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Redline – Anime Review

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While watching Promare’s spectacular animation, I was reminded quite a bit of Redline, and then when writing my Promare review, I realized I’d never actually reviewed Redline. So I’m here to remedy that.

Redline is a 2009 anime that follows the gloriously pompadoured Sweet JP as he and his Trans Am compete to win the titular race. Trouble is, he’s racing against a horde of drivers with wildly tricked-out vehicles that frequently include missiles and other ridiculousness as standard gear. And they’re all racing against the government of Roboworld, which doesn’t want them on its planet and won’t hesitate to unleash its full arsenal to stop them.

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For viewer purposes, though, the plot is “VROOM VROOM DRIVE FAST” because this isn’t a movie you watch for plot. This is a movie you watch for its achievement – a completely hand-drawn animated feature film by a first time director who, through it, has already made his masterpiece. Redline took seven years to complete, and every second of it shows.

These days, with our glut of committee-produced CG animation franchises, it’s easy to forget that animation is indeed an art form capable of depicting motion and emotion in ways live action or even photorealistic CG can’t even approach. It’s hard not to look at the work of, say, Richard Williams, once you’ve picked your jaw up off the floor, and say “GOD. An actual human hand-drew all the pictures necessary to create that.” In Japan, Masaaki Yuasa’s work attains the same level of sheer detailed, exuberant weirdness, and Redline’s Takeshi Koike is also in that boat.

Redline’s basic design is a joy to behold. It’s bursting with so many unusual characters, cars, and background details that I find new things to stare at every time I watch, and they’re all delightfully nuts. The racers themselves are clearly the product of animators who were told to design whatever they wanted and not only ran with it, but jumped in a car and punched the Nos (or, in Redline’s world, steamlight) before they even landed in the seat.

But as delightful as they are to look at while static, they are simply amazing to watch in motion. While literally every scene is bursting with clever art direction and brilliant color, the racing scenes are (of course) where it’s at. The animation is so fluid that one might be tempted to think it’s CG, until you realize that the squash and stretch distortions necessary to create that kind of on-screen motion are just barely possible with today’s CG, and certainly weren’t in 2009. And then there are the moments when the film foregoes “realistic” motion altogether, as when JP uses his steamlight booster, where it stretches the character to impossible but no less energetic dimensions. That’s the word to describe Redline’s animation – energetic, and often downright exhilarating. The animators give attention to even the smallest details of their characters’ racing – the flapping of steamlight tubes, the incessant shaking of the car (and different parts of the car) as they barrel toward the finish line (or away from enemy bombs, lasers, biological weapons, what have you). Even individual missile shots have their own unique animations. It’s undeniably gratuitous, but it’s also essential to the heart-poundingly bonkers fun of the whole thing.



On that note, James Shimoji’s soundtrack also deserves a mention; it’s as quirky and energetic as the movie that it scores, even if many of its tracks are too short to be fully enjoyed independently of their role in the movie. (Most of the tracks on the album end just as they feel like they’re getting started.) However, the opening score in particular – “Yellow Line” – is a lengthy, thumping track that’ll have you wanting to hop in your own car and just speed everywhere. “Redline” is a fun medley of that and the main themes of the final racers, and “Kare No Shift Wa BunBunBun” is worth a listen just to hear the SuperBoins try to say “We are sexy girls” in English (as if you somehow missed that they are The Sexy Girls of the movie).

Admittedly, Redline isn’t a movie for everyone. Non-anime fans may find themselves distracted by its sheer, unbridled craziness, and the plot and characterization is so meager that it feels like it’s literally only there to be the vehicle by which the characters’ cars race. As much as I fangirl over this movie, I have to admit that it took me two or three watches to really get into it, so if you’re unimpressed by spectacle, Redline will never be your thing.

But if you have even the slightest appreciation for the art of animation and the energy of well-done anime, you’ll find a real treasure in this movie.
***
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.

Promare – Anime Review

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Pssh. Right, like a Trigger movie would come to our local theatre and it NOT be a Mandatory Date Night.

Promare starts with a literal bang, as half the world’s population spontaneously bursts into flames, thus marking the Great World Blaze and the appearance of the Burnish – people with fire-manipulating powers who set the world aflame not because they want to, but because they must. And when fire can literally attack – well, suddenly firefighters have a whole new job.

New to the Burnish-fighting/rescue operation Burning Rescue, Galo Thymos is a rookie firefighter with a burning soul and a city to save – but when he apprehends the leader of the terrorist organization Mad Burnish, he discovers a challenge far darker and more complex than he could have ever imagined.

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Okay, first off – watch this movie. Just watch it. If you have ever been a fan of anything Trigger or Trigger-adjacent, it is a gift to your eyeballs.

Studio Trigger at its best has always been known for its spectacular, frenetic animation and design. Even the self-consciously low-budget Kill la Kill rocked every single frame of animation that ever touched a screen and Promare, with all the advantages of a movie budget, is so beautiful that I would have cried – had I not been occupied by fits of uncontrollable grinning.

See, Trigger knows what its fans want – namely bold, bombastic heroes, high tech robots hecking stuff up, and outright ridiculous action – and Promare dumps all that onto the screen as soon as it starts. It takes a break a little bit afterward for plot, but then goes right back to what we love with a third act full of so many mecha transformations and WTF moments that it’s hard not to leave the theatre in a state of sheer vibrating nerd bliss.

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The plot, unfortunately, is not as strong as its execution. Not that it’s bad – it moves along at an engaging pace and there’s never a dull moment – but given what I’ve seen from other Trigger productions of its type, I expected more. Trigger at its best has a talent for taking a visual motif and weaving it through the entire theme of the work. In Gurren Lagann (not technically Trigger, but still its spiritual predecessor), the visual concept of a spiral connected the protagonist’s defining drill to the spiral of human DNA and eventually to the resilient, overcoming power of humanity itself. In Kill la Kill, the concept of threads and clothing…well. It’s complicated and clever and absolutely nuts, and quite frankly, it’s easier to just go watch Kill la Kill.

Thus, given that Promare starts with a bunch of angry people bursting into flame and the centrality of fire to all human life (After all, it was one of our first tools), I expected a commentary on the all-consuming and all-empowering natures of both anger and fire – especially relevant in today’s angry society – or perhaps some twist relating the thematic concept of fire to humanity as a whole. Instead the movie takes a far more simplistic direction, and though one of its major themes centers upon how humans treat each other, it’s handled in such a predictable way that it became the one truly disappointing part of the movie. But then, I fully concede that it was mainly disappointing in comparison to my expectations.

At the same time, though, half the fun of going into a Trigger work for me is imagining the ridiculous ways in which its visuals and design might tie into its theme, and while most works since Kill la Kill have let me down in that respect, the thought process is still so fun that I don’t plan to give it up.

The only other disappointing element was that Galo was, in fact, not actually a resurrected Kamina (from Gurren Lagann), despite having his same basic character design and personality, and I’m still perplexed by the studio’s choice to make Promare’s protagonist essentially identical to one of its most iconic characters. Though, given how much fan chat leading up to the movie centered around the mystery of “Is it Kamina or not?” perhaps it was merely a clever marketing move.

After all, Trigger has time and again shown itself to be clever with design, and Promare is no exception. The film absolutely gleams with style, from the simplicity of its cityscapes to its unusual color choices (The fire is pink and yellow) to its imaginative character designs to its aesthetic attention to even the most minute background details (There’s a polygonal visual motif that extends even to the movie’s lens flares).

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Also, Hiroyuki Sawano’s (always) explosive musical score and Superfly’s fist-pumping pop themes are a pile of cherries on top of an already huge movie sundae  – though let’s be real, Sawano could write a score to a blank screen and it would be the most exciting blank screen you’d ever watched or would ever watch again.

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Overall, Promare was spectacularly worth the cost of a Fathom Events ticket, and it already has a designated space on my Blu-Ray shelf (whenever it finally releases). Viewers who are unfamiliar with Trigger may not appreciate all its stylistic tropes, but even new fans will recognize it for what it is – a bombastic love letter to us and everything we love about Trigger’s anime.

***
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.

A Flash of Red – Book Review

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flashofredcoverJacob’s sister wrote a book, too, you guys! 😀
Psychological thrillers are a bit out of my wheelhouse, but thanks to this one, I may have found a new genre worth exploring.
A Flash of Red by Sarah K. Stephens tells the intertwining stories of three characters: Anna Kline, a psychology professor afraid that she’s traveling down a dark family path; Sean, her husband, who struggles with feelings of inadequacy; and Bard, a student of Anna’s who has a particular interest in his professor and her subject matter, for potentially dark reasons of his own. 
To say more would be to give away spoilers, as one of the novel’s greatest strengths is how it reveals its characters’ secrets and how it plays on reader expectations. As a new reader of psychological thrillers, I’m generally unaware of the genre’s tropes, but nonetheless I found myself tricked into making certain suppositions in each chapter, only to be surprised by the truth (or developing truth) of the matter some chapters later.
The chapters are also short and quick, which propels the story along at a healthy pace, and despite their length, they convey a lot of information. Stephens is efficient with her characterization, telling the reader exactly what they need to know when they need to know it, often in lovely turns of phrase. 
Characterization is, of course, key in a genre as necessarily character driven as the psychological thriller, and Stephens deftly manipulates how readers view her characters from chapter to chapter, careful to balance their flaws and sympathies. Anna has a very real mental struggle, but she’s also a pretentious intellectual ass; Sean is a manipulative bastard, but he’s also unappreciated by his wife, despite genuine efforts to show his affection; Bard is deeply concerned for his professor and has legitimate reasons for asking her advice about schizophrenia, but he has a manipulative streak as well. Thing is, Stephens writes them so that, from scene to scene, the reader doesn’t know which traits are the dominant traits in each character; in some scenes, they’re all basically sympathetic, but the other scenes sneak a haunting “What if?” into the backs of readers minds.
A “What if?” which lingers even after the final page.
Engaging, fast-paced, and psychologically complex (especially for its length), A Flash of Red is a must-read for people who like to get into characters’ brains – even if they’re disturbed by what they find there.
***
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.

The Messenger – Book Bomb

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Hey, mecha fans! We know some of you are still reeling from the end of the Seraphim Revival series, and though we’re giving its characters a much-needed rest, we totally understand your need to read more action-packed giant robot goodness.
Luckily for you, one of our #authorbuds, Terry Maggert, teamed up with J.N. Chaney to release a thoroughly kick-butt giant robot space epic! 😀
H.P. just finished barreling through The Messenger, and if you’re a fan of Gundam, Voltron, Mass Effect, or really anything that involves big-a** tech blowing junk up in epic fashion, it’s a fun read!
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Dash never asked to be a mech pilot, but fate has other plans.
On the run and out of chances, he guides his ship and crew into the heart of a relic older than the galaxy itself–and finds himself on the edge of an eternal war he never knew existed.
The relic is a mech, lost to history and forgotten by all who remain. Built by an ancient race to be the ultimate weapon, the machine is capable of unspeakable destruction, and its discovery could unhinge the balance of power throughout known space.
Worse still, the A.I. inside the machine speaks of an ancient evil that will soon arrive–a race whose power far exceeds anything humanity has ever witnessed.
Only the Messenger can stand against them, the A.I. tells its new pilot. Only you can do what must be done.

Even better, if you enjoy it, the sequel is already available for Pre-Order (Release Date Sunday, October 20th)! 😀
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UPDATE 12.21.19: There are more! 😮

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The Epic Tale of Nova

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If you follow our Instagram, you’re familiar with Nova, Novabun, NovaNO, Catboss of Holo Writing, Occasional Typo Inserter, Blesser of Shoes, Stealer of Socks and General Queen of House Holo, but you haven’t heard the tale of how she earned those titles.

This is that epic tale.

Prologue

This is a story of two people:

One who politely tolerates animals, but would rather not put up with their mess.

And one whose first adult purchase was a house, whose second was a cat to put into that house, and who renovated her house so her cat could have maximum windowsill space on which to stretch out. And then got another cat.

This makes “I love you more than cats” the highest compliment the latter could have paid to the former.

This makes her decision to ease her cats from indoors to outdoors that much more meaningful.

This makes the fact that that they ran away right after discovering the wonders of outside that much more crushing. 😭

But as the latter said to the former, “I love you more than cats.”

…

This did not mean she would stop trying to adopt a new cat. 😈

Part 1

H.P. here. I entered adulthood like any women’s-college-educated millennial feminist, which is to say that I assumed I would spend my life assembling a horde of cats so that I might one day achieve my final form as Craziest Cat Lady Who Don’t Need No Man.

Then I met Jacob, who was basically Me But An Engineer And Also Organized, and figured my first plan was hecka boring by comparison.

But see, the thing about Jacob is that he’s tidy. Not fold-your-underwear and line-up-all-your-socks tidy, but definitely tidy enough that the sight of all the cat hair in my house on our first date made him wonder if maybe he had not in fact found his soul mate.

Spoiler Alert: He had. He just didn’t realize it until later.

I didn’t realize it until later, either, when it occurred to me that I’d be willing to move my cats outside, should sharing a house with Jacob ever be a thing that happened.

Spoiler Alert: He proposed, and it did, and so I began the process of introducing my cats Locke and Peek to The Outside.

Problem was, Locke and Peek enjoyed The Outside a little too much, and the first day I left them alone, they ran for freedom. It was a sad loss right before the wedding, but as a cat lady, I fully understand: cat’s gotta cat.

But also, cat lady’s gotta cat lady, and it wasn’t long before my inner cat lady re-emerged.

Throughout the early part of our marriage, Jacob and I mostly talked about three things: writing, video games, and why I deserved a cat. The latter was a very one-sided conversation.

See, where Jacob is 100% tidy, I and 100% NOT, and Jacob didn’t want to put up with both wife mess and cat mess, especially since he was statistically unlikely to enjoy any cat.

So we came to an agreement: We would get a cat when I either 1) fully cleaned the house to his satisfaction, or 2) finished The Wizard’s Quartet.

Jacob thought he was being clever because 1) was unlikely to ever happen and 2) would very likely happen, but would at least buy him a few guaranteed years of cat-free life.

He did not plan for Nova.

Part 2

Life happens, and so does sh*t, and both happened to us for a taxing year. In June 2014, I was diagnosed with melanoma, the most aggressive form of skin cancer. We caught it early enough that, after months of worry and doctors’ visits and surgery, it was fully eliminated, but the fact that it crept into my body from a mole that had been on my leg since childhood was rattling. And then, immediately after, we received the news that one of my grandmothers had left a similar weird skin spot unchecked. It turned out to be a melanoma, and it had developed into terminal cancer. 

There are few experiences more disturbing than learning what you’re likely to die from and then having to watch as someone you love dies from that exact same thing. Her condition in her final days was such that, when she passed on Christmas Eve, the family all cried, but also released breaths we’d been holding for months – relief that she was no longer suffering.
Well. Most of us did. At the time, I saw too much of my own possible future in it.

Even though my personal experience with melanoma ended as well as cancer possibly can, those combined experiences unlocked a fear of every minor pain or ailment that rose up in me. Since cancer doesn’t necessarily hurt until it’s too late, I began to obsess over every minor unusual ache, wondering if each one somehow indicated a cell of melanoma that had escaped and metastasized into the hidden tumor that would be my undoing. In reality, most of these aches were simply weather or aging pains, but when one’s body is faced with its own mortality, one’s brain doesn’t necessarily handle it in a logical way. Those worries thus compounded and cumulated in the emergence of Generalized Anxiety Disorder, an ailment which affected me far longer than the cancer that incited it.

But this is not a story about cancer. This is a story about cats.

Part 3

Fast forward to July 2015. The cancer is done; the anxiety is in the process of being handled.

My intense desire to hug every cat is no secret, and it’s not uncommon for friends to send me info about cats in need of adopting and spoiling. Out of respect for Jacob’s emotions – after all, I’d put him through enough in the past year, and he’d been a marvelous support – I’d stopped asking for a cat.

But then my pal and beta reader Jennifer shared a fateful Facebook post.

Over the past several weeks, a cute little stray cat had come to visit her condo, deliver sweet little cat blessings, and then spirit off on her cat adventures, as cats do.

Until the day she visited with a massive gash torn in her side. 😧

To this day, we’re not sure what happened – most likely a fight with a dog – but luckily Jennifer was able to take her to That’s What Friends Are For, a local organization that provided the funds to stitch her up.

Jennifer wanted to keep the cat – who she’d named Nova by this point – and offered to house her while she recovered at the very least. However, it was not to be. Jennifer already had two other cats, and these cats were Not Having Nova. 

Thus the Facebook post. Jennifer was willing to keep Nova until she healed, but wanted to be rid of her by early August, for both her family’s sanity and that of her cats.

Even in those sad surgery photos, Nova had an ineffable sweetness that curled up right in the space left by my old cats – and by all the stresses I’d been through in the year prior – so, daring to be optimistic, I asked Jennifer for more details about Nova. In the process I learned of her ever-gentle manner, her talkative affection, her general cleanliness, her hesitance to even scratch – all in more detail than I’d ever learn from a shelter or adoption center. I knew that this would be our cat.

Of course, Jacob said no.

Thus began Operation Nova.

I began subtly, sending occasional cute gifs of cats, often with captions like “This could be life with Nova.”

Then I upped my efforts. I began to send articles about how research showed cats to be reliable stress-reducers (a significant point for me back then), among other data-backed points. Engineers love data.

Nova was even named for a Starcraft character – his favorite tournaments to watch on YouTube at that time – and as far as I was concerned, a coincidence like that could be nothing but fate.

At this point, Jacob began to see how serious I was about this cat, and so modified his earlier ultimatum: If I cleaned the house and kept it clean for a significant length of time, I would be a step closer to earning my cat.

He didn’t think I would do it.

I did.

But as the deadline approached, Jacob still wasn’t sure.

So I pulled out my nuclear option.

Your happy cry this morning set me to thinking about all the awesome and not so awesome stuff we’ve been through in the short time since we married.

Namely that time during cancer summer when we thought my cancer might be terminal. I planned on doing something practical like quitting work and finishing my novel…but you, knowing how much I wanted a pet, wanted to get me a cat with which to spend my last days.

All this to say, I love you, husband. 🙂

BUT ALSO THAT IS TOTALLY UNFAIR THAT I KICKED CANCER’S BOOTAY AND AM ALL SORTS OF ALIVE AND STILL DO NOT HAVE A CAT.

JUST SAYIN’

P.S. Here is a hovercat in case that made you sad.


I love you!
HP

I picked up Nova that weekend.

Epilogue

That’s not even the end of it.

For though Nova was supposed to be My Cat, we discovered within a week that Jacob is The Cat Whisperer and his lap is apparently far superior to the lap that drove for hours on end to pick her up and bring her to her new home in another state.

Only He can feed her.

She knows what time He comes home and waits at the door for him.

When He sits anywhere, she is on his lap in 2 seconds. We’ve timed it.

When Jacob’s not home to feed her or be her throne, she looks at me like “Well, I guess you’ll do.”

But then she cuddles up with me all the same. She is, after all, sweetness incarnate, and Jacob and I wouldn’t have her any other way. ☺️

***

BTW, if you’re the donating type, please consider donating to That’s What Friends Are For (or your local animal shelter). Without them, our little catboss wouldn’t be alive right now, and we’re eternally grateful for the services they provide. 😊😊😊

LibertyCon Panel Schedule!

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From one con, right to another! Here’s what we’ll be up to at LibertyCon in Chattanooga, TN! 😀 (Full schedule here.)

PANEL SCHEDULE:

CROSSING STEAMPUNK II
FRIDAY, June 28th @ 10pm – Meeting Room 7
D. Alan Lewis moderates this panel on writing and mixing genres that cross Steampunk.
Panelists: D. Alan Lewis, Quincy J. Allen, Dan Hollifield, H.P. Holo, Tamara Lowery
INDY AUTHOR RESOURCES PANEL
SATURDAY, June 29th @ 10am – Meeting Room 8
Bad Ash Publishing owner Melisa Todd moderates this panel on where to find the best tools to assist independent authors.
Panelists: Melisa Todd, Douglas Burbey, Jim Curtis, H.P. Holo, Dave Schroeder, John Van Stry
WHAT’S NEW IN YA FANTASY?
SATURDAY, June 29th @ 1pm – Meeting Rooms 9 & 10
David Butler moderates this roundtable on what’s new in young adult fantasy.
Panelists: David (D.J.) Butler, Taylor S. Hoch, H.P. Holo, Cedar Sanderson, Lydia Sherrer
WORLD BUILDING FOR SPACE OPERA
SATURDAY, June 29th @ 1pm – Meeting Rooms 4 & 5
Our panelists will discuss the nuances of good world building in Space Opera. Mark Wandrey moderates.
Panelists: Mark Wandrey, Jim Curtis, Doug Dandridge, C.S. Ferguson, Jacob Holo, Ian J. Malone
BAEN TRAVELING ROADSHOW AND PRIZE PATROL
SATURDAY, June 29th @ 2pm – Meeting Rooms 4 & 5
Toni Weisskopf will be running the crowd through the best of what’s going on in the Baen universe. (And there will be giveaways!)
Panelists: A whole bunch. Just go; it’s fun.
INDUSTRIAL vs. MECHA
SATURDAY, June 29th @ 5pm – Meeting Room 8
Industrial / Mechanical Engineers square off against Mecha authors to discuss “Mech” realism and the realm of the possible. William Joseph Roberts moderates.
Panelists: William Joseph Roberts, J.D. Beckwith, Jacob Holo, Jon R. Osborne, James Schardt, Chris Woods
READING WITH JACOB & H.P. HOLO
SATURDAY, June 29th @ 10pm – Lookout Mountain Room
Come out and have a seat as our author guests read passages of their works.
Panelists: Jacob & H.P. Holo
KAFFEEKLATSCH
SUNDAY, June 30th @ 10am – Tennessee River Room
Have coffee / continental breakfast and chat with the pros.
Panelists: A BUNCH.

SIGNING SCHEDULE:

FRIDAY, June 28th @ 6pm (Author’s Alley – Plaza Ballroom Mezzanine)
FRIDAY, June 28th @ 7pm (Autograph Session in Dealer’s Room – Plaza A/B/C Ballroom)
SATURDAY, June 29th @ 4pm (Author’s Alley – Plaza Ballroom Mezzanine)
SUNDAY, June 30th @ 11am (Author’s Alley – Plaza Ballroom Mezzanine)

ConCarolinas 2019 Con Update!

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concarolinas

Sometimes you go to a con and have a fantabulous time, and then con crud sneaks up on you the moment you get home and knocks you on your butt. 😷

When that’s the worst you can say about a con, though, it’s a pretty good con. 😀

This was the first year that the stars and our schedules aligned for us to be at ConCarolinas in Charlotte, NC, and though we were insanely busy (ALL PANELS ALL THE TIME FOREVER), the fun was entirely worth the con crud.

Before we formally begin, though, we owe a special thanks to Guest Coordinator (and fellow author) John Hartness for allowing us in as last minute guests. We’d initially committed to LibertyCon for this weekend, but when LibertyCon changed dates (now June 28-30, btw), that left us some unexpected free time, and John was graciously willing to let us fill it at ConCarolinas. All that said, thanks, John! (Also go buy his stuff. And the stuff he publishes under Falstaff Books.)

ConCarolinas is one of those small cons that hides its size with huge enthusiasm and activity. Though a multi-fandom con, it places more emphasis on authors and books than most cons of its size, which meant that we were able to meet a bunch of new authors and add their books to our reading pile.

We hadn’t intended to come home with any new books because our pile is currently growing faster than it’s shrinking, but well…A.J. Hartley was a fellow guest, and Steeplejack has been on my to-read list forever, which was reason enough for me to just impulse buy the whole trilogy.

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Then, when R.M. Hamrick described her space opera novellas as Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy meets Guardians of the Galaxy, we couldn’t resist snagging that, too.

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Next, Jeffrey Bardwell, among other books, wrote a series about medieval steampunk wizards, so naturally I was all over that.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByMHEaBgfoc/

Finally, I forgot to pick this up because by the end of the con I was 100% dead and incoherent, but Crymsyn Hart wrote a sci-fi romance titled Captured by the Alien Vampire Highlander which is something I think the world should know about for the title alone. (It’ll be on my digital reading pile soon.)

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Speaking of books, we also need to give a special shout-out to Orielis Books, who carried our titles this weekend and also gave us an impromptu book-signing when we weren’t able to make our originally-scheduled signing on Friday. 😊

https://www.instagram.com/p/BydxsaHALdD/

They’ll be carrying some of our titles on their website and to other cons they visit, so be sure to check them out if you’re in need of some good reads!

Our adventures didn’t end with books, but you can find the rest of our ConCarolinas fun chronicled on our Instagram page.

And if you want to join us on our con adventures, come see us at LibertyCon, later this month in Chattanooga, TN!
Until then, happy reading! 😁
***
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.

ConCarolinas Panel Schedule!

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concarolinas
Our next convention stop is coming up this weekend! Here’s where you can find us at ConCarolinas in Charlotte, NC.
NOTE: The official schedule has us down for a Book Signing on Friday @ 2pm, but due to Other Job commitments (like…actually showing up to work 😜), we won’t be able to make it that day. However, if you find us at the con, we’ll be glad to sign for you. 🙂
THE BAEN BOOKS TRAVELING ROADSHOW
SATURDAY, June 1st @ 10am – Main Programming (Lakeshore 3&4)
Panelists: Tony Daniel, Nicole Givens Kurtz, David Weber, Jacob Holo
I LIKE BIG BOTS AND I CANNOT LIE
SATURDAY, June 1st @ 12pm – Lakeshore 2
Whether it’s Transformers, Gundams, or Jaegers, there’s no denying the popularity of giant robots in our media. Let’s talk about our favorite robots and why we think they’re such a prevalent fixture in our media and fandoms.
Panelists: Ramenwitch, Sherman Burris, Carol Cowles, Jacob Holo, Nickie Jamison
ARMING YOUR CHARACTERS
SATURDAY, June 1st @ 3pm – Keynes
What kinds of weapons are suitable for your story? Are there novels you’ve read in which the author handled weaponry in a unique way? How does the writer even learn about all this stuff?
Panelists: Nancy Northcott, Chris A. Jackson, Jacob Holo, Edward McKeown, Quincy J. Allen
SPACE OPERA
Saturday, June 1st @ 5pm – Keynes
From The Expanse to the Honorverse, stories set in space have always been thrilling. What makes outer space so exciting? Who are some of the best storytellers working out in the black?
Panelists: Tony Daniel, David Weber, Jacob Holo, Edward McKeown, Rebekah Hamrick
GASLAMP
SATURDAY, June 1st @ 7pm – Keynes
Melding fantasy and scifi – hey, you got dragons in my steampunk!
Panelists: Leann M. Rettell, H.P. Holo, Jeffrey Bardwell, Larry N. Martin, Jason Gilbert
ASK US ANYTHING
SATURDAY, June 1st @ 10pm – Walden
Our panelists answer your burning questions on anything – except writing. Ask about baking, the meaning of life, Flat Earth theory, their favorite composers – anything but writing! (Truth is not guaranteed).
Panelists: Dacre Stoker, Crymsyn Hart, D.R. Perry, Jacob & H.P. Holo
AN HOUR WITH…JACOB & H.P. HOLO
SUNDAY, June 2nd @ 10am – 3rd Floor Room
Join us for readings from The Gordian Protocol and The Wizard’s Way!
Panelists: Jacob & H.P. Holo
HOW MUCH SCIENCE DO YOU NEED TO KNOW TO WRITE SF?
SUNDAY, June 2nd @ 11am – Walden
Science fiction has “science” built right into the genre’s name, and many famous creators of classic works came had careers in science. But as the genre has evolved, the margins have gotten fuzzier. At what point does science fiction become pure fantasy? Are creators under any obligation to get their science right?
Panelists: James Maxey, Jacob Holo, Rebekah Hamrick, J.A. Sutherland, Michael Mammay
WRITING STRONG MAIN CHARACTERS
SUNDAY, June 2nd @ 1pm – Walden
What makes the protagonist that star of the show? Is it her story, or her personality? Maybe it’s the way he interacts with the people around him? Our panel talks about how to create main characters whose stories are the kind everyone wants to read.
Panelists: H.P. Holo, A.J. Hartley, Faith Hunter, David Weber, Stuart Jaffe
A BALANCING ACT: WORKING, WRITING, LIVING
SUNDAY, June 2nd @ 2pm – Walden
Few writers these days are only writers. Many of the writers you read are also working a day job, parenting, coaching, or just spending time doing other hobbies they enjoy. The panelists will discuss how they manage this balancing act, what they’ve learned about life and themselves through this process, and how others can successfully balance a full plate as well.
Panelists: D.R. Perry, H.P. Holo, Steve Murphy, Matthew Saunders, Aaron Rosenberg

Detective Pikachu – Movie Review

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I showed up to an early preview of Detective Pikachu in my full-body Pikachu jammies, fueled by 20 years of Pokemon nostalgia and an insatiable love of bad movies, so there was no way I wasn’t going to like this thing.
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Even so, you can imagine my delight when it proved to be not a so-bad-it’s-good travesty of Pokemon fandom, but legitimately good, entirely worthy of my Pikajams, and perhaps the only recent piece of entertainment (other than Avengers: Endgame) that has actually respected the dedication of its fans.

Based upon the 3DS game, Detective Pikachu follows once-aspiring Pokemon trainer-turned-insurance drone Tim Goodman as be begrudgingly teams up with a talking Pikachu to investigate the death of his detective father. Given what I’ve read of the game (I haven’t played it), it actually seems to be a pretty fair adaptation, but let’s be real, no one is seeing this movie for adaptive accuracy. We’re seeing it so we can squeal at the absurd miracle of getting 1) a big-budget Pokemon movie in which 2) Pikachu is voiced by Ryan FREAKING Reynolds and 3) the fan artist responsible for the “creepy realistic Pokemon” series was tapped to help design the Pokemon for the big screen. It’s not a perfect movie (I’ll get to that in a bit), but for our particular audience, Detective Pikachu is a treasure.
charizard
It’s unabashedly a fanservice movie, but it’s a fanservice movie done right. It watches as if the filmmakers somehow delved into all our Pokefan heads, found what we most wanted to see on screen, and then crafted a plot that allowed us to see it in a way that (mostly) made narrative sense. We get to see many of our favorite Pokemon, and we get to see Pikachu battle both a Charizard and a Mewtwo, all set up in a world that we would willfully inhabit if we could: a world that combines both the childlike wonder of the regions we remember exploring with the adult perspective of the world we grew up to live in.
Tim himself is very much a stand-in for adult fans, who wanted to be Pokemon trainers as kids but now find themselves in significantly less magical adult jobs. And though it’s a movie based on a children’s property, it’s not really a movie for children. Kids can watch it, of course (as long as parents are okay with them hearing Pikachu drop some mild cusses), but ultimately it’s designed for those of us who grew up with the franchise.
Which is why my inner 12-year-old was screaming the whole time, and my adult face literally hurt from grinning so much.
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Half the people in my theatre squealed Pokemon names with delight every time they popped up on screen—perhaps the only time anyone has ever been excited to see Pidgey or Magikarp—and though I usually hate it when people talk during movies, this time I was squealing right along with them. Detective Pikachu’s filmmakers earned my trust the moment Tim comments about a cubone wearing the skill of its dead parent, and kept it right though the ridiculous end.
Make no mistake, this movie is an absolute love letter to Pokemon fans.
Its mileage with non-fans, though, will vary. While the Pokemon fan in me gives Detective Pikachu infinite stars, the analytical writer has to acknowledge that outside that context, it’s close to a 3.5-star movie. The opening act is solid, but near the middle and end, the plot undertakes some seriously complicated gymnastics to make itself make sense, and they don’t always land gracefully. Many plot twists are revealed through barely-earned flashback-style exposition dumps, and the device used to make these dumps—advanced holographic imaging tech that can piece together complex environments from video footage—introduces plot holes through its very existence.
Characters often lack information at the convenience of the plot, even though they should logically have that information because of the way the device gathers it. Never mind that some was gathered from police cameras that can apparently travel through time. Given that the source of its most essential information was police footage, Lieutenant Yoshida (Ken Watanabe ❤!) in particular should have had significant plot-affecting information that he conveniently didn’t, purely at the whim of the writers.
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Unexpectedly, some of the plot gymnastics became less egregious upon a second viewing (Of course I saw it twice), but even then those come down to the cheap writing trick of cutting off important information the mere second before characters can actually receive it. Granted, it works to keep the structure of the film intact—and the film is tightly paced—but such devices also make the tension feel artificial and frustrating.
The film’s emotional beats also fall flat. It’s hard to take seriously as anything but a comedy, which means that its attempts at genuinely sad scenes don’t really work, especially when Tim is mourning his dad to a talking Pikachu of all things (despite a convincing performance by Justice Smith). When it combines its emotions with comedy, though, it excels—as when a devastated, lonely Detective Pikachu sobs the iconic Pokemon theme in a truly inspired gem of a scene.
Finally, though she’s essential to moving the plot along, Kathryn Newton’s unpaid intern-slash-aspiring reporter Lucy Stevens fills her role with every spunky reporter stereotype ever and as a result is, frankly, grating to watch. The way the movie uses her Psyduck partner, however, is hilarious.
psyduck
Psyduck itself raises pesky world building questions—Why the heck would a person in a high-stress environment in the middle of a densely populated city want a Pokemon whose stress headaches can literally trigger apocalyptic geography-leveling energy pulses?—but then, those kinds of questions are ultimately irrelevant to Pokemon fans, given the absurd characteristics we’re accustomed to seeing in Pokemon lore (see again: cubone wearing its mother’s skull. And that’s not even the most WTF of them).
Pokemon’s is a world that functions best when you don’t think about it too much except in terms of how it’s awesome, which is something the filmmakers did quite well—even for Pokemon that didn’t necessarily merit it, and this is yet another great success of this movie.
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I’ve never given two thoughts to Mr. Mime or Ditto except to be pissed at how hard it was to find them and how lame they were once I did. Detective Pikachu took two of the lamest Pokemon, used them brilliantly, and instantly turned them into two of my new favorites.
More than being mere fanservice, this movie contributed something new and wholly unexpected to the Pokemon universe—first by simply existing, and then by giving fans a movie that loves its world as much as they do.
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Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to don my Pikajams and see it again.
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EXTRA: Also, because they’re fun, the other promos, including the brilliant and adorable release day “full film leak.”



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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.

Interview on The Baen Free Radio Hour!

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BaenPodcastAlbum
If you’re not familiar with the Baen Free Radio Hour and love sci-fi podcasts, you need to GET ON THAT.
If you’re also a fan of The Gordian Protocol, Friday brought a reason to DOUBLE GET ON THAT:
Here’s part one of a 3-part interview with Jacob, David Weber, and Baen publisher Toni Weisskopf, led by Baen Editor Tony Daniel. (It also includes the latest installment of the audiobook serialization of Larry Correia’s Son of the Black Sword)!
Subsequent parts will be added as they’re posted, but if you’d like to follow them, you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts or listen in-browser on the Baen website.

Listen Here:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

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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.
 

Adventures in Heart Health and Diets

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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 “I bet you this wind chime that I can make it work.” (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 “Sign me up!”
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 😔).
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?
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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.

A Funny Story About Writing The Gordian Protocol

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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? 🙂
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. 🙂
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. 😄😄😄