Week 13 of 2025
Greetings all
My favorite video game growing up was Gauntlet. I loved it so much it ended up being one reason I flunked out of KU. Of course, given who I was then, it would have been something else if it hadn’t been that.
Why do I mention that? No real reason, except that March was a bit of a gauntlet, and it’s likely to be a regular thing going forward. Gulf Wars would, I think, have been an unqualified success if we hadn’t lost two prime selling days.
And then there’s GaryCon.
The downside of GaryCon is expense. The hotel cost is significant, plus of course food at the Grand Geneva isn’t cheap. The amazing dealing room doesn’t help, either.
Last year, I wondered if it would be worth all that money. However, like so many things, if you go multiple years, things start to stack, and this year’s experience showed this is stacking quickly. I had a much more productive time this year and I expect it to be even better going forward. Name recognition is important, and I had several people go, “Oh, you’re the writer guy” or something like it.
I have some ideas about next year. I’m going to try and meld some different experiences with the gaming community there.

The big highlight was the release of Chentoufi: A City of Intrigue and Secrets. It’s awesome to see that in the wild.
Another highlight came Sunday evening. Ernie Gygax passed away recently, and we participated in a charity game for him. This was held at his house, hosted by his wife Donna, and ran by an excellent GM who had an interesting plan.
He divided the game into 3 parts and used each part to give the players a chance to experience early role-playing. The first part was a Braunstein game, which was one of the earliest progenitors of D&D. Basically, players get a character with a series of goals and resources and negotiate amongst each other.
I’ve experienced something like this in Model UN and in some of the Junior Achievement events. I liked those events a ton in part because they felt like D&D, and this brought it around full circle.
Then we played a sort of make up your own version of D&D. Basically, we had no books, but we were told our characters were experienced adventurers. Then the DM told us to do things experienced adventurers would do. We had to guess from our descriptions everything we could do. If we could cast spells, we had to essentially make them up on the spot.
It was an intriguing thing. As experienced players, we all fell back on various spells and things we did, but it was still basically a player saying to the judge, “We want to do X,” and the judge ruling on it.
I rather liked it. I might try something like that with my players.
Anyway, this past month has been productive on a number of fronts, including some editing and writing here and there. Not as much as I’ll do in April given that I’ll be home the bulk of the time, but I managed a goodly amount in the margins.
Next week is reorganizing and getting back into the groove. I have a number of writing projects in mind, including some new ideas. I also have some editing projects to do.
For now, I’m enjoying the time with my wife and the kitties after running that gauntlet. Have a great week!
What I’m Listening To
Inspector Lewis tonight. It’s the 3rd of the Morse trilogy of BBC mysteries. All 3 are great.
Quote of the Week
I had a hard time choosing this week’s quote. On the one hand, there’s Kevin J. Anderson, a fantastic writer and a great guy. On the other, there’s the Captain, Nathan Fillion. On the gripping hand, it’s Opening Day so there should be a baseball quote.
Baseball it is! This one comes from Humphrey Bogart, so I can think of him saying this while holding a golden falcon statue in a suave cabaret in Casablanca.
“A hot dog at the game beats roast beef at the Ritz.”
– Humphrey Bogart
Upcoming Events
- LibertyCon, June 20-22, Chattanooga, TN
libertycon.org/ - Pennsic War, July 25 – August 10, Slippery Rock, PA
pennsicwar.org/
New Releases
This week we have Interstellar Gambit, the second book in Dawn Chapman’s Through Steel and Stars series. The first book in this series did outstandingly well, so if you missed it, grab it and jump in—it’s not too late! This book will have a simultaneous release in audio (to go with the ebook and paperback). Get whichever you prefer here: amazon.com/dp/B0DZK4F4TM.
Your pre-release this week is Bound and Determined, the second book in Michael LaVoice’s Gladius Leagues series. Nick Landry defeated the Onslaught on Miranatha, but will he be able to liberate his home world? Get it here: amazon.com/dp/B0F2J47JJ3.
Tracked Items
My Weight Today: 357.0lbs
Updated Word Count: 40,000
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
- Amazon Author Page: amazon.com/-/e/B00X95LBB0
- Website: robhowell.org
- Blog: robhowell.org/blog
- The Firehall Sagas: firehallsagas.com/
- Facebook Author Page: facebook.com/robho
well.org/ - Twitter: twitter.com/Rhodri2112