{"id":35459,"date":"2026-07-11T08:00:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T13:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/?p=35459"},"modified":"2026-07-10T17:13:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T22:13:53","slug":"good-book-hunting-july-10-2026-the-corner-coffee-shop-in-houston-missouri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/11\/good-book-hunting-july-10-2026-the-corner-coffee-shop-in-houston-missouri\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Book Hunting, July 10, 2026: The Corner Coffee Shop in Houston, Missouri"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Facebook, I saw that Joshua Chase\/Dodge Merrin was going to have a five-hour-long book signing at a coffee and ice cream shop in Houston, Missouri, home of the <em>Houston Herald<\/em> which I no longer receive because I&#8217;m between contracts.  But being between contracts means I can take off on a Friday morning for a two hour drive to a distant town to get books from an author I haven&#8217;t seen in person in almost a decade.  But I did tell him, probably at LibraryCon 2019, that I would buy his later books when I read the first three (<em><a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/05\/book-report-triumphant-empire-by-joshua-chase-2012\/\" target=\"_new\">Triumphant Empire<\/a><\/em>, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/13\/book-report-revolution-by-joshua-chase-2014\/\" target=\"_new\">Revolution<\/a><\/em>, and <em><a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/21\/book-report-total-war-by-joshua-chase-2016\/\" target=\"_new\">Total War<\/a><\/em>).  I had kinda planned this to be an excursion to yank my youngest away from video games, but he already had plans to go to the waterpark with a friend, so I made the journey alone with my audiocourse on ancient Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>So I met the author again:<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/bsgfx\/brianwithdodgemerrin.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>And I got his four latest books.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/bsgfx\/gbh07102026.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>I got:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Brink of Extinction<\/em>, the fourth book in the series formerly known as &#8220;The S.T.A.R. Chronicles&#8221; but now renamed &#8220;Embers of Hope&#8221; and <em>Embers in the Dark<\/em> which is a collection of short stories in the same series, some prequels.<\/li>\n<li><em>Rising Shadows<\/em>, an urban fantasy book where the cats are the good guys.<\/li>\n<li><em>Quiet Valor<\/em> which an omnibus edition of his two fantasy novels <em>Humble Glory<\/em> and <em>Gentle Fury<\/em>.  It&#8217;s a hardback, and it&#8217;s the first he sold.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Undoubtedly, I will put them in the Nogglestead stacks and lose them for several years.  But I might actually lose them together, so when I rediscover them, I can read them in proper order.  I did tell him about ABC Books, though, and if he has a book signing there sometime, I might see him before another near-decade elapses.  So maybe I should read these first.  But I have started another novel, well, the same novel with a different title by a local author with a newer pseudonym, but I guess I will tell you about that by-and-by.<\/p>\n<p>As to the trip to Houston, I took I-44 to US 38 in Marshfield&#8211;the same route to the <a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/07\/independence-and-other-parades-i-have-known\/\" target=\"_new\">Independence Day parade<\/a>, but then rolled east on 38 through rolling hills and hay fields through Hartville (although north of the <a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/06\/pop-pop-visits-a-renaissance-faire\/\" target=\"_new\">White Hart Renaissance Festival<\/a>) and into Houston which is not quite as big as some of the Springfield suburbs but is not exactly a small town.  On the way home, I rode down US 63 which is a bigger road that runs through Cabool and down to West Plains, although I got onto US 60 (the Stepmother Road according to the current Citizens Bank of Rogersville radio ads I hear whilst cutting the grass).  <\/p>\n<p>So, suddenly, this summer, I have the urge to drive around the area like I did <a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/10\/a-photojournalism-study-of-urban-aurora\/\" target=\"_new\">in 2012<\/a> when I dragged one or more of my then-very-young children on trips to little towns around the area.  I guess I do have time in between all the martial arts classes I&#8217;m taking (or dodging on alternating weeks) until I get a new contract.  I guess that&#8217;s my new plan: Have so much fun this summer that actual income would be a bummer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Facebook, I saw that Joshua Chase\/Dodge Merrin was going to have a five-hour-long book signing at a coffee and ice cream shop in Houston, Missouri, home of the Houston Herald which I no longer receive because I&#8217;m between contracts. But being between contracts means I can take off on a Friday morning for a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3334,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3334"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35459"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35462,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35459\/revisions\/35462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}