Week 9 of 2021
Greetings all
It was a much nicer week after last weekend. It was as cold as I’ve ever seen it in KC. We have the occasional day of negative Fahrenheit, but not five days in a row with a several more days from 0-10. It got so bad we started figuring the temp in Kelvins.
But, like usual, Kansas then turned around and gave us days over the norm. I was grilling in sandals on Monday.
I had a good week of writing on The Ravening of Wolves. It won’t show in the word count though, as I pulled a number of chunks to put back in later. If you’ve been reading these for a while, you know this is normal when I get to the 60k mark. I’m in that area, but not exactly sure. Since I anticipate this will be shorter than most of my other novels, probably less than 90k, I’m pleased with where I’m at because I am in the fight scene after fight scene portion of the process.
I also spent time this week working on a newspaper article about the basics of writing as a career. I’ll let you all know when that gets published.
Progress is going on a number of other projects which, while they’ll not come to fruition until the end of the year, really make me excited. I’ll probably have some more conversation on that over the summer.
I am also trying to set up my fall event schedule. It looks like I’ll be on the road quite a bit, as cons and SCA events try to make something work this year. It might be a grind, but it also might be a really efficient set of trips. We’ll see, of course, how things lay out.
What I’m Listening To
Sign of the Southern Cross by Black Sabbath. Heaven and Hell is such a great album.
Quote of the Week
Tomorrow is the 10th year anniversary of Maerwynn and Ashir elevating me to the Order of the Laurel. For those not in the SCA, this is a great honor on par with knighthood, but for endeavors in the arts and sciences.
My first foray into writing was medieval-esque poetry for the SCA, especially with scroll texts. I had the great honor to write the lower-level scroll texts for Maerwynn and Ashir. Since Ashir’s persona is Mongol, all of those texts were in a Mongol style, and this is one of my favorite passages.
This is one of the texts given out to those they elevated as fyrdmen during their reign. I had a lot of fun hearing this one in court.
“You have made Our foemen’s hearts empty.
You have cut out parts of their liver.
You have made their beds become empty.
And you have made an end of their descendants.
For this, We Ashir and Maerwynn, Qan and Qatan
Join your spear to Our ranks of spears”
―
New Mythology Works in Progress
Monday, Monday, you’re so good to us.
Why? Because the Watchers at War, book three of the Watchers of Moniah trilogy by Barbara Evers comes out. Here’s the series page: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TV9L1J5. This is great stuff, with a twist on traditional fantasy tropes.
Here’s the rest of the upcoming schedule:
- 1 March: The Watchers at War (Book 3 of the Watchers of Moniah Series by Barbara V. Evers)
- 19 March: Songs of Valor (Book 2 of the Libri Valoris anthologies with Larry Correia, David Weber, Glen Cook, Dave Butler, and Sarah Hoyt)
- 12 April: Accepted (Book 2 of the Balance of Kerr series by Kevin Steverson.
- 21 May: Across the Endless Ocean (Book 1 of the Endless Ocean series by G. Scott Huggins)
I’m currently editing the next book, which will come out in May, featuring a new author for us. It’s more military fantasy, which is a subgenre I’ll be encouraging.
Rob’s Works in Progress
- The Ravening of Wolves (56,812)
- Rick Blaine (8,845)
- CB (8,418)
- Cynewulf (8,642)
- Gato (2,312)
Upcoming Events
- FantaSci, 21-23 May, Durham, NC
https://fantasci.rocks/ - LibertyCon, 27-27 June, Chattanooga, TN
https://libertycon.org/ - DragonCon, 2-6 September, Atlanta, GA
https://www.dragoncon.org/ - 20BooksTo50K, 8-12 November, Las Vegas, NV
http://20booksvegas.com/
New Releases
As mentioned, the Watchers at War, book three of the Watchers of Moniah trilogy by Barbara Evers comes out. Here’s the series page: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TV9L1J5.
For another day or two, you can get The Reluctant Druid, the first book of Jon Osborne’s Milesian Accord series is $0.99. This is fun urban fantasy with currently three novels and two short stories with hopefully more to come. You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07716V2RN.
Finally, the second Hit World novel, A Bullet for the Shooter, by Larry Hoy and William Alan Webb comes out tomorrow. This is action-heavy genre gumbo. Good stuff.
Today’s Weight: 337.8
Updated Word Count: 8,624
Eldros Legacy Wiki: 725 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
Author of the Shijuren-series of novels
- Website: www.robhowell.org
- Blog: www.robhowell.org/blog
- Shijuren Wiki: https://shijuren.org/tiki-index.php
- Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/robho
well.org/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rhodri2112
Currently Available Works
Shijuren
- A Lake Most Deep (Edward, Book 1)
- The Eyes of a Doll (Edward, Book 2)
- Where Now the Rider (Edward, Book 3)
- I Am a Wondrous Thing (The Kreisens, Book 1)
- Brief Is My Flame (The Kreisens, Book 2)
- None Call Me Mother (The Kreisens, Book 3)
- “What’s in a Name” in When Valor Must Hold (An Edward prequel story)
- “An Oath’s Other Edge” in Dragons and Dribbles : A Corner Scribblers Flash Collection w/ guest author, Rob Howell
Nick Patara, PI
- Silent Knight (Nick Patara, PI, Book 1)
- Under a Midnight Clear (Nick Patara, PI, Book 2) (Forthcoming)
Four Horsemen Universe
- “Where Enemies Sit” in For a Few Credits More (Revelations Cycle, Book 7))
- “A Sword for Striking” in Luck Is Not a Factor (Four Horsemen Tales, Book 6)
- Fire From Fire Quickened” in The Gates of Hell (Four Horsemen Saga, Book 4)
- The Feeding of Sorrows (Four Horsemen Tales, Book 11)
The Phases of Mars
- “Far Better to Dare” in Those In Peril
- “In Dark’ning Storms” in To Slip the Surly Bonds
- “Here Must We Hold” in Trouble in the Wind
Short Stories
- “A Gift of Crimson” in Hand of Gold and Other Stories (Pussy Katnip)
- “The Chaos of Well-Seeming Forms” in We Dare
- “Nor War’s Quick Fire” in We Dare II: Semper Paratus (Forthcoming, 2020)
If you think you received this email incorrectly or wish to be unsubscribed, please send an email to shijuren-owner@robhowell.org