least, it has the big sweeping scale that Dune should have and it’s well worth seeing in the theater for that very reason.
This is a quote that has resonated with me for quite a while, and one that I think of quite often when making my choices.
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

– Frank Herbert

Cool Stuff In Eldros Legacy

Talons & Talismans II went out to the advance readers this past week! That means we’re getting close to its release on 9 November.

Why do I include this here instead of immediately below? Because there are Eight Eldros Legacy stories in here, including one from each founder plus Elowyn Fahnestock, Jamie Ibson, and Sam Witt. Also, two future contributors, Aaron Rosenberg and Courtney Farrell provided other stories.

Basically, this is a chance for you to dip your toes in the oceans of the Eldros Legacy. Come on in, the water’s nice.

New Mythology Works in Progress

Current open anthology calls:

I’m currently working on Quincy J. Allen’s Seeds of Dominion, the second novel in the Eldros Legacy. That will come out in January.

Of course, on December 7th, we kick of the novels with Todd’s Fahnestock’s Khyven the Unkillable.

Giveaways

Tales of the Future
Tales of the Future

This week’s giveaway is Tales of the Future, including my Nick Patara, PI urban fantasy story, Under a Midnight Clear. You can find it, and a bunch of other free stories here: https://storyoriginapp.com/bundles/109e9f7a-1d6d-11ec-b404-7f39f05b7c47?bundleLinkId=JNEXltj.

Rob’s Works in Progress

  • The Door Into Winter (23,972)
  • Rick Blaine (8,845)
  • CB (8,418)

Upcoming Events

New Releases

The House Between Worlds by Jon R. Osborne. It’s truly an amazing book and it’s an honor to be a part of it. You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09K4RRMP6.

Then we have another anthology from Jamie Ibson, And Then It Got Weird. Fifteen tales of writers dreaming up oddnesses. You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JVHX4K1.

Tracked Items

Today’s Weight: No clue. Scale needs a new battery.

Updated Word Count: 287,091

Eldros Legacy Archives: 797 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

Founder in the Eldros Legacy series

Rob’s Update: Fire from Fire Quickened

Week 10 of 2020

Greetings all

Been a pretty good week here. Not much in terms of word count, but that’s because I was putting the final touches on “Fire from Fire Quickened,” my next installment in the Queen Elizabeth’s Own Foresters. I sent it off to CKP today and I hope it’ll be accepted for the next anthology.

I love this story and let me just say, things are getting worse for the Foresters before they’ll get better. If Roosevelt Edmonds were to ever meet me in real life, he’d bop me in the nose. Or worse.

I also managed to finally break through on some technical issues related to the Shijuren wiki. I’ll hopefully be able to get it back up soon, though it’ll take a bit to learn the new version.

Today I began the final push on None Call Me Mother. I’m at that stage in the writing where I have to separate each thread and make sure I follow them to the concluding battle. I have a lot of the concluding battle scribbled in notes here and there, but this will help me block the scene properly. Also, this will help eliminate some redundancies that have cropped up as well as plot holes.

Getting there.

Tomorrow, I’ll pop on over to St. Louis and watch the second Battlehawks home game. The first one was a ton of fun, and I will do my writeup on both weekends on Sunday.

What I’m Listening To

Iron Maiden’s Back in the Village. Not one of their more well-known songs, but like Rush, Iron Maiden’s B-sides are often better than the hits.

Quote of the Week

“I liked working with smart people.”
– Katherine Johnson

I’ll bet that’s what people said about working with you. Godspeed, and thanks for helping us reach the stars.

News and Works in Progress

  • None Call Me Mother (108,716)
  • CB (8,418)
  • RQS (1,312)

Recent Blog Posts and Wiki Additions

Upcoming Events

Spotlight

This week’s spotlight is on D.J. Butler, whose story “No Trade for Nice Guys” reminded me so much of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, I went back and started reading those again. You can find my interview with him at: https://robhowell.org/blog/?p=2021.

Today’s Weight: 396.8

Updated Word Count: 42,769

Shijuren Wiki: Rebuilding

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
Four Horsemen Universe
The Phases of Mars
Short Stories

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Rob’s Update: Empire of the Clouds

Week of 9-16 July

Greetings all

I treated myself to the Iron Maiden concert this past weekend. I put up a longer review on my blog, but for those who prefer the the TL:DR version, I loved it.

I’ve been focusing on a short story that has to go out the door by the end of the month. I will talk more about it when the draft is done, but I’m getting excited about it and its successors.

I’ve been throwing a few words here and there at Brief Is My Flame, mostly in the nature of plotting and ideas and less in terms of finished prose. Basically, by the time Pennsic comes around I need to have much of it laid out in my head, or even outlined on a page, which will make me much more productive. If I basically know what I’m writing about, the words come. If not, then I fight them. Shockingly, planning helps, even if those plans don’t survive meeting characters.

By the time Pennsic comes around, most of my house packing will be done. Things are progressing, though not as fast as I’d like in some areas. Still, I’m looking forward to getting settled at some point in the fall.

Quote of the Week

It has to be an Iron Maiden quote, right? So let’s do something from a song they didn’t do this weekend, Empire of the Clouds, which describes the R101 tragedy. More died in it than in the Hindenberg, but it’s far less remembered.

Here lie their dreams as I stand in the sun
On the ground where they built, and the engines did run
To the moon and the stars, now what have we done?
Oh, the dreamers may die, but the dreams live on
– Iron Maiden, Empire of the Clouds

News and Works in Progress

  • Short story for an anthology
  • Brief Is My Flame

Recent Blog Posts and Wiki Additions

Upcoming Events

Spotlight

I traded my books for Gray Rinehart’s CDs at LibertyCon and had a chance to listen to them on the way back. Very fun, which is to be expected when Dr. Demento plays your music.  Here’s his website: http://graymanwrites.com/

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

Review: Iron Maiden Book of Souls Tour and Album

Sunday night, I saw Iron Maiden’s Book of Souls concert, with the Swedish band Ghost opening for them. Here’s my review.

I should get this out of the way. I’ve been an Iron Maiden fan since junior high. I was the only kid who liked Rime of the Ancient Mariner in English class, because of Iron Maiden’s song about the poem. Also, I happen to think that Book of Souls may be their best work. It’s powerful stuff.

I say all this so you can understand my bias here.

There are Maiden fans who think it blasphemy that Book of Souls is their best work. Most of these would look at either The Number of the Beast or Powerslave, and I can see their point. Both are excellent albums, with great songs throughout that have stood the test of time.

This last is important to me. I liked Iron Maiden in junior high. Over the last four decades, that liking has turned into love as I’ve seen more and more the depth of that music over the years. Many are the bands or songs who I initially liked, but now don’t really care if I ever hear again. Nirvana is one of those.

In any case, Book of Souls is an incredibly good album. It will not produce radio hits like The Trooper or Run to the Hills, but that’s irrelevant. Iron Maiden consists of six musicians who took music seriously when they were young, have fought a bunch of battles, including among themselves, and have come out the other side with great skill and a tremendous understanding of each other.

The songs on Book of Souls are closer to symphonic music than to 80s metal. No song is shorter than 4:59, three are longer than 10 minutes, including Empire of the Clouds at 18:01. It is a perfectly Iron Maiden thing to do that they released Empire of the Clouds as one of the two singles. They really don’t care about the “radio” way of doing things as opposed to the music.

The iconoclast in me loves that.

Anyway, Empire of the Clouds tells the tale of the R101 airship incident in 1930. More people were killed in its crash than the Hindenberg, actually. It’s a great song of dreaming big, the risks that entails, death, and bravery. It’s 18 minutes of swirling music that dreams big and risks boredom, but sails on through.

The other 10 minute plus songs, The Red and the Black and The Book of Souls are also songs that could be too long, but instead are simply opportunities for the musicians to push themselves. The closest things to “radio” songs are The Speed of Light and If Eternity Should Fail, are actually too good, too complex, though shorter, to do well on the radio.

Obviously, I could go on about how much I love Book of Souls, but let’s talk about the concert. First, one of the things about Iron Maiden that I’ve appreciated for some time is their confidence. I’ve seen a lot of bands choose a mediocre opening act lest that act outshine the headliner.

Maiden doesn’t have that problem. They chose Ghost, which is a very good band in its own right, with a large following of their own. They may not be megastars in heavy metal like Maiden, but they are not chopped liver.

And Ghost was excellent. I’d heard some of their stuff before, but I didn’t realize quite how good they really were. They create a cool, slow atmosphere while hammering the music. Great combination. They’re not the hardest metal out there, but they put on a great show. I loved the interplay between guitarists before Cirice.

When watching Iron Maiden in concert one is immediately struck by the energy of Bruce Dickinson, the lead singer. He’s almost 59. He’s survived cancer. Yet he bounces around the stage and pours it all out. By the end of the show, he is drenched in sweat. He’s talked in interviews many times how much a performer owes to an audience, and by the end of an Iron Maiden show, there’s no doubt he lives up to his own expectations.

Maiden has three guitarists, which is not unique, but is uncommon. The disadvantage is that there’s a lot of redundancy in sound. The advantage is there’s a lot of redundancy in sound. By that I mean that one guitarist can carry the song along while allowing the other two to add to it. For Maiden, what this means is that Adrian Smith does a lot of the carrying along, freeing Janick Gers to be a wild showman doing tricks with his guitar while playing and Dave Murray to add intricate and rousing riffs. Smith gets his own chance to show off at times, too, as they all take turns carrying the song along, but Gers and Murray are the most obvious beneficiaries.

The rhythm section is one of the best around. Not on Rush’s level, but then who is? Nicko McBrain, the drummer, is very good, and Steve Harris, the bassist, is the master of Iron Maiden. It’s been his baby all along, with everyone else coming and going at various times.

This may not be Iron Maiden’s only lineup in its history, but this is the iconic lineup. And it shows with the quality of music since they came back together in the late 90s. They are better than ever.

They are also known for interesting sets, and this did not disappoint. The best aspect was the raised area all around the main performance area that allowed Dickinson to bounce around. Did I mention he’s an energetic performer?

Not surprisingly, with a library of 16 studio albums, there were songs I would have liked to hear. Hallowed Be Thy Name is my personal favorite Maiden song and that wasn’t on this tour. Run to the Hills is one of the most commercially successful songs they have and that was not played, which I didn’t mind actually. However, I would love to hear Empire of the Clouds live. I think Maiden would make an amazing production of it, but it is a long song and would take the place of two or three others, so I understand why they didn’t.

It would be a cool thing, though, if Maiden did a one-time Fathom Events thing where they played Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Empire of the Clouds, and other long-form songs. Then they could release a DVD. I’d buy that.

Anyway, they did play The Red and the Black, which is 13 minutes or so, so it isn’t like they looked for the shortest songs. 6 of the 12 songs in the main part of the concert were off Book of Souls, though the encore was entirely from earlier stuff (The Number of the Beast, Blood Brothers, and Wasted Years). If Eternity Should Fail is a great song to lead off an album and a concert.

I went to the concert with my sweetie. She’s not a Maiden fan, so she mostly enjoyed the show because I enjoyed the show.

So she enjoyed it a lot.

Even if you’re not a big Iron Maiden fan, they put on a good show. Go see them some time, you’ll be impressed.

 

 

Rob’s Update: One More Day

Week of 4-10 June

Greetings all

A Lake Most Deep is FREE on Amazon for one more day. If you’ve wanted to suggest the Edward series to anyone now is the time to do it. On Saturday, it returns to its normal $3.99 price.

One more day means much more than that to me, though. Jason Garrett, coach of the Dallas Cowboys, talks all the time about stacking good days. Do good work today. Then tomorrow, do more good work. Then the day after. Pretty soon, you’ve made great progress.

He’s right, and this is a business where that’s needed. You don’t get novels written in a week of good days, at least I can’t. Unfortunately, it’s a skill that I struggle with. This week has especially been a challenge. There was a bit of a catastrophe at my house a week or so ago. It’s nothing huge, and insurance is doing its job. I’d like to say right now that Nationwide has been awesome. Anyway, while nothing difficult, and will oddly end up being a good thing for the house, it takes time and energy, and has distracted me some from my work.Hence, I’ve done little but behind the scenes stuff all week.

The good news is that weeks like this often mean my mind starts bubbling with ideas, and that’s happened. I was in the shower the other day and I realized exactly how I will kill off a very important character. It won’t happen in the next book, or probably even in the book after that. However, there will come a time when that character will die in a certain way.

That’s always a satisfying feeling, actually. Oh, I cry every time I kill off a character I like, and I’ll cry when I kill this one off, but now I know the character’s entire story arc. I have a bunch of details to fill in between now and then, but the character has carved out his or her place in my world. One of these days, this character will have served its purpose, and I am happy to say its an important purpose.

Now I just have to keep stacking days, type out the hundreds of thousands of words between now and when that character meets its fate.

One last thing to mention. I was a guest on last Sunday’s Write Pack Radio discussion of Plutarch and writing non-fiction. I’ll be on again this upcoming Sunday where we discuss working with an editor. You can find them at:

Quote of the Week

The catastrophe basically involved water overflowing. Hence, this quote from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, one of my favorite poets, seems apt.

I first learned this poem, by the way, by listening to Rush. I learned another Coleridge poem from Iron Maiden, and I think I was the only person in 8th grade who really enjoyed going through the Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Anyway…

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan

News and Works in Progress

  • Not much to report this week in terms of new fiction.
  • Started working on revamping my website.

Recent Blog Posts and Wiki Additions

Upcoming Events

Spotlight

Right about now, three friends of mine are flying to France so they can walk about 500 miles of the Camino Real to Santiago de Compostela. This is a pilgrimage that I’d like to take someday. In 2012, I walked about 100 miles of the Offa’s Dyke trail, and I will say that long distance walks are awesome, even if exhausting and tough. If you go to https://robhowell.org/blog/?p=248, you’ll find the first of my blog posts about that trip. I enjoy reading through that quite a bit.

However, this is a spotlight section, so I’ll point the spotlight at Heather Dale, who has provided a theme song for all pilgrimages at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww_lVS2P9cM. You can find the rest of her stuff, which is brilliant, at: http://heatherdale.com/.

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