Holo Writing

Authors Jacob & H.P. Holo

In Death Ground

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

by 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, “Oh, you should talk to David’s wife.”

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.

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

by 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 “the other guy” 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, “I do not recommend starting here.”

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, “The tornado’s not here yet, and I still have half an hour left on my audiobook.”

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 “go,” 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:

“Jacob. 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!”

So … we went.

Continue to Act II here!

In Death Ground by David Weber and Steve White – Book Review

by 1 Comment

In Death Ground by David Weber and Steve White – Review
IN SHORT: A race of genocidal alien bugs has targeted humanity, and they’re coming after us with a lot of ships. I mean, A LOT OF SHIPS.
WHAT IT IS: Expect lots of extremely detailed and well-written combat. Stuff blows up in this book. LOTS of stuff. The military tech of In Death Ground is coherent, detailed, and well thought out. There’s a lot to take in, but I never felt overwhelmed. Even with all the SBMs, AFHAWKs, primaries, heterodyne lasers, force beams, plasma cannons, sprint-mode missiles, and a ton of different ship classes, the novel delivers it at a controlled pace, doling out a few new pieces of tech in each battle. This keeps the combat fresh and exciting.
WHAT IT IS NOT: The characters, while distinct and entertaining, are not the real stars here, and it shows. The viewpoint bounces around quite a bit. As soon as I got comfortable with one group of characters, I had to learn a whole new cast. These viewpoint shifts paint a great picture of a war on multiple fronts, but at the cost of character development.
WHAT I THOUGHT: In Death Ground is fun. The action is fast paced and exciting. Every battle has some sort of interesting twist to it. It’s just a great page turner. Without a doubt, I enjoyed following humanity’s struggle against this unstoppable, genocidal alien juggernaut.
The technical details give it a layer of depth and consistency that just feels right. Humans have the technology advantage. The bugs have massive numbers and just don’t care about casualties. The tactics each side employs are well thought out and consistent within the setting … for the most part. Sometimes the bug “we don’t care how many of us die” mentality can come across as a little stupid.
On a thematic level, this is not a complicated book. The military characters are very heroic. The politicians are complete scum. And the bugs are the bad guys. Period. No question about it. I mean, they even eat human babies, for goodness sake. There is no ambiguity here.
The novel does show a little of the bug perspective, but only in a military tactical sense. At no point does the reader get any insight into why the bugs invaded or who they really are. They are faceless, remorseless killers that serve as foils for the heroic humans. That’s it.
But that’s okay. This is an action novel. I wanted spaceships to blow up in exciting ways, and I got it. If that’s what you’re after, then In Death Ground will not disappoint.
VERDICT: Recommended.