Tag Archives: Chaz Kemp

Weekly Update

Rob’s Update: The Greater Share of Honour

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Week 43 of 2019

Greetings all

Been a good week here. I’ve a complete draft of a short story, which I’ll edit this weekend. I also scribbled down a bunch of notes about None Call Me Mother. It’s almost like plotting, but let’s not ruin my reputation.

The big news here is animal-related. This was the week for Fearghus, our rescue kitten from the summer. He is no longer able to be a dad. Hopefully, it will calm him down some. We love how playful he is, but sometimes he gets aggressive with the other kitties. We’ll see.

Wynnifred, our other younger cat, was also not feeling well. The vet we go to, Marketplace Animal Hospital, fit her in at the same time I brought in Fearghus. We figured it out, am giving her medicine, and we already see progress.

Then, Fearghus had a reaction to his new flea collar. It made him itch so much he rubbed several sections on his neck raw. Marketplace again moved things around and saw him last night. We think that’s under control too, but we’re keeping an eye on him this weekend, which is why we’re not going to be able to go to Autumn in Grimfells this weekend.

I just want to add that I’m really pleased with Marketplace, if you hadn’t realized. Glad that a close friend of mine referred me.

But that’s not the only animal adventure here. We have had raccoons invade our attic. We debated trying to trap them ourselves, but frankly, none of us wanted to crawl around the attic here, which is pretty rough and not terribly easy to climb up to. Especially for three people who don’t do heights. So, we got a company to come out. They’ve already gotten two raccoons. Who knows how many more came inside when the weather cooled. We’ll find out.

Anyway, that’s the adventure of the day. Now I’m off to throw a few thousand words at None Call Me Mother.

Current Playlist Song

Not a song this week. I’m listening to 105.3 the Fan from Dallas. They’re covering the Cowboys trade yesterday and a number of other Cowboys-related things. They interview Jerry Jones regularly, and he’s always interesting.

Quote of the Week

It’s the 25th of October. That’s St. Crispin’s Day. And that means it’s the 604th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt.

So here’s the entire monologue from Henry V.

WESTMORLAND. O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!

KING. What’s he that wishes so?
My cousin, Westmorland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark’d to die, we are enough
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmorland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say “To-morrow is Saint Crispian.”
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say “These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.”
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words—
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester—
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be rememberèd—
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
– William Shakespeare, Henry V

News and Works in Progress

  • None Call Me Mother (58,007)
  • HMWH (7,480)
  • CB (8,418)
  • AFS (8,088)

Recent Blog Posts and Wiki Additions

Upcoming Events

Spotlight

This week’s spotlight is on Chaz Kemp. This was the first interview I hosted here. You can find it at: https://robhowell.org/blog/?p=976.

Today’s Weight: 392.4

Updated Word Count: 170,244

Shijuren Wiki: 874 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
Shijuren
Four Horsemen Universe
Short Stories

 

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Arts and Literature, Interviews

Interview – Chaz Kemp

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Greetings all

I’m starting a new semi-regular thing. As you probably know, I do a Spotlight on some artist, author, or vendor each week in my updates. This will be an expanded version of that, where I’ll interview some great independent and up-and-coming creators. I’ll ask hard-hitting questions like “What is their favorite Muppet?”

In truth, while I’ll be phrasing this in a light-hearted way, it is my hope that these interviews will have provide a little insight in their creative process. Remember, there’s one true creative process, and it’s the one that helps you create, but that doesn’t mean one shouldn’t learn what works for others.

I’m lucky to start off with Chaz Kemp. I met Chaz as part of Pandora Celtica when they came to house for a house with Sooj Tucker. It was an amazing show, and all of them gave me a bunch of CDs. I’ve listened to those over and over, and some are on the playlist that helps me write.

However, Chaz is not only a drummer and a singer, but also an excellent artist often focusing on Steampunk themes, such as this one:

You can find his work at:

The Interview

What is your quest?

To continue creating a multi-cultural steampunk/fantasy world called Ashelon by using my own Art Nouveau styled illustrations.  We’re also including novellas and short stories written by my wife, Carolyn Kay and other authors to help flesh out that world.

I want my dream and passion for Ashelon to be something amazing that fans can really groove on.

What is your favorite color?

I love creating my art digitally by using a vector-based program called CorelDraw.  It’s like Adobe Illustrator but I find it more versatile.  Through years of honing my technique, I can make my pieces feel more natural and the colors more vibrant while still embracing the illustrative quality I love so much. 

I also enjoy the way that I can make changes to my art on the fly by switching out colors, body positioning and even the backgrounds without having to take hours or even days repainting things just to try something new.

What is the average flying speed of an unladen paint brush?

As a freelance artist, one of my biggest hurdles involved gaining respect.  I went out of my way to treat my clients with respect and kindness, but they didn’t always feel the need to reciprocate early in my career.

It took time to learn that I had the power to say ‘no’ when faced with the prospect of working with someone who wasn’t going to treat me well.  I could also say ‘no’ when a potential client didn’t want to adequately compensate me for the work I was to do for them.  As I won more awards and gained more of a reputation for doing good work, I ran into fewer problems.

Another challenge came with the frustration of trying to get in with big name companies like many of the New Age companies or table top RPG leaders. They just wouldn’t write back to me.

After talking with a few industry ‘insiders’ I discovered that most of those art directors don’t actually care about the artist or their art, all they really care about is whether they think the artist can make them money.  As an example, photo-realism is the hot style right now, so that’s all they’re interested in and those are the only artists they’re willing to hire. If I were a photo-realistic artist, all I’d ever be to them is a thing that made them money. So truthfully, getting rejected by them was actually them doing me a favor.

What are the powers of your personal Holy Hand Grenade?

I feel that while I am inspired by the Art Nouveau movement and by Alphonse Mucha in particular, I don’t directly copy him.  I take the style and make it my own.  I love that many people can see his inspiration in my work.

I’m also quite proud of the fact that several of my main characters are multi-cultural because there isn’t enough of that in the Steampunk genre.  In reality, the 1800s happened everywhere, not just in Victorian England. So why have art centered around one culture when I can explore the ideas of Steampunk in every culture? When you do that, the ideas are endless and ongoing. Not only that, but we get to have multiple cultures represented in a way that you don’t normally see them and that’s just too cool.

Lightning Round

  • Favorite Muppet?  Pepe the King Prawn – he’s quite hilarious.
  • Crunchy or Creamy?  Crunchy when it comes to peanut butter… Creamy when it comes to soup.
  • Favorite Sports Team?  Denver Nuggets all the way.
  • Cake or Pie?  Pie for sure… there are more varieties of pie and most of them are DELICIOUS!!
  • Lime or Lemon?  Lemon
  • Favorite Chip Dip?  Bean dip FTW
  • Wet or Dry?  Wet when it comes to drinks like Moscow Mules – Dry when it comes to computers and socks.
  • Favorite Musical Performer we’ve Never Heard Of? Mark King of Level 42 – he’s a good song writer and singer, but an AMAZING bass player.
  • Whisky or Whiskey?  Whiskaaaaaaaay!!
  • Steak Temperature?   Medium Well (ed. note: Sigh, it could be worse I suppose)
  • Favorite 1970s TV show?  Wonder Woman
  • Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall?  Summer – perfect beach weather.
  • Favorite Pet?  Our cats Sif and Naira.
  • Coffee or Tea?  Coffee hands down!
  • Sci-Fi or Fantasy?  Fantasy every time.  The closest I get to Sci-Fi is either cyber punk (Which is cool) or Steampunk (Which is awesome)

What question would you like to ask me?

The fact that you have SO much information about your world of Shijuren is amazing.  I’d love to develop that level of detail for my world of Ashelon!  How long did it take you to create your world and what inspired you to do it?  

My Answer: It’s not really something I do all at once. I just use whatever inspiration comes to mind. If I run across something interesting, I toss that in.

One of my most useful tools is Wikipedia’s random article button. I will literally sit in front of a football game or something like that and just click it. Every time I see something interesting, I cut and paste into a Notes document. Then, when I am looking for something, a town, a new character, inspiration for an event, whatever, I glance at that. The randomness helps keep me from doing the things I always fall back upon.

I have also had help from people like Adam Hale, who does all the maps for me. I gave him license to add geographic details and names, based on certain parameters, and that helps shape strategic and tactical choices by my characters.

I love worldbuilding. I do a little bit here, a little bit there, and then suddenly there’s a thing.

Tell me again where we can find your stuff?

Final question for you: What should I have asked but did not?

You should have asked, “What game are you currently grooving on?”  I would respond with Cards Against Humanity!!  We just had dinner at a friend’s house this past weekend where we played CaH and I laughed so hard, my face hurt the whole rest of the weekend.  So much fun!!

******

Speaking of fun, I enjoyed this quite a bit. I will start doing these on as many Tuesdays as I have one ready.

Thanks very much to Chaz for being the guinea pig and helping shape these questions. I know I’ll be seeing Chaz at ConQuest on Memorial Day. I suspect you’ll find us sharing a beverage at some point there.

If you are a creator, especially an independent creator, and you want to be spotlighted in a future interview, email me at rob@robhowell.org.

Also, if you want to join my mailing list, where I’ll announce every interview, as well as what’s going on in my life, go to www.robhowell.org and fill out the form (Name and Email Address) or drop me an email and I’ll add you.

Weekly Update

Rob’s Update: The One Constant

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Week 13 of 2018

Greetings all

First, thanks to all the people who joined the mailing list at Gulf Wars. I finally got a chance to add you this week.

This week in general was a week of catching up on things that need doing. I added a new regular feature to the blog, which I hope will become a weekly event. I’ll be interviewing a number of independent creators with a partly whimsical set of questions that will still talk about different creative methods. I think it’ll be pretty fun for all of us.

The big project this week has been catching up on A Lake Most Deep audiobook files. Yes, you read that right, the audiobook is a-coming round the mountain. All the chapters have now been recorded, and I’m going through each one to catch any mistakes. I’m still not sure of a release date, but by the end of next week I will have gone through all the recordings. We’re getting close there.

That took away from my writing, though, so I’m only around 54000 words in Brief Is My Flame, though I’m really pleased with where things are going. The two main threads are both progressing, and each have the kind of action I lead to read.

If I don’t enjoy reading a book, I can’t expect you to enjoy it either, and I’m enjoying it.

Current Playlist Song

“Gaudete” by Steeleye Span

I just got a new Steeleye Span album, which I will soon add to my writing playlist. Another is on the way. If you don’t know these guys, they do a bunch of traditional English and British Isles folk songs and mixing them with the 60s and 70s folk and rock traditions. Great stuff, especially “Saucy Sailor,” one of my favorite songs.

Quote of the Week

Today is opening day of baseball. In my mind, this should be a national holiday, so this week’s quote is a longer one. However, it’s a great one, delivered by a fantastic actor.

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and that could be again. Oh…people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.”
― Terence Mann (James Earl Jones), Field of Dreams

News and Works in Progress

  • TAV (1,144)
  • AFS (2,681)
  • Brief Is My Flame (53,872)

Recent Blog Posts and Wiki Additions

Upcoming Events

Spotlight

This week’s spotlight is on Chaz Kemp, who is a great artist and also my guinea pig on the new interview feature. The interview link is here: https://robhowell.org/blog/?p=976.

Also, you can find his website here: https://www.chazkemp.com/.

Today’s Weight: 388.4

Updated Word Count: 20,753

Shijuren Wiki: 741 entries

Four Horsemen Wiki: 226 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