Writing

The Dragons of Jupiter: Cover Rough Sketch, Version 2!

April 4, 2013 by holojacob 5 Comments

Kaneda’s dropfighter ground to a halt just outside the city. Explosive bolts blew the rear hatch open. The locks holding his armor released.
“Move out!” Kaneda shouted.
Crusaders stormed out of the dropfighter. Kaneda raised his Gatling gun and followed. He stepped off the metal ramp and onto the moon’s surface. Ice crunched under his boots. Leftover gel from the bombing run still burned in patches on the gray, drab buildings. Crusaders splashed through shallow pools that quickly refroze.
“Spread out! Secure those buildings!”
Jupiter’s storm-wracked face rose in front of him. Kaneda paused and looked at the planet. It filled the horizon from end to end. Ten years had passed since he’d seen the mighty gas giant with his own eyes. And now he was home again, on Europa, with ice under his boots. He even recognized some of the buildings. The nostalgia of the moment hit him harder than he thought possible, and he hesitated.
The second thing that hit him was a needle grenade exploding in his face.

Excerpt from The Dragons of Jupiter, by Jacob Holo

Robert Chew, a.k.a. CrazyAsian1, has created a new rough sketch for my cover. I have to say, it is fantastic! He has expertly captured the feel I wanted.
The cover maintains the overall layout from previous versions, wrapping around the book. Three crusaders on the front cover, advancing. One dragon on the back, waiting for a chance to strike. They look so cool!
Robert continues to be an excellent artist to work with. He has been very professional throughout this entire process, and I have no doubt that will continue.
Next up, color studies!
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The Dragons of Jupiter: Cover Rough Sketches!

March 25, 2013 by holojacob 2 Comments

Excerpt from The Dragons of Jupiter, by Jacob Holo

Oh, man! I have been so excited about this! Robert Chew (a.k.a CrazyAsian1) has begun working on the cover. He produced a few rough sketches for me to review, and I have to say, they have me giddy with excitement.
The cover is set up to wrap around the book, so most of the left half will be on the back cover. The front prominently features three crusaders, elite heavy infantry that are the antagonists of the novel. A lone dragon, one of the protagonists, hides on the back cover, ready to ambush in ninja-like fashion.
Robert has been great to work with. As we began to discuss the specifics of the cover, his attention to detail has been very impressive. Just to give you an idea, below is one of the first things he asked me during the concept phase.
“Now the purely logical side in me is wondering how Kaneda and his fellow Crusaders could heft around gatling guns. In my mind gatling guns are very heavy. The gun itself, the power source to get the barrel spinning, and the ammo. I’m wondering if the Crusaders use exoskeleton power armor to help them carry this stuff around. I could see them carrying this stuff around in space with 0G’s, but on the surface… Could you provide some insight into that for me? This will determine the character designs so I need to know.”
Ladies and gentlemen, that attention to detail is the sign of a true professional. Even at this early stage, Robert has done a superb job of capturing the look and feel I’m after. Check out these quick character studies Robert did of the crusaders.

The helmet designs are Robert Chew’s signature touch, and they have a striking profile that I just adore. I’m absolutely thrilled he’s letting me put them on the cover. I may ask for a few minor tweaks to the crusader armor, but they are already a fantastic design.
The first rough sketch I posted is my favorite, but the other two are also quite impressive. Check out this one.

And the last one.

And finally, just for laughs, here’s the original picture I sent Robert. As you can see, my crack PowerPoint skills were pushed to their limit.

Seriously, though. In my defense, I am not an artist. However, it did get the job done of communicating the layout to him … and it probably gave him a chuckle too.
Having an awesome cover for my book isn’t too far off now. After that, it’s time to publish this bad boy!
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Dungeon Master Writes Novel that Writes Campaign that Writes Novel

March 23, 2013 by holojacob 4 Comments

Last year, I played Dungeons and Dragons for the first time. My wife got me started on the hobby. I played a character I affectionately remember as the “Burninator”, a wizard whose first response to any problem was to set it on fire.
It was loads of fun, but I wanted more. I wanted to drive the campaign, create the mood, and tell the story. I wanted to be the Dungeon Master.
I told our group about my writing hobby and how I thought one of my books would be a great setting for a campaign. It was an urban fantasy novel called Time Reavers, and it had plenty of formidable monsters to fight and interested powers for the characters to use. They basically said, “Sure, why not? We’ll give that a try.”
I went to work, feverishly converting the creatures and abilities from my novel into a coherent rule set, using Pathfinder as a template. The result was Time Reavers: A D&D Campaign, and it was a surprising success.
The players really enjoyed the unique setting. These weren’t skeletons and kobolds anymore. They had to contend with a whole new bestiary. Every encounter was a mystery, every new creature feared for its unknown strengths and weaknesses. Even their own abilities were revealed piece by piece.
The group enjoyed it so much that I am now running my second campaign with them. That’s great just by itself, but the biggest benefit came as a complete surprise.
You see, Time Reavers was a dead novel to me. I’d written it years ago and tried to get it published. That failed, so I tossed it away and moved on to another story. I’ve done this repeatedly over the years. It’s just the way I handle my hobby. I always try to look forward and not dwell on a failed experiment.
But running the campaign sparked my creative juices. I crafted new scenarios that didn’t exist in the book, and I even designed totally new creatures. The players came up with solutions I hadn’t thought about, indirectly adding their own creative spark. When the campaign finished, I looked at my notes and realized I had the blueprints to totally revitalize my novel.
And so I did just that. It was strange revisiting a dead project, but also a lot of fun. I revamped the main character, added a secondary protagonist and some old-fashioned conflict between the two. I wrote two brand new action scenes, spiced them up with one of the new creature types, and cut the fat out of the third act.
It took months. The 58,000 word urban fantasy novel I started with became a 70,000 YA urban fantasy novel, and it’s a much stronger story than its predecessor.
So what’s the next step? Well, I’m going to try to get the thing published. And if that fails, I’m going to do what I’m doing with The Dragons of Jupiter. I’m going to self-publish.
Wish me luck!
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Dungeon Master Messes with Player Sympathy

March 10, 2013 by holojacob 4 Comments

As a writer, I find being the dungeon master of our local RPG sessions to be a challenging and rewarding experience. In a lot of ways, it’s like writing a novel.
Yeah, like writing. Heh. Like writing on the fly with a captive audience. Like writing where any lovingly-crafted character may be put to death by the “readers”. Like writing where no matter how many signs I put down saying GO RIGHT, the “readers” are still going to go left because, you know, there might be something cool over there.
It’s a lot of fun, and it keeps me on my toes. Every session the players do something I never expected, and so I have to think fast to make it entertaining. Otherwise people aren’t having fun and won’t come back. Also, let’s face it, the best part about being the DM is getting to mess with people, their expectations, and even their sympathies.
Player sympathy is a tricky proposition. How do I get the players to care about an NPC? After all, the same guy who portrays the NPC (namely me) also handles every nightmarish terror trying to shoot, maim, incinerate, or digest the party. Not the best grounds for a trusting relationship.
But I found a fast and easy workaround. So easy, I almost consider it cheating. Almost.
Allow me a moment to set the stage.
We play using a house-modified Pathfinder ruleset. The setting is science fiction spanning the whole solar system, but nothing too crazy. No shields or warp drive or artificial gravity. The party had just escaped captivity while on the Moon and were making their way north across a lunar city.
That’s when they met Pochi. He’s a talking dog.
Yep, I did it. I used a talking animal. I even gave him a Scooby Doo voice. Partly because everyone thought it was funny, and partly because it’s an easy voice for me to perform when sick.
Now, this wasn’t some cuddly, white-haired Maltese with big eyes and a cute, button nose.

No, this was a man-sized dog in power armor with a gun on his back and chainsaw teeth. Something more like this.

Yeah. Not exactly a dog you want jumping into your lap. The first time the party saw him, he ripped an enemy combatant’s throat out.
But they loved him all the same. At one point, Pochi helped the party fight off a group of four very nasty commandos and almost got himself killed. One of the commandos threw his smoldering, horribly-burned carcass off the roof. It landed in front of the party.
Oh, you should have seen their faces when I described the scene! Nobody messes with the dog! The party went after the commandos with reckless abandon and tore them a new one. It was awesome! The battle had emotional punch for them. They CARED. Afterward they discovered Pochi wasn’t quite dead and used most of their healing items to revive him.
Pochi is fine, by the way, just in case you were wondering.
Now, let’s compare this moment to one with a human NPC. In an earlier session, one of the players met a relative on the field of battle. A cousin by the name of Viter to be precise. I set it up so the players could, fairly easily, gain his trust and use his help during the coming battles. I had Viter join in near the end of a fight and help out, reinforcing the fact he was a potential ally. I even took one of the players aside and filled him in on the necessary backstory, stressing that he was on good terms with this NPC.
So what’s the first thing the players try to do? They try to STAB HIM IN THE BACK! I’m not kidding! They didn’t trust this heavily armed dude in front of them, and they wanted him out of the equation.
Let’s recap that, shall we?
Human NPC, just helped fight off an enemy, related to one of the players, ALMOST GETS A KNIFE IN THE BACK!
Talking dog NPC, just ripped a guy’s throat out, not related to anyone (obviously), gets saved by the party.
Huh. Well, whatever works. As long as we’re all having fun, right? And in this case, we are definitely having fun.
Click here to enjoy some of our misadventures.