Week 17 of 2021
Greetings all
Sorry for being a day late. I had a busy day yesterday. Our parents are coming down this weekend for Mother’s Day and I spent it frantically cleaning the house. One of the strangest things about the pandemic is that we host people often enough our house gets cleaned regularly. Those didn’t happen for a year, and we had some catching up to do.
Side note: I’d never have had the chance to do this job without my mom’s help. Thanks, mom!
I had a big thrill this week. I got to interview one of my favorite sportswriters and radio guys, Bob Sturm, for the Dudes in Hyperspace podcast. If you like football at all, you want to sit and chat with him for hours. Well, he gave me about an hour, which is about twice as long as I intended. We were just going over a bunch of neat stuff.
I haven’t written much this past week. Mostly, I’ve been doing those projects around the house that we’ve put off. Made a lot of progress on those.
Also, I got an opportunity to write something really cool that went straight to the top of the line. We’ll see how that goes, but then I’ll get back to my other short stories. Looks like I’ll write 4-5 short stories in the next couple of months before turning to another Shijuren novel.
Finally, my FantaSci schedule is live! Here’s where I’ll be in a couple of weeks.
Friday 12pm: Pantzing in Camellia
Friday 3pm: Book Reading in Oak
Friday 4pm: Herding Kittens in Camellia
Friday 7pm (2 hrs): Songs of Valor Anthology in the Main Room
Friday 10pm: CKP/NMP Party in the Courtyard. Come a little early if you want to help set up.
Saturday 12pm: New Mythology Press in Rose
Saturday 1pm: Radio Waves: Podcast/Live Feeds in Rose
Saturday 4pm: Mystics and Magic in the Main Room
Sunday 9am: NMP Kaffeeklatsch in Camellia
With that, I had better go write a bit.
What I’m Listening To
Wolf Totem by the Hu. Mongolian Folk Metal is fantastic stuff.
Quote of the Week
Today’s quote is from Gene Wolfe, one of the great SF/F writers ever. He was born on this day in 1931.
“You never learn how to write a novel. You just learn how to write the novel that you’re writing.”
― Gene Wolfe
New Mythology Works in Progress
Open call for the next New Mythology Anthology. We’ll take the top four submissions.
Deadline: 31 July
Words: 7k-10k
Manuscript: In .doc or .docx file format, Times New Roman, 12pt, 1.5 spaced
Send To: rob@chriskennedypublishing.com
Prompt: Write a fantasy story involving a beast or monster. While the story can include elements of horror, it should not be a horror story; it should be a fantasy and lean toward the heroic. Feel free to make the beast or monster your protagonist, but if not, the creature must be a central figure, (like Grendel in Beowulf).
As mentioned, we will choose the top four stories out of those submitted to add to the anthology. This is especially aimed at newer authors, though authors of any experience can enter.
- Just Released: Songs of Valor (Book 2 of the Libri Valoris anthologies with Larry Correia, David Weber, Glen Cook, Dave Butler, and Sarah Hoyt). You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08Z7Z3KT1
- 12 April: Accepted(Book 2 of the Balance of Kerr series by Kevin Steverson. Find it here: https://chriskennedypublishing.com/book/accepted/.
- 21 May: Responsibility of the Crown (Book 1 of the Endless Ocean series by G. Scott Huggins)
Rob’s Works in Progress
- CWTAE (1,701)
- OPP (1,214)
- Rick Blaine (8,845)
- CB (8,418)
- Cynewulf (8,642)
- Gato (2,312)
Upcoming Events
- FantaSci, 21-23 May, Durham, NC
https://fantasci.rocks/ - Armistice (Pennsic Lite), 29 July – 9 August, Slippery Rock, PA
https://www.cooperslake.com/clchome/eventdetails.php?clceventid=3a1d242a-9dfb-11eb-88ad-10ae3c21f154 - DragonCon, 2-6 September, Atlanta, GA
https://www.dragoncon.org/ - 20BooksTo50K, 8-12 November, Las Vegas, NV
http://20booksvegas.com/
New Releases
The big new release is, of course, Eye of the Storm, by Chris Kennedy and Mark Wandrey. This is the latest in the main line of the 4HU. So much going on. You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B093NXYC7C.
Today’s Weight: 333.6
Updated Word Count: 115,848
Shijuren 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