Hey, y’all! š If you’re in the Greenville, SC area, come on over to the Artist’s Alley at SC ComiCon this weekend (April 6-7th)! Jacob and I will be at Booth 918, signing books and generally hanging out. š
Uncategorized
The Hot Springs Episode is now out on Audible!
Y’all, Royal Guard Publishing, Daryl Mayfield, and Jess Trepanier are ON IT! šThey got the audio version of The Hot Springs Episode out before I’d even finished laying out the final eBook/print versions! š®
That said, go forth and listen! It’s a lil’ bite-sized thing at a bit over 3 hours, but it’s also the lovely snack-sized prize of $5. Enjoy! š¤¤
What’s Edie up to these days?
Itās been some MONTHS, yāall. š«
After releasing Titan Mage Apocalypse this past June, I took some time off to recharge my creative brain.
Iād intended to start writing again in late July, but then my grandma was hospitalized, my dad had surgery, I got sick, my cat got sick, my cat died, we got a new kitten who is chaos incarnate, and then we went to Disney World.
Somewhere in there I managed to write three chapters of the next Titan Mage seriesābut with all that madness affecting my writing, they ended up being pretty crap chapters, so I junked them.
All this to say, my life has finally sorta calmed down, and now Iām Officially Back to Writing! š
In the past month, Iāve finished two Titan Mage short stories for anthologies that are coming out early next year. (More on that when preorder links are up.)
The husband and I have also re-outlined the mess that was the next Titan Mage bookāand completely outlined a brand-new monster girl trilogy in a new universe!
Well, new-ish. On my non-spicy H.P. Holo penname, I wrote Monster Punk Horizon, a GameLit series inspired by all things Monster Hunter, Pokemon, Digimon, and generally monster hunting/collecting/befriending.
Iāve had a lot of requests for a monster girl series, and it occurred to me that the world of that setting would be perfect for one.
Thus, Iād like to introduce you to Monster Girl Tamer! š
Itās already being posted on the Apprentice Mage+ tiers of my Patreon, with two new chapters coming each week! Ā
When will it release on Amazon? Iām aiming for March or June of next year, but an official pre-order link wonāt be posted until the novel is finished on Patreon.
This will be my publication process going forward, for two reasons:
1) The Titan Mage publication schedule was so demanding that, after writing five books nonstop for a year, I was nearly burned out by the end of the series. It also left next to no room for life stuff, con appearances, and the like, so while it was an immensely fun project, I was also immensely ded by the end of it. š
2) Readers have been asking for longer books, which naturally take longer to write than my previous schedule allowed (at least, if Iām to write similar quality). Posting to Patreon until the novelās done thus allows me to write without burning myself out, and allows readers who really want to read early the ability to do so.
What about Titan Mage, then? Don’t worry! š Subsequent series are still happening, one a companion series that follows the crew of the Indigo Gryphon, one a series that continues Locke’s story – but more on those when they’re closer to release.
All that said, between Monster Girl Tamer, Titan Mage, and more to be announcedš, 2024’s shaping up to be an exciting year.
Follow me on Bookbub!
Hey, everyone!
A bunch of readers have told me that you didn’t receive notifications from Amazon when Titan Mage Dragon came out, which is to say:
All the more reason to follow me on BookBub! š
I’ve personally found that BookBub is most reliable when it comes to getting timely notifications about book releases, but if you’d like to follow me elsewhere just in case, I’m also on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, and (occasionally) TikTok.
(Though, of course, if you want to be extra-sure to receive the next book on release day, you can always preorder! š)
Stay spicy, and as always, thanks for reading!
Whatās next for Titan Mage?
I get universally panicked reactions every time I say Titan Mage will end at Book 5, so hereās a little look into what I actually have planned for the future of Locke and companyāand the world of Haven in general. š
First, donāt panic! Thereās definitely more of the Titan Mage universe in your future.
When I say āTitan Mage will end at Book 5,ā what I mean is āThat particular arc will end with Book 5,ā and the next arc will start with a new series. I prefer to write in multiple short series rather than single long series because it helps me organize my writing process more efficientlyāand because it gives my stories concrete stopping points so readers arenāt left hanging for months while I work on novels for my other pen name.
After Titan Mage 5, Iāll be switching back to my H.P. Holo name to write the final (mega-)book of my Monster Punk Horizon series, and then after that Iāll be returning to the world of Haven to write a series Iām calling Airship for now (the official title will be determined closer to release).
The events of Airship take place at the same time as Titan Mage and follow Ray and Erudicia QāVan and the crew of the Indigo Gryphon as they go on archaeological adventures and uncover their own dangerous mysteries about the world of Haven.
Following that, I have plans for a variety of series that are still very much in the āthrowing ideas aroundā stage:
Potential Series 3 unites the casts of both Titan Mage and Airship as they [do some stuff thatās slightly spoilery for both series] and face an emerging threat to Havenās peace.
Potential Series 4 jumps twenty-ish years into the future and follows the children of both casts as they get up to big stompy robot action.
And given that the world of Haven is so expansive, thereās plenty of potential for other stories, tooāan academy series set at the Arcane Index, for example, or a series that follows a rig-and-titan mercenary band, or heck, even a slice-of-life series. With a world like Haven, the possibilities are nearly infinite.
Outside the Titan Mage universe, Iām also playing around with the idea of writing a monster girl series set in the Monster Punk Horizon world under my H.P. Holo pen name. If youāre unfamiliar with this series, it takes a lot of cues from monster hunting/collecting games like ā¦ well, Monster Hunter, Pokemon, and Digimon, but it also has fun with a lot of standard fantasy/RPG tropes. Which is to say, thereās a lot of potential for fun in that universe that is slightly different from the fun that I get up to in the Titan Mage universe. (And, of course, since this series would be written under this pen name, it would be just as spicy as Titan Mage.)
So there you have it! A tiny look into the future of Haven (and other worlds).
But that saidāreaders, are there any particular types of stories youād like to see? š
The Story of Edie Skye
*Modified from an original post on the Holo Writing blog.
OK yāall, itās time for the epic story of how this wholeĀ Titan MageĀ thing happened, so buckle up and grab some popcorn:
It begins in 2020.
When I’m not writing spicy mecha steampunk as Edie Skye, I’m writing non-spicy fantasy as H.P. Holo. My husband also writes, as Jacob Holo.
One of my jobs as writer/author wife/handler/marketer/general awesome person is to research keywords for our booksā Amazon ads. One of the places I look for keyword ideas is the also-boughts on our books, and for some reason, the also-boughts of Jacobās anime-inspired giant mech series,Ā Seraphim Revival, wereĀ loadedĀ with ā¦ harem books.
The Seraphim Revival is perhaps the least spicy thing either of us has ever written, so naturally I was curious and started looking into the featured titles.
Which is when Jacob walked into my office and saw my computer screen full of booby book covers.
I joked, āWeāre writing the wrong books, Jacob.ā
Jacob joked, āYou should write a harem novel.ā
I joked, āYou write the outline and design the babes and Iāll do it.ā
I neglected to realize that Jacob was between projects at the time.
It was also the beginning of lockdown. Which meant he was at home. With free time.
And Jacobās brain is not one to sit idle.
Which is why he came to me later with 5 outlines for a complete series of harem novels, complete with a sci-fi-inspired elemental magic system, a mech upgrade system, character details for the main cast, and the first few chapters, just because.
***
Thereās slightly more to it than that, though. I struggle with OCD (and itās the primary reason why my writing/writing process is often so chaotic).
We didnāt know it was OCD in early 2020, but we did know there was a problem ā manifesting heavily in my inability to write consistently, among other more practical problems ā and one of Jacobās suggested solutions to help me over this hump was for him to outline a project and oversee details of the world, and me to do the actual writing.
One of my greatest challenges pre-OCD diagnosis was simply managing the complex details/consistency of my own world inĀ The Wizardās CircusĀ (the sequel toĀ The Wizardās Way, still in progress). This way ā with Jacob in charge of the basic foundation ā if I had a question about the world, I could just ask him for the answer instead of trying to make up one and thus accidentally overcomplicate things.
I resisted the idea, partly because it felt like admitting defeat ā that I couldnāt write a book on my own ā and partly because we didnāt really have a concept that we wanted to collaborate on at the time.
Until I was formally diagnosed with OCD in late 2020.
Being able to put a name to the monster I faced changed how I approached the monster. I now had a specific lens through which to analyse my problem and as a result could pinpoint how it was manifesting in my writing, and how to fix it.
At the time,Ā The Wizardās CircusĀ was a hot mess and I didnāt have the skills to address all its flaws. So I decided to rebuild my writing techniques and style from the ground up, keeping my OCD tendencies in mind and playing to my strengths. The result wasĀ Monster Punk Horizon.
However, around that time, Jacob and I also remembered his earlier suggestion ā that he outline something for me to write. MPH was already well on its way by that point ā and my confidence in my own writing back up, since it was wholly of my own imagination ā and so I was more open to writing something that had already been laid out by someone else.
Plus there was something totally hilarious about collaborating with my husband on a harem novel.
And the sheer ridiculousness of that situation unlocked something inside my brain while I was writing it. The first draft of Titan Mage was done in less than a month, and it required very little editing from Jacob.
It showed me that, despite my years of struggling to finish a book, I had it in me to write quickly, and well.
Titan Mage, then, sure, started as a joke.
But it ā and Jacobās help through it ā also played a pivotal role in helping me wrangle the monster that is my OCD.
So in a way, itās also a strange little love letter.
Welcome to my blog!
Welcome, everyone, to my first blog post! š
And wow, what a ride itās already been. Titan Mage released a month ago today, and while I knew it would be a success, I did not anticipate how much of a success. Itās spent much of June and July at #1 in Steampunk Fiction on Amazon, hovered variously around the Top 10 of Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store) and Menās Adventure Fiction, and is still going strong.
That said, I wanted to give a special thanks to all of my readers – and especially those of you who liked the book enough to stop by and visit this blog. An authorās nothing without people who read and enjoy her work, and yāall have made this an amazing launch. āŗļø