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Per usual, I like to round up the year to see what I accomplished as an author, editor, and media tie-in writer. This year was a bit unusual. Year three of the pandemic and I knew I needed more rest than normal because of the general trauma of it all. Between that and anniversaries of my parents’ deaths and a whole host of other things, I structured the year a bit differently.
First, the cold hard numbers…
New words written thoughts: For the first time in a very long time, I wrote less than 100K new words in a year. When I first saw the numbers, I was startled and a little upset. Then I thought about the three month writing break I put in the middle of the year because I needed it. Then I looked at how much I had edited: 2 novellas, 1 novel, and 2 anthologies. That was where my time went and why my “new words” number seemed low to me.
Sometimes authors put too much emphasis on quantity over quality. It’s a bit like watching the scale and wondering why you’re not losing pounds while you are lifting weights and gaining muscle mass even as your waist line shrinks. I keep track of the numbers to tell myself about how I worked and what affected me where. Travel, grief, other work, teaching classes. All of it counts. This is why I keep track of everything I do in a day. I can always tell when I had to stop and spend an hour looking at a contract rather than writing. Or when the words wouldn’t come because I was grieving. My Freelancer Summary is invaluable to me. I’ve had enough people ask me about it that I’ve created a blank 2023 RTF document for people to download and use as they will. (Direct Download Link.)
This was an excellent year for submissions for me. I don’t think I’ve had such a high acceptance rate before and that makes me feel good. I like to get my short fiction out there. I like it more when it is accepted. I will never get over the rush I get at an acceptance.
New works published: I had a Shadowrun novel, Elfin Black, and a Shadowrun novella, Unrepairable, published along with a FiveFold Universe space opera novella, Truumeel’s Light, published. Then there were the two re-releases: Apocalypse Girl Dreaming and Last Days of Salton Academy. Also, I’m quite proud of the anthology, The Reinvented Heart, I co-edited with Cat Rambo. Yeah, 2022 was a good publication year.
I’ve forced myself to take an actual break for the last two weeks of 2022. It’s been good but weird. Part of me is desperate to rest. Part of me is desperate to get back to work. I think 2023 is going to be interesting in a good way and I’m looking forward to it. There’s a lot to think about and a lot to plan for. However, that is for 2023 Jennifer to deal with. 2022 Jennifer is in “potato” mode. In the meantime, I’ve got a fiendish puzzle from my sister to work on.
Thank you to every single one of you who reads me and enjoys my work.
I hope you have had a lovely holiday season and I wish you the brightest new year.
In a stealth move worthy of the best runners, Shadowrun: Unrepairable has been released just in time for the holiday season! This YA novella is the third YA novella (with one more to go) in what I’m calling the “Mosaic Auditions.” As before, this is a standalone novella and can be read in any order with any of the other Shadowrun novels/novellas I have written. You may recognize a character here or there…
VEXING MEGACORPS FOR FUN AND PROFIT…
Landon and Liana Hoffman are on summer vacation, and look forward to producing their Matrix repair show, the Right2RepairRigger, and hanging out at the local makerspace. But when they get a chance at a lucrative salvage run, they can’t say no—especially when they owe the fixer who’s hiring them.
Beyond settling their account, the job promises untold riches in salvageable, possibly beyond state-of-the-art gear at a secret, abandoned military facility. Aware of the dangers involved, the run is still too good to pass up. However, the place may not be as abandoned as it seems—and the clock is ticking.
Also, there are powerful enemies who don’t like what the Right2RepairRigger is doing, and are willing to destroy whoever they can to put a stop to it—including arresting anyone possibly connected with the twins’ program. Can Landon and Liana finish the run and save their family at the same time?
(As an aside, I’m so pleased I got to write a dad joke in this one. It’s the little things that count.)
It’s the beginning of my birthday week. My actually birth date is December 9th. Per my normal tradition, I celebrate my birthday all week long because I can. So, yay! My fifties are still doing all right—the state of the world notwithstanding.
As I am often asked what I want for my birthday, these are some things I’m interested in:
Buy yourself or someone you love one of my books. Yes, please. As an author and an anthologist, I want my creations read, shared, and enjoyed. I really do.
Review one of my books somewhere. Again, as an author and anthologist, I appreciate reviews and getting the word out—be it on a personal blog, on social media, or on a store site.
Buy me a ko-fi. I don’t have a patreon. This is the closest thing I have to it and I appreciate how it works. I’ve learned many a thing by buying authors literal coffees at events. I’ve also had my brain picked while being bought a tasty beverage. Also, I love coffee. I am made of caffeine.
Amazon wishlist. I have one of these because friends and family frequently ask for it. Occasionally, I got add things of interest to me as a writer or occasional streamer. Or ApocalypseGirl gets her dander up over something.
Enjoy a book, be kind to a friend, give me a review, wish me a happy birthday. Any, all, or none will do. I am planning to have a fabulous week come what may.
Brandon Crilly, author of Catalyst, talks about when characters do the unexpected and how it can benefit the writer. I’ve had this happen. In the third book of the Karen Wilson Chronicles, a tertiary character unexpected sacrificed himself, changing the course of the book and the rest of the series. Yeah, Brandon, *sage nod* I understand.
Characters have minds of their own once you flesh them out—and while it sounds bizarre to some people, we writers know that sometimes they’ll take control of the story while you’re drafting.
I tend to think of myself as an outliner, but really, I’m halfway to a pantser. My outline is part scene description for a play and part predictions about what will push my characters one way or another, and I don’t know everything that’s going to happen until I start drafting. That’s part of the fun for me—if I know everything ahead of time, there’s no need for me to write the draft because I won’t be surprised. (Maybe I’m secretly a writer chaotician. I do enjoy wearing a leather jacket.)
Because I’ve only outlined as much as I need and there’s lots of room for play, drafting sometimes means my characters react in ways I don’t expect. Small scale, it’s a particular line that comes across snarkier or more heartfelt than I would’ve thought, or one character turns to face the onrushing horde of spiders instead of leaping through the portal with their friends. But occasionally, as I’m drafting, one of my characters reacts in such a fundamentally different way than what I expect that it changes the entire path of that scene, if not the whole novel, and all I can do is watch. Like they’re directing my fingers on the keyboard.
Eerie, right? Unless you’ve had this moment, in which case we can nod sagely at each other across the table and ignore the folks giving us weird looks.
This happened during the drafting of Catalyst, in what’s become one of my favorite scenes of the book. Avoiding spoilers, my three central protagonists—street magician Mavrin, self-professed heretic Eyasu, and ex-soldier Deyeri—have their first moment of genuine quiet together after one dangerous or fast-paced moment after another, which started with being reunited after more than a decade. Starting to draft that scene, I thought it would be light and comfortable, as these three remember why they were friends for so long and realize that, even now, they have each other’s backs. Maybe even with a couple in-jokes.
Nope.
Partway through, Deyeri makes an offhand comment that makes Mavrin and Eyasu laugh – but as I was writing that laughter, suddenly I saw Mavrin start to come apart. He’s someone who’s not used to adventure, and carries around a lot of guilt, and the act of genuinely laughing at something for the first time in days suddenly let out a bunch of other emotions I’m not sure I realized he was carrying. And all I could do was figure out how Eyasu and Deyeri would react to what quickly became one of the most heartfelt moments in the entire novel.
Had I tried to force the scene in a different direction, it would’ve produced something awkward and probably not as good. Instead, drafting that scene felt like alchemy more than writing—which means that when it happens again, I’ll know to trust my characters and let them take charge for a bit.
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Brandon Crilly has been published by Daily Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, Fusion Fragment, Haven Spec and other markets. He’s also an Aurora Award-winning podcaster, reviewer, conference organizer, and snake parent to a delightful corn snake named Bob. His debut fantasy novel Catalyst came out in October 2022 from Atthis Arts.
Here’s something I do as an author: I think. A lot. About pretty much everything in regards to writing any length of work. Admittedly, the shorter the work, the less I have to think about it unless it is something in a very, very specific format or is on something I am not super familiar with.
Right now, I’m thinking about my next YA Shadowrun novella, The Kilimanjaro Run. It is the fourth in the series (even though each novella is standalone, there is a throughput line). It’s taken me weeks to figure out what POV this novella should be written in. Partly because I’m not familiar with the physical location where the novella will be taking place. Partly because I couldn’t decide who would be the best point of view character. That difficulty has come down to not having the confidence/experience to write the story from the POV character I would like to write it from. Thus, after much internal debate (and my editor’s approval), I will write it from the POV character I am most comfortable with, and the one the readers would be most likely to forgive should I muck things up. I have already hired a sensitivity reader. Hopefully, that will help with the not-mucking-up part of things.
In the meantime, I’m thinking…about the story…about the characters…about specific scenes. Basically, thinking about everything I’m going to write. I haven’t written much yet. Art notes for the cover (talk about putting the cart before the horse). An nascent outline. Character names with 1-3 lines of background. Facts about hippopotamuses and Tanzania. The first paragraph in the story (which I’m sure I’m going to toss out and start over, but it’s easy to start with a brief edit than to stare at the tyranny of the blank page). Probably about 600 words in total.
What does thinking about writing look like? For me, it looks like playing PokemonGO, cleaning my house, folding laundry, or doing some other bit of busy work that keeps most of me occupied while my creative part churns. I’m making inspired butter out of creative cream (or is that creative butter out of inspired cream?). Today, thinking looks like updating every single one of my apple devices because I bought more music for the first time in forever. It also looks like processing author bios for my anthology 99 Fleeting Fantasies. And eating lunch. And staring off into space, occasionally having an argument with myself or with the characters in my head. Not to mention writing this blog post.
While it doesn’t look like much, it is hard work. It is mentally taxing. It can be physically tiring. But it’s not the “sexy” part of writing. It’s not really a thing you can show without being stereotypical—and what you “show” is what writer’s block looks like. It’s funny how a writer thinking looks like writer’s block to someone who doesn’t write. It shows the fundamental disconnect between the writer and the reader.
The best way I can describe an author thinking to a reader who is not a writer is an earworm. An earworm of the literary kind in the best, most distracting, way. You don’t know the complete tune, nor do you know all the words, but it is enticing. You know it. But you don’t really know it, yet. You will…but only after it is on the page and has been edited a half a dozen times. Then you will know what the song/story really was all along.
So, that’s what and how I’m doing. What about you?
Mena being adorable in the cat tower.
Today’s Bubble & Squeek is brought to you by the letter “E” for edit because that’s what my main focus is on right now.
Publication: Tales of Nightmares anthology edited by Loren Rhoads with my story “Twenty Questions” in it. It’s getting some nice reviews!
Pre-Order: Truumeel’s Light. Space opera novel. Part one of the Tears of Perseus story written with five other fabulous authors, including Kevin J Anderson.
Review: What a lovely and in-depth review of The Reinvented Heart anthology from http://www.llamareadsbooks.com/. I really do like this anthology.
Review: Cannonball Read reviews The Reinvented Heart anthology and likes it! Another good one.
Review: A great, detailed review of Tales of Nightmares anthology. One of my oldest stories is reprinted in this one.
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.
Every single year I swear I’m not going to do this to myself again…and yet…here I am. 3.5 months left to the year and I’ve got 4 decently-sized projects due before the end of the year (2 novellas, 2 anthologies). I’m also teaching a couple more classes and I’m attending Can*Con virtually. I suppose the difference is the fact that I took two months off in the middle of summer to rest. And by “rest” I mean “not writing.” I think it helped.
In the last 5-6 weeks or so, I’ve attended Gen Con in person, attended Chicon virtually, Queen Elizabeth II died (feelings are complicated on this one) and I got my omicron booster/flu shot. I’m settling in for a whole lot of butt-in-the-chair-fingers-on-the-keyboard. I have no scheduled or even planned “travel” until next year April. There is a bit of relief in that.
Of course, part of me is itching to get my signature on a new contract. As of now, I don’t know exactly what I’m doing next year. I mean, there’s Secret Project A, Secret Project B, and Secret Project C in the works. All of which would take a whole lot of time. I still have two more Shadowrun novels to write to finish out my unofficial trilogy and the YA series. Not to mention, I’m also itching to work on my own stuff—a languishing SF novella and a “men’s soap opera” series I’ve been thinking about for years now…
And yet…there is security and comfort in having signed contracts.
Thus, it feels like time is running away with me. I know it’s not. I know if I keep working at a steady pace, everything will come together and I should even have a couple weeks of “nothing” at the end of the year. But, we all know that deadlines and projects slip and slid until they bunch up against each other in the same two week period.
Until then, slow and steady wins the day.
Here’s a shelfie of densely packed dark academia fancy.
Gen Con in person was really good. I’m so glad I went. I got to see people I hadn’t seen in years as well as make new friends. Also, all Covid tests for me and the Husband were negative.
I will be attending Chicon 8 / Worldcon virtually this year. They’ve put me on a series of interesting virtual panels, hosted by Airmeet. I’ve used the virtual conference software before and think it does a pretty good job.
Space/Time: Airmeet Table Talks Thursday, September 1, 2022, 1:00 PM CDT / 11AM PDT
Title: Virtual Table Talk – Jennifer Brozek
Participants: Jennifer Brozek
Description: Jennifer Brozek talks about the anthology editing process—solo and collaborative. With 20+ anthologies published and nominations for the BFA, Stoker, and Hugo awards, come hear how she chooses stories and how your story can stand out from the rest. Happy to answer questions.
Space/Time: Airmeet 5 Friday, September 2, 2022, 2:30 PM CDT / 12:30PM PDT
Title: The Final Girl
Participants: Jennifer Brozek (m), She/her; Bitter Karella, He/Him, She/Her, or They/Them; John Wiswell, He/Him; L. Marie Wood, She/her; Tania Chen, She/Her, or They/Them
Description: In slasher and haunted house stories, it’s a trope that the last surviving character is a woman—often a modest, virginal, and frequently white woman. But lately, creators have been confronting this idea and subverting it. We’ll talk about our favorite classic examples of the trope, question its problematic framings and assumptions, and discuss our favorite works that twist or outright reject the idea. Will “The Final Girl” itself survive, and should it?
Space/Time: Airmeet 1 Saturday, September 3, 2022, 5:30 PM CDT / 3:30PM PDT
Title: How Horror and SFF Blend
Participants: Cora Buhlert (m) She/her; Bob J. Koester, He/him; Emma Osborne, They/them; Jennifer Brozek, She/her; L. Marie Wood, She/her
Description: Horror has often overlapped with SFF—hello, Frankenstein! Lately it seems like we’re seeing a rise in horror elements in popular SFF, including many recent Hugo winners and nominees. What makes horror blend well with science fiction or fantasy? Are there challenges or problems with mixing the genres? And how do cosmic horror, the Weird, and New Weird fit into this discussion? Come find out whether or not anyone can hear you scream . . . in space!
Space/Time: Airmeet 2 Sunday, September 4, 2022, 1:00 PM CDT / 11AM PDT
Title: Short and Sweet: Crafting an Elevator Pitch
Participants: Jennifer Brozek (m), She/her; Dan Koboldt, He/him; John E. Stith, He/him; Leah Cypess, She/her; Tabitha Lord, She/her
Description: Success is equal parts preparations and luck—so be prepared when luck puts you in the right place at the right time! How do you get ready for a pitch opportunity with an editor or producer, when you may have less than a minute to sell your dream project?
Space/Time: Airmeet 4 Sunday, September 4, 2022, 4:00 PM CDT / 2PM PDT
Title: The Glories of the Tie-In Novel
Participants: Kate Heartfield (m), She/her; Jeffrey A. Carver, He/him; Jennifer Brozek, She/her; Marie Brennan, She/her; Suyi Davies Okungbowa, He/him
Description: Often-scoffed at, but supporting many a writer, and sometimes a secret way to develop ideas and voice: let’s talk about media tie-in novels! What’s it like working within those boundaries? Let’s talk about “capturing the feel of the original” versus “finding a way to do something new in a familiar setting.”
I will be at Gen Con this year, in person, in the Writers Symposium and in Authors Avenue (Booth U) in the Dealer’s Room. My schedule is all over the place and I suspect I will spend a lot of time running between the Downtown Marriott where the Symposium is held and the Convention Center Dealer’s Room(PDF).
That said, there is a “no shyness” zone around me. If you see me and want to say hello, please do so. Though, you may have to keep up with me if I’m moving from one area to another.
If I’m not at a panel, I’m at my booth. If I’m not at my booth, the Husband will know where I am. Hope to see you there!
My Symposium Schedule
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Authors Avenue Map
As the world continues to spin and time slips away, life happens. I’m back to writing as well as editing while trying to ignore social media. In the meantime, here’s what’s crossed my desk.
Awards: BattleTech: Crimson Night, Rogue Academy Three, has been nominated for a Scribe award! It’s always an honor to be nominated, but just look at that lineup. I’m in such good company.
Interview: I was interviewed on the Douglas Coleman show. This was a fun one. Listen to it on Youtube or in Podcast form.
Open Call: Announcing the 99 Fleeting Fantasies anthology open call. All genres of flash fiction fantasy. One month open call from July 15-Aug 15. (Also, might I direct your attention to: Round One of Slush Reading from the 99 Tiny Terrors call. Or The Reinvented Detective Slushpile Tweets round up for insider tips and hints on making it through a slushpile.)
Publication: For the HWA Of Horror and Hope anthology: Words to Fill the Well. I wrote this one because I was in a terrible mood and needed to write it out. It did me so much good.
Released: New thing I edited now for sale from Priebe Press… 2d6 Superfast One Shot character sheets and game mechanics! It’s a fun, quick system to use.
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.
Leeloo in my suitcase, trying to make sure I don’t leave without her.
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 multiple Hugo Awards. 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.
