Week 22 of 2024

Greetings all

Whew! Balloon Fest was something else! We had a great time in the morning, but then the sun went past the building that shaded us and later on it got really hot. It might have only been 91 or so, but in the sun, and the fact nobody’s used to that heat yet, it was too much.

But it went well. I sold a reasonable number of books, but better yet, I told a bunch of folks about our quilt store. We did very nicely in the store, especially since as far as I could tell, all of them were first-time customers.

We sold a couple of sodas, which wasn’t worth the effort. We have them in the store, but people bought them from Higher Grounds who were next to me. Still, it was nice to be able to spread out for 16feet of table space.

I heard great things about the ESports tournament I set up. About 15 people played, they liked the prizes we got, and it went very well. Not bad for an idea I thought up literally on March 29th. We’ll do it again next year, but with advance planning and publicity. Hopefully, we’ll make it something cool for the region, not just Anthony.

Because of Balloon Fest, I didn’t have as many writing days as I’d hoped for, but I still got about 5k written. I started doing sprints again. I’ve finally figured out the new version of the Discord sprint bot that I installed on the New Mythology Press server, but it’ll take a bit for it to get instinctive again. The old way was much smoother. Ah, well, progress.

Speaking of progress, we had a great week of folks buying all of the Firehall Sagas, including the Ruriksaga. Thanks very much! Keep up the good work!

On that note, have a great long weekend.

What I’m Listening To

Cygnus X-1 by Rush. Wheeling around the galaxy on my ship the Rocinante. Wouldn’t that be fun?

Quote of the Week

This weekend is Memorial Day. This week’s quote is the entirety of In Flanders Field by John McCrae. Here’s his Wikipedia page, by the way, which talks about him writing the poem: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCrae.

This poem is special to me because my grandfather served in World War One at the age of 14. They knew he lied about his age to go overseas, but they couldn’t prove it, so they had him and all the others who did likewise assigned to the Forestry Corps. Their job was to cut down trees for trenches and do whatever else was needed. This included pulling wagons with dead and wounded.

Can you imagine? At 14? Yeeesh. Anyway, have a great Memorial Day everyone.

  In Flanders Fields
In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead, short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
– John McCrae

Rob’s Riddles

Like challenges? Think you’re smarter than me? Then see if you can answer my riddles!

You can find them by signing up for my Patreon here: patreon.com/rhodri2112. Not sure what I mean? Then check the sample riddle and see if you get the answer!

First Line of Current Riddle:

I am the killer of worlds and     Keeper of trust

Interestingly, I had more guesses than normal from this first line. All the guesses fit the first line, but none of them fit the rest of the riddle.

But wait, there’s more! You get new riddles on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday, but on the other Tuesdays, you get snippets of works in progress.

This week’s snippet is Chapter 1 of The Feasting of Vengeance.

Dragon’s Tidings

We are closed on Monday for Memorial Day.

However, check out our Facebook page to see our first two graduates from our quilting class showing off their new quilts!

Also, check our website (www.reddragonquilts.com) for our May 30% off special!

New Mythology Works in Progress

Rob’s Works in Progress

• Sowing Spring’s Wrath (3,213)
• The Feasting of Vengeance (14,152)

Upcoming Events

• LibertyCon, June 21-23, Chattanooga, TN
  libertycon.org/
• Pennsic War, July 26 – August 11, Slippery Rock, PA
  pennsicwar.org/
• ChattaCon, January 17-19, Chattanooga, TN
  chattacon.org/
  I’m the Toastmaster!

New Releases

This week we have D.T. Read’s fifth book in her Seventh Shaman series, Trial by the Gods. It superbly blends Native American mythos with far future scifi. It’s one of a kind, and well worth giving a look! Get it here: amazon.com/dp/B0D46LXS5G/.

Your pre-release this week is from Bill Fawcett and Casey Moores! It’s the second book in Bill’s Blood and Armor series called No Fail. Get it here:

Tracked Items

My Weight Today: 376.0lbs

Updated Word Count: 106,690

Firehall Sagas Archives: 758 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

Creator of the Firehall Sagas Universe

• Amazon Author Page: amazon.com/-/e/B00X95LBB0
• Website: robhowell.org
• Blog: robhowell.org/blog
• The Firehall Sagas: firehallsagas.com/
• Facebook Author Page: facebook.com/robhowell.org/
• Twitter: twitter.com/Rhodri2112

Weekly Update Archive