I do a lot behind the scenes at Holo Writing, from actual novel-writing to handling our graphic design, marketing, and social media presence. One of my most recent projects has been teaching myself to design eBooks in Adobe InDesign*, and this is the fruit of that! 😀
Then I figured, while I’m updating the guts, I might as well update the cover, too, especially now that The Gordian Protocol has officially made Jacob a National Bestselling Author! 😲 Man, does it feel good to put that on a cover. 🤩
And so, without further ado, say hello to the new eBook edition of The Dragons of Jupiter!
*An FYI for aspiring authors: We’d previously hired eBook Launch to handle our eBook formatting, and they’re fantastic, but now that we’re definitely In This For The Long Run, I figured it would be good to learn how to build our indie books from the bottom up.
I mainly chose InDesign because I already had access to it through Adobe’s Creative Cloud and figured I might as well get my subscription’s worth. Plus, I like that it allows me to have infinitesimally specific control over what’s in my files (even if it’s a beast to learn 😬).
However, I wanted to add for the emerging authors who want a simpler, less technical mode of eBook production: Vellum is reputed to be an awesome piece of software, and at just $100, should probably be one of your first purchases as an indie if you plan on publishing lots of books. For comparison, paid formatting for us often costs $100ish PER eBOOK.
We didn’t know about Vellum when we started – if it even existed back then – but I wish we had, as having direct control over your eBook files makes it A LOT easier (and cheaper) to update internal links and booklists, change front and back matter, etc. As quickly as marketing strategies change in the indie publishing industry, any software that can help you nimbly alter your product to suit the market is Good Software To Have.
Personally, I’ve only played with the trial version of Vellum (and found it wondrously easy to use), but I have author buds who use it regularly and love it.
Hope this helps those of you who are just getting started! 😊
Space Marines
Introducing the Pug of War!
Sometimes a piece of fanart comes along that digs into your brain and won’t let go.
Last year at SC ComiCon, Phouthong Phimmarath surprised us with this little beauty, plopping the beloved pug butler from The Wizards Way into a fierce suit of Crusader armor from The Dragons of Jupiter.
You’ll recognize Phouthong’s work if you’ve looked at the logos or squinted at the fleurons inside the print editions Seraphim Revival books. He’s already done fantastic art for us, and so it was an easy decision to commission a cleaned-up, graphical version of that initial brilliant sketch.  He does a lot of sharp, graphical superhero art, too, so if you’d like to see more of this greatness, check out his art page.
Anyway, his Crusader Pug was a combination we never knew we needed, and the more we stared at it, the more we realized, we needed it on a shirt. And a poster. And a sticker. And a bookmark. And a mousepad. AND EVERYTHING. And quickly we realized that this little dude wasn’t just a doodle. He had mascot potential.
And so now we bring you the new face of Holo Writing:
The Pug of War
Sweet, snuggly, and loyal, there’s no pug you’d rather have by your side. Especially when threats like giant robots and alien bugs and evil wizards show up. When he can’t solve a problem with snuggles…well, that’s what the Gatling gun’s for. But snuggles are his preferred method of attack. I mean, just look at his squishy squish face! 😀 😀 😀
No one knows from whence he came or why, but he will be there when the world needs him.
On a related note, we’ll be bringing Pug of War swag with us to cons, but if we’re not coming to a con near you, never fear! That’s what our new loot shop is for!
Here you’ll be able to find shirts, posters, signed books, and other miscellaneous Holo Writing swag! We’re still waiting on a few more products to post before its ~ Official Launch ~ but until then, feel free to swing on by and check out some adorable, awesome stuff! 😀 😀 😀
Warhammer 40K: Chaos Daemons Army
Presenting my Warhammer 40K “count as” Chaos Daemons Tzeentch army, with 95% conversions.
My Chaos Daemons army is easily the craziest modeling project I’ve ever embarked upon. All but one model in the entire army have some sort of conversion work, and many involved extensive conversions. The theme behind the army is a space marine force gone horribly wrong. It’s what happens to space marines when they pass their expiration dates. I wanted the chaotic elements to look like they were exploding out of space marine armor, which involved a lot of Chaos spawn kits, as well as a friend’s Dark Angels army.
Yes, that’s right. I purchased a friend’s Dark Angels army for the sole purpose of mutilating them beyond recognition. After dunking them in Pine-Sol, I began plucking off limbs and cutting them up with a hobby saw. Mix in copious amounts of green stuff, and you can clearly see the results.
I purchased 3 daemon princes for this army. The wings went to my Tyranids so that I could have flying hive tyrants. That left me with a lot of spare daemon arms with really cool weapons. But what to do with them? I decided to use them as Khorne bloodletters. The imagery of these giant arms growing out of space marine halves is pretty ridiculous, so it suits me just fine.
The Nurgle plaguebearers were the simpliest conversions. I used mostly-whole space marines with some green slimy tendrils coming out and green fluid leaking out of the armor. And there they were. A pack of plaguebearers. Nothing to it.
With all the Chaos spawn kits I went through, I had a lot of spawn torsos I wasn’t using. I put the torsos on top of inverted Space Marine jump packs and build them into my Tzeentch flamers. Ridiculous, I know, but that’s just how I roll with this army.
My Tzeentch screamers were made with the stock Tzeentch pink horror kits, minus the arms and legs. The only tricky parts here were drilling the holes for the flying bases and filing down a few knobs on the models where the legs are supposed to attach.
But, my favorite parts of the army are the Tzeentch Heralds and the Tzeentch Pink Horrors. I had a lot of fun coming up with some really crazy conversions.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.
Warhammer 40K: Space Wolves Wolf Guard Conversions
Presenting my Warhammer 40K “count as” Space Wolves wolf guard conversions.
The wolf guard conversions form the meat of this army, and they take a lot of forms. The large size of the terminator bases, as well as the models themselves, presented a lot of opportunities for some really dynamic poses and interesting bases. I used two Imperial Guard Cadian shock troop kits for victims, and tried to put in a lot of variety.
I modeled most of this army over a friend’s house while he worked on his Blood Angels. A few times, I showed him what I was working on.
***
“Do you think this is too extreme?” I asked.
He looked up at my latest creation and burst out laughing.
“Too much?”
He shook his head. “Naaahhhhh.”
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.
Warhammer 40K: Space Wolves Vindicator Conversions
Presenting my Warhammer 40K “count as” Space Wolves vindicator conversions.
What do you get when you cross 3 Space Marine vindicator kits, spare Cadians, a lot of green stuff, and an overactive imagination? Something like this!
Each vindicator kit comes with a cannon shell. I took one, built up a plume of green stuff, and attached it to the cannon. That gave one of the vindicators a nice, “I’m firing!!!” action pose. On another shell, I used a Chaos spawn tentacle and had it grab hold from the back of the vindicator. I also added various blue glowy things oozing their way out of the vehicle, reinforcing the sense that not all was as it seems with these machines. And just because that wasn’t ridiculous enough, I added some poor victims being pulled in and eaten.
As usual, I had a big glob of green stuff left over. So I put it to good use. The grotesque “ball” is not attached to the vehicle. It’s one of my objective markers for this army, which normally gets some interesting comments from fellow players.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.
Warhammer 40K: Space Wolves Dreadnought Conversion
Presenting my Warhammer 40K “count as” Space Wolves dreadnought conversion.
This dreadnought conversion was actually a little trickier than it looks. The model is mostly stock, except the feet were adjusted slightly to allow it to stop on a poor Cadian. Getting the angle right proved difficult, given the lack of mobility in the stock model. Green stuff and Chaos Spawn parts went into the blue glowy growths. The Cadian on fire was easy enough to make with a big blob of green stuff and some simple sculpting to make it look … at least a little bit … like a burning fire.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.
Warhammer 40K: Space Wolves Army
Presenting my Warhammer 40K “count as” Space Wolves terminator army.
I’ve loved terminators for about as long as I’ve loved Warhammer 40K, and I always had this itch to do an all-terminator army. When the 5th Edition Space Wolves codex came out in 2009, I picked it up and was immediately drawn to the customization options with Wolf Guard. Since taking Logan Grimnar made Wolf Guard count as troops, I knew what I had to do next … start buying terminator kits!
The army consists of 2 Space Marine terminator kits, 2 Chaos Space Marine terminator kits, the Space Hulk terminators, and a Chaos terminator lord all put into a blender with Chaos spawn parts. It was a blast to put together!
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.
Warhammer 40K: Tyranid Tervigon Conversion
Presenting my Warhammer 40K Tyranid Tervigon conversion, with vomited termagants.
I used the trygon kit to build this tervigon. For the “birthing” part of its rules, I decided to show it in a rather unconventional way. My tervigon vomits termagants! I used the Mawloc jaw as a base along with green stuff and half a termagant. I also expanded the throat with green stuff, giving the model a bulge the rest of the termagant could exist in. A glowing, gooey pile with new termagants reinforces this odd premise.
And, of course, I had to throw in a dying space marine. Just because.
The local ultramarines player really didn’t care for my tyranid models … not sure why …
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.
Warhammer 40K: Tyranid Mawloc Conversion
Presenting my Warhammer 40K Tyranid Mawloc conversion.
The mawloc is based on the trygon kit, but I heavily modified the head. I used the mawloc mouths and tongues from three trygon kits along with green stuff to form the head. The space marine was easily add by cutting the ends of the tongues, gluing the space marine body in place, and gluing the tips to the space marine.
I wanted the mawloc to look like it had just crashed out of the ground, and so the other space marines are positioned as if they were just flung from the mawloc with impressive force, one of them in two directions at once. After completing conversions to the body, I had green stuff left over.
I couldn’t let it go to waste, so I added a big ribbon of blood between the severed halves of a space marine … because, you know, the model wasn’t far enough over-the-top yet.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.
Warhammer 40K: Tyranid Broodlord Conversion
Presenting my Warhammer 40K Tyranid Broodlord conversion, with freshly sliced space marine.
This conversion used genestealer and tyranid warrior parts. Only the head and the feet are from the genestealer kit. One genestealer foot came with an extension for slotting into the base. I took that extension and merged it with the rubble to support the broodlord. The other foot and one knee provide additional support against the rubble. Even with the low weight of the plastic parts, the base had to be weighted. I used leftover metal bits underneath the base.
The marine was assembled whole, then sawed apart. I used green stuff to give him an acidic, melting look. I tried to make it look like the broodlord had zipped by, leaving the space marine to slowly slide apart in a cool, anime style.
As with all of my tyranids, the broodlord has no eyes since I am a big fan of the movies Alien and Aliens. In this case, the eyes were covered with a very small amount of green stuff.
The broodlord was my second tyranid model, and it remains one of my favorites. I love that only a little bit of his tail is actually over the base!
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.
Warhammer 40K: Tyranid Zoanthrope Conversion
Presenting my Warhammer 40K Tyranid Zoanthrope, with psychically exploding space marine.
The exploding space marine was made using standard space marine bits, metal wire, and green stuff. I used the wire to create a sub-structure and then built the green stuff on top of it in layers until I reached sufficient levels of ridiculousness. I then added the space marine parts to the exploding “frame.”
Due to the low weight of the exploding space marine and the high weight of the metal Zoanthrope, it’s easy to get a very dynamic pose. I used a piece of gothic terrain to extend the space marine far beyond the base, which makes it even more ridiculous.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.