Hey, you found me! If you want to learn a bit about me or my writing, you’re in the right place. If you’re looking for my blog about writing and earning a living as a writer,  that’s SurefireWriting.com. While you’re here, feel free to poke around, look under the seat cushions (if you find any change, it’s mine), rummage through some stories, and have as much fun as it’s possible to have on a writer’s homepage.

Oh: Bob or Robert? Robert Earle Howells is my professional byline and the name I was born with. And the guy you can write checks to. Otherwise, I’m a proud Bob.

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New Stuff

We’re All Rechargeable!

Adventure Weekends West is my new app, available through iTunes for the iPhone and iPad. My tagline and theory: “We’re all rechargeable!” And nothing recharges the body and soul like a weekend of outdoor adventuring.

In Adventure Weekends West, I do what I’ve been doing for 30 years—I steer readers to adventures in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Getaways range from a bald eagle–viewing river float to a climb of Mount Olympus . . . from paddling with sea otters in Morro Bay to hiking to a luxury backwoods camp in Sequoia National Monument . . . from treehouse lodges in Oregon and British Columbia to a yurt stay in Big Sur. It’s cool. Check it out.

 

How to Write for Magazines

I’ve put in my 10,000 hours on this subject (a nod to Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers) and have distilled that accrued knowledge in How to Write for Magazines, available through Amazon.com on the Kindle platform. Here’s what reviewer Kelly Scott says about it:

“If you’re really lucky, you land a mentor who is willing to take the time to steer you from classic amateur moves that frustrate, discourage, waste time and set you back. With How To Write For Magazines, Howells becomes that mentor. He shares the two perspectives I most want—the successful freelance magazine writer and the editor at a national publication.

“Howells has the credibility of someone who’s been in the business at a high level (writing and editing for Outside, National Geographic and Smithsonian) long enough to have cultivated old-school smarts in a very competitive marketplace.”