• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Holo Writing

Authors Jacob & H.P. Holo

  • Home
  • Books
    • Gordian Division
    • Monster Punk Horizon
    • Seraphim Revival
    • Monster Girl Tamer
    • Freelancers of Neptune
  • Audiobooks
  • About
  • Blog
  • Shop
  • Contact
  • Appearances
  • Free Book

holojacob

The Thermopylae Protocol (Gordian Division #6) is up for Pre-Order!

February 24, 2024 by holojacob Leave a Comment

It’s amazing to think we’re already on Book 6 of the Gordian Division series, but here we are. 😮

The Thermopylae Protocol marks an interesting departure for the series.

David and I wrote previous books to fit within their own separate branches, with the “Protocol” branch leaning toward alternate history and hard sci-fi with the risk of exploding universes, and the “File” branch being sci-fi police procedurals with lower-stakes but still thrilling adventures.

This novel starts with an exploding spaceship, which is fun for readers 😃 … but not so much for the Gordian Division, when it finds the wreckage is inexplicably 40 years older than it should be – not to mention carrying advanced self-replicating machines that, in the wrong hands, could be put to multiverse-destroying ends. 😨

Gordian Division’s no stranger to multiverse-threatening challenges, but time is of the essence, and when you’ve got a multiverse-spanning time-travel mystery, who better to call than a pair of time cops from two different universes? šŸ˜‰

They’ll all have to work together to get to the bottom of this, and fast, because if they don’t, the fate of multiple universes could be at stake. (Again.)

Releases June 4th, 2024. Pre-Order HERE!

Filed Under: Holo Books Tagged With: baen books, David Weber, gordian division, Jacob Holo, multiverse, Police Procedural, The Thermopylae Protocol, time travel

The Janus File is out today! (Also, join us for a Virtual Launch Party!)

October 4, 2022 by holojacob

Hello, everyone! It’s been two years since my last Gordian Division book with David Weber released, so I’m very excited to say that the Book 3, The Janus File, is here – and shows an entirely different part of the Gordian multiverse.

BUY NOW

THE JANUS FILE

(Gordian Division #3)

by David Weber and Jacob Holo

• • •

NOTHING IS SIMPLE—NOT EVEN TIME ITSELF

The fates of universes aren’t the only things time travel can impact. Sometimes the effect is a lot more mundane and closer to home. And when that happens, it’s up to the cops of Themis Division to make time turn out right.

It was supposed to be a routine trip for the members of the Gordian Division, both human and AI: fly out to Saturn, inspect the construction of their latest time machines, then fly back.

But when the division’s top scientist and chief engineer are killed in the same freak accident, suspicions of foul play run deep. Detective Isaac Cho is sent in to investigate, but he has more on his mind than just a new case. His superiors have saddled him with an exchange officer from the neighboring Admin—Special Agent Susan Cantrell—whose notion of proper ā€œlaw enforcementā€ involves blowing up criminals first and skipping questions entirely.

Despite his objections, Cho is stuck with an untested partner on a case that increasingly reeks of murder and conspiracy. The unlikely pair must work together to unravel this mystery, and soon they discover their unique combination of skills might just provide the edge they need.

But nothing is ever simple where the Gordian Division is involved.

Not even time itself.

BUY NOW

Why the jump from time travel alternate history to sci-fi police procedural?

Well, that’s something David and I will be covering in more depth at The Janus File‘s Virtual Launch Party this Saturday @ 8pm EST! Join us on YouTube and Facebook to hear about what went into the writing of our newest book … and maybe win some signed copies of The Janus File along the way! šŸ˜„

The Janus File Virtual Launch Party
Join us on YouTube!
Join us on Facebook!

Filed Under: Holo Books Tagged With: David Weber, gordian division, Jacob Holo, multiverse, Mystery, Police Procedural, Sci Fi, Sci Fi Mystery, Science Fiction, The Janus File

Wraithkin – Book Review

July 30, 2022 by holojacob Leave a Comment

Now that I’ve reached a little slow point in my writing schedule, I’ve been able to use that time to read a little more.

One of my most recent reads was Wraithkin, a military sci-fi novel by Jason Cordova and the first book in his ongoing Kin Wars Saga. The book starts out on the slow side, but the action and drama both ramp up steadily before ending in a satisfying bang.

Well, numerous bangs, because this is mil sci-fi after all.

Wraithkin Book Cover

One of the things Cordova gets right is how much misfortune he heaps onto his main character, Gabriel Espinoza. Gabriel (who is given the hilarious nickname of ā€œOmeletā€ during what is essentially space trooper boot camp) is the kind of person the universe will kick in the groin when he least expects it, and then kick him again while he’s down just for the chuckles. Repeatedly. Seriously, the poor guy is put through more than enough to break lesser men. But he’s someone who can take it, who will rise to face any challenge head on no matter how daunting or demoralizing, and that makes him a great character to follow and root for.

When interstellar war hits close to home, Gabriel enlists to join the Wraiths, an elite group of power-armored soldiers who do not mess around! That much is made clear when one Wraith recruit mouths off to their drill sergeant, and the sergeant kills the cadet by breaking his neck! Yikes! And then, because Gabriel is the misery magnet that he is, he’s given the task of carting the trash (a.k.a. the body of his fellow recruit) to the incinerator.

The novel does have a few rough edges. There’s the previously mentioned slow buildup at the beginning, and a few uneven patches in the prose. Wraithkin is one of Cordova’s earlier works, and I think it shows here and there, but that said, his strong instincts as a storyteller shine through the minor bumps in the novel’s execution, successfully pulling me into the story and investing me in Gabriel’s fate.

Speaking of which, Gabriel gets knocked down, both physically and emotionally, and the good guys don’t always win. Don’t go into this novel expecting sunshine and rainbows at the end of the road, but if you like your military sci-fi grim, gritty, and intense, then I think you’ll enjoy your time with Wraithkin. I did.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Book Review, book reviews, Jason Cordova, military sci fi, Military Science Fiction, The Kin Wars Saga, Wraithkin

Time Troopers is out today!

April 5, 2022 by holojacob Leave a Comment

Time Troopers Cropped

Today’s the day! āŒ› If you’re a fan of time travel stories both classic and new,Ā Baen BooksĀ has an anthology for you –Ā Time Troopers, edited by Hank Davis and Christopher Ruocchio.Ā 

My entry,Ā “Doctor Quiet,”Ā provides an action-packed first look at some new characters you’ll meet in the upcomingĀ The Janus File, but it sits alongside stories from such classic names asĀ Robert Heinlein,Ā H. Beam Piper, and many more.

Publishers WeeklyĀ has already had good things to say about it –Ā “Fans of literate speculative fiction will hope for more from these experts”Ā – and we hope you’ll enjoy it just as much. šŸ˜„

BUY NOW
Time Troopers Book Cover

Time Troopers

Anthology Edited by Hank Davis and Christopher Ruocchio

• • •

NEW AND CLASSIC STORIES OF TIME TRAVEL MILITARY SF

BATTLEZONE: ETERNITY

Once, military actions were entirely two dimensional, confined to the surface of land and sea, but then submarines and aircraft added a third dimension, vastly extended by spaceflight.

Now, consider that if time travel is possible, the fourth dimension of time opens up new possibilities for combat, necessitating new defenses, new strategies and tactics. A battle that was once decisively won might be refought, or a narrow victory might be subtly tilted to the other side.

Never mind the history books, they’re only works in progress.

There might be even more than four dimensions involved, if parallel universes and alternate realities exist and can be accessed.

Imagine a universe where Rome never fell and its troops want to do something about our universe, where it did fall. Or another where more recent wars turned out very differently. Battle is a recurrent motif in the Earth of this universe, and would alternate realities be different or all too similar, with the tune the same, but different lyrics?

Supplying the lyrics for spacetime combat in these pages is an all-star general staff including Robert Silverberg, Poul Anderson, Fritz Leiber, John C. Wright, H. Beam Piper and more.

It’s zero hour, in whatever time stream, so grab your time-appropriate weapon, be it sword or ray blaster, buckle on your general issue timeporter belt, and follow the Time Troopers into action across strange aeons!

BUY NOW

Filed Under: Holo Books Tagged With: Anthologies, anthology, Baen, baen books, Christopher Ruocchio, Fritz Leiber, Gene Wolfe, H. Beam Piper, Hank Davis, Jacob Holo, John C. Wright, Poul Anderson, robert silverberg, Sarah A. Hoyt, Sci Fi, Science Fiction, time machine, time machines, time travel, time travelers, Time Troopers

Tales of Arise – Video Game Review

February 13, 2022 by holojacob Leave a Comment

When I’m not writing, I’m usually playing video games, and my main game of the month has beenĀ Tales of Arise.

Tales of Arise Art

This is actually my second play-through (and my first experience with theĀ TalesĀ franchise in general).Ā Initially, I wasn’t the biggest fan ofĀ Tales‘ combat system, but the good news is each character has a distinct playstyle, so by switching from the melee-focused protagonist (Alphen) to range-focused characters (Shionne and Rinwell), I was able to enjoy theĀ gameĀ a whole lot more.

That said, the screen can become very chaotic at times, and one of Rinwell’s mechanics doesn’t help here. Since she can steal and then cast enemy spells, I often lost track of which spell animation was safe for my characters and which was a damage-dealing death zone. That and the charging enemies led to a lot of frustration. The window to utilize Kisara’s boost ability (to end charges and reduce future charge damage) is significantly smaller than those of other characters, leading to a lot of times where a charge would begin off screen and end with the enemy barreling through my characters for big damage.

In terms of story-telling and worldbuilding, I found theĀ gameĀ a bit . . . hit or miss, but the main cast of characters is fun and likable, and some of the big reveals are very memorable. I guess the worldbuilding just didn’t click with me from the start for some reason. Maybe it’s because the locations and villains all felt very one-note to me. Also, the music is epic. So epic it began to wear on me. I think you could use the music in the tutorial area for “final dungeon” music in a differentĀ game.Ā (From H.P. – This music is bomb and I will listen to it forever.)Ā 

But these are all minor gripes for what is – at its core – an excellent and meatyĀ gamingĀ experience. In many ways,Ā Tales of AriseĀ felt similar toĀ Final Fantasy 7 Remake, except I enjoyedĀ TalesĀ significantly more.

From H.P. – I haven’t played Tales of Arise yet, but I’m going to solely because there’s a series of subquests in which you collect a bunch of owls, and I’ve been hearing their distinctly-voiced hoots enough that I need to collect them for myself. Forget the rest of the story.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Review, Tales, Tales of Arise, Video Game, Video Game Review, Video Game Reviews, Video Games

Adventures in Co-Authoring with a Sci-Fi Legend: Origins – Act III: Collaborations

February 6, 2022 by holojacob Leave a Comment

The Gordian Protocol Book Cover
The Gordian Protocol, my first collaboration with David.

Catch up on Act II here!

Act III: Collaborations

Naturally, being an author (a nobody indie author, but an author nonetheless), the concept of writing a novel with David Weber had crossed my mind. David is, after all, not only a prolific author, but a prolific collaborator as well.

I had given David some of my books at that first lunch, more out of courtesy than anything else, fully expecting them not to ever be read.

But he did read them.

Between those reads and our general discussions about writing, sci-fi, and science in general, David must have been impressed by something—because one day he asked me if I’d like to write a short story in an upcoming anthology set in one of his universes.

Ultimately, that anthology never came to fruition, but I still wrote the story, and in the process worked closely with David on both the details of the setting and how to improve my own writing. It was a very short piece, but David is an author who gets into granular detail both in the content and the execution, and the lessons about craft that I learned from this short piece and short interaction alone were priceless.

But, in retrospect, the experience also showed David what I was like to work with on a writing project, which ended up being more relevant than I ever expected.

As mentioned before, the first thing you learn about David when you meet him is that he’s intensely personable—he loves to talk and interact with people, whether they’re fans or not, and he likes to pay his tremendous success forward when he can. One way he does this is to find promising new authors to take under his wing—to teach them the intricacies of the writing craft that one can only get from someone who’s been writing for over thirty years. Part of the reason for this is practical—it brings new blood into sci-fi publishing and gives those authors a valuable chance to refine their skills—but most of the reason is that David enjoys doing it. Moreover, he enjoys playing to his co-authors’ strengths, too; he chooses co-authors who bring something to the project that he can’t (or at the very least, is less qualified than the co-author to do).

I occasionally see it said that David’s just slapping his name on new authors’ work to help it sell, and while that’s definitely true for some authors, it couldn’t be further from the truth for David. For new authors, writing with David is akin to an apprenticeship, and David’s fingerprints are all over those books whether it’s obvious or not.

All this to say, when David worked with me on that one short story, whether either of us were conscious of it at the time or not, certain mental seeds had been planted.

These seeds would not come to fruition until 2016. Around that time, I’d submitted a manuscript to Baen Books (the same one I’d been working on back when H.P. was recovering from cancer). It had been well-received, but was rejected with a list of fixes that would make it more appealing upon re-submission.

One night, all four of us went out for H.P.’s birthday, and I asked David if he’d mind reading my manuscript and providing more detailed feedback than what I’d received from the publisher.

David considered the idea … but then his eyes gleamed with what I could only think of at the time as gleeful mischief.

That’s when he hit me with it: ā€œWhy don’t we write a book together?ā€

I skipped dessert that night, in part because I was so excited I thought I might throw up.

David also had a specific story in mind for our collaboration. You see, fairly early in his writing career, David had submitted ten series proposals to Baen Books. Among these was Honor Harrington—the one Jim Baen selected—but down the list was an alternate history time travel story with a heavy amount of moral complexity. As time went on, other books and series took precedent, but that concept still lurked in the back of his mind, waiting for just the right circumstances.

Never mind that I once promised myself I’d never—ever—write a time travel novel. Good time travel is hard to write, and there’s endless potential for messiness and inadvertent plot holes.

But when David Weber asked me to design multiple 30th century societies along with their time travel tech, I decided to … reevaluate my earlier ā€œpromiseā€ to myself.

The concept that eventually became The Gordian Protocol appealed to David as a collaboration because he’d wanted the novel to be not only alternate history, but for the worldbuilding to have a distinct feel from his other series. David could—and did—handle the historical elements effortlessly. The engineering challenges of the setting, he left almost entirely in my court.

And speaking of history, the rest is history. The Gordian Protocol came out in 2019, and its sequel, The Valkyrie Protocol, followed in 2020. And we have an exciting future planned for the series, including another four books under contract (three collaborations and one solo novel from yours truly).

The Janus File (coming later this year from Baen Books) takes the Gordian multiverse in a less … universe-exploding direction. (David decided that I’d blown up too many universes over the first two books and recommended we tone it down a bit.) Instead, we start off with a good, old fashioned murder mystery.

It was supposed to be a routine trip for the Gordian Division. Fly out to Saturn, inspect the construction of their latest time machines, then fly back.

But when the division’s top scientist and chief engineer are killed in the same freak accident, suspicions of foul play run deep. Detective Isaac Cho is sent in to investigate, but he has more on his mind than just a new case. His superiors have saddled him with an exchange officer from the neighboring Admin—Special Agent Susan Cantrell—whose notion of proper ā€œlaw enforcementā€ involves blowing up criminals first and skipping questions entirely.

Despite his objections, he’s stuck with an untested partner on a case that increasingly reeks of murder and conspiracy. The unlikely pair must work together to unravel this mystery, and soon they discover their unique combination of skills might just provide the edge they need.

But nothing is ever simple where the Gordian Division is involved.

Not even time itself.

Tweet

The exact release date is still TBA, but until then, you can enjoy the cover art, which has already been produced by the amazing Kurt Miller.

The Janus File Cover Art by Kurt Miller
The Janus File cover art by Kurt Miller.

All this to say, I never expected a chance encounter at a small convention book signing to have such wild and exciting results—and I’m looking forward to what the future holds.

I’m also enormously grateful to David himself for taking a chance on a little no-name indie author. And I’d also be remiss if I didn’t say: I’m truly thankful to my lovely wife, for brightening my life in so many ways.

Even if I still don’t understand the whole cabin fever thing.

Filed Under: Adventures Tagged With: baen books, David Weber, Jacob Holo, Kurt Miller, Science Fiction, The Gordian Protocol, The Janus File, The Valkyrie Protocol, time travel

Adventures in Co-Authoring with a Sci-Fi Legend: Origins – Act II: Monster Con

February 6, 2022 by holojacob Leave a Comment

Jacob's Well-Loved Copy of In Death Ground
My well-loved copy of In Death Ground.

Catch up on Act I here!

Act II: Monster Con

We arrived early to David’s signing, hoping to not only get my copy of In Death Ground signed, but also to whisk H.P. back home to safety and comfort.

This plan, as with many plans before it, did not survive contact with the enemy.

David had not yet arrived, but his signing was being hosted at a table run by The Royal Manticoran Navy—a fan club for his Honor Harrington series—and so, naturally, there were other David Weber fans hanging out, many in full military cosplay from the Honor Harrington universe. We began to chat about David’s books and the club itself, little knowing that many of the people we chatted with would become close friends to this day.

(Fun Fact from H.P.: It turns out that one of those impending friends was the person who suggested that Monster Con invite David in the first place, and he runs the shop that has since become the top supplier for my mild Funko Pop addiction. Which is to say, Jacob also owes this twist in his writing career to Richard at Richard’s Comics and Collectables, so be sure to swing by his shop and buy everything.)

The conversation soon swung over to books and my own aspirations as an indie author.

At which point, a member of the TRMN said, ā€œOh, you should talk to David’s wife.ā€

I was not keen on this at all. What business did we have disturbing David Weber’s wife?

That’s when they decided to drag us over to her table.

Surely enough, Sharon Rice-Weber had been hanging out there the whole time, chatting with the TRMN like they were close family.

I expected to say a quick hello and then leave, but one thing you quickly learn about the Webers is they love people, and they love talking with people.

We ended up chatting with Sharon for over an hour, well past the start of the signing, and nearly to its end. We chatted about writing, about the publishing industry, about the fan club, about recent surgeries—both Sharon and H.P. could sympathize on that one—and when it came time for us to finally break away to have my book signed …

Sharon invited us to lunch with David.

So … we set up a lunch.

Again, H.P. and I expected maybe an hour-long meal and chat in which David politely tolerated this weird, awkward fan’s questions.

We ended up talking for four hours.

Which proved not to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, because David and Sharon asked us out to lunch a second time. And a third. And a fourth. And so on.

At some point, we ended up popping over to the Webers’ house for David’s homemade spaghetti.

And now I can say that I have eaten spaghetti cooked by my favorite author, in that author’s house.

Never in my wildest dreams did I expect my wife’s short (but very frightening) bout with cancer to end there.

And, strangely enough, it didn’t.

Continue to Act III here!

My signed copy of In Death Ground.

Filed Under: Adventures Tagged With: Cancer, Collaboration, Collaborations, David Weber, Honor Harrington, In Death Ground, Jacob Holo, Monster Con, Science Fiction, Sharon Rice-Weber, The Royal Manticoran Navy, TRMN

Adventures in Co-Authoring with a Sci-Fi Legend: Origins – Act I: Cancer

February 6, 2022 by holojacob Leave a Comment

Signing preorders of The Gordian Protocol! Photo by Angi Clayton.

I’ve been writing with David Weber for six years—first on The Gordian Protocol, then The Valkyrie Protocol, and now on three more novels set within the same multiverse, the first of which will come out later this year.

Even after this long, the notion of writing with David Weber maintains a certain … surrealness in my mind.

David Weber is one of the authors who inspired me to write in the first place, and how many people get the privilege of writing with those who inspired them? There are still times when that aspect of my author journey doesn’t feel entirely real.

So here it is, the tale of how nobody indie author Jacob Holo went from that … to being ā€œthe other guyā€ on books with David Weber’s name on them.

Act I: Cancer

The story starts with cancer.

And, as my wife is fond of saying, ā€œI do not recommend starting here.ā€

In the summer of 2014, we found a suspicious dark spot on H.P.’s leg. That spot ended up being a melanoma—the most aggressive form of skin cancer. Luckily for us, we caught it early enough that the dermatologist thought she might have caught all of it in the first visit. But with cancers this aggressive, it’s best to be sure, so H.P. went in to have the skin around the cancer excised and a lymph node biopsy performed to check for any signs of metastasis.

The good news is the operation was completely successful, and H.P. hasn’t had a recurrence since.

The week of waiting between the excision and biopsy results was miserable. For more than the obvious reasons. You see, of all the things H.P. likes to do, staying indoors in one place is not one of them.

For context, H.P. gets stir crazy on rainy days. I’ve been married to her for over a decade, and I still don’t understand this. She once went out to mow the grass during a tornado warning, with the reasoning, ā€œThe tornado’s not here yet, and I still have half an hour left on my audiobook.ā€

The excised patch on her leg wasn’t too bad, but the doctors had to cut through muscles to reach the lymph nodes, so she was basically recovering from a hernia that week. Walking was a chore at best, painful at worst, and required my help either way, which meant she was stuck on our couch with nothing but painkillers and me to keep her entertained.

Which, by the end of her prescribed recovery week, meant she was ready to go literally anywhere, as long as it wasn’t our house.

And by ā€œgo,ā€ I mean hobble. Slowly. With lots of grunts. I wasn’t inclined to take her anywhere, but H.P. is stubborn, especially where cabin fever is concerned. And she isn’t opposed to playing dirty in order to convince me to go somewhere or do something (which is how we ended up with our beloved cat Nova, but that is a whole other story).

H.P. handles the scheduling for all our con appearances, which means she has a general working knowledge of all the conventions in our area. This meant she knew about a little event—the now-defunct Monster Con—that was happening close to our home that very weekend.

She casually mentioned this con the day before … while at that very moment holding onto me for support during a walk around the living room.

Naturally, I tried to convince her otherwise.

That’s when H.P. began to form her plan of attack.

She went to Monster Con’s website and brought up the list of guests, hoping she’d land on one that would change my mind.

She landed on David Weber.

I wavered—but again, considering her difficulty walking, I stressed her need to focus on recovering.

That was when H.P. put on a truly serious face and said:

ā€œJacob. You told me three weeks ago that David Weber was one of your favorite authors of all time. One of the authors who inspired the manuscript you’re writing right now. And your copy of In Death Ground is so well read we keep it in the cabinet to protect it from falling apart! WE ARE GOING TO GET THAT BOOK SIGNED!ā€

So … we went.

Continue to Act II here!

Filed Under: Adventures Tagged With: Book Signing, Cabin Fever, Cancer, Collaborations, Conventions, David Weber, In Death Ground, Jacob Holo, Melanoma, Monster Con, Stir Crazy

Adventures in Heart Health and Diets – The Sequel

May 24, 2020 by holojacob Leave a Comment

Well, readers, it’s been a little over a year since chest pains sent me to the doctor on my 40th birthday. 😐 You can read all about that fun adventure here, but given that a recent cardiologist visit gave me some good news, I figured it was time for an update.

The good news? I no longer need to see him for heart issues! šŸ˜„

Gif by @nerdbugs.

While it’s possible that there’s still a blockage, my intense adherence to my heart-healthy diet, combined with regular exercise and my prescribed meds, reduced the issue so much that it’s no longer significantly detectable. He still kept me on some of my assigned medications due to my age and family health history, but even so—it’s a real relief to find that my heart trouble was more lifestyle-based than medically-based. A lifestyle, after all, can be changed easily. A physical heart problem is more of a challenge.

All that said, though I’m going to allow myself some occasional splurges—which will be so nice after a year of no splurges—I still plan to stick to some version of this diet. Heart improvements aside, I’ve felt a lot better while on it and have even seen some wholly unintended perks like clearer skin!

I have to give credit again to H.P. for helping me stick to it. Her fascination with all things food—and finding tasty ways to emulate the yumminess of high-fat, high-cholesterol foods—has been instrumental in keeping me satisfied enough to keep up with it.

On that note, here are some other tasty, diet-friendly foods we’ve discovered over the past year, for any of you readers who are also aiming for low-fat, low-cholesterol diets:

Everything MorningStar Farms – Since cholesterol is found only in animal products, it logically followed that switching to a mostly-vegetarian/vegan diet was the way to go. The challenge with vegan diets, though, is that a lot of vegan meat substitutes are nasty, or at least off enough in texture to make them unpalatable. Enter MorningStar Farms. While we’ve tried a few products we were indifferent to (The pizza rolls didn’t taste pizza-y enough), most everything we’ve tried tastes exactly like the non-vegan equivalent. It’s insane. And delicious. The corn dogs, chicken nuggets, and various veggie burgers are regulars in our freezer.

A note about eating out on vegan diets: One thing we learned early on in this adventure is that, while a vegan diet generally suits our purposes, vegan dishes can be designed for one of two types of people: 1) those who eat vegan for ethical reasons, and 2) those who eat vegan for health reasons. And most non-vegan-specific restaurants make their vegan dishes for ethical vegans. Which is to say, while they use healthy plant matter, they also use high-fat ingredients like coconut oil to give the dish flavor—and coconut oil is one of the fattiest oils out there. That said, even when eating vegan dishes at restaurants, I still had to double-check the ingredients to make sure they fit on my diet.

Vegetable Stock – One of H.P.’s best discoveries was the flavor vegetable stock can impart to even simple food, like rice. For many dishes, she’d previously just used water since the flavorful (i.e. fatty) items would counterbalance the blandness, but once I switched to this diet, we found that veggie stock contributes a surprising lot of flavor! Now we always make sure to have some on hand. (H.P.’s brand of choice is Swanson, but honestly she’ll buy anything that’s on sale.)

Spice Blends – One afternoon H.P. got bored and wandered into the local Spice and Tea Exchange, and it was life-changing (so she says). It doesn’t take much of a good spice blend to make a boring vegetable delicious, and after some impulse buys of the most interesting-smelling blends, H.P. discovered a whole new range of dishes to make. The Tuscany spice blend is our favorite, but Vik’s Garlic Fix, the Smoked BBQ Rub, and Onion Obsession blends are close seconds. Also worth noting is the Popcorn Seasoning. We didn’t even eat that much popcorn before, but H.P. tried a sample in store (this was in The Before Times), and now we keep a stock of Skinny Girl popcorn at the house solely for this seasoning.

Skinny Cow Vanilla and Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches – These are on the higher end of the amount of fat I’m comfortable eating, but they’re also a yummy treat for my sweet tooth.

Tostitos Baked Scoops – Tortilla chips and salsa was one of my favorite snacks before this diet, but most tortilla chips were no-goes because to the amount of fat content. Fortunately these Scoops (and really, most of Lay’s Baked line) fit comfortably within my diet.

Hello Fresh – This doesn’t apply to all their offerings, of course, but I thought it worth a mention. H.P. signed up on a whim when the pandemic started and we were trying to limit our going-out. We’d only intended to stick with it a short amount of time, but the longer we’re on it, the more we enjoy it! There’s such a variety of meal options each week that it’s surprisingly easy to find meals that are on my diet (or that H.P. can easily make for my diet by switching out a few ingredients), and we haven’t had a single bad meal yet. In fact, since each delivery comes with recipe/ingredient cards, H.P. has started working her own variations into regular rotation!

Fellow heart-healthy dieters, what are your favorite diet foods? šŸ˜€

Filed Under: Adventures Tagged With: diet, dieting, heart disease, heart health, heart healthy diet

Adventures in Heart Health and Diets

May 16, 2019 by holojacob 2 Comments

background-balloons-birthday-1415557
Well, H.P. and I expected this spring to be an exciting one, what with the release of The Gordian Protocol. What we didn’t expect was excitement in the form of spending my 40th birthday at the doctor with chest pains.
Heart disease runs in my family (as it does in so many)—it’s one of the reasons why I’m attentive to working out and eating healthy—and given that my own medical history involves a regurgitant mitral valve, we’d feared this was a harbinger of heart surgery to come.
Fortunately, after a few weeks of cardiologist appointments and uncomfortable waiting periods, we learned that while I do have a minor blockage, it’s not severe enough to merit immediate surgery, and the effects can be thwarted by a cocktail of medications and a change to a diet that emphasizes low-fat and low-cholesterol foods.
Happy Birthday to me! 😐
On the bright side, H.P. is getting a kick out of the culinary challenge. I’m lucky that I have a wife who not only loves to cook but looks an unappetizing diet in the face and says ā€œI bet you this wind chime that I can make it work.ā€ (She’s really into this one fancy, expensive, tuned wind chime. I don’t get it either.)
The single most unnerving part of the whole experience was that, despite my dedication to my health and diet, the blockage had still grown large enough for me to feel its effects, and so comparatively early in my life at that. For me, this was a wake-up call, so being the engineer that I am, I decided to research potential diets and go all in.
I know I’m bound to have readers who are going through something similar, so I wanted to share my findings and experience here in the hopes that some of you will benefit from it, too.
By far the most intriguing information that I found was that from cardiologist Dr. Dean Ornish, who has published a variety of books on both preventing and reversing heart disease through diet and lifestyle changes. When I read that some heart patients who followed his Reversal diet improved so much they voluntarily took themselves off the heart transplant list (and then researched that claim a little more because really), it didn’t take long for me to go ā€œSign me up!ā€
ornishprogramThe book H.P. and I first went by was Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease which, among a host of exercise and lifestyle recommendations, lays out what is essentially a vegetarian diet with some additional restrictions, mainly against high-fat plant matter like nuts, avocados, and oils. Non-fat and low-cholesterol animal products like milk, yogurt, and egg whites are allowed, too. Given that cholesterol is found exclusively in animal products, the vegetarian-leaning diet didn’t come as a surprise, but I was definitely surprised that fish—generally regarded as a healthy meat—was excluded. This meant I couldn’t have sushi, which is basically a food group at House Holo. 😢
But I was determined to see this through.
Fortunately, the wide availability of heart-healthy foods on the market made it fairly easy to find foods that fit my new diet. There’s a trade-off, of course—nearly every low-fat version of a food compensates with increased sodium—but though I missed sushi, I discovered a whole new love for beans, pasta, berry medleys, and Greek yogurt.
And when I went for a checkup after a month on the diet, I found that my cholesterol had absolutely cratered. It was the lowest it had been in my entire adult life! Some of that can be attributed to my cholesterol medicine, of course, but it was also a sure sign that the diet was working.
There was another trade-off, though. A few weeks into the diet, my body began to feel the effects of such a dramatic dietary change, manifesting in the form of awful, persistent nausea. It was then that I thought it wise to take a step back from that extreme, to allow my body time to adjust.
ornishspectrumeverydaycookingThus I picked up Ornish’s The Spectrum and Everyday Cooking with Dr. Dean Ornish. These focus more on his Prevention diet, which is less extreme and allows for a moderate amount of meat and fat. I’m still being cautious about the amount I eat, but now that I’ve put fish back on the menu (mostly in the form of sushi and canned tuna), I’ve begun to feel a lot better and think I’m on my way to figuring out a diet that’s more sustainable in the long run.
I’ll probably go back to the Reversal diet once my body has adjusted to the Prevention diet, but until then, here are some of the tastier low-fat, low-cholesterol foods H.P. and I have discovered.
Post Great Grains Cereal – H.P. and I weren’t big cereal eaters before this, but these cereals quickly became a new staple. They include nuts, so they’re a no-go on the Reversal diet, but they make a delicious breakfast/snack/dessert on the Prevention diet.
Daiya Cheddar- and Mozzarella-style Cheese Shreds – We’ve had some some disturbing experiences with vegan substitutes before (vegan sausage—NEVER AGAIN), but were pleased to find that this plant-based cheese substitute tastes convincingly like actual cheese! It’s on the higher end of the fat limits we’re trying to pursue, but it’s still excellent for satisfying cheese cravings.
Lightlife Black Bean Burgers – We loved burgers prior to this diet, too, and though this is too clearly bean-based to be anything like a good ol’ beef burger, it’s super tasty on its own merits. Franklin Farms’ Portabella Burger is a nice burger substitute, too, if you like mushrooms.
Skinny Girl Salad Dressings – Finding a suitable salad dressing was one of the hardest challenges of this diet because we eat salads all the time, and even the healthiest common-brand dressings are loaded with oils. These dressings, then, were a godsend because they’re the only ones at our local grocery store that are low enough in fat to satisfy our dietary requirements. (As an added bonus, they’re also sugar free!)
Yasso Chocolate Fudge Greek Yogurt Bars – We have to be careful with this brand because, though it’s generally healthier than other frozen dessert brands, some of its treats are higher in fat than we’d like. This particular bar, though, checks all our boxes while also allowing me to get a chocolate fix (something I can’t get with my beloved Ghirardelli chocolate bars because of the fat content šŸ˜”).
Oikos Triple Zero Greek Yogurt – I’d known about this from before my diet because H.P. practically drinks it, but once I started watching my fats, I found that it made for a nice healthy dessert, with a variety of flavors to keep it from getting boring. A lot of heart-healthy recipes also substitute mayonnaise with yogurt, so we keep a large container of the plain flavorless version for cooking, too.
Readers, what are your favorite heart-healthy foods?
***
Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.

Filed Under: Adventures Tagged With: dieting, Dr. Dean Ornish, happy birthday, heart disease, heart health, low-cholesterol, low-fat, vegan, vegetarian

A Funny Story About Writing The Gordian Protocol

May 10, 2019 by holojacob Leave a Comment

The Gordian Protocol Cover
*Originally posted 3/6/19 on the Weber Forums.
PLEASE NOTE: This post will contain a few vague references to parts of The Gordian Protocol‘s plot and characters. I’ll do my best to keep from spoiling anything, but those who wish to experience the novel without any spoilers of any kind should avoid this post in its entirety.
Though, honestly, if you’re reading this, are you really trying your best to avoid spoilers? šŸ™‚
Now, onto the story.
It’s spring of 2017, I’m deep into writing my scenes for The Gordian Protocol, and I come across a…problem. Not a big problem, mind you, but more of a “Hmm, how best to handle this?” kind of situation. I was quickly approaching a scene where I needed to get a key character onto the protagonists’ time machine. And the character (let’s call him “Jimmy”) had to board the time machine willing. That’s the important part, and I need to be snappy about it, because the story was on a serious crescendo, and I wanted to maintain that forward momentum into the climax.
Problem is, there’s a lot tying Jimmy to his native place in history. A lot.
This is a man for whom duty runs thick through his veins, especially to his…goldfish. (Okay, you know it’s not his goldfish, but I’m rolling with this as part of my anti-spoiler tactics.) He needs a Very-Good-Reason to leave his goldfish behind. He and that goldfish have been through some tough times together! Granted, our protagonists have that Very-Good-Reason, but their story isn’t the easiest one to digest, and Jimmy is no fool, especially when the needs of his goldfish are concerned. There will be questions. There will be discussions. There will be…delays.
Hence, I had a problem.
I took a step back and reviewed David’s notes. This was often my first step when I wasn’t quite sure how to proceed. Between the alternate history notes and deep character background, I had over 40,000 words of material to pull from when writing my scenes, and those notes almost always provided the guidance I needed to support David’s vision for the novel.
So, I looked up David’s notes on Jimmy and… Aha! This particular goldfish wasn’t named here! It only listed that Jimmy…found a second goldfish, long after the untimely passing of his first goldfish. (Have you figured out what the goldfish is?)
Well… 😜
Let me segue for a moment here and talk a bit about the collaboration process. As the junior partner on a project, I view it as my responsibility to support the senior partner’s overall vision for the novel while also contributing my own original ideas. Balancing the two can be tricky at times, so I was always keen to identify which parts of this story I needed to strictly follow David’s lead and which parts were my sandbox to explore.
The lack of a name for Jimmy’s second goldfish was like a bright green flag waving in my mind. We were in sandbox territory here! Yes! I could do whatever I wanted with the goldfish!
I pondered how to approach the problem with this newfound narrative freedom. And then it hit me. Jimmy’s goldfish couldn’t tie him down…if it wasn’t around anymore!
So I blew up the goldfish during one of the novel’s action set pieces. Little smoking pieces of fish strewn everywhere. Thus Jimmy was free to board the time machine without hesitation, and the plot could move forward efficiently. The engineer in me was quite pleased with how I’d dealt with the problem. KISS principle, you know? (Keep It Simple Stupid)
Sometimes it’s easiest just to dynamite the obstacle.
I went on to finish my portion of the novel and hand it over.
A little while later, David reviewed my work, and we had a conversation that went something like this (heavy paraphrasing to follow):
DW: So, you know Jimmy’s goldfish?
JH: The first or the second?
DW: The second. The one you blew up.
JH: Sure, I do. I’m the one who blew it up, after all.
DW: Right, about that. You do realize I had a story planned for that goldfish in the sequel.
JH: …You did? 😬
At this point, my internal dialogue looked something like this: Oh, &%#$! Oh, &%#$! Oh, &%#$!
DW: Yeah, you mind if I rework those scenes?
JH: What? Oh, uhh, no, not at all! Please, be my guest! Edit away! I wasn’t sure how best to approach that part anyway!
A little while later, I received David’s next set of revisions. And boy, was I in for a surprise!
You see, he didn’t take the goldfish death out. In fact, he ended up making the death scene even WORSE! He didn’t just blow it up! He mangled the goldfish’s body, had it flopping around on the floor, gasping for air, and then had it die in Jimmy’s arms!
I remember reading it, thinking to myself, “Wait a second. Isn’t the goldfish supposed to live?” And then a little bit later, “Huh. Guess not.”
And, wow. I absolutely loved the changes he made. He took a scene I wrote out of a desire to move the story forward as cleanly as possible, reworked it here, massaged it there, and then cranked the emotional impact up to eleven! It was a fantastic scene, but it’s also one he wouldn’t have written if I hadn’t killed…the goldfish…when I shouldn’t have. A small misunderstanding ended up blossoming into something neither of us would have written on our own, and it’s moments like this that make collaborating with another author such an awesome experience.
That said, I told David afterwards we should probably establish a “Thou Shalt Not Kill These Characters” list for future projects. šŸ™‚
Speaking of which, I think I’ve procrastinated enough today. Time for me to get back to work on the sequel to The Gordian Protocol. I’ve got a lot of [REDACTED] to blow up this week. šŸ˜„šŸ˜„šŸ˜„

Filed Under: Holo Books Tagged With: Alternate History, Alternative History, Collaboration, David Weber, Goldfish, The Gordian Protocol, time travel, Writing, Writing Problems, Writing Techniques

Holo Writing at HonorCon 2015!

December 10, 2015 by holojacob Leave a Comment

H.P. and I recently attended HonorCon 2015, and we had a blast! The convention itself was certainly lower key than DragonCon or AWA, but the halls were packed with readers passionate about military science fiction in general and David Weber’s Honorverse novels in particular.

martyngriffithshonorcon
Photo courtesy of The Royal Manticoran Navy.

Not only did we have plenty of fun, but this also marks the first time I participated at a convention as a panelist. Highly successful independent author Chris Kennedy invited me to join two of his panels, the first on the economics of self-publishing and the second on sci-fi world building. I had a great time on both panels, and really appreciate Chris extending the invitation to join him and Ian J. Malone. Even A.G. Riddle crashed one of the panels and offered his insight. Very cool stuff.
Now, you’d think that would be the highlight of the convention for us … but it wasn’t!
image
Pardon the blurriness. HP’s camera couldn’t handle the awesomeness that is me sharing a panel with an international bestseller.

For some of you, the fine gentleman in this picture needs no introduction. It was an amazing privilege to be invited onto two HonorCon panels by multiple New York Times bestselling author David Weber!!! Yeah. This actually happened. People told me I was so excited I was shaking like a Pomeranian.
Personally, if I’m going to be a Pomeranian, I like to picture myself like this:
spacepomeranian
GIF Source: http://bit.ly/1NA3q69

On the first panel, we discussed the creation of strong characters in space opera. As the creator of the greatly beloved character Honor Harrington, David certainly knows a thing or two about creating strong and memorable characters. We also touched on Vanessa Murakuma, who is a personal favorite of mine that first appears in the Starfire novel In Death Ground.
image
The full title of the panel was actually “How to Create Strong Characters in an Epic Space Opera and Not Kill Them Off!” Now HP’s camera can’t take the irony.

For the second panel, we dove deep into the politics of the Terran Federation in the Starfire universe and how it survived four brutal interstellar wars against alien races, only to fracture at the end in a bloody civil war. Here, David brought his understanding of history to bear with parallels to real events as we discussed some of the pitfalls representative democracies can fall into. To say that he has a keen grasp of history and knows how to apply that knowledge to fiction is to make a monumental understatement.
What else can I say about the experience? David and I have known each other for about a year now. He is probably the most intelligent person I have ever met, but he is very approachable and down to earth at the same time. He and his wife Sharon are amazing people, both of them natural story tellers that are a ton of fun to be around. Years ago, his writing helped inspire my own, and it has been wonderful to hear his stories and to learn from him this past year.
Thank you, David! You’re awesome!

Filed Under: Holo Books, Uncategorized Tagged With: A. G. Riddle, Chris Kennedy, David Weber, HonorCon

  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 13
  • Go to Next Page »

Footer

Grab Some Free Books!

Thanks for swinging by our humble corner of the Internet. If this is your first time visiting our site – here, sign up and have some free reads on us!

Sign Up Now!

Copyright © 2025 Ā· Powered by ModFarm Ā· Log in

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Accept