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The thing about writing novels is that you can’t just learn to write novels, you have to learn to write that novel, and BattleTech: VoidBreaker is definitely a novel I had to learn new things for as I was preparing to write it and while I was writing. That’s one of the things I love about writing, though, to stretch my skills and push myself.
I love setting out to write a novel by trying to push myself. When I initially spitballed the story for VoidBreaker with Ray Arrastia (the line developer for BattleTech) at our creative summit, I got really excited because I realized the sort of story we’d be telling was essentially a spy thriller, and I hadn’t really seen that in BattleTech before. I mean, we’d seen elements of espionage, and we’d seen political machinations, but a straight up Ian Fleming, James Bond sort of thing? No way.
I don’t think folks know this about me, but I know more than any human should about the 007 movies and books. I really love them and the books are so different than the movies and the Fleming novels have this intensely readable quality. Moonraker, which is one of my favorite Fleming books (and one of my least favorite Bond pictures, go figure) spends the first full half of the book with Bond merely working to discover Hugo Drax’s method of cheating at Bridge at the club as a personal favor to M. But it’s absolutely riveting and you want to devour it, chapter by chapter.
So when VoidBreaker fell into my lap, I decided I wanted to really deconstruct and analyze those Fleming books (as well as my favorite 007 movies, and some other espionage and war thrillers I enjoyed ranging from the Mission: Impossible films to Guns of Navarone and The Dirty Dozen) and figure out exactly how they ticked and why and figure out how I could apply it to BattleTech in a way that was honest to what makes a BattleTech book a BattleTech book. I tore through the Fleming novels again, reading my vintage paperbacks, listening to them via audiobooks at the gym, just soaking them in and diagramming them out. Then I’d do the same with all the movies and really try to understand why they were making all the decisions they were and figure out how to apply those story lessons to the original story we were telling.
I learned so much.
If you’re going to embark on something, anything, challenge yourself and do the homework. Bite off a little more than you think you can chew and I think you’ll find that the results are worth it and you’re going to learn a lot in the process.
That’s really the only way, in my mind, to get better. I always want to learn something new with every book. Every time I take a bite at that apple, I want to try to get better at my craft and VoidBreaker opened up a whole new world for me. I just hope it shows and people enjoy it when they read it.
BattleTech: VoidBreaker comes out January 24, 2005. You can preorder a copy here or you can get signed copies straight from the author.
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Bryan Young (he/they) works across many different media. His work as a writer and producer has been called “filmmaking gold” by The New York Times. He’s also published comic books with Slave Labor Graphics and Image Comics. He’s been a regular contributor for the Huffington Post, StarWars.com, Star Wars Insider magazine, SYFY, /Film, and was the founder and editor in chief of the geek news and review site Big Shiny Robot! In 2014, he wrote the critically acclaimed history book, A Children’s Illustrated History of Presidential Assassination. He co-authored Robotech: The Macross Saga RPG and has written five books in the BattleTech Universe: Honor’s Gauntlet, A Question of Survival, Fox Tales, Without Question, and the forthcoming VoidBreaker. His latest non-fiction tie-in book, The Big Bang Theory Book of Lists is a #1 Bestseller on Amazon. His work has won two Diamond Quill awards and in 2023 he was named Writer of the Year by the League of Utah Writers. He teaches writing for Writer’s Digest, Script Magazine, and at the University of Utah. Follow him across social media @swankmotron or visit swankmotron.com.
2025 is going to be one of those transitional years in my life. Several long running projects will end and several new projects will begin. So, what do I have planned? (Note: everything listed in this post is subject to change without warning—such is the Way of the Freelancer.)
Professionally: It is all project-based. And most of it will be in editing. A lot of it will be for CGL, but I do have a couple of other freelance clients I’m working with. I will do some writing as well. Maybe some more voice acting/narration.
For Catalyst, in specific…
For me, personally: I plan to self-release several projects in 2025.
Convention Travel… I plan to limit my travel a lot. Gen Con, my main industry convention, and Worldcon Seattle 2025. That’s it. That’s all I currently have on the docket for work travel.
On the Homefront, I only have three specific desires this year: Decluttering, less time online, and finishing unfinished books.
Overall, the thing I want to do most in 2025 is to be gentle with myself. To stop yelling at myself for “failing” whatever arbitrary goal I had set. I don’t have high hopes for the next 4 years as it is. Thus, I will be doing what I can to care for myself, my friends and family, and my local community.
But, as always, I will keep track of my metrics. (If you would like a copy of my blank 2025 Freelancer Summary document, contact me. I will send it to you.)
One last thought. I don’t make “resolutions” (noun: a decision to do something or to behave in a certain manner). The term isn’t for me. I plan. Complete with specific steps to accomplish that plan. Either I execute the plan or I don’t. I know it’s all semantics, but “resolutions” feels a bit wishy-washy to me.
That’s it. Doable goals with specific plans for 2025.
Here’s the numbers. We all love numbers so much.
Thoughts about the numbers:
I don’t really have a lot to say about the metrics for this year. I’m fine with them. They’re respectable for a full time publishing professional. With the Shadowrun magazine coming out next year and being an editor-at-large for CGL, my editing numbers will not be going down. That does cut into the writing schedule. But I’ve got my plans for next year—which I will talk about in the next blog. In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of my cats.
I hope you have had a very good holiday season!
(CW: Kitten injured but OK.)Life is better with kittens. It is also more complicated and, occasionally, terrifying. Freya had an accident this morning. It’s the kind of thing no one could expect. That 2.5 lb kitten tried to climb an 8 lb slab of wood to get to me, cooking. Somehow, what she did caused the whole thing to topple over backwards as she clung onto the top of it. (I KNOW… it was leaned up against the cabinet. How the f* did she overcome the lean?)
Honestly, it is easier to share what I wrote to a discord group than to re-explain it:
[10:29 AM]
Freya just pulled an 8 lb slab of wood on top of her, I watched it happen. I couldn’t stop it. She fell over backwards holding onto it so she hit her back on the floor compounded by the wood on top of her. She got her tail stuck under it because she got herself on top of the wood.
[10:30 AM]
I freed her. She limped and yowled and when I picked her up, she yowled more. I put her down and she moved away then laid down with her hips out. I told [the Husband] he needed to get her to the emergency vet RIGHT NOW. [The Emergency Vet] is open. He left. I cleaned up. Freya is x-ray right now
[10:31 AM]
Both me and [the Husband] feel terrible because neither of us thought a kitten could move that slab of wood (it’s a stove topper/cutting board.)
[10:32 AM]
IF we are lucky, she’s bruised and scared. If not, something is broken.
For ten minutes, I did the only thing I could do…continued to work on my freelance editing. Then I got word.
[10:42 AM]
[The Husband]: “She has a minor pelvic fracture, probably no method of treatment except cage rest for 4 weeks. Coming home with pain meds as well.”
[10:42 AM]
cage rest for a kitten
[10:43 AM]
[The Husband]: “A surgeon specialist will look at xrays early next week to see if anything else to do.”
Once the Husband got home, he told me that it seemed that Freya has fractured both sides of her pelvis. But, they weren’t completely sure. The specialist would look at the x-rays (which I now have in my email) and everything had already been sent to our normal vet. Until told differently…4 weeks of cage rest for Freya. (In three weeks she gets spayed…maybe.)
In the meantime, my friends rallied. Roz had kitty jails for just this kind of thing and offered to bring them over. She picked up Seanan along the way who brought a peacock feather to use to distract Mimir while the chaos of kitten jails were set up. It was so appreciated. It was a thing we didn’t have to figure out while our brains were running in twenty different directions.
After everyone left, Mimir immediately defeated the soft sided kitten jails and collapsed the one that Freya was in on her. Mimir does not take kindly to being separated from his sister. The problem is, he is bigger than she is and wants to wrestle. So, Freya is now in the One for Pets kitten jail (Portable 2-in-1 Double Pet Kennel/Shelter) and a second one has been ordered.
Apparently, minor pelvic fractures are the most common injury in a kitten. They jump from too high, fall off furniture, topple things on themselves. She is young and healthy and should be fine. Me, on the other hand, I’m a mess. So’s the Husband.
One good(?) thing to come out of this: Mimir has to play by himself. It’s getting Leeloo’s attention. She’s starting to play with him. She almost let him cuddle with her once, then rebuffed him. A second time, he went to cuddle on my chair while Leeloo was under a blanket. She almost let it happen until his kitten nature pulled the blanket from her head…and then Leeloo had quite the hissy fit. She didn’t hurt him but she did swat at him enough times (he’s a champ at “hunker and freeze”) when he wouldn’t move that I quietly said, “Leeloo.” She stopped, huffed at me 2-3 times then flounced off. It’s a start?
If I have done this correctly, this blog post will go live on Monday, December 9th. It’s my birthday and the Husband has whisked me away for a day trip to Leavenworth!
Event: I will be reading at A Midwinter Haunting! 8pm at the Kirkland Arts Center. Readings from HWA Seattle Chapter members. Free event. I will be reading a spooky holiday story. On a mid-winter’s night, everyone is hungry.
Interview: With Epic Realms. I enjoyed the heck out of this interview. YouTube link.
Release: My 25th edited anthology is live! Shadowrun: Through the Decades celebrates 35 years of Shadowrun through 7 novelettes and novellas from new authors and old favorites!
Release: Valdemar short story, co-written with the fabulous Marie Bilodeau in the Feuds: All-New Tales of Valdemar anthology. “Dueling Minstrels” – a story of two small town minstrels and their battle of wits exploding beyond verbal showmanship…
Writing Contest: Worldcon Seattle Writing Contest 2025 – Submissions open Jan 5-20 (do not send anything in before this time).
Support: As always… if you appreciate my work and would like to support me, I love coffee. I am made of caffeine. This is the quickest way to brighten my day.
Tuesday, Dec 3rd, was the equivalent of emotionally speedrunning my life. I do not approve nor do I recommend. It was one of those days that even my editor would look at and say, “Isn’t that a bit much? Maybe spread those events out over the novel instead of a day.”
Bad: Mena stopped eating and drinking on Monday. She was still hiding on Tuesday morning. The Husband and I had already decided she needed to go to the vet. Mena loves her treats.
Good: My cat lover advent calendar and the Husband got me froofy coffee. (Little things count.)
Good: Our 2x a month housekeeper arrived!
Bad: Our housekeeper noticed our refrigerator suddenly wasn’t working. Through investigation, 8 outlets in the kitchen and family room weren’t working. This is something that happened years ago. Got fixed. Broke again.
Good: Plugged the refrigerator into a different plug and it worked. No spoiled food.
Bad: Had to find an electrician.
Good: Not only found an electrician, they were able to come out on the same day, AND were able to fix the issue.
Bad: That was $$$ money we didn’t expect to spend (but that’s what emergency funds are for).
Good: Started a new D&D game at the house. Session 0. Figuring everything out.
Bad: Vet called. Mena has feline pancreatitis. No cure, some mitigation. Caught it early. Mena was kept overnight for more observation. We will see what we need to do when we pick her up today. (Good things: It had nothing to do with the anxiety drugs Mena got put on because of the kittens nor was it due to the arrival of the kittens. This would’ve happened no matter what.)
Good: I sold a little short story I love to a new pro-paying market. This is a short story that has been rejected 20+ times. I’m so glad it found a home.
Other things happened that weren’t big enough to make the list. Also, several of my friends are going through rough times. I know I’m not the only one having a hell of a week (and it’s only Wednesday). Sometimes life is like that. I just wish it wouldn’t involve my cats. Mena is only 12. She’s sweet and silly and doesn’t deserve the pain she’s in now.
My life is all kittens and work right now. Freya and Mimir arrived on the 8th of November, one day after we got home from our Canadian trip that was such a blast! The twins (siblings technically) were less than 2.4 lbs each. They are so small and so cute!
The girl is Freya and the boy is Mimir. We wanted siblings because we knew they would be good for each other. Especially while we integrated them into our household with two senior cats. (More on them shortly.)
Fierce Freya is fearless and, frequently, brainless. She has no survival instinct. She will base jump from any height, chase a hissing Mena, and generally not be aware that anything could be harmful. Especially giant lumbering people who want to step where she wants to run under.
Mighty Mimir switches between Meek and Mighty. He is always hesitant of new things and people at first. Then he becomes as fearless and brainless as Freya. He usually is the first to escape the quarantine zone. Most of the time, he listens when another cat hisses.
As for the senior cats, Leeloo is interested in the kittens. She will go sniff them then back off when she realizes they are not her Maus. (She still misses Isis and Pharaoh.) She hisses at them when they get up in her grill, and that is usually enough for both kittens to back off. If not, she’s bapped Freya and both kittens submitted.
Mena, on the other hand, lives in the House of Hisses and Growls. She wants nothing to do with the little interlopers who have stolen her place as the baby of the family. She frequently hisses at the barrier or the door to the kitten room so hard that she gives herself a coughing fit. Feliway doesn’t seem to be helping. I may have to get some kitty Prozac for her. She seems to be afraid of the kittens. Especially Freya, who doesn’t seem to understand what hissing means.
Still, I have hope and patience for the clowder to integrate. It will take time and understanding. Maybe drugs. Right now, the kittens are too small to have the run of the house, and they haven’t finished having their vaccines. This week they get access to my bathroom, the kitten room, and my office. Maybe next week, the whole top floor of the house so that the senior kitties can get some peace and quiet downstairs.
But, as of right now, my entire world is finishing up the first issue of Augment magazine, and dealing with kittens who have no survival instinct.
Age Need Not Stop You
In my twenties, I desperately wanted more stories of women kicking ass, and not needing a man to do so. I wanted female friendships, and arguments, and insecurities…all in an epic fantasy context. Twenty years ago, there were a lot less books with these core themes applied to women, especially ones that weren’t romance-focused.
To scratch my own reading itch, I wrote Heirs of a Broken Land with three central female characters who would fight each other and evil, and would lean into their powers instead of shying away from them, or giving them up for family/romance/etc…
When I reached my forties, I craved reading about older heroines saving the world while juggling family, responsibilities, and any incurred trauma (life is traumatic, you know?). So I jumped back into the world of my first series and created a second series, Keepers of a Broken Land. I’m twenty years older, so are my characters…and evil takes more than one trilogy to defeat.
Again, they’d lean into their powers, and not just pass them down to their children like so many fantasy stories do. They’d try to make right the stuff they screwed up, no matter how haunted they were, and they’d still support each other and keep fighting.
Now hungry for stories of middle-aged protagonists in science-fiction and fantasy, I leapt from book to book, devouring stories of people still standing up despite scars and creaky knees. (I discovered crones, too. Inspiration for Future Marie!)
There’s this thing about loving books where you just want to scream about them to everyone. And that’s what I wanted to do with the stories I discovered, so I decided to put together a Story Bundle that focused on characters 40+.
It was a crazy, joyful experience, and I’m very proud of the ten books gathered in this bundle. From heroes looking for redemption to crones tasked with saving the world (despite not being able to find her reading glasses), from grandmothers trying to save their community to old friends trying to save each other, this bundle will cure you of any conception that older folk can’t save the world.
YA fever has been sweeping the fantasy genre for decades, and generation after generation is told that “they’ll be the ones to clean up the planet/save the world/stop the evil.” … Time to stop putting all the onus on youth and time to step up, no matter your age! Because, if we’re lucky, we’ll all grow up to be middle-aged, and then crones (and other gender equivalents), and we need to help light the night for those following. No passing the buck to younger generations—let’s work with each other, instead.
Because you can be 40+ and still kicking butt.
I hope these ten amazing books will inspire and entertain you as much as they did me! The Story Bundle is available until November 21, so make sure to grab it now!
—
Marie Bilodeau is an Ottawa-based author, TTRPG game writer, and storyteller. Her speculative fiction has won several awards and has been translated into French (Les Éditions Alire) and Chinese (SF World). Her short stories have also appeared in various anthologies and magazines like Analog Science Fiction and Fact and Amazing Stories. Marie is also a performing storyteller and has told stories across Canada in theatres, tea shops, at festivals and under disco balls. She’s won story slams with personal stories, has participated in epic tellings at the National Arts Centre, and has adapted classical material. In her spare time, she’s also the chair of Ottawa’s speculative fiction literary con, Can*Con.
While I was in Canada, I discovered there were two very interesting book bundles being sold. One that has my books in it. One that does not.
Ending on 30 November 2024, the first is the Shadowrun Fiction Mega Bundle, run by Humble Bundle. It supports the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, which is pretty cool. (Note: Donation proceeds will be provided to the Binc Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to providing financial assistance to booksellers and comic sellers, their employees, and their families, in times of crisis.)
More importantly to me, this book bundle contains every novel and novella I’ve written for Shadowrun! So, if you’re missing any of my Shadowrun fiction, this is a very good time to get it. Plus it’s got so much more Shadowrun goodness from old authors and new!
***
Next up we have: The Never Too Old to Save the World Bundle.
Curated on StoryBundle by Marie Bilodeau (who will have a Tell Me on the blog shortly.)
Ending on 21 November 2024, Marie has put together 10 books of middle-aged heroines and heroes who claim and keep their power. Saving the world isn’t just a young orphan’s game anymore. This bundle looks fantastic. I’ve just recently been introduced to the term “Crone Lit” and I love it. Not only that, I’m already reading Becoming Crone.
There you go. Two bundles of books for a fabulous price. If you need some fiction to help keep you sane for the holiday season, I’ve got you covered.
I’m now home from an 8-day trip to Ottawa, Canada as one of the Editor Guests of Honor at Can-Con and to spend time visiting Marie and her partner and their clowder. This was my first trip to Ottawa. I hope it will not be my last. I had such a good time. I will miss them and Canada, but I am happy to be home. (Because: Kittens!)
As has become tradition after a convention, I tell you 10 things that may or may not have happened. 8 are true. 2 are lies.
Did I mention kittens?
Jennifer Brozek is a multi-talented, award-winning author, editor, and media tie-in writer. She is the author of Never Let Me Sleep and The Last Days of Salton Academy, both of which were nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. Her YA tie-in novels, BattleTech: The Nellus Academy Incident and Shadowrun: Auditions, have both won Scribe Awards. Her editing work has earned her nominations for the British Fantasy Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the Hugo Award. She won the Australian Shadows Award for the Grants Pass anthology, co-edited with Amanda Pillar. Jennifer’s short form work has appeared in Apex Publications, Uncanny Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, and in anthologies set in the worlds of Valdemar, Shadowrun, V-Wars, Masters of Orion, Well World, and Predator.
Jennifer has been a full-time freelance author and editor for over seventeen years, and she has never been happier. She keeps a tight schedule on her writing and editing projects and somehow manages to find time to teach writing classes and volunteer for several professional writing organizations such as SFWA, HWA, and IAMTW. She shares her husband, Jeff, with several cats and often uses him as a sounding board for her story ideas. Visit Jennifer’s worlds at jenniferbrozek.com or her social media accounts on LinkTree.
