This past weekend, H.P. and I participated in the first ever South Carolina Comic Con, organized by the very hardworking Rob Young of Borderland Comics and Games. The event lasted two days and, according to one of the staff members, drew in over six thousand people! I can believe it too. The convention center was packed. The pictures we took do not do the crowd justice because, simply put, we were so busy when the crowds really hit!
H.P. and I had a blast interacting with people at the convention. We met I.R. Harris, author of the dark epic fantasy Bound Trilogy as well as plenty of talented artists. Tons of cool people, many in costume, stopped by our table.
Many of those who stopped by left with our books in hand. We almost blew through our entire stock. Bear in mind, we ordered extras after the success of Tangled Web’s Free Comic Day. Even with that, we still almost ran out. It was a great weekend for us!
To everyone who purchased our books, THANK YOU! Welcome to Holo Writing!
Holo Books
Holo Writing at SpartanCon!
This past Saturday, H.P. and I hosted a table at SpartanCon. We had a lot of fun doing it. A big, warm thank you to Spartanburg County Public Libraries for extending the invitation to us and letting us host a table at their event.
This picture was taken before things got crazy. And boy, did they get crazy! The head librarian mentioned to us that between eight hundred and a thousand people showed up. We had a wonderful day interacting with plenty of new readers. To everyone who bought our books, thank you! We hope you enjoy them!
The day was a resounding success for us. H.P. and I will definitely be participating in SpartanCon next year.
Of the people who attended SpartanCon, plenty came wearing some superb costumes. Not surprising, since the library hosted a cosplay contest with two 4-day tickets to DragonCon as the main prize. Here you can see me with the winner and her completely homemade Jawa costume.
Yes, there is a lovely young lady underneath all of that.
And there’s plenty more awesome cosplay where that came from. Early in the day, I had my picture taken with an Alucard cosplayer. The young gentleman stopped by our table afterwards and was so impressed with our books he brought his friends over to show them. They too left with our books in hand.
And here’s one more really cool cosplay. Why? Because it’s Dead Space. Does there need to be another reason? 🙂
Again, thank you to everyone who decided to give our books a try. You’re awesome!
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Holo Writing at Tangled Web Free Comic Day!
Daniel McAbee, owner of the Tangled Web, graciously invited us to host a table during his Free Comic Day special. Both H.P. and I stayed the entire day and had an absolute blast. So many awesome people stopped by our table to hear about our books. We really enjoyed getting to interact with our fellow sci-fi/fantasy fans, and a warm thank you to all of you who decided to give our books a try.
We also got very good at summarizing our books quickly. H.P. did a particularly awesome job.
Fan-in-the-Making: The Dragons of Jupiter? What’s that about?
H.P. Holo: Space ninjas versus space marines!
Jacob Holo: There’s more to it than that, but yeah.
Fan-in-the-Making: Cool. And Time Reavers?
H.P. Holo: Teens with super powers versus giant interdimensional cyborg insects!
Fan-in-the-Making: Sounds interesting.
We also had free buttons and bookmarks, which were a huge hit. We actually ran out of The Dragons of Jupiter buttons. People especially loved the “I’m a Dragon” buttons with a piece of the back cover art on the button. I thought a hundred was enough for the day, but the crowd cleaned us out!
Despite hosting the table for eight hours, the day went by in a flash. It’s a good thing we brought plenty of books, because people were in the mood to buy some action-packed sci-fi/fantasy! You can’t see them in the top picture, but there are boxes of books underneath our table. We emptied them. The books you see in the next picture are the only survivors from a fantastic day at Tangled Web (actually minus one, because we sold another shortly before we packed up).
Again, both H.P. and I had a really great time at Tangled Web. Thank you to Daniel McAbee for being a truly stellar host, and thank you to all of our new readers! Welcome to Holo Writing!
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Holo Writing – Fan Art
Here’s the first piece of fan art I’ve received! Please enjoy! 🙂
Humanity Machine – 1st Draft Complete!
artwork by the very talented Adam Burn – used with permission
The first draft of Humanity Machine is officially complete! Woohoo! Weighing in at a hefty 140,000 words, it’s a bit longer than The Dragons of Jupiter and is now my largest novel to date, though editing may change that.
I’ve already completed my first editing pass, and I have to say I’m pretty excited about this one. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty of polishing that needs to be done, but the fundamentals are definitely there. I’m going to make one more editing pass, then hand it off to H.P. for her first read through. After that, I’ll do my third editing pass, then give it on to my test readers.
And from there it’s edit, edit, and edit again. Plus start talking to Adam Burn about some awesome cover art. Time to clean this manuscript up!
So what is Humanity Machine, you may be wondering. Well …
Humanity Machine is a story of Manufactured People. Soldiers created on demand using an advanced form of 3D printing. More precisely, this is the story of one such soldier: Vance. This is her journey as she grows from just one more cog in the machine to an individual that can shape the destiny of her people.
Humanity Machine is a story of Intense Space Battles. Highly advanced, self-modifying warships slugging it out in the depths of space. Vance serves as one warship’s drone controller, commanding her squadrons of interceptors and bombers against a powerful and tenacious foe.
Humanity Machine is a story of Divided Humanity. Not by politics or ethnicities or faiths, but by technology. It’s a story about how technology molds a society, and how that technology can make its people seem very alien to an outsider. Imagine a society with no families, no children, and no gender roles. Imagine a two-tiered society of the created and the creators. What would that society be like? What would its people be like?
Yeah, I’m excited about this one.
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Writing Techniques – Character Sheets
Today, I would like to discuss one of my favorite writing tools: the character sheet.
Characters form the heart and soul of a story. They can breathe life and energy into an otherwise dry tale. So, naturally, their creation is a very important skill for a writer to learn. I suspect there are as many methods for generating new characters as there are writers. Who’s to say one method is better than the other?
Not me, that’s for sure. But I have developed a method that works for me. Here’s what I do.
When an idea for a story begins to take form, I determine what roles I will need. How many characters are required to tell the story? Where are their places within the story? What functions need to be filled?
I divide the roles into two categories: Technical and Personal. For example, if I’m writing a story about an elite military squad, a Technical list might look like this:
- Squad Leader
- Sniper
- Demolition Specialist
- Tech Expert
And a Personal list might resemble this:
- Main Character
- Love Interest
- Dependable Cohort
- New Guy/Gal
I can then combine the two lists, mixing and matching, looking for holes as I go. The result might look something like this:
- Squad Leader – Main Character
- Sniper – Love Interest
- Demolition Specialist – Dependable Cohort
- Tech Expert – New Guy/Gal
This list will go through many revisions as the story evolves from a crude sketch to a more robust outline. For me, it’s easy to mix and match the Personal and Technical roles. Some characters may have multiples of one type or even both. This can be especially true for major characters. Roles can, of course, change as a story progresses, but that is something I save for the plot outline itself.
These roles form the basic building blocks for the characters. Once I’m happy with the roles I’ve listed, I begin to add details and depth to each character. In order to do this, I use a character sheet.
My character sheets vary a little from novel to novel, but they’re mostly the same. Basically, it’s one big list of characteristics that I fill in order to gain a better feel for the character. Character sheets also serve as excellent references when I’ve forgotten the cool details I had planned.
This is one of the reasons I outline so heavily. I forget stuff.
So, what do these character sheets look like? Well, they look like this, actually:
- Character Description
- Age
- Gender
- Weight
- Height
- Health
- IQ
- Appearance
- Occupation
- Goals
- Morals
- Poignant Memories
- Past Traumas
- Hobbies
- Likes
- Dislikes
- Confidence
- Fears
- Sense of Humor
- Family
- Flaws
- Skills
- Charisma
- Speech Pattern
And yes, I fill in each line for almost every character I write about. Does all of that make it into the novel? Is all of that even relevant? Do I need to do this? No, of course not. But filling in all of that stuff helps me develop each character into an individual, unique voice. It’s a tool I use, nothing more. If it helps me write the character, then the tool has done its job.
It may not be the best way to craft characters, and it certainly won’t work for everyone, but it’s a method that has served me well for many years.
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The Dragons of Jupiter – Book Trailer
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n24DP_Cu72s]
Humanity Machine – 1st Draft Half Done!
artwork by the very talented Adam Burn – used with permission
I’ve reached that golden point when writing the first draft of a novel. Yes, the point where I have less to write than I have already written. I’ve crested the hill, and now all I have to do is stroll down the slope on the other side. Nothing to it, right?
Right …
So what is Humanity Machine? What’s it about? What’s it have to offer? In short, why should the reader care?
Those are very good questions. Please let me try to answer.
Humanity Machine is a story of Manufactured People. Soldiers created on demand using an advanced form of 3D printing. More precisely, this is the story of one such soldier: Vance. This is her journey as she grows from just one more cog in the machine to an individual that can shape the destiny of her people.
Humanity Machine is a story of Intense Space Battles. Highly advanced, self-modifying warships slugging it out in the depths of space. Vance serves as one warship’s drone controller, commanding her squadrons of interceptors and bombers against a powerful and tenacious foe.
Humanity Machine is a story of Divided Humanity. Not by politics or ethnicities or faiths, but by technology. It’s a story about how technology molds a society, and how that technology can make its people seem very alien to an outsider. Imagine a society with no families, no children, and no gender roles. Imagine a two-tiered society of the created and the creators. What would that society be like? What would its people be like?
So there it is. Humanity Machine. I’m pretty excited about this one.
And, of course, if I’m going to go through all this effort, I’ve got to give the novel some beautiful artwork. A big thank you to Adam Burn for allowing me to use his artwork for this post. Please check out his DeviantArt page here for more fantastic artwork. If all goes as planned, Adam will be doing the cover art for Humanity Machine, when I reach that point.
Naturally, a lot of hard work lies before me. Humanity Machine already weighs in at a hefty 70,000 words. I expect it to be somewhere between 130,000 and 150,000 words when everything is said and done, and those words aren’t going to write themselves. It’s been a tough experience. This is novel thirteen for me, and it is easily my most ambitious. The outlining alone took me a year to complete.
But it’s all going to be worth it. I can feel it. I hope you share that sentiment when it’s done.
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The Dragons of Jupiter – Kirkus Reviews It!
Kirkus, the gold standard of book reviews, has reviewed The Dragons of Jupiter! And you know what? They liked it! Here is their review in full:
“An entertaining sci-fi action novel with light overtones of dystopian and political thrillers.
In Holo’s debut, set in a future version of our solar system, two brothers find themselves divided by interplanetary war. Kaneda and Ryu Kusanagi are from Europa, a moon of Jupiter, and both are veterans of a past war against a tyrannical artificial intelligence that sought to conquer humanity. In that conflict’s aftermath, they’ve chosen different sides in a new struggle. Kaneda, who hates AIs, fights alongside soldiers called Crusaders as they seek to destroy Matriarch, a “quantum mind” AI who was once human. Ryu, however, is a commando warrior with the Dragons, who fight the Crusaders with stealth and cunning in an effort to protect Matriarch, who guides Europa’s society. Kaneda, however, sees her as a computerized dictator and his old way of life as a lie. The Crusaders pit their powered-armor suits against the Dragons’ enhanced reflexes and invisibility technology. The brothers’ personal conflict is played out on a grand stage with the fates of Europa and three other worlds—Earth, Luna and Jupiter—in the balance. The story sticks to a familiar adventure style, and the battle between the brothers is an old chestnut of melodrama, but it’s told with gusto and conviction. The vivid secondary characters mostly avoid falling into stock types, and some plot twists and moral ambiguity add a bit of sophistication. The strong action scenes are fast-paced throughout (although often harsh and gory), the dialogue flows well, and the fictional world is detailed, plausible and well-designed, from its planets to its spaceships. The author isn’t afraid to show the more grotesque sides of society, which may seem off-putting to some readers, as when characters debate the merits and flaws of using technology to reanimate dead soldiers. There are some typos and minor grammatical errors but nothing that readers will find particularly distracting. The story builds to a satisfying conclusion, and naturally, the author leaves room for sequels.
Well-written, sincere and undemanding military sci-fi adventure.”
– Kirkus Reviews
The review is posted here on the Kirkus website. I must say, I’m very happy with what they wrote. 🙂
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The Dragons of Jupiter – Sequel
Wow. I’ve started getting questions about a sequel to The Dragons of Jupiter. Now that by itself is pretty cool, and I really do appreciate those who’ve asked about it. Instead of throwing out answers at random, I thought it’d be handy to put all of the answers in one convenient place. So, here they are. Answers to questions you may or may not have. Please enjoy! 🙂
Will there be a sequel to The Dragons of Jupiter?
Yes. Absolutely, yes.
*UPDATE 11.14.21 (from HP): Maybe? Back when Jacob wrote this blog, Dragons was our first book and we were still very much tiny little indie authors who had no idea if this publishing thing was even going to work out.
Fast-forward to today, when Jacob has several books under contract with one of the giants of sci-fi publishing, Baen Books (and a few already released). As much as he’d love to continue the Dragons series, when you’re writing under contract, contract work has to take priority, and the Dragons world is so complex technologically that The Dragons of Mars isn’t the kind of novel he can write in spurts between contracted projects.
All this to say, for now, The Dragons of Jupiter is shaping up to be a standalone. We definitely still want to continue the series, but it ultimately comes down to lacking not only the time, but a sufficient stretch of time in which to do it.
What’s it called?
The working title is The Dragons of Mars.
What will it be about?
The ongoing struggle between machine life and human life will continue to drive the story. Many characters from the first book (those that survived, anyway) will appear in the sequel, as it will pick up roughly where the first left off. Deimos, the moon of Mars, will play a major role in the story.
What will happen in it?
I’m not telling. 🙂 But it’s fair to say I have a few surprising twists planned for this book.
When are you going to finish it?
Whoa there! 🙂 I don’t know. I haven’t even started the detailed outlining yet.
I’m currently working on another military sci-fi book called Humanity Machine. Expect lots of epic space battles in this one as well as an unusual take on what a future human society might be. Right now, I am devoting almost all of my writing time to making this novel as awesome as possible. Once the first draft of Humanity Machine is complete, I’ll decide on my next project. The sequel to The Dragons of Jupiter is on the short list of projects I want to tackle next.
Also, check my Humanity Machine short story to get a taste for what the novel has to offer.
FINISH IT FASTER!
I’m sorry. 🙁
Time Reavers – Novel Origin
Here’s the setting. I’m in Stuttgart, Germany, and I’m waiting for the train to arrive at the main station. I look around and think to myself: You know, it would be really cool if I could freeze time and still move around. That would be a handy super power to have.
And boom. I had the idea for Time Reavers.
Seriously, that’s how it happened. It’s as dumb as it sounds.
Soon after that, I sat down in my hotel room and wrote a short story. This story eventually became the first and second chapters of Time Reavers. In it, the main character Nicole gets sucked into a pocket of frozen time (inside a Saint Petersberg subway station, no less), meets a rather quirky swordsman, and helps him fight a reaver.
Friendly looking fellows, aren’t they?
Around this time, I was in a major writing transition. Unsatisfied with my previous ten novels (and, naturally, my inability to get them published), I decided to completely rework my writing style. This process went about as smooth and painless as you’d expect (i.e. not at all). I chose Time Reavers to be the first experiment with this new writing style.
Oh, and just to make this even more difficult, I decided to write a contemporary fantasy novel instead of my usual military sci-fi stuff. No sweat, right?
Right …
But Time Reavers turned out to be the perfect novel for this transition. With most of the story taking place in the real world, I easily avoided many of my earlier pitfalls. I didn’t have to explain the world. Readers already understood it. Planes were planes. Cars were cars. For the first time in four novels, I didn’t have to describe what mnemonic alloy was.
Oh yeah, it felt good.
It became easy to cut the novel down to its core, streamline the prose, and deliver the scenes at a brisk pace. This allowed me to focus on the few fantastical elements, such as the whole freezing time thing, people with super powers, and the reavers.
Ah, yes. The reavers. Oh, did I have fun with these villains. Their basic design started by mixing a bunch of phobias I have. I figured if I find them creepy, other people might as well. By the way, I posed for that artwork. Don’t believe me? CHECK THIS OUT!
Yeah, that’s embarrassing. But at least it’s not as bad as The Dragons of Jupiter reference photos. No seriously. You see the Crusader with the thermal lance? The one on the right? This guy over here?
Yeah, that’s me holding a trash can. I kid you not. For the other two Crusaders, I was holding a paintball gun.
And I’m not showing those pictures. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.
Anyway, even when Time Reavers was finished, it wasn’t really finished. Recently, the novel went through a major edit. I added a few extra action scenes (can never have too many of those), enhanced the role of a side character, cut some of the dead weight near the end, and … oh yeah, dropped everyone’s age by five years.
Yep. I turned Time Reavers into a Young Adult novel. After H.P. read the initial version, she recommended the change to YA. And while, at first, I wasn’t too crazy about it …
H.P. Holo: You should turn this into a young adult book.
Jacob Holo: Seriously? Isn’t it too violent for teens?
H.P. Holo: Pffffthttttttfffffffrrrp! Haven’t you read The Hunger Games?
Jacob Holo: The what games?
H.P. Holo: Oh, we have to fix this.
I eventually warmed to the idea. And now here we are, just about ready to publish our second novel. It’s going to be fun!
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Merry Christmas from Holo Writing!
