Holo Writing

Authors Jacob & H.P. Holo

anthology

Moggie Noir is out today!

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Hey, y’all! H.P. here! 😄 If you like cats, noir, and short stories, you’re in for a treat, because Raconteur Press just dropped Moggie Noir (complete with a new story from yours truly)!

Moggie Noir

Anthology Edited by Rita Beeman
Published by Raconteur Press

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The question remains whether you should tuck into this volume in a comfy chair for a bit of adventure. Well, if you like cats, there’s more than a little of something you love in the pages or pixels herein because, instead of a bland all-two-legger cast, these stories feature felines as central or pivotal characters. If you are a fan of noir fiction, you’ll enjoy how these authors have explored this genre and maybe stretched the bounds of what you find familiar. Some are set in the 1930s, some are present day, and some are who-knows-when.

After all, who better than a cat might convey the contradictions of a ruthless killer enrobed in the most exquisite package of sumptuous fur with glittering emerald eyes? No one, see? Cats are the ultimate expression of the noir aesthetic, and we hope you will agree, but fasten your seatbelts: it’s going to be a bumpy read.

READ MOGGIE NOIR HERE

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This particular anthology marks a REALLY COOL POINT in my author career. 😀

Last year, Raconteur Press invited me to be an anchor author for a project themed around noir and cats.

Had I ever written in the noir genre? NOPE. Had I even read a noir novel? NOPE. The closest I’d come was watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit? It’s my favorite movie of all time, granted … but it’s not exactly a standard noir. 

Sure, I’d written about cats, but noir’s a very distinct genre with very distinct tropes.

And yet RacPress had such faith in my writing, they were confident I’d produce an anchor-worthy story in a genre I’d never touched. 😮

I have since touched the genre A LOT, and much like Jacob with police procedurals and the File novels … found a new genre I love to write in. 😄

All this to say, I’m excited for you to meet the two newest tenants of my head in “Logan Decker, P.I. and the Bodies Agatha Definitely Didn’t Put There.” 😄 One’s a gruff, jaded PI; the other’s the ghost of a cat who spent all nine lives. Together they’ll solve crimes (or do them, Agatha’s cool with either). 😸

I had a lot of fun writing it, and I hope you have just as much fun reading it!

READ MOGGIE NOIR HERE

Time Troopers is out today!

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Time Troopers Cropped

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

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

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

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Time Troopers Book Cover

Time Troopers

Anthology Edited by Hank Davis and Christopher Ruocchio

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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!

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Men Hunting Things – Book Review

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I picked up David Drake’s Men Hunting Things anthology for its amusingly frank title and, as has been a trend as of late, ended up finding a new favorite anthology. 😀 

Its straightforward title belies a book of unexpected variety and complexity.

While some of the stories are simple and hilarious (Wilson Tucker’s “Gentlemen, The Queen!”), others offer a deep and often unsettling look at the psychologies of hunter and hunted, and frequently question which is actually the animal (or monster) in the story – the literal target, or the one hunting that target (or commissioning the hunt, in the case of Robert Silverberg’s “The Day The Monsters Broke Loose.”)  

There’s a great diversity of story types, too, from the hard sci-fi of Clifford D. Simak’s “Good Night, Mr. James” and Eric Frank Russell’s “Mechanical Mice” to the moody Victorian-style horror of Alister McAllister’s “The Hunting on the Doonagh Bog” to the downright dystopia of Henry Kuttner’s “Home is the Hunter.”

I name these as standouts, but honestly there’s not a bad story in the bunch. If you’re looking for an anthology that balances the fun with the deep and hard sci-fi with the light, give it a try!

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