Tag Archives: Texas Rangers

Weekly Update

Rob’s Update: Went And Took It

Leave a comment

Week 44 of 2023

Greetings all

The Texas Rangers won the World Series last night.

It’s still surreal. I’ll talk about it more down below, as there’s also a bunch of great book stuff this week.

First, a quick thing. Tomorrow, November 3rd, Chimera Coup is on sale! Check out book 1 of the Heirs of Cataclysm series for only $2.99. Deal good only for tomorrow. Go here to get your deal: amazon.com/dp/B0BFLV4TH8.

Farewell, My Ugly
Farewell, My Ugly

Farewell, My Ugly is out on Tuesday! This is the first completely new Edward novel in several years, but it won’t be that long to the next one.

He’s clashed with Pherenike of the Imperial Guard before, but now she comes to him, hat in hand, to solve a problem that has bedeviled her. Edward uncovers the greatest plot he’s found yet, one that will shake the Empire of Makhaira to its core. Can he save the people of Achrida, friend and foe alike?

On Tuesday, you’ll find out.

Next in the Firehall Sagas is a bit of a shift. The Ruriksaga is a collection of previously published short stories and a bunch of appendix material. There’s also a brand new story detailing the time when Ragnar and Zoe met.

They weren’t always innkeepers, after all.

In January, we’ll switch to epic fantasy in the Firehall Sagas, with a five book series to complete in June. These center around Irina Ivanovna, former Great Mother of Periaslavl.

We’re in November, and that means the open call for the next Valor anthology is coming to a close. These have to be in by November 30th.

November also means 20Books Vegas. If you’re there, say “Hi!” I probably won’t do a full update next week, by the way. Instead, I’ll probably send out a message with all the release details of Farewell, My Ugly and maybe a comment or two.

Red Dragon Quilts
Red Dragon Quilts

We have news about the stores! We’re having a soft opening on Wednesday, November 15th, and then planning on a Grand Opening/Holiday Party on Saturday, December 16th, after we get the bugs worked out.

Dragon's Den Books
Dragon’s Den Books

Check out our cool new logos, thanks to the amazing Cedar Sanderson. Red Dragon Quilts and Dragon’s Den Books.

I hope you all come in some day and check out what we’re doing. We had the Harper Counter EcoDev lady come in today, and she’s excited about what we’re doing.

As are we.

And, hey, the Texas Rangers won the World Series. Did I mention that?

Some of you reading this were there on that awful night in 2011 when we were 1 strike away from winning the World Series against the Cardinals. I watched that game in St. Louis at McGurk’s.

It was awful for me, great for you. That was Game 6 of that series, and if you ever hear me say “Game 6,” it’s that game, no other Game 6 that has ever happened.

It was a tough night, and while we went to the series the year after, that series was never as close. Then came some down, wretched years. The Rangers lost more than 100 games 2 years ago.

I had no expectations of this year’s team. There were so many questions marks. How much would injuries bite the pitching staff? Would the offense gel? How good was Josh Jung? Could Adolis Garcia take a step up? Could all these free agents contribute? And so on.

The strange thing is that a bunch of those things went badly. Injuries hammered this team, and they went through some awful stretches. At the beginning of the year, they were really hot and many, including me, expected some regression.

That regression happened, but it turned out it wasn’t all luck. They finished with a run differential of 162, meaning they scored that many more runs than they allowed through the year. That’s a huge indicator of a team doing well, and their Pythagorean W/L record was 96-66, which shows they were unlucky to finish only 90-72.

By the way, the only AL team with a better PythW/L and run differential was Tampa Bay, so I did not want to face them in playoffs. Until, of course, we swept them. Things continued against Baltimore, which was exciting.

Then the @#$(&&**ing Astros.  That used to be my NL team, and I rooted for them for years, yet this group is so unlikable. But they’re really good. Yordan Alvarez nigh unto won the ALCS by himself, until Adolis Garcia decided he’d do that.

And then the World Series. I knew I wasn’t going to believe we won until that final out happened. I guess I still don’t really think it’s happened, and I’ve checked throughout the day, just to make sure. 50 years of frustration and awful baseball, and Game 6, will do that to a fan.

But when Marcus Semien hit that homer in the 9th to put us up 5-0, that’s when I started to think it might happen.

I’m sorta surprised I didn’t break my desk pounding on it after that.

The Rangers’ slogan through the playoffs was #GoAndTakeIt. Well, they #WentAndTookIt.

Wow.

What I’m Listening To

Midsomer Murders, with the guy who plays Father Brown as a guest star.

Happenings in Anthony

We won at trivia again! The Music category was kind to us.

They did it up well for all the kids on Halloween. There was trick-or-treating along Main Street and then a costume contest.

Quote of the Week

Eric Nadel has called Rangers games on TV and radio since 1979. Here’s his call at the end of the game.

“Sborz kicks and fires. He struck him out looking! It’s over! It’s over! The Rangers have won the World Series!

Ranger fans, you’re not dreaming!”
– Eric Nadel

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:

With me, you’re never trapped Trailed by new foes

Latest Snippet: Chapter 1 of The Eyes of a Doll.

New Mythology Works in Progress

Of note, this now includes our recent releases, so if you’re not sure what we’ve put out lately, you can go here and check.

Rob’s Works in Progress

  • Sowing Spring’s Wrath (3,213)
  • Ruriksaga (55,275)
  • Rick Blaine (8,845)
  • The Feasting of Vengeance (3,405)

Upcoming Events

New Releases

First, a quick thing. Tomorrow, November 3rd, Chimera Coup by Christopher G. Nuttall is on sale! Check out book 1 of the Heirs of Cataclysm series for only $2.99. Deal good only for tomorrow. Go here to get your deal: amazon.com/dp/B0BFLV4TH8.

It’s time for more Salvage Title adventures! This week’s release is Salvage Search from David Alan Jones, which you can get here: amazon.com/dp/B0CLR91ZWF.

And don’t forget to get Where Now the Rider here: amazon.com/dp/product/B0CK6Q8TYV.  Finish it before book 4 comes out on Tuesday.

Tracked Items

Today’s Weight: 358.8

Firehall Sagas Archives: 758 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