Tag Archives: Paladins of Valor

Weekly Update

Rob’s Update: Home Is The Hunter

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Week 18 of 2024

Greetings all

I’m home from FantaSci! I even have an AAR: robhowell.org/blog/?p=3481.

The best part of FantaSci for me was to be with the portion of the tribe I’ve not had a chance to see since LibertyCon, really. That crew is awesome and it was just too long since I’d seen them.

Paladins of Valor
Paladins of Valor

The Paladins of Valorrelease went very well! Thanks to all who’ve already bought it and reviewed it. If you haven’t gotten it yet, get it here: amazon.com/dp/B0CY9T4DHG/.

At FantaSci, we announced this is the last of the Valor anthologies for the foreseeable future. They’ve been awesome, but it’s time for New Mythology to shift its focus.

Hence, we’re having an open call for longform stuff from June 1st to June 10th. Here are the details: chriskennedypublishing.com/2024/04/25/new-mythology-open-call/.

If you read the FantaSci AAR, you basically cover my week since the last update. I’ve been recovering the past two days, so I didn’t do much writing or editing. I did get a project done in Okkorim, however. You’ll get it soon if you’re in the GaxxWorx Patreon.

That being said, the last six weeks have been weak on the writing/editing side since I’ve been on the road so much. I actually had planned to go to Foolzcon this weekend, but I just don’t want to drive anywhere. In fact, I’m basically down to local stuff up until LibertyCon. I need the break.

There will be some fun doings here in Anthony, though. May 18th is BalloonFest, which should be awesome. I will have more to say on that in upcoming weeks. Also, David Birdsall is joining us to run some Star Wars game on May the 4th, then we watch Star Wars: A New Hope in the 1936 art deco theater here. Gonna be a great day.

And look here, I’m officially part of Harper County! I’m on the list of local authors at the Harper City Library: harper.scklslibrary.info/local-author-links/.  Thanks to the folks at the library for doing that!

And with that, I’m off to start another project.

What I’m Listening To

Icarus Dream Suite 4 performed by Yngwie Malmsteen. It’s basically Adagio in G Minor, and Yngwie is, above all else, a master at turning classical music into metal.

Quote of the Week

April 25th is an interesting day for birthdays, including Oliver Cromwell, Guglielmo Marconi, Meadowlark Lemon, and Al Pacino. However, it’s also the birthday of La Marseillaise.

Aux armes, citoyens,
Formez vos bataillons,
Marchons, marchons !
Qu’un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons
– La Marseillaise

New Mythology Works in Progress

I’m pleased to announce New Mythology’s open call for novels and series. Here are the details: chriskennedypublishing.com/2024/04/25/new-mythology-open-call/.

Rob’s Works in Progress

  • Sowing Spring’s Wrath (3,213)
  • The Feasting of Vengeance (3,405)

Upcoming Events

New Releases

This week we have Never Again, the first book in Bill Fawcett’s new Blood and Armor series. I’m incredibly stoked to have Bill in the CKP crew. Get this one here: amazon.com/dp/B0CW18N86G.

Your pre-release this week is The King’s Daughter by Kacey Ezell and Chris Kennedy is out! This is book 2 in the Ashes of Entecea series which is going to be our next big shared world, I think. Get it here: amazon.com/dp/B0D2JYKN61.

Paladins of Valor is out! Get it here: amazon.com/dp/B0CY9T4DHG/.

Tracked Items

My Weight Today: 374.8lbs

Updated Word Count: 94,803

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

Weekly Update

Rob’s Update: Planet Comicon

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Week 11 of 2024

Greetings all

Another productive week in Robland. I did a bunch of work in Okkorim, completed the bulk of the behind the scenes work on Paladins of Valor, and organized a bunch of books donated by a local library.

Side note: We have a bunch of new romance, westerns, and young adult, plus many other titles in different genres. The sweetie glommed on to the cookbooks. Sorry.

The big thing this week, of course, was the prep for Planet Comicon this weekend. It’s at Bartle Hall in KC, and if you’re in the area, come chat. I’ll be the big guy wearing a Rush shirt. If that’s not enough, my booth number is 1746.

I’ve actually got a fantastic location this year. I got a corner spot, which was generous of them. It’s close to the West Dock, which is fantastic from a logistics perspective. Plus, there’s a restroom about as close as I could hope.

Gonna be a great weekend!

One note on Paladins of Valor. I sent the art to Chris Kennedy so he’d have it when the time came to upload. His response, in his best Captain Kirk voice, was, “That. Is. GORGEOUS!”

As usual, he’s absolutely correct. Cover reveal in a few weeks.

Most of this week’s writing and editing focused on Okkorim, however. We have a bunch of content coming out in March, including 3 new modules plus a slew of other Okkorim content.

And we’re just ramping up. We’re making a whole new world and I’m so honored to be a part of it. If you want to see it grow, join the Gaxxworx Patreon at: patreon.com/GaxxWorx.

With that, I’ll wish you a great week. I’ve at least a couple hours to throw some words at the page in one of my most productive places ever. More on that in a moment.

Have a great week!

What I’m Listening To

Longtime readers will have some idea just how many days I spent in Brewbakers over the last decade.

Well, since I’m in KC for Planet Comicon, I get a chance to claim my booth for a day.

So I’m listening to the overhead random music they play. Just now, they had Call Me by Blondie. A favorite song from my past. And, of course, Debbie Harry. Happy sigh.

Quote of the Week

Happy birthday to Elizabeth Moon! She’s one of my favorite writers. Her space opera Heris Serrano series is brilliant and her Deeds of Paksenarrion series is even better. It is one of those series *every* fantasy author should read just to see her breathtaking skill and attention to detail.

Anyway, here’s her paying attention to, well, you’ll know when you read it.

“Sometimes I wonder how normal normal people are, and I wonder that most in the grocery store.”
― Elizabeth Moon

Dragon’s Tidings

OMG, we have so much new stock. A bunch of the fabric that’s been on order arrived. Send best wishes to our poor FedEx guy who had to push it all into the building.

Plus, of course, the huge influx of new books.

Check out our class schedule:
reddragonquilts.com/calendar.htm

New Mythology Works in Progress

Of note, this now includes our recent releases, so if you’re not sure what we’ve put out lately, you can go here and check.

Rob’s Works in Progress

  • Sowing Spring’s Wrath (3,213)
  • The Feasting of Vengeance (4,809)

Upcoming Events

Freebies and Cool Stuff

Witness Mysteries and Thrillers

https://mybookcave.com/g/witness-mysteries-and-thrillers-2/?bcsrc=m96pfh

Coffee Break and Freebies

https://books.bookfunnel.com/coffeebreakandfreebies/hsqe3790uv

New Releases

More Salvage Title! This week, we have Fallout on Darsaana, most Salvage Title action from Melissa Olthoff. Get it here: amazon.com/dp/B0CW1FNXP1.

But wait! There’s more Melissa! Your pre-release this week is Companions in Chains. This one is in the 4HU! Get it here: amazon.com/dp/B0CW18Q45T.

Tracked Items

My Weight Today: 370.2lbs

Updated Word Count: 82,830

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

Weekly Update

Rob’s Update: Overcoming the Odds

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Week 8 of 2024

Greetings all

As I mentioned, I ended last week with a nasty cold. It knocked me back on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. However, despite all that, I had a really productive week, though not necessarily on everything I anticipated.

Divine Revelations
Divine Revelations

Let’s start with Okkorim because I have art to show off!

Over the last few months I’ve been fleshing out the pantheon of gods in Okkorim. This batch included 10 major gods and 30 lesser ones, and is over 60,000 words of description, dogma, new spells, new magic items, and religious institutions.

Okkorim is already a cool setting, but I can absolutely tell you there’s some amazing stuff in here. Divine Revelations is a small primer of the cosmology of Okkorim available to Luke’s Patreon followers. He wrote most of it, but I’m also editing a bunch of stuff they have, as I did with this.

Mirelie
Mirelie

Next is Mirelie, the deity of magic among other things. Luke came up with the basic concept, but this supplement is the fuller depiction of Mirelie. What do the priests do? What symbols represent the deity? Where are their major religious sites? What are the religious orders who follow Mirelie? And of course, several new spells and magic items.

I’m excited about what I’ve been able to contribute, and I think it’s going to be something players of D&D 5E and Castles and Crusades will love.

Again, if you’re interested, go to: patreon.com/GaxxWorx and sign up for at least the Silver Membership ($5/month). That gives you all the G20 magazine stuff that comes out, and let me tell you, I’m editing a ton.

Let’s turn to Paladins of Valor. It’s basically in the can and goes to the editor next week. Just waiting on a few edits.

I’ll give you a tease of two authors I was excited to work with in here. First, there’s Edie Skye, the author of the Titan Mage fantasy romance series. Here stories can be spicy or not, but they always have a lot of action.

On a completely different note, we also have Glen Cook returning with another Black Company story. I’ve been honored over the years by his support.

Speaking of New Mythology Press, we’ve been kinda quiet lately. This has been because we’re rearranging some of the foundational stuff in the background to make it work smoother for us to produce and cooler for you to read.

I can’t yet get into specifics, but I’ll tell you this, the schedule for later in the year is starting to come together.

One of the changes, by the way, is that we’re moving the bigger announcements and stuff to New Mythology’s mailing list, as I announced some time ago.

Here’s the link to join: chriskennedypublishing.com/fantasy-mailer/

Also, I started another sooper-seekrit project this week. It’ll be some months before I can talk about it, but I think it’ll be really.

Oh, one last thing. The local historic theater is going to show Star Wars on Saturday, May 4th. We’re planning a shindig and I have a question for you:

What is your favorite Star Wars-themed food?

Quote of the Week

Still hits me in the feels 43 years later.

“Do you believe in miracles? Yes!”
– Al Michaels on February 22, 1980, as time ran out in the USA-USSR hockey game in Lake Placed.

Rob’s Works in Progress

  • Sowing Spring’s Wrath (3,213)
  • The Feasting of Vengeance (4,411)

Upcoming Events

Freebies and Cool Stuff

SF/F Giveaway February 

https://storyoriginapp.com/to/r964Jvy

New Releases

This week’s release takes us back to the Fallen World, as Brisco Woods continues his saga of the first nanite-enhanced Specialist in Truth and Consequences. Get it here: amazon.com/dp/B0CVNF5F6R.

That’s the 20th book in the Fallen World now! Wow!

Your pre-release this week is book 2 in James Fox’s Sol Saga universe. It’s called Retaliation and you can get it here: amazon.com/dp/B0CW29B39G.

Tracked Items

My Weight Today: 371.4 lbs

Updated Word Count: Need to update the spreadsheet, somewhere around 40k this year so far.

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

Weekly Update

Rob’s Update: Plugging Away

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Week 6 of 2024

Greetings all

It’s another productive week, but it wasn’t how I expected to go. There’s also news.

Most important, we started the process of getting the kid, her guy, and the grandkid down to Anthony. We’ve been hoping this would happen for a while, and now it’s in progress.

Second, more news about GaryCon. I’ll be running a couple of gaming sessions which is great. It’s been a while since I’ve run games at cons, but that was 20-30 years ago and I can’t wait.

That’s in part because game nights have done well twice in a row with me DMing in the Firehall Sagas. It’s a chance for me to build the world and build the local community at the same time.

More and more gets done with Paladins of Valor every week. Mostly, we’re in the stage where authors are doing edits, but I’ve been also assembling it. I had the pleasure of editing Howard Andrew Jones’ Hanuvar story this week, and man is it good.

I didn’t write as many new words in Okkorim as I have in past weeks, but about 4,000. Also, I did a bunch of editing and setup as we transition to the next phase. It’s really an awesome project and I’m honored to be a part of it.

New and Cool

I haven’t eaten cereal in a decade, but I tried the GrainBerry Multi-Bran flakes on a lark recently. I rather like it. I’ve had more cereal in the last week or so than I had since the 80s.

Quote of the Week

Happy birthday to Jules Verne! Might have to re-read 20,000 Leagues again.

Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.
– Jules Verne

Dragon’s Tidings

A fun week here. We keep getting new stuff every week. This week was a bunch of new fabric, along with expanded drink selection for the game nights.

Check out our class schedule:
reddragonquilts.com/calendar.htm

New Mythology Works in Progress

Of note, this now includes our recent releases, so if you’re not sure what we’ve put out lately, you can go here and check.

Rob’s Works in Progress

  • Sowing Spring’s Wrath (3,213)
  • The Feasting of Vengeance (3,405)
  • Okkorim (61,988)

Upcoming Events

Freebies and Cool Stuff

February Fantasy Freebies

https://books.bookfunnel.com/februaryfantasyfreebies/u3akhw43pd

New Releases

This week we have Wolf Legion by William S. Frisbee, Jr., the ninth book in The Last Marines. Holding Earth continues to get harder, and everyone is against the last Marines, but will they give up? Never! Check out the entire series here: amazon.com/gp/product/B0B5WRRMPB.

Tracked Items

My Weight Today: 370.2 lbs

Updated Word Count: 21,693

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