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Neal Holtschulte
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Neal Holtschulte
Home
Stories
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Contact
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Stories
Blog
Book Club
Contact

  • The Numbers Behind My Revision Process

    Revision is writing and writing is revision… and the numbers don’t lie.

  • Book Review: The Justice of Kings

    An exceptionally smoothly crafted fantasy murder-mystery that serves as an exemplar for how to convincingly and organically worldbuild.

  • Book Reviews: This Is How You Lose the Time War (Bonus: Travel Light)

    A beautiful, indulgent little tart and a whimsical, wandering fantasy.

  • Local Authors

    I attended Bubonicon 2024 and bought a bunch of books from local authors. Check out the book reviews here.

  • A War of Gifts

    A Christmas episode of Battle School? Yes indeed, and it’s way better than it sounds.

  • The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage

    It’s a comic, a history, a fiction, a nonfiction, a character study, it can leap tall buildings in a single bound!

  • How High We Go in the Dark

    How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu at heart, is about relationships and about the pain, values, and flaws that strain those relationships. Also a global pandemic.

  • Eaters of the Dead

    The angel of death has spoken. The party of Buliwyf must be thirteen, and of these one must be no Northman, and so you shall be the thirteenth.

  • All You Need is Kill

    This novel inspired an excellent scifi action film, Edge of Tomorrow, and remains the quintessential military scifi timeloop novel.

  • Agent Querying Experience

    Have you ever wondered what the querying trenches look like from a first-person perspective? Wonder no more.

  • My Favorite Bit

    Crew of Exiles was featured on Mary Robinette Kowal's "My Favorite Bit"

  • The Forever War

    To say that The Forever War is the best science fiction war novel ever written is to damn it with faint praise… It is as fine and woundingly genuine a war story as any I’ve read. - William Gibson

  • Apostles of Mercy

    The conclusion to Lindsay Ellis's "Beauty and the Beast, but make it aliens" trilogy.

  • Dresden Files #11 and The Spare Man

    Two murder mysteries! We got Turn Coat by Jim Butcher, a book in the Dresden Files series, and The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal.

  • Self-Publishing

    My advice on how to self-publish a fiction novel and my experience of doing just that.

  • Ancillary Justice & The Imperial Radch Trilogy

    The only novel to ever win the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke awards. What's so special about Ancillary Justice?

  • Truth of the Divine & An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

    Two mildly famous YouTubers wrote scifi novels that are similar in subject, wildly different in tone.

  • Triple Review

    When selecting the perfect violent, near future, cyberpunk adjacent, thrill ride, there's just one question you should ask yourself: How much Sumerian myth is right for me?

  • Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

    "To make a game is to imagine the person playing it." To write a book is to imagine the person reading it.

  • Book(s) Review: Long Way + Murderbot

    These book series were recommended to me by friends who felt there were similarities to Crew of Exiles.

  • I want to want to write

    "I am not at all in a humor for writing; I must write on until I am." ― Jane Austen

  • Book Review: Shambling Towards Hiroshima

    Shambling Towards Hiroshima by James Morrow is a laugh out loud funny satire of Hollywood and the American military set in the waning days of World War II.

  • How to Record and Edit Your Audiobook

    I created my audiobook for about $160 dollars, in about 200 hours. Here’s a detailed guide to how you can do the same.

  • Book Review: Kings of the Wyld

    Kings of the Wyld is action fantasy adventure with a below-the-surface premise that the mercenaries are a washed up 80s hair band going on one last tour.

  • Books Review: The Expanse series

    Praised for its realism, characters, and themes. Made into a fan-favorite TV series. The Expanse is undoubtedly, something special.

  • Top Tips for a Successful Writing Critique Group

    The third best thing you can do to improve as a writer, after writing more and reading more, is joining a writing critique group. Here I share my top tips on forming an effective and lasting critique group.

  • Book Review: Remarkably Bright Creatures

    …is about growing up, growing old, imperfect people and the particular pains of imperfect family, but also connections found and formed between unlikely individuals, including an octopus.

  • Book(s) Review: Young Adult Roundup

    This is not one, but five young adult book reviews in one.

  • Book Review: Before and After

    Before and After by Andrew Shanahan is a "weight loss epic set in a zombie apocalypse." ...and it's also a touching story if you can get past the body horror and zombie grotesqueries.

  • Axiom’s End & How to Open a Novel

    Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis is an engaging, thought-provoking, and quite possibly profound story of first contact with alien life set in an alternate history 2007. Authors, you will not find a better opening to learn from.

  • Create Suspense with One Simple Trick

    Wool and Minority Report both generate suspense by telling the reader what's going to happen next and daring the reader to believe it!

  • Book Review: The Icarus Hunt

    Timothy Zahn. You know him, you love him. He’s the author of Star Wars extended universe novels and he invented Grand Admiral Thrawn… but how are his original novels?

  • Spice up conflict with “Yes, but” or “No, and”

    Whenever you pose a binary question in your writing… Will they? Won’t they? Victory? Or defeat? You have to resolve it one way or another. “Yes but” or “No and” solutions increase reader interest.

  • Book Review: Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

    If you've heard of the Malazan empire, but been intimidated by the massive fantasy series, then this standalone trio of novellas is exactly the read for you.

  • Book Review: Gideon the Ninth

    This story's biggest draw, in my opinion, is its delightfully bull-headed main character. A fun, fast novel, but first you have to get past the sloppy opening.

  • Did Not Finish: Two Types of Revision

    There are two types of revision:

    Creative, expansive revision versus critical, contractive revision.

  • Book Review: John Scalzi’s Interdependency Trilogy

    The Collapsing Empire, The Consuming Fire, and The Last Emperox is a set of fast paced scifi political thrillers full of great characters and snappy dialogue.

  • Did Not Finish: Personal Stakes

    A story is nothing without personal stakes. No matter how villainous the villain, or how lofty the goal, it doesn’t matter to the reader unless it matters personally to the characters.

  • Book Review: The Martian

    The Martian by Andy Weir is a fast and fun thriller about survival through hope, grit, and human ingenuity. It is packed with science, but give it a chance! The charm will win you over.

  • Book Review: Prince of Nothing & Aspect Emperor

    R. Scott Bakker’s trilogy: The Prince of Nothing, and subsequent quadrilogy: The Aspect Emperor. There is nothing that comes close to matching the poetic prose, historical acumen, and hard hitting battles and emotions of this fantasy series.

  • Parks & Honard Author Conversation

    Talented and humble co-authors of Unrelenting, Marie Parks and Jessi Honard sit down with me to talk writing, inspiration, fan fiction, and Gant charts.

  • Book Review: Last Time Around

    This novel captures that peculiar post-college time period when one becomes more deeply acquainted with regret.

  • Book Review: A Sand County Almanac

    A Sand County Almanac is a beautiful series of essays about the bounty and joy to be found in the natural world. Anyone who considers themself an environmentalist or naturalist or outdoorsman should read this book.

  • Book Review: Crew of Exiles

    A transcendent being has been banished to human form. His exile to a depopulated Earth will drive him mad if he can’t find a way out. Getting dragged along on an adventure by the last remaining Earthlings isn’t exactly what he had in mind.

  • Book Review: Velocity Weapon

    Velocity Weapon is solid spaceship-style scifi, but it's not nearly as action-packed or bombastic as the title might suggest.

  • Book Review: The Westing Game

    Murder mystery! The Westing Game is a wildly cartwheeling murder mystery in the vein of the Clue movie, and it’s packed with even more memorable characters.

  • Book Review: Wet Hot Allosaurus Summer

    It’s dinosaur erotica. What do you want?

  • Book Review: The Starless Sea

    All vibes, no plot, but, like… REALLY high quality vibes. This book needs to be read in an old creaking library during a thunderstorm as rain and wind lash the windows. This book needs to be read in a musty, high-backed chair in front of a stone fire place with a mug of hot cider at your side.

  • Book Review: Cartography

    Nonfiction! In this video I discuss Cartography by Kate Schifani, the memoir of a gay woman in the US air force during the American occupation of Iraq. Also presented are some prime examples of "show don't tell" for writers.

  • Book Review: Nophek Gloss

    Nophek Gloss is a young adult space opera action adventure. It doesn't say it's young adult, but trust me, it is. It's fast paced and imaginative and boy-howdy have I got opinions and feelings about it

  • Book Review: All Those Vanished Engines

    Who out there read The Princess Bride the NOVEL? Well if you're interested in stories about stories and storytelling, then check out All Those Vanished Engines by Paul Park

  • Book Review: A Memory Called Empire

    A Memory Called Empire is a scifi political thriller with the marvelous twist of a galactic empire based on the Aztec Empire. It’s gripping from page one, the characters are strong, smart, and driven, and it’s smart science fiction with a deep and richly realized foreign culture not seen before in fiction.

  • Book Review x2: Do Not Resuscitate & Destiny Unknown - 2022 May 14

    A double review: Two books by the same author: The Maiden Voyage of The Destiny Unknown and Do Not Resuscitate both by Nicholas Ponticello

  • Book Review: Unrelenting - 2022 Apr 30

    Unrelenting is a slick modern paranormal thriller with magic-in-plain-sight and a headstrong female protagonist in search of her sister.

  • Book Review: The Promise of the Child - 2022 Mar 19

    The Promise of the Child is not like other books you've read, which makes it awesome and difficult at the same time. If you read scifi to be transported into a future of bold and unique ideas, then this is a MUST READ.

  • The First Revision - 2020 Mar 17

    Ignore word choice and sentence structure, in order to focus your first revision on the big picture.

  • Review: Walkaway by Cory Doctorow - 2020 Feb 21

    The characters, politics and ideas work great. The pacing and dialogue, not so much.

  • Show, Don’t Tell - 2020 Jan 23

    Telling can be great for first drafts and speeding up the pace. Showing is better for discovery writing and engaging your readers.

  • Book Review: The Martian

    The Martian by Andy Weir is a fast and fun thriller about survival through hope, grit, and human ingenuity. It is packed with quite a bit of science, but give it a chance! The charm will win you over.