Prepare, prepare the iron helm of war,

Bring forth the lots, cast in the spacious orb;

Th' Angel of Fate turns them with mighty hands,

And casts them out upon the darken'd earth!

Prepare, prepare!

--William Blake, "A War Song to Englishmen"

Iron Helm sounds like a good name for viking or other warrior. I'll wager it's been used in fiction for that purpose. It's certainly a more formidable sounding name than Plastic Helm or Petal Helm -- which brings to mind a new genre of music: Heavy Petal - or maybe it's a tribute band to Iron Butterfly?

Here's Part II of my substack post on Forging Unforgettable Stories.

I signed the contract last week with the publisher for the sequel to Accidental Pirates -- you can look for it in September, maybe sooner for pre-order. I sent off my Wyrd Warfare III submission (and that's Roman numeral 3, not one hundred eleven, or eleventy-one, in case you're wondering). I'm in the midst of research for another possible short story - and I'm writing the sequel to the sequel, or as a sane person might say, Book 3, in the Accidental Pirates Series.

I took a break from my heavier reading projects to enjoy ERB's The Chessmen of Mars - for reasons that will eventually become apparent. I would also like to do a chapter-by-chapter commentary on The Lord of the Rings, but can't decide whether to do it in the newsletter, the blog, the substack, or a mix of all three; I also wonder if I have the time to do it justice.

On the music front, I rediscovered a couple CDs of classic hits. One from the 80s and one from prior decades. I noted the 80s hits includes "Twilight Zone" by Golden Earring - which was the inspiration for a short story I wrote in 2025.

“All great changes are irksome, especially those which are attended with great dangers. I shall persist.” -- John Adams, as quoted in Truth in Flames, p. 37.

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