The Cowboy and the Contest:

Teel James Glenn’s Latest Bob Howard Adventure

I was looking for something to read, and checked to see if Teel James Glenn had written anything new in his “Adventures of (Robert E.) Bob Howard” series where  an alternate universe Howard didn’t kill himself and went travelin’. He has written a third one, The Cowboy and the Contest, and it is a novella that is very different from the first two books in the series: A Cowboy in Carpathia , and The Cowboy and the Conqueror. Those two previous books were definitely set in the “new pulp” style of world-threatening adventures by first having Bob Howard fighting Dracula, and then taking on an evil cult trying to bring Lovecraftian horrors in to the world. They were action-fests from practically the first word on. This third story is shorter, quieter, and very enchanting. And, while it has its action scenes, they aren’t of a world-threatening nature, but more “down-to-earth” so-to-speak, (or actually write), within the story’s setting.

This story appears to take place shortly after the first part of A Cowboy in Carpathia, as Howard decides to go visit his ancestral homeland of Ireland while his new girlfriend, Gwen Harker, goes off to Switzerland. He arrives in the village of DunKillie. There, he meets some locals in a pub, and becomes fast friends with Conri and his son Oisin. There is a fair about to happen the next day, and it will involve various contests of physical and artistic events. Conri invites Bob to come, and he accepts. They also have a physical altercation between the village ruffian, Bran and his group.

Afterwards, Conri insists on Bob eating a dinner and staying with them. Bob learns that the coming fair is held by Queen Morgana of the Fae, and that it occurs every few years where she allows the Fae world to open a portal for mortals to crossover and enjoy the “faire” with all of the magical inhabitants of that world. As Bob is figuring he is getting his leg pulled, Conri reveals that he is a Cluricaun, a member of the Leprechaun family, and his son Oisin is a halfling. Bob has his mind explode as he recognizes the tell-tale physical traits of Conri, and then is further gob-smacked when he sees all of the magical creatures in attendance at the faire the next day. He joins in the boxing matches and the poetry match. And of course, the town bully Bran gets his comeuppance during the faire.

My thoughts on the story: I have to say that I really enjoyed this story more than the previous ones. Bob is written like a normal person, but recognizably close to an idealized version of himself. You get to explore his loves of his “Irish Blood”, boxing, and poetry in this tale. It was fast moving, and just darn pleasant to read. I thought Mr. Glenn did a very good job of writing a tale that focused on these big elements of Howard’s personality that were important to him. How the story ends brought a smile to my face as a good highlighting of these things and especially what Howard himself would have loved to have seen happen in his real life. Congrats on that, Mr. Glenn! The boxing matches and hooligan fights are well choreographed and written, as reflects Mr. Glenn’s extensive history being a theatrical fight choreographer.

Now, to the problems with the story: first and foremost, Mr. Glenn *really* needs an editor or proofreader to catch all the grammatical mistakes of leaving words out of, or still in his sentences that plagued the first two books. The first third of the book is great and problem free, and I was beginning to congratulate him on finally getting that fixed. Then these same problems started popping up for the rest of the book. It didn’t take away from my enjoyment, but it would have made the book that much more outstanding not having these problems. Additionally, an editor would probably have caught some of the more interesting things that Mr. Glenn did and asked for an explanation or brought them to his attention to fix. First, Conri’s name keeps changing its spelling from Conri to Cunri throughout the book, even once in the same chapter. I really don’t know if this was due to sloppiness, or if Mr. Glenn was trying to have Conri’s name change depending on whether he was in “our world” or the “Fairy world” to denote his otherness. An editor or proofreader might have helped with this, possibly suggesting an author’s note to point that out. But then again, as his name is just being spoken by others, they may not have noticed the vowel change either in their speech, so why do it?

Secondly, running it by another Howard-fan would have caught Mr. Glenn describing Howard as being “a strapping six-foot-two …”. Howard, in his real-life best physical shape, only reported his height as being from over 5’10” to over 5’11”, in his letters to his fellow physical enthusiast, Harold Preece. I get that this is a fictional alternate universe version of Howard, but keeping Howard at his real-life height would have made his boxing matches even more exciting being a physically less impressive version of himself going against the otherworldly creatures in the boxing ring. An editor also might have caught Mr. Glenn’s slip that Bob couldn’t wait to tell of his adventures in the Fairy world to H.P. Lovecraft, forgetting that in his two previous books, “Howie” Lovecraft is dead. Who knows, maybe in this alternate universe that Mr. Glenn has created, the reports of Lovecraft’s death are greatly exaggerated… On a separate note, I have become inured to Mr. Glenn having Bob refer to Lovecraft as “Howie”. Okay, it’s a different universe’s Bob Howard. I can accept him using “Howie” now. I also noticed that Mr. Glenn corrected his spelling from the previous two books of Howard’s middle name from “Irvin” to the correct “Ervin”. Hey, maybe if the change in the spelling of Conri’s name is based on which world he’s in, then is this another fictional multiverse’s Bob Howard different from the Bob in the first two books? That would allow Howie to still be alive here!

Anyway, I really did enjoy this story, and recommend it to you if you’re at all interested in it from the description. I kind of enjoyed it as Howard’s version of “The Quiet Man”, but without the Maureen O’Hara love interest. It is a fast, enjoyable little read, and I’m even more interested to see what Teel James Glenn comes up with next for Bob Howard. But Mr. Glenn, get an editor or proofreader, please!

John Bullard is a retired attorney who resides in the suburbs of San Antonio. He was the editor of the most recent (and he says final) edition of the collected correspondence of Robert E. Howard.