July 10, 2026 - The Chicago Journal

The Quest That Lets You Choose How It Ends, and Terrence W. Walsh Has Written a Distinctive Work of Fantasy Fiction

The Chicago Journal Staff on July 10, 2026

By: Andrew Vespa

There is a particular kind of storytelling confidence that allows a writer to hand the ending of a story back to the character and say, here, you decide how this goes. Terrence W. Walsh shows that confidence in Prince Adam’s Quest, a playful and witty result of a writer who spent three decades in the U.S. Coast Guard writing mostly nonfiction and then retired to Cape Cod and decided to write the kind of fiction he wanted to read. The result is a book that wears its playfulness openly while giving readers more to consider underneath the surface charm.

The setup is straightforward. Prince Adam sets forth from the kingdom of Leftovria to slay a dragon that has been reported causing destruction, accompanied by Minnow, an apprentice bard whose talent for composing songs on the road turns out to be more useful than anyone, including Minnow, anticipated. The journey takes them across bridges managed by trolls who love tolls with the particular devotion of creatures who have organized their civilization around the concept, and Adam’s ongoing struggle to pay those tolls gives the narrative a grounding comedy that can keep even the more fantastical elements connected to consequence.

What Walsh does with that setup is where the book becomes more layered. The story can work as an allegory, but the instruction does not arrive in the form of a lesson delivered from above. It arrives through the specific texture of Adam’s choices, through the way Minnow’s songs change the atmosphere of every room they enter, and through the three possible endings the book holds open simultaneously until Adam chooses his fate. That structural choice, unusual and carefully handled, gives the book another layer beyond its surface entertainment.

Walsh writes with dry, affectionate wit and a sense of connection between reading, experience, and storytelling. The prose has a rhythm that suggests a storyteller comfortable in his own skin, unhurried and precise and amused by the world he has built. The kingdom of Leftovria feels inhabited rather than merely described, and the supporting characters, particularly the troll king, whose susceptibility to Minnow’s music is one of the book’s recurring threads, have specific personalities that help the fantasy world feel lived in.

Prince Adam’s Quest is the kind of book that can remind readers what inventive and human fantasy can do. It may entertain readers while leaving them thinking about the ending they would have chosen and why, which can become a question worth sitting with longer than expected.

Readers interested in a fantasy quest that hands them the ending and asks them to decide what winning actually means can find Prince Adam’s Quest by Terrence W. Walsh on Amazon. The book gives readers a chance to consider which fate they would choose for Prince Adam, and what that choice might say about them.

Royston G. King on Positive PR as a Foundation for Business Growth

The Chicago Journal Staff on July 10, 2026

Public relations is often misunderstood as something only large corporations need, or as a reactive function that handles problems when they arise. Royston G. King argues that positive PR is in fact a proactive growth foundation that businesses of all sizes can use to build the reputation, credibility, and visibility that growth depends on.

The reframe Royston G. King offers is from PR as crisis management to PR as reputation building. Reactive PR handles problems after they occur. Proactive, positive PR deliberately builds a business’s reputation, visibility, and credibility before any problem arises and as a foundation for growth. This proactive approach, in his framing, is far more valuable, because it creates the positive reputation and visibility that attract opportunities and that provide resilience against any future difficulty. Building this foundation is part of how a business can master scaling its reputation alongside its revenue.

Royston G. King teaches that positive PR involves deliberately shaping how a business is perceived and how visible it is. This includes earning favorable media coverage, building a strong reputation, establishing the business and its leaders as credible authorities, and ensuring that the business’s genuine value and accomplishments are visible to the audiences that matter. Done well, positive PR builds a reputation that actively drives growth.

Royston G. King emphasizes that positive PR works because reputation increasingly determines business outcomes. In a world where prospects, partners, and opportunities all research before they engage, the reputation a business has built largely determines what comes its way. A business with a strong positive reputation attracts opportunities; one with a weak or absent reputation struggles regardless of its actual quality. Positive PR, by building that strong reputation deliberately, creates the conditions for growth.

The foundation of effective positive PR, in the approach Royston G. King teaches, is genuine substance. Positive PR is most powerful and durable when it is built on real accomplishments, genuine value, and authentic stories. PR that amplifies genuine

substance builds a reputation that endures, while PR that attempts to create an impression disconnected from reality is fragile and ultimately counterproductive. Royston G. King emphasizes building PR on the genuine strengths of the business.

Royston G. King also highlights the resilience that positive PR provides. A business that has built a strong positive reputation through proactive PR is far more resilient to any future problem. The strong reputation provides a buffer, and the established credibility provides a foundation for managing any difficulty that arises. Businesses that neglect their reputation until a crisis hits are far more vulnerable, lacking the positive foundation that proactive PR builds. This resilience is one of the most valuable benefits of positive PR.

The integration of positive PR with the broader growth strategy is central to the framing Royston G. King offers. Positive PR is not an isolated function but connects to and amplifies everything else, enhancing the reputation that drives client acquisition, building the credibility that supports premium pricing, and establishing the authority that attracts partnerships and opportunities. Royston G. King treats positive PR as an integrated component of a complete growth strategy rather than a separate concern.

Royston G. King is clear that positive PR is accessible to businesses of all sizes, not just large corporations. Any business can deliberately build its reputation, earn favorable coverage, establish its credibility, and make its genuine value visible. The principles of positive PR apply regardless of size, and businesses that embrace them gain the reputation and credibility advantages that PR provides, regardless of their resources.

For business owners who have viewed PR as something for big companies or as a reactive function, the perspective Royston G. King offers is a reframe toward proactive growth. Positive PR, pursued deliberately and built on genuine substance, creates the reputation, credibility, and visibility that growth depends on, and provides resilience against future difficulty. It is, in his framing, a foundation that every serious business can and should build to support its growth.

About Royston G. King

Royston G. King writes and advises on brand authority, strategic publicity, and reputation management. Learn more about his work at his website. You can also follow his insights on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

Pete Crow-Armstrong Homers Twice as Cubs Power Past Orioles 9-7 at Camden Yards

The Chicago Journal Staff 2 on July 10, 2026

Pete Crow-Armstrong hit two home runs Wednesday night at Camden Yards, driving the Chicago Cubs to a 9-7 victory over the Baltimore Orioles and becoming only the third player in franchise history to post consecutive 20-homer, 20-stolen base seasons. The 23-year-old center fielder’s 20th and 21st home runs of 2026, both coming off Dean Kremer splitters, headlined a five-homer outburst that gave Chicago its 18th win in 24 games and its fourth consecutive road series victory.

Key Takeaways

Pete Crow-Armstrong hit his 20th and 21st home runs of the season, reaching 20 homers and 23 stolen bases before the All-Star break for the second straight year.
Crow-Armstrong joined Sammy Sosa and Ryne Sandberg as the only Cubs in franchise history with multiple 20-20 seasons.
The Cubs hit five home runs — Crow-Armstrong (two), Michael Conforto, Carson Kelly, and Seiya Suzuki — to overcome a two-run deficit and secure the win.
Chicago improved to 52-40 on the season and currently holds the No. 2 NL Wild Card position heading into the All-Star break.
The nine combined home runs between the two teams produced a slugfest that saw the Orioles stage a late rally before falling short.

How Did Crow-Armstrong Make History Wednesday Night?

Crow-Armstrong’s first home run came in the third inning on an 0-2 count against Orioles starter Dean Kremer. The pitch was a splitter that tumbled below the strike zone — the kind of offering that had held opposing hitters to a 2-for-27 clip with only two singles entering the night. Kremer had not surrendered a home run on the pitch since August 23 of the previous season. Crow-Armstrong got his barrel to the ball and launched it over Camden Yards’ tall right-field wall, giving the Cubs a 1-0 lead and pushing his season total to an even 20.

Cubs manager Craig Counsell described the dugout reaction as collective disbelief. Counsell told MLB.com that everyone was “shaking their head in amazement at how he’s able to get to that pitch.” Crow-Armstrong has built a reputation for punishing low pitches, but the degree of difficulty on this particular swing — a chase-zone splitter from a pitcher who had dominated with the offering all season — elevated the at-bat beyond routine power. Crow-Armstrong then connected on a 1-1 splitter in the fifth inning, this one low and away, to give the Cubs a 4-3 lead. The second homer was his 21st of the season and marked his second multi-homer game of 2026.

The 20-homer, 20-steal milestone in his 92nd game gave Crow-Armstrong the two fastest runs to a 20-20 season in Cubs history. The previous mark was 96 games, set by Sosa in 1994 — a record Crow-Armstrong himself broke last year. MLB.com’s Sarah Langs noted that Crow-Armstrong joins Alfonso Soriano (2002-03 and 2006), Jose Canseco (1988 and 1998), and Bobby Bonds (1969, 1973, and 1977) as the only players in MLB history to produce a 20-20 output before their team’s 95th game in multiple seasons. Crow-Armstrong is the first player in the majors to reach 20 homers and 20 steals before the All-Star break in consecutive years since Soriano accomplished the feat with the Yankees in 2002 and 2003.

What Happened in the Rest of the Game?

The Cubs trailed 3-1 after Pete Alonso’s two-run home run — his 20th of the season — put the Orioles ahead in the bottom of the fourth. The deficit lasted exactly two pitches. Michael Conforto led off the fifth inning with a solo homer, and Carson Kelly followed with another solo shot on the very next pitch, tying the game at 3-3. Two batters later, Crow-Armstrong’s second home run put Chicago ahead for good at 4-3. Four solo home runs in a four-batter span against Kremer turned a two-run deficit into a one-run lead. Kremer allowed just six hits across five innings, but four of them left the park.

The Cubs broke the game open in the seventh. Reliever Grant Wolfram entered with two runners on and one out and promptly issued a walk, allowed a sacrifice fly, walked another batter, threw a run-scoring wild pitch, and then surrendered Seiya Suzuki’s three-run home run — his 14th of the season. The five-run inning pushed Chicago’s lead to 9-3.

Baltimore made the final score respectable against the Cubs’ bullpen. Tyler O’Neill hit a pinch-hit solo homer in the seventh, and Taylor Ward added an RBI single to make it 9-5. In the eighth, Coby Mayo launched a 420-foot home run into the second deck in left field, and O’Neill followed with a 433-foot blast to left-center — his second homer of the night. The back-to-back shots cut the deficit to 9-7, but the rally ended there.

Colin Rea earned the win for Chicago, improving to 7-5 after allowing three runs and seven hits across 5 1/3 innings. Kremer took the loss, falling to 1-2. Jackson Holliday had four hits for the Orioles out of the nine-hole, but leadoff hitter Gunnar Henderson went 0-for-5 without hitting the ball out of the infield, grounding into two double plays. In the eighth, Henderson finally hit a sharp line drive up the middle with a runner on second, but shortstop Dansby Swanson made a diving catch to end the inning.

Where Do the Cubs Stand Heading Into the All-Star Break?

The win improved Chicago to 52-40 on the season, good for second place in the NL Central behind the 56-33 Milwaukee Brewers and firmly in control of the No. 2 NL Wild Card position. The Cubs are 18-6 over their last 24 games, a stretch that has transformed their postseason outlook from fringe contender to comfortable playoff positioning.

Crow-Armstrong has been the engine of that surge. His combination of power, speed, and defensive range in center field has made him one of the most complete players in the National League at 23 years old. Counsell framed the center fielder’s trajectory in measured but unmistakable terms: “It’s still a very young career. But he’s doing things that the greats in the game have done.”

The Cubs will go for the three-game sweep Thursday night, sending David Peterson (4-7) to the mound against Baltimore’s Trevor Rogers (6-7). The All-Star Game is scheduled for July 14 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, and Crow-Armstrong’s 20-20 pace — along with the highlight-reel nature of his at-bats — has positioned him as one of the more compelling candidates for the NL roster.

FAQs

How many home runs does Pete Crow-Armstrong have in 2026?

Pete Crow-Armstrong has 21 home runs through the Cubs’ first 92 games of the 2026 season. He also has 23 stolen bases, making him the first player in the majors since Alfonso Soriano in 2002-03 to reach 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases before the All-Star break in consecutive years.

Who are the only Cubs with multiple 20-20 seasons?

Pete Crow-Armstrong joined Sammy Sosa (1993-95) and Ryne Sandberg (1990-91) as the only players in Cubs franchise history to achieve a 20-homer, 20-stolen base season in multiple years. Crow-Armstrong reached the milestone in his 92nd game of 2026, the fastest in franchise history.

What is the Cubs’ record in 2026?

The Cubs are 52-40 as of July 9, 2026, placing them second in the NL Central behind the Milwaukee Brewers and currently holding the No. 2 NL Wild Card spot. Chicago has won 18 of its last 24 games and four consecutive road series.

Who else homered in the Cubs-Orioles game?

The Cubs hit five total home runs: Crow-Armstrong (two), Michael Conforto, Carson Kelly, and Seiya Suzuki (three-run shot). The Orioles hit four: Pete Alonso (two-run), Tyler O’Neill (two solo shots), and Coby Mayo (solo). The nine combined home runs made for one of the season’s highest-scoring power displays.

When is the 2026 MLB All-Star Game?

The 2026 MLB All-Star Game is scheduled for July 14 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Crow-Armstrong’s 20-20 pace, highlight-caliber swings, and role in the Cubs’ surge have put him in the conversation for the NL roster.

Pete Crow-Armstrong swinging at splitters below the zone and hitting them 400 feet is not a fluke — it is what happens when a 23-year-old with elite bat speed and a growing understanding of the strike zone starts translating tools into production at a historic rate.