I hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving today. My wife and I celebrated just the two of us because I’ve had a bit of con crud after 20Books and didn’t want to spread to family.
Wynnifred
Aside from that, it was excellent. We had steak, ham steaks, mashed potatoes, french onion soup, 2 kinds of cranberry sauce, veggies, a cheese plate, pumpkin pie, and oatmeal raisin cookies. We ate well, as did our portable black hole, Wynnifred.
As you can see, she’s still hungry.
Anyway, lots to get to this week. First, I had a great time at 20Books Vegas. Rather than going into detail here, here’s my AAR: robhowell.org/blog/?p=2950.
Side note: Welcome to all my new readers from 20Books. Thanks for signing up!
That leaves time to talk about Responsibility of the Throne, which comes out on Tuesday the 29th. This is the 2nd in G. Scott Huggins’ excellent Endless Ocean series. And check out this cover from the amazing J Caleb Studios.
Azriyqam is home, and discovering that princesses have to live up to their titles.
Responsibility of the Throne
Living up to the example of her parents involves more than she ever imagined, like inheriting the title of Holder of the Two Keys, who judges between dragons and humans, and keeping watch for Consortium agents ready to destroy her homeland.
While she’s being trained in the law she’s supposed to uphold, the people she’s supposed to judge are a far greater mystery. And though she’s received harsh lessons in the treachery of humans, she has not yet begun to fathom the motives and designs of the kingdom’s dragons. And these are the key to a challenge that could fracture the entire kingdom.
Can she stand up to the fire and destruction facing her, or will bitter enemies and cruel traitors send her sinking to the bottom of the Endless Ocean?
I got a decent number of words written before the con started, but between travel, recovery, the con, the holiday, and other work, I haven’t had a chance to touch anything since a week ago Sunday. I’ll get back on the horse tomorrow.
Finally, there’s less than a week left until the deadline for the 2023 FantaSci Short Story Contest open call. It’s due on the 30th. We’ve had a bunch of great submissions, but yours might just be better, so send it in.
And now, off to do more editing. Have a great rest of your weekend.
What I’m Listening To
It’s Thanksgiving. I’m a huge football fan. Soooo…, after watching the Cowboys beat the Giants (Go Cowboys), I’ve got the Patriots in Minnesota on right now.
Quote of the Week
I get frustrated at the blind stupidity of the NFL, but sometimes they get one right. They are honoring John Madden at all Thanksgiving games going forward.
He was such a fixture on this day for me, and he was always one of my favorites. Go he go too far overboard? Sure. But you never doubted his passion for the game.
“Since 1981, I’ve spent every Thanksgiving Day broadcasting a game, and it is one of my favorite days. You can say, ‘Woe is me, I never get to be part of the tradition,’ or you can say, ‘Heck, we’ve got our own tradition, and it’s pretty good.'”
– John Madden
The theme is Bonds of Valor, and you story must include deeds of valor centered around bonds between characters. This could be a romantic relationship, a buddy adventure, oaths to kings, or whatever you can come up with.
Deadline: November 30th, 2022
Word Count: 7-10,000 words
Specifics: Times New Roman, 12 point font, 1.5 line spaced.
This week we have the second book in D.T. Read’s The Seventh Shaman series, entitled Mountains of the Gods. How good is this? Chris reads more than a few books each year and he says it’s the best thing he’s read all year. Find out yourself here: amazon.com/dp/B0BMM99PPQ.
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.
This week, we released A Murder of Wolves by Jamie Ibson, the 9th book in the Eldros Legacy. It’s a howling (get it?) good adventure and you can get it here: amazon.com/dp/B0BHRKNYD5.
I’ve been working on edits for Responsibility of the Throne this week, sequel to Responsibility of the Crown by G. Scott Huggins. He’s such a strong writer and the characters are great.
I’ve also spent this week working on Farewell, My Ugly. I made huge progress, topping 30k this week. I’m aiming at 80k, so it’s over a 3rd done. I’m definitely better at hard-boiled and noir imagery than I was when I stumbled around writing A Lake Most Deep.
I also spent much of this week working on some foundational work that I’m looking forward to talking about down the road. I’m excited about more new projects. Expect to have a big update next week about the new plans.
You guys have a great week. I’m off to date night with the sweetie.
What I’m Listening To
Palästinalied Congregatio by Corvus Corax. These guys are another one of those bands who play medieval music on medieval instruments but do it with a metal crunch.
The theme is Bonds of Valor, and you story must include deeds of valor centered around bonds between characters. This could be a romantic relationship, a buddy adventure, oaths to kings, or whatever you can come up with.
Deadline: November 30th, 2022
Word Count: 7-10,000 words
Specifics: Times New Roman, 12 point font, 1.5 line spaced.
And of course, A Murder of Wolves by Jamie Ibson, the 9th book in the Eldros Legacy. It’s a howling (get it?) good adventure and you can get it here: amazon.com/dp/B0BHRKNYD5.
Updated Word Count: 395,925 (For some reason, I stopped entering in all the stuff I’d edited, which I count as a 1/4 a page. This now matches last year’s process. If you’re interested, I’m currently at 944,000 and I’ll go over a million edited this year. Last year, it was about 783,000.)
Eldros Legacy Archives: 813 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.
What a week! There was the release of Heart, Wings, and Fire by Trisha J. Wooldridge. This is a great story inspired by Asian myths and legends that includes princesses, dragons, and fey, oh, my!
I met Trisha at Superstars and she’s is incredibly impressive. Smart, enthusiastic, and talented. Hard to pass up this combination and I’m incredibly honored to have been able to publish her in New Mythology Press.
But wait, more’s just around the corner! The 9th Eldros Legacy novel comes out this upcoming Tuesday. It’s A Murder of Wolves by Jamie Ibson. It’s got a bit of military fantasy mixed with swords and sorcery and a lot of adventure.
Again, this comes out on Tuesday and it’s great.
By the way, in last week’s poll, the cover for A Murder of Wolves edged out the cover of Heart, Wings, and Fire. I think I like the art on Wolves better, but the title treatment of Heart is amazing, so that pushes it over the top for me.
On my end of things here I had one of those weeks where I was productive but the numbers won’t exactly show it. I’ve had a bunch of words come out on Farewell, My Ugly, but I cut a bunch as well. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that’s part of my process.
Like I say, it won’t really show up in the running tally below, but this was one of my best weeks in a while, topping 7,000 new words even if about that number went by the wayside.
I’m in the midst of the transition from Act I to Act II and I realized that a bunch of what I had in Act I really doesn’t drive the story, but this new stuff will absolutely push us ahead.
I also took a bit of time off, like really off, this past weekend while the sweetie was off in North Dakota. I told y’all I’d watch football, and I did, watching 6 NFL games and some or all of 8 college games.
I have to admit I’m especially excited about the University of Kansas Jayhawks right now. I don’t ever expect them to win, so going 5-0 thus far is way ahead of expectations.
They’re even hosting College GameDay, a big thing for college football, this weekend. This is ESPN’s Saturday pregame show and they move it around to various campuses to give fans a chance to be a part of the show. It’s quite fun, and this is the first time ever it’s been to Lawrence. Whether they beat TCU this weekend or not, it’s already been a successful season for the Jayhawks.
Rock, chalk, baby!
And with that, I’m going to go write a fight scene. Have a great week everyone.
What I’m Listening To
Currently, I’m listening to Wolgemut play Chanzonetta Tedesca. Wolgemut is a neat band that uses medieval instruments to play medieval songs but often with a metal edge and enthusiasm. Really fun, fantastic stuff.
If you have other things in your life-family, friends, good productive day work-these can interact with your writing and the sum will be all the richer.
– David Brin
The theme is Bonds of Valor, and you story must include deeds of valor centered around bonds between characters. This could be a romantic relationship, a buddy adventure, oaths to kings, or whatever you can come up with.
Deadline: November 30th, 2022
Word Count: 7-10,000 words
Specifics: Times New Roman, 12 point font, 1.5 line spaced.
This week’s release is Vendetta Protocolby Kevin Ikenberry. It’s actually a re-release of Kevin’s first series and it’s fantastic. Get it here: amazon.com/dp/B0BGN41SY7.
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.
