Tag Archives: James L. Young

Weekly Update

Rob’s Update: Serendipity

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Week 40 of 2018

Greetings all

Been a good week here, though a little disjointed. Since I’ve moved back I’ve been to the doctor a bunch. During the time I was in Omaha, I kept waiting to figure out where we were going to live before getting a doctor. Since we didn’t actually find a place, I kept putting it off. Now that I’m 50, it’s not smart for me to avoid doctors, so I’ve been getting my 250,000 mile checkup, so to speak. That means a bunch of visits, and I had several this week.

The good news is that I’m doing pretty good for 50. I’m also really pleased with my new doctor. My last KC doctor took forever once you got to see her. She’s very smart, but I simply don’t want to wait three hours once I get there. This new doctor is actually incredibly quick. Other than the procedure I had last week, I’ve had something like ten office visits in the last month and a half. I’ve spent less time total in those visits, including with the specialists, than I did the first time I visited my old doctor. Nevertheless, each time takes out a chunk of the day.

What isn’t in as good of shape is my old phone. I didn’t want to upgrade to a Note 9 just yet, but I dropped my Note 5 and broke it. Ah, well. I did want the 9, and frankly the 512Gb of storage has already proven useful.

Still, I titled this week “Serendipity” because of last weekend. I got a chance to go to the Great Plains Ren Faire because a friend mentioned it. I did well and I got to briefly see my mom. I’ll be back in April.

Then, once I was there, another friend posted they were at the Lynyrd Skynyrd concert in Fayetteville, AR. Idly, Friday night, I checked their tour dates since I wanted to see them at least once. And, lookee there, they’re playing Saturday night after the Ren Fest closed in downtown Wichita. Definitely serendipitous.

I was a little disappointed in the Marshall Tucker Band, who opened for them. For whatever reason, their sound was a bit off. Can’t You See was fabulous, though. Anyway, I really enjoyed Skynyrd. The bits where they interwove parts of Ronnie Van Zant singing on the screen were powerful. Tuesday’s Gone live was worth the price of admission.

And I got to yell for someone to play Freebird without irony.

Oh, and I also named this post “Serendipity” because I love that word. It’s so mellifluous. It was also the title of our English reader in 6th grade. It had some great stories.

Ah, well, that’s enough about me. I’m going to get back to work. Have a great week.

Current Playlist Song

Acadian Dance by Rik Emmett from Triumph. This is from his acoustic album where he basically plays around and shows off all he can do. It’s good writing music.

Quote of the Week

Today is Neils Bohr’s birthday. He’s got a number of great quotes, but this is one of my favorites, especially since I started writing. And before you ask, I still have quite a few to make.

“An expert is a person who has found out by his own painful experience all the mistakes that one can make in a very narrow field.”
– Neils Bohr

News and Works in Progress

  • The Feeding of Sorrows (approx. 20,000)
  • CB (8,418)
  • AFS (2,556)

Recent Blog Posts and Wiki Additions

This week I started #Four Horsetober, a bunch of interviews of other authors in the Four Horsemen Universe. You can expect a bunch of interviews throughout October in honor of the two Lyon’s Den anthologies.

Upcoming Events

Spotlight

This week’s spotlight is on the Four Horsemen writers. See the list above for all the interview links.

Today’s Weight: 382.8

Updated Word Count: 209,771

Shijuren Wiki: 874 entries

Four Horsemen Wiki:  417 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

Currently Available Works

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Conventions

Rob’s Update: Adopted Strangers

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Week 5 of 2018

It’s been an oddly productive week. Productive in the sense that I got quite a few things worked on, but odd because they don’t all mesh yet.

For example, at the beginning of the year a friend of mine had a brain aneurysm. I offered to tuckerize anyone who donated over a certain amount to help him. I was pleasantly surprised at the response, and I spent much of last week starting those scenes. None of them are included in my listing for Brief Is My Flame, as I don’t know where they’ll go yet. Some might show up in None Call Me Mother.

Also, I worked on an especially large entry on the Four Horsemen Wiki. The entry is here: http://mercenaryguild.org/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=CASPer. CASPer is an acronym for Combat Assault System, Personal, and they’re basically power armor. They’re the central weapon system in the Four Horsemen universe and that entry is large and detailed. It’s probably the single most important thing to create in that world’s wiki, but it took forever.

I also started another novel, though this one is not set in Shijuren. I’m aiming for December with it. It’ll be listed below under TAV.  I started one other project, at least in terms of laying out ideas. I’ll talk about that more next week.

All in all, a good week, but the true value won’t be readily apparent for some time.

In the meantime, I’m getting ready for the Super Bowl. Sort of. I’ve never been so unenthusiastic about a Super Bowl in my life.  I loathe both teams. I’m rooting for the Patriots because I despise them far less than I do the Eagles. When this matchup occurred previously in 2005, I at least had the opportunity to host a Super Bowl party. That’s not an option this year. I’ll watch it, and I’ll appreciate the game as the last real example of football for some time, but it’s hard to get fired up.

At least good draft scouting reports are starting to flow in. This year, they’re holding the NFL Draft in Dallas and I wonder if I can finagle a way to afford going.

We shall see.

Current Playlist Song: “Three Days” by Jane’s Addiction. This actually one of my top five favorite songs of all time. It’s about 11 minutes long, but I will listen to it over and over. This update’s title comes from a line in the song: “We choose no kin but adopted strangers.” This quote resonates with me, given the family I’ve accrued in the SCA and am starting to build in the writing world. I love those actually related to me, but I have been lucky in the strangers who have adopted me.

Quote of the Week

Today’s quote comes from John Madden, because few people put more enthusiasm into the game.

“If you win a Super Bowl before you’re fired, you’re a genius, and everyone listens to you. But a coach is just a guy whose best class in grammar school was recess and whose best class in high school was P.E. I never thought I was anything but a guy whose best class was P.E. “- John Madden

News and Works in Progress

  • TAV (1144)
  • Brief Is My Flame (34914)

Recent Blog Posts and Wiki Additions

Upcoming Events

Spotlight

Today an author friend of mine passed his dissertation defense. Congratulations Dr. James Young! He also writes alternate history besides his normal naval history, and you can find his stuff on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/James-Young/e/B00AVKCQZQ/.

Today’s Weight: 387.0

Updated Word Count: 11970

Shijuren Wiki: 736 entries

Four Horsemen Wiki: 82 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

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

Conventions, Fiction, Personal, Shijuren, Weekly Update

Weekly Update: Catching Up

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Week of 10-16 October

Greetings all

First, I apologize for both missing last week and being late this week. It’s been an eventful past couple of weeks.

Much of my time has been focused on getting Where Now the Rider out the door. I’m getting close.

I’ve also been re-arranging my working area. I’ve moved my office into the room that I seem to find the most comfortable, and that’s taking time. However, after next week my home setup will be far better than it has been for quite some time. I actually hired a network guy to do in a couple of hours what would have taken me a few days, and much cursing, to get organized. Included in all of that is far better data protection, multiple network systems and printers, and a whole slew of other things that I’ve wanted for a while. I would have liked to have done this in a couple of weeks instead of while I was busy writing but timing is somewhat out of my control. Anyway, I’m excited.

I’m also excited because I’ll be at Time Eddy in Wichita this weekend. Come see me in the Dealer’s Room if you’re there. Part of my excitement is that I’m going to get to sit next to James Young, who writes a series of alternate history WW2 books I really enjoy.

Quote of the Week
This is sort of how I feel about this month.
“How did it get so late so soon?”
― Dr. Seuss

News and Works in Progress
– I am also making progress on the next Edward novel, which will be called Where Now the Rider. Tentative release date is 30 November.
– The updated electronic version of The Eyes of a Doll is now live on Amazon. If you already own it, you can add wiki links by contacting Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/clicktocall (phone) or http://www.amazon.com/clicktochat (chat).
– The podcast for Write Pack Radio will be live this weekend at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/writepackradio. I fascinated to hear how I sound, actually.
– As is always the case, I’m already contemplating ideas for the next book. I’ve got some fun ideas for what to do to Irina and the rest already bouncing around

 Recent Blog Posts and Wiki Additions
– Not much, because I’ve been slacking, though I did fix a few small typos and other things needing corrections on the wiki
Upcoming Events

– 14-16 October: Time Eddy in Wichita, KS
– 27-30 October: World Fantasy Convention
– 19 November: Toys for Tots
– 10 December: Kris Kinder

 Spotlight

Since I’ll be sitting next to him this weekend, I’d like to spotlight James Young. I really enjoy his Usurper’s War WW2 alternate history, in part because it does something real history did not. The US Navy, once the production lines started rolling simply was too powerful for the Japanese Navy. It’s probably a simplistic overstatement to say that once the Japanese missed the carriers at Pearl Harbor the war was over in the Pacific, however, it’s not that much of a simplistic overstatement. Young has basically created a world war where the US Navy will have a challenge worthy of its might.

Have a great week, everyone

Rob Howell
Author of the Shijuren-series of novels
Website: www.robhowell.org

Shijuren Wiki: http://www.shijuren.org/World+of+Shijuren+Home

Currently Available Works
A Lake Most Deep (Edward, Bk 1)
The Eyes of a Doll (Edward, Bk 2)
I Am a Wondrous Thing (The Kreisens, Bk 1)