Holo Writing

Authors Jacob & H.P. Holo

Monster Hunter

It’s Excess’ Launch Week!

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Another month, another book launch! 🥳 We’re sending 2021 off with a bang, which is to say: the third book in the Monster Punk Horizon series, Excess 😀 – and a collaboration between both Jacob and H.P. – so if you’re a fan of our new GameLit fantasy adventure comedy, read on!

(Or, if you’re totally new to it, peruse our videos for Book 1 and Book 2 to see what it’s all about! 😄)

As always, we’re packing this week with a series of videos that provide a deeper look into Excess and the general world of Monster Punk Horizon, leading up to an official launch party on Thursday, December 23rd, complete with live chatter and prizes galore! Check out the schedule below to see what we have in store this time around, and be sure to follow us on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch to receive notifications when our videos go live! 😀

And of course, don’t forget that you can preorder Excess now on Amazon – or read it starting Thursday on Kindle Unlimited!

Excess Launch Week Events

It’s Isekai Skies’ Launch Week!

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Monster Punk Horizon has been out in the wild a little over a month, which means that it’s almost time for Monster Punk Horizon #2: Isekai Skies to make its debut! 😀

Like last time, H.P. has planned a fun week of readings and chats to lead up to its release on Thursday, November 18th. Check out the schedule below to see what she has in store this time around, and be sure to follow us on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch to receive notifications when her videos go live!

And of course, don’t forget that you can preorder Isekai Skies now on Amazon – or read it starting Thursday on Kindle Unlimited! 😄

Isekai Skies Launch Week Events

The Monster Punk Horizon audiobook is out!

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Hey, Holo fans! 😀 You’ve been waiting patiently, and now we’re pleased to announce that the Monster Punk Horizon audiobook is now live and loose in the wild! 😄

DOWNLOAD IT HERE

I had such a blast working with Tess Irondale on the Time Reavers audiobook several years ago that there was no question of who I wanted to voice the Monster Punk Horizon series. She’s brought the antics of Pix, Jaz, and company alive with aplomb, and I’ve been eager to share it with you since the moment I heard the very first samples.

Speaking of which, here’s a glimpse:

I’m equally eager to hear what you all think of it! 😄 Reader reactions to the book thus far have been wonderful and wildly beyond what I expected, and it’s been a real delight to meet these new readers, whether through their reviews or on our Facebook Page. Here are some of my favorite responses:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ So imagine your gaming console, anime collection, and your box of Steve Jackson’s Munchkin got together for a wild night after you went to bed, and months later gave birth to a book. That book would be called Monster Punk Horizon.

The first few chapters left my ADD-riddled brain scrambling, trying to come to grips with the world I was being presented, and the uber-threat that soon stomps into their world, but as I became comfortable with the knowledge I’d signed on for a wild ride, I just buckled in and got my popcorn ready. MPH is an irreverent good time, loaded with wild, funny and colorful characters.

If you are at all a fan of isekai anime, or Monster Hunter or just a redonkulous good time, pick up Monster Punk Horizon.

Philip K. Booker

Amazon Reviewer

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ HILARIOUS FUN!!! … I haven’t read many books that make me audibly laugh out loud, so I’m very glad I gave this book a chance, because now I can add it to that list! SO. MANY. FUNNY. MOMENTS. As someone who enjoys nerdy, Dungeons-and-Dragons-inspired adventures, this was an absolute thrill to read. The content was very geared for nerdy fans, but the humor and relatable characters made it easy for any reader to understand and have a good time reading!

Melisa

Goodreads Reviewer

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I had to look twice when I spotted this book. I am a huge Monster Hunter fan. I’ve played for thousands of hours for well over a decade and a half. So to say I was excited to find a book about living that kind of life was an understatement!

This book was an adventure. It was exciting, suspenseful, and I loved the characters. The action kept me flipping those pages as fast as I could … This book brought so much nostalgia and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. 

Nina Diab

Amazon Reviewer

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Monster Punk Horizon by H.P. Holo is by far the best book I’ve read all year. The writing is top notch with all the witty dialogue and narration. The whole setting is absolutely insane in the best of ways. All the characters are great as well as distinct. … I will definitely reread it again, I just freaking love it!

Read this book, you won’t regret it.

BookDragon

Goodreads Reviewer

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was a good story, silly in all the right places, and not shying away from the ridiculousness built into the worldbuilding of many games … Well done!

Sarah

Amazon Reviewer

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I really enjoyed this book. The interactions with the main characters, Jaz and Pix, were highly entertaining. Though this book has some flaws, it’s exactly what I wanted it to be. It’s a fun and fast paced read with a memorable cast and great world building. I recommend this to anyone looking for a book that doesn’t take itself too seriously and wants a few laughs out of their books.

David Sherrer

Goodreads Reviewer

I’m delighted that so many have already enjoyed it so much, and look forward to sharing much, much more of the Monster Punk Horizon universe with all of you. 😊

Listen to H.P. chat Monster Punk Horizon on the Blasters and Blades Podcast!

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Hey, Holo fans! 😀 The Blasters and Blades Podcast invited me on to chat Monster Punk Horizon, and it was one of the most fun interviews I’ve ever done.

If you’d like a deeper look into the Monster Punk Horizon universe, or just a general good time, give it a listen! 😄

Also, if you enjoyed what you heard, make sure to follow them on Anchor.fm, Facebook, and Twitter, and if you really enjoyed what you heard, you can support the show here! 😄

It’s Monster Punk Horizon’s Launch Week!

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It’s almost time for Monster Punk Horizon to be unleashed upon the world, and H.P. has lots of fun stuff planned this week to lead up to and beyond the release day (Thursday, October 14th, BTW)! 😀

Be sure to follow us on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch to keep up with all she has planned! Each weeknight for the next two weeks, she’ll host an online video chat exploring a different corner of the Monster Punk Horizon world, taking reader questions – and sometimes giving out signed prizes! 😮 Check out the schedule below to see what’s in store. (Links below go to YouTube and will be updated as available.)

And of course, don’t forget that you can preorder Monster Punk Horizon now on Amazon – or read it starting Thursday on Kindle Unlimited!

Monster Punk Horizon Launch Week+ Events

Excess (Monster Punk Horizon #3) – Cover Reveal!

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If you’ve been following us these past two weeks, you’ve seen the first two books in my new series, Monster Punk Horizon, and now Jacob and I are delighted to bring you the cover reveal for Book 3! 😀

Art by Jackson Tjota

Excess (Monster Punk Horizon #3)
by Jacob & H.P. Holo


🌟 GameLit 🌟 Crafting 🌟 Adventure 🌟 Comedy 🌟


✨ Coming December 23rd, 2021 ✨

Audio Release Date TBD


🐉🐉🐉

Loot Like Your Life Depends On It!

Losing a trusty weapon is like losing a close friend, and Pix’s beloved capacitor blade is on its last legs.

Fortunately, she has a plan to craft a new, even better weapon. Unfortunately, her plan involves hunting down a vicious migrating monster that has more teeth than some hunters have brain cells. Even worse, this new creature has riled up the apex monster of Skull Harbor, and both of them are spoiling for a fight.

But Pix has one thing they don’t: a party foolhardy enough to take them both on.

She’ll need all the help she can get, because it’ll take all their combined luck, skill, and oversized weapons to put down these two monsters. But her friends have her back. After all, there’s awesome loot to be had!

If they manage to survive…

Preorder Here!
Or Read a Sample of Book One Here!

Excess is unique from the previous two Monster Punk Horizon books in that it’s a collaboration between me and Jacob!

While I was writing Book 1, Jacob became so fascinated with the world he watched me create that he wanted to write a story in it – and since he was between books in the Gordian Division series at the time, he took the lore I’d already established in Book 1, created a new monster, and churned out the rough draft of Book 3 before I’d even started Book 2! 😄 I then went over it after I’d finished Book 2 and  H.P.-ified the parts Jacob had marked “write whatever here.”

Excess is slightly different in style, too, in that it follows Pix more than Jaz – which is to say, it follows Jacob’s Monster Hunter character instead of my Monster Hunter character. 😉

As you may have guessed from the vibe of the covers, one of Monster Punk Horizon‘s original inspirations came from our nights playing Monster Hunter World together. It’s not quite fanfiction; in fact, my first step when designing the series was to create a world whose basic mechanics and essential history were independent of the various fictions that inspired it, but that still allowed me to pay homage to those fictions and to insert Easter Eggs for fans. 

Even so, our gameplay experience in Monster Hunter World is very much in the DNA of the Monster Punk Horizon series, and particularly in how Pix and Jaz came to be in the first place. Jacob and I have wildly different play styles, his very strategic and mine very … not.  😆 Plus, when I play video games, I have a tendency to invent headcanons totally separate from the lore of whatever game I’m playing – especially in games with stories as simple as Monster Hunter World‘s.

Because of that, Pix and Jaz had personalities and backstories before I even knew I was going to write Monster Punk Horizon, solely because I needed a way to entertain myself during loading screens, and making up stuff about our player characters was a fun way to do it. It’s no coincidence, then, that Jaz is the Leeroy Jenkins of the pair (me), while Pix is the methodical gamer who likes to go in with a plan (Jacob). Stories told from Jaz‘s perspective – that is, Books 1 and 2 – are thus rather more chaotic than stories told from Pix‘s perspective, which I think brings a nice balance to the series as a whole.  After all, even worlds as crazy as this one need a break from the craziness every now and then. 😊

Excess (Monster Punk Horizon #3) is set to release on Kindle Unlimited this December, and is already available for preorder.

And again, if you’d like to be one of the lucky people to read it early, be sure to join the Pug Scouts – our VIP Street Team! 😀 I’ll be sending out eARCs soon, and all you have to do in exchange for your free book is post a review once the book is live!

Join Our Street Team Here!

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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.

Isekai Skies (Monster Punk Horizon #2) Cover Reveal!

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Last week, you saw a peek at Book 1 in my new GameLit adventure comedy series, Monster Punk Horizon. 😀

Now, since the second is going to crash-land soon after its release – a month, to be exact – here’s the cover reveal for Book 2! 😮

Cover art by Jackson Tjota

Isekai Skies (Monster Punk Horizon #2)


🌟 GameLit 🌟 Portal Fantasy 🌟 Adventure 🌟 Comedy 🌟


✨ Coming November 18th, 2021 ✨

Audio Release Date TBA

🐉🐉🐉

I Got Engaged and Ended Up in Another World!

An epic convention. An epic cosplay. An epic engagement. It was the best night of Kaito’s life—until the ground opened up beneath him.

Well, technically, a portal did. Either way, it sucked.

Now, trapped in another world with rampaging monsters, he’ll have to learn to survive. Fortunately, this world is conveniently similar to his favorite video game. And he’s got monster hunting experts (?) Pix and Jaz to show him the ropes.

With their help, he might last long enough to find a way home.

But if not, at least he’ll have fun hunting monsters before he dies!

Preorder Here!
Or Read a Sample of Book One Here!

Last week, you met my series protagonists Pix and Jaz, two girls who just want to hunt monsters and pay off their college loans. They were born and raised in the monster-dominated world under the Dazzling Skies, so named because its sky is taken up by thousands of glittering portals to other worlds, which constantly dump interesting loot and monsters for them to hunt –

And sometimes people for them to save.

Which makes the Dazzling Skies a perfect setting for an isekai story.

If you’re unfamiliar with the word – “isekai” is a Japanese term meaning “different world” and refers specifically to light novels and anime in which a character is transported from their familiar world into a fantasy world, often with distinct video game trappings.

I was indifferent to the isekai genre when I first encountered it several years ago, but as the genre developed and began to play with and parody its own tropes, I grew to love it – especially Overlord, The Rising of the Shield Hero and – I kid you not – Reborn as a Vending Machine, Now I Wander the Dungeon (Review here, btw! 😀).

And, while I hadn’t set out to write isekai stories at the inception of this series, I quickly realized that the basic structure of the world I’d set up lent itself well to such stories. This structure, in turn, would allow me to show the bizarre world of the Dazzling Skies from an outsider’s perspective.

Book 2‘s protagonist, Kaito, is from a strange world himself – a far-future version of our world where everyone has hyper-advanced biotech altering their perception of reality, and where a particularly angry breed of cow changed the course of history – but the world under the Dazzling Skies is far stranger than anything he’s ever encountered. Though, fortunately for him, it does share some similarities with his favorite Immersive Video Game series … 😉

Isekai Skies (Monster Punk Horizon #2) is set to release on Kindle Unlimited this November, and is already available for preorder.

And again, if you’d like to be one of the lucky people to read it early, be sure to join the Pug Scouts – our VIP Street Team! 😀 I’ll be sending out eARCs soon, and all you have to do in exchange for your free book is post a review once the book is live!

Join Our Street Team Here!

In the meantime, keep your eyes on the blog next week for the cover reveal of Monster Punk Horizon #3!  😀

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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.

Introducing Monster Punk Horizon – a New GameLit Series from H.P. Holo!

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Yesterday’s blog post told you there’d be interesting book-and-monster-related news, and here it is!

It’s been a looooong time coming, but I’m excited to announce that I finally have a new series coming out! 😀

What new series is this, you ask? 😮 Well, read on!

Where my last book The Wizard’s Way was a love letter to all things steampunk, this series is a love letter to all things monster – hunting, collecting, researching … and sometimes, befriending and bribing into badass kaiju battles. 😄

See, while I was in the process of writing The (still-in-progress) Wizard’s Circus, I flipped through some of my early writing notebooks from middle school and junior high. Around that time, I was obsessed with Pokémon, Digimon, Monster Rancher, and virtually every other monster franchise that was coming over from Japan at that time – and it showed in my writing. There were monsters and monster trainers/tamers/friends everywhere, and as I continued to flip through these notebooks, I realized that decades later, I’m still into these kinds of franchises.

After all, as of recently, Jacob and I have been spending our weekends competing in Digimon Card Game tournaments, and even before that we spent most evenings playing Monster Hunter World and Monster Hunter Rise together!

It was then that an idea hit me, and would not let go until I’d brought it to realization – a series that pays loving homage to all those monster franchises in much the same way The Wizard’s Way did to steampunk fantasy.

And so, without further ado, I present to you Monster Punk Horizon, a GameLit fantasy adventure comedy coming soon to Kindle Unlimited! 

Cover art by Jackson Tjota

Monster Punk Horizon #1

🌟 GameLit 🌟 Fantasy 🌟 Adventure 🌟 Comedy 🌟

✨ Coming October 14th, 2021! ✨

Audio Release Date TBA

🐉🐉🐉

Monster Hunting for Fun and Profit!

Pix and Jaz are two girls who just want to hunt monsters, craft armor, and pay off their college loans—but when a colossal new monster falls through the portals in the Dazzling Skies, it’ll take all their skills to survive it.

Their skill levels? Slightly above noob.

Fortunately, they have their oversized swords, a lot of sass … and one giant monster friend who might help them out.

For a price…

Preorder Here!
Or Read a Sample Here!

The eBook is already up for preorder on Amazon (and paperback and audio are coming), but if you’d like to be one of the lucky people to read it early, be sure to join the Pug Scouts – our VIP Street Team! 😀

Join our Street Team Here!

I’ll be sending review copies out to Street Team members soon, and all you have to do in return for your free copy is post a review online once the book releases! 😀

In the meantime, keep an eye on the blog for next week’s cover reveal for Monster Punk Horizon #2! 😄

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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.