Tag Archives: Erma Bombeck

Rob’s Update: Thank You

Week 46 of 2021

Greetings all

A simple title for a simple thing, but so important. Thank you, everyone, for helping me grow as a writer and carve out a niche in this field.

(Carve. See what I did there? Ha, I slay myself)

Anyway, we’re having a huge Black Friday sale at CKP to express our thanks. All 13 of these titles are on sale right now for $0.99.

Here’s a single link where you can add all of them at once.

I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving, and I hope you all have as much to give thanks for as I do. Most of all, I hope that great things happen for all of you.

Khyven the Unkillable
Khyven the Unkillable

Was a good week for The Door Into Winter. Not a ton of words, but a bunch of cleanup and arranging. I expect there to be a huge week upcoming as I’ve laid out several lines that need to get written.

We’re getting really close to Khyven the Unkillable. This is, of course, the first novel in the Eldros Legacy. We’re so excited to bring this to you, and Todd Fahnestock gets us off to an amazing start.

Seeds of Dominion is getting close to done, and it’ll be coming out on the 2nd of January. If you’re a part of the Eldros Legacy mailing list, you’ll get to see a sneak preview of the art in that, which comes out tomorrow. Want to be a part of that list? Go here: https://www.eldroslegacy.com/contact/newsletter/.

With that, I’m going to watch football, spend time with the sweetie, and make her steak and fixin’s for dinner.

Have a great holiday weekend, everyone!

What I’m Listening To

It’s Thanksgiving, so I’m watching football. I’m sure you’re all shocked.

Quote of the Week

I’ve used this quote before (way back in 2016, actually), but it’s at least as true today.

“Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.”
– Erma Bombeck

Cool Stuff In Eldros Legacy

Get five free stories and signed up with the Eldros Legacy mailing list! Here There Be Giants is at: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/qabsr57lq3+.

Khyven the Unkillable a week from Tuesday!

Seeds of Dominion by Quincy J. Allen in five weeks.

The steamroller is a-coming.

New Mythology Works in Progress

Current open anthology calls:

Last few days to submit! Bring me your stories. I’m looking forward to seeing them.

Rob’s Works in Progress
  • The Door Into Winter (47,004)
  • Rick Blaine (8,845)
  • CB (8,418)
Upcoming Events
New Releases

Something from the big boss this week. Chris Kennedy has a new novel in Chuck Gannon’s Caine Riordan Universe entitled Insertion. You can get it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09M32WQ3W/

Not a new release, but I certainly hope you take advantage of our Black Friday sale. Here’s a single link where you can add all of them at once. .

Tracked Items

Today’s Weight: 332.0

Updated Word Count: 352,963

Eldros Legacy Archives: 797 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

Founder in the Eldros Legacy series

Weekly Update: Thanksgiving

Greetings all

One of the things I’m most thankful for is all of you who subscribe to this email. Thank you very much.

I’m also thankful as Where Now the Rider is flowing along. I actually cut a bunch out that I did not like but I’m back up to 77k words with a number of scenes percolating. I’m now to the waffling about the bad guy stage.

Yes, I write mysteries without knowing who the bad guy will be. Oh, I usually have an idea but I’m not wedded to the idea. I get close to the end and then I figure it out. I also let my alpha readers guess, and if they guess my idea too easily then I need to change the mystery somehow. My initial bad guy in A Lake Most Deep was too obvious so I changed who it was.

Does that mean I have to go back and add and change clues? Yep, but I actually don’t know how to write a story without going back and changing stuff to meet the final ending. Often, it’s merely adding flavor words here and there. Maybe a sentence or a paragraph. Sometimes, it’s creating or filling out characters to make other potential suspects.

It might not be the “right” process, but it’s a process that works for me, and I’m thankful for that too. For more that I’m thankful about, check out my Thanksgiving blog post at: https://robhowell.org/blog/?p=517

Quote of the Week

I haven’t read it in decades, but I loved Erma Bombeck’s The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank when I was a kid. Maybe it helped her sense of humor, but she was one tough lady. She dealt with a kidney condition for most of her life and still beat breast cancer. I’m thankful she lived long enough to give us her sense of the world, and this quote has always spoken to me.

“Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.”
– Erma Bombeck

News and Works in Progress

  • Where Now the Rider is up to 77k

Recent Blog Posts and Wiki Additions

Upcoming Events

  • – 10 December: Kris Kinder, Kansas City, MO
  • – 22 January: ChattaCon, Chattanooga, TN
  • – 27-28 January: Market Day in Birka, Manchester, NH
  • – 3-5 March: CoastCon, Biloxi, MS
  • – 12-20 March: Gulf Wars, Lumberton, MS

Spotlight

I’ve been doing a lot of re-arranging of late, and that has included putting up some of the art that I’ve gathered along the way. One of those pieces was this one by Sam Flegal: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5714279c7da24f0475e0cfe3/57142ba47da24f0475e0e9e7/57142baa7da24f0475e0e9fd/1461937124629/LibertyorDeath_watermark1.jpg?format=1500w

You can see a bunch more cool art from him at: http://www.samflegal.com/

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.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Rob Howell
Author of the Shijuren-series of novels

Currently Available Works

Weekly Update Archive