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Everything is not going to be okay, and that is okay, because there is still a future yet to be seen. This is the statement that I’ve been using to describe the third book in my Drifting Lands series, Prince of Clay.
I did not set out to write a book with that tone. When my first publisher opted not to continue the series, the conventional wisdom I’d encountered most places in the industry that was trilogies were how a series ended, but I had never written the second book, Dragon Road, with that in mind. the Drifting Lands was originally conceived of as an episodic story about the crew of the skyship Elysium, journeying through an endless heaven dotted with floating islands. Sure, there were overarching plots, a slowly-manifesting myth-arc, but when I started the story in Skyfarer I hadn’t really taken into account that I was starting something without a pre-determined ending.
I’ll leave aside whether that was a mistake, because I’m not really convinced that anything in art is actually an error. There are industry conceits and there are ‘rules’ that are sort of commonly accepted, but sometimes a story just doesn’t follow the ones you want it to, and trying to force it into a box it doesn’t fit in will just make it less than it should be. When John Hartness decided to acquire Prince of Clay, the third book of the series, I was tempted to try and end things. Wrap them up with a neat little bow, but I very rapidly realized as I started writing the book that while Prince of Clay was an end—it wraps up many plot threads started in Skyfarer and closes a few character arcs—it was not the end. That was still a ways off, and I had something much bigger on my hands than I had initially anticipated.
So, like I had with Skyfarer and Dragon Road after it, I decided to tell the story that was both satisfying for me to tell, and that moved the arcs of the characters forward. And that meant that it wasn’t so much the conclusion of the series, but the end of its first movement. And that meant that it needed to be different. That it had to contain an element that the first two books had lacked. That element ended up being cost. The stakes of the first two Drifting Lands are high, and there are sacrifices and there are losses, but thus far they did not directly touch the core cast. I had not taken away the irreplaceable, permanently broken something, and given way for a new status quo.
And the thing about a good story is that the mid-point is generally when that really happens. I didn’t want to do that at first. I worried it would drive away people who were coming for something specific and would be angry if that something changed.
But as a dear friend is fond of saying, “that’s coward talk.”
So, if you’ve read the previous two Drifting Lands books, that means that I sort of preemptively owe you an apology. This is the book that changes things. That breaks what has been consistent up until now, and gives way to a broadening scope where the transience of everything from politics to personal relationships to life itself is laid bare. This is the book where consequences fly home to roost, plots culminate, and some stories close, even as others begin. It’s the dusk and the dawn, and it’s not the end of the Drifting Lands, though it is the end of the first movement in the symphony, like the prophet says in Dragon Road. There’s more to come, and while there are goodbyes and there are conclusions, the next day still comes.
Everything is not going to be okay, and that is okay, because there is still a future yet to be seen. In these times, that sentence has been giving me a lot of comfort. I hope it helps you too, and I hope you like the book.
Because there’s more to come, and to meet the future, we have to say farewell to the past. It’s not a perfect answer, but it is mine.
And so, we move forward. I hope you’ll come with me, for what’s next. We’ll make it, so long as we’re together. I truly believe that.
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Joseph Brassey lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife, two children, and two cats. In his spare time he trains in and teaches Historical European Martial Arts in his native Tacoma. He has worked everywhere from a local newspaper to the frame-shop of a crafts store to the smoke-belching interior of a house-siding factory with very questionable safety policies.
Today is my mom’s birthday and I’m missing her. So, have a Bubble & Squeek. Fun fact, the term “Bubble & Squeek” came from my mom whenever we asked “What’s for dinner?” and it was leftovers repackaged in a new form. I don’t know how she did it, but she always made leftovers taste really, really good.
Augment magazine: Augment is Shadowrun’s official magazine. This is a fully in-universe publication, and can be used in Shadowrun games as well as enjoyed by the casual reader. Augment your life with Augment magazine! Available as an ebook or as a POD digest magazine. And, as you can see it is BEAUTIFUL!
Free Fiction: There’s a new piece of free BattleTech and Shadowrun fiction on the Cat Labs website on the 1st of every month. Shadowrun’s free fiction for this month is “Shadowbytes” by me! This story is the origin story of a mysterious person who appeared in Shadowrun: Elfin Black.
Interview: I was interviewed by CGL’s Tuesday Newsday about Augment magazine along with my Art Director, Kathleen Hardy. YT Link.
Interview: I was interviewed by CGL’s Tuesday Newsday along with author Christine York about the BattleTech romance novel Hungry Like the Wolf. It’s a hoot. YT link.
Kickstarter: Science Fiction & Fantasy Pirate-Themed Anthology! ZBM presents: SKULL X BONES! It’s an SF&F themed anthology about pirates, and it is already funded! I get to write my Mythos pirate story! Lemme tell you, there’s gonna be blood in the water! Lots of goodies in the stretch goals.
Recommendation: How To Actually Achieve Your Goals in 2025. It’s been long enough since the new year for me to feel safe to recommend this time management video. YT link.
Recommendation: If you’re ambitious but lazy. Short video talking about how starting is the hardest part. YT link.
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.
Awards Season is fraught with danger for some of us—imposter syndrome, guilt, and the general malaise of everything *waves to the world at large*… and all of it stops us for putting our creative works out there. However, it is these creative works that keep the world going—even while it is on fire. It is not a sin to say “Hey, I did a thing last year and it was good. Please consider it!”
(Ahem: Jennifer Brozek for Best Editor, Short Form for 99 Fleeting Fantasies; Magic, Machines, & Mayhem; and Through the Decades anthologies. Or Shadowrun: The Mosaic Run by Jennifer Brozek [Catalyst Game Labs] for the Lodestone award.)
It also behooves us to point to people we believe deserve some recognition. So, I have some other Hugo nomination recommendations for you. This is, by no means, an exhaustive list.
Best Novel
Best Novella
Best Novelette
Best Series
Best Related Work
Best Editor, Short Form (My competition.)
Best Fan Writer
Best Fan Artist
Best Poem
There you have it. Some other recommendations of people you may or may not have heard of—but should get to know. Go forth and nominate for the Hugo awards—nominations close March 14, 2025. (You can leave your own recommendations in the comments.)
Thank you for having me today, Jennifer. I’d like to share some ins and outs of crafting a podcast specifically in regards to recording and editing
Recording:
Every podcaster has different preferences in recording equipment. When I first started in 2020, I used a Blue Yeti. However, it got knocked off my recording table and never sounded the same. That led me to test every display microphone at Guitar Center. This experience helped me better hear the nuances of my voice.
A Sterling Audio ST155 connected to my desk via a boom arm provides the sound quality I want within my budget. I’ve also recorded other voice actors and been happy with the results—although certain baritones, in particular, can produce an unintentional whistle. Lip gloss reduces this.
I’ve done my best to create a controlled recording studio in my closet. Voice actors do not have to look at my clothes, but they must walk through my bedroom to get inside. My setup includes a windscreen, a pop filter, a thick shield around the microphone, and foam lined walls and a quilt set up behind the actor over my bookcases. That being said, it’s more important to get started than to have the best setup. If all you have is the microphone on your phone, then put a blanket over your head and start recording!
After EVERY recording session, I save a version of the file entitled PROJECTTITLE_RAW_DATE
Editing Process:
Just like editing a story is about creating enjoyment for the reader, editing a podcast is about creating an enjoyable experience for the listener. This requires patience and attention to detail. I use Logic Pro X, but some people like Audacity, Garage Band, or Adobe Audition. The important thing is that you find what works for you and your setup. I started with Garage Band, so upgrading to Logic Pro X made perfect sense.
Roomtone:
The most important tool in your editing arsenal is roomtone – the ambient sound of your recording environment. It captures the subtle, unique noises, 
such as the hum of lights, a fridge, or distant traffic. Without changing the gain on the microphone, my dog and I leave the closet. I shut all the doors and then go into the living room and count to 100. This audio becomes invaluable during editing—it smooths transitions, masks cuts, and even helps when I flub a word and need to stitch a sentence together. I make a few different lengths: 1 beat, 2 beats, 4 beats, etc. My first step is to remove awkward pauses and distractions, like sirens, door slams, or other interruptions. Long mistakes are deleted and roomtone of an appropriate length is added. Between sentences there is 3-4 beats. To make it sound natural, listen to your own pause and make your roomtone that length. It sounds natural and unique to you.
Next, I listen to the entire recording and balance the audio levels. This ensures my voice sounds clear while leaving room for atmospheric background sounds. This phase includes EQ adjustments, compressing the audio to eliminate harsh peaks, and sometimes re-recording sections. I save another version of the file at this point. It is entitled PROJECTTITLE _Edit_DATE
Sound Effects and Music
For sound effects, I occasionally create my own, but often, I purchase licensed tracks from Pond5 or Storyblocks. Most editing software also offers handy patches for effects. For instance, to create the effect of someone speaking over a telephone or radio, I use Library > Voice > Telephone. For ghost voices, I use Library > Voice > Chorus and fine-tune it further under Section-Based Processes.
I save another version at this point entitled PROJECTTITLE _Sounds_DATE
Mastering:
Mastering the final track ensures consistent sound quality across different episodes and listening devices. My goal is for my podcast to sound great, however, every speaker system is different, so I focus on consistency rather than chasing perfection.
I save another version of the file at this point entitled PROJECTTITLE _Mastered_DATE
After bouncing the project, I listen to it in a few different places: headphones, monitors, car speakers. I readjust for large mistakes, but little things I let lie. I may notice tiny clicks or imperfect fades, most listeners won’t. Mistakes are inevitable. Over-editing drains the joy from the creative process, and ultimately, I need to move to the next episode to keep the stories coming.
Thanks for having me; I hope this is helpful to your readers!
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Elizabeth Guizzetti is a podcaster, illustrator, and author passionate about the eerie and the macabre. She is the creative mind behind the brand new podcast: Scary Stories Whispers in the Rain, a bi-weekly horror podcast where listeners enjoy haunting narratives and her thoughts on books she recently read. In addition, Elizabeth writes and performs as Loretta, a 300-year-old vampire historian on Vampires of the Paper Flower Consortium. Whether crafting her own tales or amplifying other horror authors’ voices, Elizabeth’s goal is to create podcasts where fans can indulge in the mysterious, eerie, and sometimes terrifying. She exists with her husband and dog in Seattle, WA.
I absolutely love and adore history.
Even more than I love history, I loathe and despise sexism and the patriarchy. (I know, right? Not the least bit shocking to anyone even slightly acquainted with me.)
It makes for an ironic combination, but perhaps not quite as contradictory as one might think. Plus, the former can be an excellent antidote for the latter if/when people pay attention.
Students of history can’t help but taint the past with the present. Some people try much more diligently than others to remain scientific, scholarly, and objective, but the degree of effort and of success varies wildly. Others—dating all the way back to ancient Egypt’s pharaohs—try to erase and rewrite history. Sometimes malice motivates them. Other times, genuine ignorance—and/or a lack of open-mindedness, perhaps—causes myriad false assumptions. The more we learn, the more we need to revise accepted historical “fact.” Archeological/anthropological news (how’s that for an oxymoron?) constantly reminds us that we need to review our assumptions and reject false conclusions.
Recent discoveries show us that prehistoric hunter-gatherers did not have what we considered the ‘natural’ division of labor, with men doing all the hunting and women all the gathering. It now appears than plenty of women joined in the hunting.
Graves with weapons and other martial artifacts automatically indicated a male decedent. Closer studies now show us otherwise. We now know that Vikings in Scandinavia, Samurai in Japan, and warriors of the Russian steppes—to name just a few examples—included plenty of women. According to some accounts, Mulan led the emperor’s army for over a decade. The Agojie, the women warriors of the Kingdom of Dahomey, likely inspired the Dora Milaje in the Black Panther. Artemisia I of Caria, Queen of Halicarnassus, Kos, Kalymnos, and Nisyros, commanded a fleet of five ships in the Battle of Salamis.
Even recently, women’s names are frequently left off the research papers they contributed to—and restored only after they loudly complain. Plenty more examples of erasure exist. Hedy Lamar is known for her beauty, not for inventing the science that makes the internet possible. Dr. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, a revolutionary astronomer and astrophysicist, received no credit at the time for her groundbreaking work on hydrogen and the composition of stars—or for breaking glass ceilings in academia as Harvard University’s first woman professor and first woman department chair. The women mathematicians vital to NASA’s Apollo program didn’t get their due respect until decades after the fact—and then, only thanks to a movie.
Speaking of movies, and the sexism and amnesia rampant in Hollywood: Actors such as Kathryn Hepburn, Betty Davis, and Maureen O’Hara led movies in the 30s and 40s. Mary Pickford even founded one of the studios. Yet women never got paid as much as men (and still don’t), and somewhere along the line, the executives decided that ‘women’s films’ didn’t make enough money. Wonder Woman earned over $800 million, yet people claimed Captain Marvel would surely flop. After Captain Marvel made over $1.1 billion, people still claimed ‘no one’ wanted to see the sequel. The Marvels didn’t do as well—sequels rarely do, regardless—but I wonder how much damage the intense sight-unseen criticism did. It doesn’t help that the movie industry is in chaos right now and, in addition, has not recovered from the damage done by Covid. Nevertheless, Barbie pulled in wonderful numbers. Somehow, some people insisted on calling that ‘an exception.’ Funny how many exceptions one can find if one looks.
Which also applies to history in general. Patriarchy notwithstanding, women have always broken the mold and risen above. In every single era and every culture across the world, women defied tradition and overcame mores when they acted as scientists, teachers, and—not least of all—warriors. There are, however, other ways to fight and to influence.
Fatima El-Fihriya founded a university still home to one of the oldest libraries in the world at the University Of Al-Qarawiyyin in Morocco. Recently, Dr. Emily Wilson did another translation of both the Odyssey and the Iliad. Although dozens and dozens preceded hers, men wrote all of them. Not only did her translation return to the meter of verse intended to be read out loud, it restored much nuance that was sometimes lost, as well as not shying from an unflinching depiction of the slavery and class distinctions of that era.
Virtually everyone knows the name Albert Einstein. Few realize that his first wife the brilliant physicist Mileva Marić—arguably even more of a genius than he—worked with him on a number of his papers. Many recognize the names Felix Mendelssohn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Robert Schumann, as well they should. Sad to say, very few know about Fannie Mendelssohn, Maria Anna Mozart, and Clara Schumann.
All these ‘exceptions’ intrigue me and inspire the imagination. So many women throughout history have accomplished so many extraordinary things that the truth truly is stranger than fiction. Still, fiction can draw people’s attention to those examples and many more, hopefully in a way that is every bit as fun and entertaining as it is thought-provoking and challenging.
With only two volumes—so far—the HERitage anthologies barely scratch the surface of the vastness of history. But they are an absolute blast to read, and a joy to write for. Readers thus far are loving them, so here’s hoping their reach continues to expand—preferably exponentially. The more people who delve into the messiness and contradictions of history, the better to acknowledge that the entire population—not just the male half—builds civilizations, and to encourage studying and reviewing history with a much less biased eye.
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The author of twenty-seven novels and more than ninety short stories, Rigel Ailur writes in almost every genre, but predominantly science fiction and fantasy. Her novels include the Vagabonds’ Adventures action thrillers, the Sorcery & Steel fantasy series (with Laura Ware), the science fiction series Tales of Mimion, and the galaxies-spanning A Little Piece of Home. Her short stories appear in the long-running Brave New Girls young adult anthology series and several other anthologies including the IAMTW’s Turning the Tied and Double Trouble: An Anthology of Two-Fisted Team-Ups. She writes for adults, teens and middle grade. In nonfiction, she contributes television reviews to the Outside In series and to the SciFi Bulletin online. Most importantly, she dotes on her astronomically adorable feline kids. For more information visit: https://www.BluetrixBooks.com/
It has begun. The Hugo Award nominations are open! I would be pleased if you would consider my works for nomination. (All about eligibility.) You must be a member of Worldcon (2024 or 2025) to nominate eligible works.
In the editing category, I am eligible for Best Editor, Short Form. I edited 3 anthologies (two co-edited with John Helfers) last year—99 Fleeting Fantasies, Shadowrun: Magic, Machines, & Mayhem, and Shadowrun: Through the Decades. Of all the award nominations, this is the one I am the most interested in and believe I’ve done excellent work.
In the writing category, I am eligible for Best Short Story for my short stories: “Eye of the Beholder” (co-written with Raven Oak), “Hella AFK,” “A Tale for Munchausen’s Merriment,” and “Dueling Minstrels” (co-written with Marie Bilodeau). I am proud of these short stories.
I am also eligible for the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book (not a Hugo) for my novel, Shadowrun: The Mosaic Run. This was one heck of a fun YA heist novel.
If you would like copies or samples of any of these, please contact me through my webform.
Words cannot express how excited am that Augment magazine is a real thing! Augment, Spring 2083 done. You can pre-order it now and pre-orders are love. I’m so proud of this magazine. As the managing editor of it, I know how hard everyone has worked on it.
You don’t need to know a thing about Shadowrun to enjoy it. But, if you are a Shadowrun player, this is a prop, supplement, and fun reading all in one. It will be released on 14 Feb in ebook and physical POD as a digest magazine.
Augment your life with Augment magazine!
Augment is Shadowrun’s official magazine. This is a fully in-universe publication, and can be used in Shadowrun games as well as enjoyed by the casual reader.
Augment, Spring 2083. Magic is in the air and within the pages of this issue. Learn words of wisdom in an exclusive one-on-one interview with VIP CEO Michael Bishop. Listen to DJ Smash and Will-o-Wisp as they share their insight into the combination of magic, machine, and music. Discover how runestorms are endangering the Caribbean. Enjoy reviews of new products, clothing, tech, and so much more!
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Real world column authors include: Marie Bilodeau, Aaron Rosenberg, Bryan CP Steele, Brandon O’Brien, Bryan Young, Michael A. Stackpole, RJ Thomas, and Jennifer Brozek. SINless Secrets by Dylan Birtolo, Jason M Hardy, Jaym Gates, Bryan CP Steele, and Crystal Frasier.
Cover art by Ron Sanders.
Interior art by Jeff Porter, Bruno Balixa, Marco Pennacchietti, Jose-Luis Segura, Mia Steingräber, Andrew Lowry, Lukasz Matuszek, Brenton Smith, Lara Baron Ortega, Elizabeth Galindorf, and Kat Hardy.
Loren L. Coleman, Publisher; John Helfers, Executive Editor; Jennifer Brozek, Managing Editor; Art Direction, Kat Hardy; David A. Kerber, Layout and Graphic Design
Sometimes I get asked, “Isn’t editing anthologies a ton of work?” I respond, “Yes, it is,” which typically evokes the follow-up question, “Are you nuts?” “Also, yes.” Of course, what they’re really asking is, “Why do you love speculative fiction anthologies so much that you are willing to put in all the effort required to produce good ones?”
It’s a fair question, and my answer involves several sources of joy. The first involves love of the genres. I’ve loved the escapism of speculative fiction since reading Where the Wild Things Are (technically, urban fantasy) as a wee lad in first grade and The Lord of the Rings (high fantasy) in sixth grade. Classics of science fiction like Dune and the Foundation trilogy soon followed in middle school. I was such a book nerd, I requested autographs from some of these authors. To my everlasting delight, I have one from J.R.R. Tolkien. Later in life, I edged into the dark side (horror) thanks to Stephen King’s works and being friends with Jonathan Maberry.
As a reader, I view anthologies as literary banquets – a way to sample authors’ work without the commitment of reading an entire novel. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Try a little of this, taste a little of that. I savor how the contributing authors offer alternate takes on a theme, as well as their different writing styles. And, of course, reading the work of talented authors only improves my writing skills.
I’ve only been writing fiction since middle age. Prior to that, I earned my living as either a project manager or a process improvement consultant. As it turns out, those professions provide good preparation for editing an anthology. One must manage a project budget, schedule, scope, risks, communications, contractual issues, and so on. It helps to be extremely organized (I am) and able to use the appropriate desktop tools (spreadsheets, Word’s track changes, and Google calendar are your friends). Thus, editing (managing) an anthology merges two of my passions.
As an anthology editor, I love being able to choose who will participate. It’s like picking the pro players you want for a fantasy football team. I invite established authors with experience in the genre. Inclusivity is also important to me. Then I add up-and-coming authors, readers may not yet have discovered. It’s also a personal thrill to know my story will be mingling with those by authors I respect. Of course, that creates pressure to write the best story I can. My secret anxiety is not wanting to have a story of lesser quality.
Building an anthology involves multiple steps. You have to solicit and obtain provisional agreement from the headlining authors. Next, you have to write a proposal and sell the project to a publisher. Third, you have to manage the production schedule, or as I like to call it, herd the cats. Fourth, you have to provide constructive feedback, often to more accomplished authors, without feeling like an imposter. Then, you must track story progress, author payments, and so on. And, of course, in Henry’s Corollary to Murphy’s Law, something will cause an author to drop out in mid-project—writer’s block or a competing project or an unresolvable contractual question. You must adapt.
My latest anthology, Combat Monsters (Blackstone Publishing), is a fantasy/sci-fi/alternative history anthology featuring stories from eight bestselling authors. It’s based on the premise that research has uncovered long-buried military secrets—both the Allied and Axis forces used monsters during World War II. Details at https://henryherz.wordpress.com/combat-monsters/
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Henry Herz has written for Daily Science Fiction, Weird Tales, Pseudopod, Metastellar, Titan Books, Highlights for Children, Ladybug Magazine, and anthologies from Albert Whitman, Blackstone Publishing, Third Flatiron, Brigids Gate Press, Air and Nothingness Press, Baen Books, and elsewhere. He’s edited eight anthologies and written fourteen picture books.
(I am so very busy. I’m sorry. This is all I had time to do. At least they are pretty images and informative, too!)
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.
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.
