Get a free story when you subscribe
As we celebrate Children’s Book Week, I thought I’d talk about when I discovered the magic of reading. Not that reading could bring you stories but that reading could transform your world and take you into a new world so deeply that, for a short time, you don’t realize you’re not there.
The book series that gave me this epiphany was The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper. It is a retelling of the Arthurian tale—as told through the eyes and experiences of an eleven year old boy and his friends. His friends included a girl, Jane.
I was nine at the time, living in Belgium, no TV, no real friends. My home was a 300 year old mansion complete with bell tower and escape tunnel (that I wasn’t suppose to know about but I did), and a backyard as big as a football field with an eight foot stone wall. It was easy to get into the books. I was already out of my element and looking for an anchor.
The tale told by Susan Cooper opened my eyes to the magic of reading the day I sat down to read “Over Sea, Under Stone” one afternoon and I came up for air only when I was called to dinner. I was dazed, still in that other world. All through dinner, I was torn between wanting to get back to the book and wanting to tell everyone about it.
In the end, I finished my meal, did my chores as quickly as possible, and went back to my room and into that other world without sharing. I knew the rest of my family would never understand. Except, they did. My parents, especially my mom, were always reading. From that day on, going to the library to get a new book (or five) was my special treat. Ransacking my parents’ library was high on the list, too.
I reread The Dark is Rising series about once a year. They are old friends that bring me comfort and joy with every page turn. It was this discovery of magic that eventually made me into the author I am today.
The whole concept of Geek Field Guide started with the idea of traveling the world and documenting regional and local martial arts styles for others who share our passion for that sort of thing. The idea quickly took on a life of its own, and grew as we assessed where our talents and passions overlapped that we could provide a more compelling project to a larger number of people.
Some background… Photography has always been a great passion for me, and I’d always felt restricted by technology. Using cheap 110 film as a child was a great learning experience, but the quality ultimately left me disappointed by the results. The 35mm point and shoot that my dad owned was a significant improvement, but it wasn’t something I could go play and experiment with due to the rather significant cost of the camera for my family at the time. It wasn’t until college that I took a photography course and bought an old fully-manual Minolta SLR that I really grasped photography as an art form.
The ability to present a view of the world with such carefully-tuned composition and exposure was a door flung open in front of me into a new world. Between my third and fourth year of college, I took a trip to Italy through the university and studied art in Florence (Firenze) for a summer. This falls under the category of Life-Changing Experience. This was when I realized that I was truly happy out exploring and seeing the world, camera in hand. But… You can’t make a real career out of that, right? So I went home, and continued down the path of life toward jobs that happen in office buildings. Fast-forward through over a decade of game development from QA to co-owning an indie studio, a couple years of finally giving in and taking up fiction writing (including one published short so far), and splurging to get a DSLR, I finally had the experience I needed to re-assess my dreams.
Working in an office was no longer a requirement to my subconscious after freelance writing and dev work. I’d spent enough time living in hotels that I found that while it is essential to have a home base somewhere, the amount of time I feel I need to spend there isn’t that significant. I realized that the time to put all the skills and networking to use had arrived.
As the idea for The Project (as we came to refer to it) became more concrete to me, I started reaching out to friends with varied hobbies and careers for feedback on what would be useful to them. The response was staggering. Finding good reference for the types of projects that geeks do for fun and profit can be extremely time-consuming, or sometimes impossible to find. Everyone I talked to wanted to see me try to make this project happen.
I’m a tech geek at heart. While I no longer get as excited about technology for the sake of technology, new hardware, software, and techniques for furthering my art will grab my attention every time.
For this reason, the increasing low-light capabilities of DSLR cameras (I prefer to shoot in natural light), portability of HD video cameras (such as the GoPro), and techniques such as photogrammetry (turning a series of perspective photos into a 3D model), leapt into my mind as ways that we could document the world in new and exciting ways.
We tried to capture a cross-section of these techniques in our promo video on Indiegogo.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/geek-field-guide/
I’d love to hear your thoughts!
My schedule has hit a point where I have enough projects in the air that I need to work on several a day instead of my preferred: focus on one, get a lot done. Most of it is editing projects in various states of editing.
I now have to portion out my time like this:
Once I have that done—I know it’s only 8 hours—if I want, I can go back to the anthology story. I’ll probably have this schedule for the next week. All of this needs to get done while dealing with vet visits, house cleaning, remembering to eat, laundry, exercising, etc…
I much prefer doing something like 6 hours on project #1 and 4 hours on project #2 each day. But, alas, deadlines conspire against me. So, while I’m not quite to the “juggling chainsaws” type of schedule, I am definitely juggling something. Maybe just knives.
Mena is home! She’s eating, got a cream for her ear, and antibiotics. I’m really happy.
Also… 5 years ago, Jeff and I wed in front of family and friends. It’s been fabulous and I am so happy. I’m looking forward to many more years to come.
I really wanted this update to be all about how good Mena’s doing but, while her stitches seem to be healing well (she was supposed to get them out tomorrow), she’s started vomiting in the last couple of days and wouldn’t accept treats today. Yesterday and today it looked like she tried to eat her kibble but couldn’t keep it down. Thus, a call to the vet. Thus, a request to bring her in immediately. *sigh*
Doc quizzed me on medicine and such. It could be anything: she needs more antibiotics or she ate something bad or something’s going on with her ear that’s making her nauseated. No one knows right now. I’m going to call later in the day. I know she’s going to be kept overnight and probably x-rayed.
My poor fur baby. She just can’t catch a break.
The Genre Underground is sponsoring a “Tell a Story” roundtable. This is my second time at bat. It’s a fabulously kooky story. Start at the beginning here.
—
As soon as Dr. Glockenspiel’s hands stopped waving, the bright glow faded, leaving both the doctor and Burbleglax blinking away the tears. It was Burbleglax who saw Princess Zyx’s new face… and new form. “Princess…?”
The small lady elf with chubby cheeks, big blue eyes, and a generous smile, nodded. “How do I look?’
Burbleglax shook his head. “Not like you.”
Sitting up in alarm, the Princess touched her face and looked at her tiny, delicate hands. “I’m not ugly, am I?”
Dr. Glockenspiel smiled as he presented her with a mirror. “My spell was to make you the perfect match for your true love—in image only. You, my dear princess, are already perfect.”
Princess Zyx took the mirror and looked at herself for a long time. She turned her face this way and that. She practiced smiling. She practiced puppy dog eyes. She practiced a stern, regal look… that didn’t quite work with her new face. Then, she just stared… a single tear coursing down her apple cheek.
“Princess?” Burbleglax turned from her and glared at the doctor. “Oh, you’ve done it, Mister. You upset my princess. I’ll have your license, your practice, your wives, even your yappy little dogs before I’m done with you. I don’t forgive and I’m her highness’ best chief practitioner of minutiamancy.” The little imp was beginning to froth.
All the while, having the doctor never seen an imp in a full on rage before, backed away slowly, his hands raised in supplication. “But… but… the spell.”
“When I’m done with you, you would be able to clean toilets, much less—”
“Burbleglax. I need you.” Princess Zyx’s voice was higher pitched but still the same imperious tone.
The imp gave the doctor one last glare and hurried to Princess Zyx’s side. “Yes, your highness?” He bowed low.
Still looking at herself in the mirror, she smiled. “It’s perfect! It’s absolutely perfect! That cranky old Claus can’t deny me my love for Tinselton… or his love for me. We’re going to the North Pole to rescue Tinselton from Claus—even if it’s the last thing you do. And we’ve got to do it before the android gets free.”
—
I have a new interview up at Roleplayers Chronicle. Lots about Colonial Gothic and Shanghai Vampocalypse.
There is a SFWA Reading on Tuesday, the 23rd, in Kirkland.
I will be reading at Soul Food Books in Redmond on Wednesday, the 24th with Brenda Cooper, Keffy Kehrli, Cat Rambo, K.C. Ball, and Caren Gussoff. It starts at 7pm.
I sold “A Card Given” to the What Fates Impose anthology, edited by Nayad Monroe.
Here’s the cover image of CHILDREN OF ANU. The character on the cover is a version Vicki. I love it! Cover photography by Amber Clark.
Mena is home now, in her blue cape. She keeps trying to groom but fails. This is good and bad. Right now, all of the cats are randomly hissy at each other. First it was Mena. It’s the drugs. Now, it’s mostly Isis and she’s hissing at everyone. I’m pretty sure it is a dominance thing. Plus, Mena’s cape makes her look bigger than she is.
Thank you everyone who helped raise money for Mena’s surgery. You all helped raise about $400. Between that, my extra hours, and my patron, we’re squeaking through. We’re still hoping to sell the bar to cover the rest and the follow up visit.
We’ve decided to keep the Apocalypse Ink Productions book sale going through the middle of May. Partly as a “thank you!” and partly in prep of the release of CHILDREN OF ANU. I’m really-really glad she’s home.
I’m participating in Genre Underground‘s Tell a Story Day story. This is my first dip into the ongoing storyline.
—
The android tilted his head, its auditory sensors cranked up to detect the disturbance that certainly followed the elf to Assembly. As the sounds of roars, terrified metallic squees, and metal smashing against metal reached it, the android nodded. “I believe I have the trajectory of our quarry.”
“One moment.” The lawyer shuffled through his case again. “I need to make sure I have the correct contracts on hand. I’m biological but I’ve negotiated the right to traverse Assembly as needed in the pursuit of a case.”
“Logically, we are in pursuit of an elf with a troll who might have information on our case.”
“Yes. It all counts. Remember, I’m a master at the fine print.” The lawyer tapped his chin. “Which begs the question of how the elf was able to open a portal at all. I did remove his free will.”
As the disturbance in the distance gained volume, the android shrugged. “A thought experiment for another time. Our lead is getting away.” It turned from the lawyer and set off in the direction of the troll versus droid melee.
The lawyer jogged to keep up with the android’s long strides. “Troll first, then elf. Based on his actions, I deem the elf part of the case. Bounty hunter or not, he knows more than he’s saying. He knew the troll. He broke our contract. He came here. He may be part of the crime.” The lawyer stopped talking to save his breath for jogging as he searched his memory for how long he could be on Assembly without taking damage from the planet’s industrial tainted air. Not long if he remembered correctly.
As they came upon the scene of destruction, mauled bunny droid parts scattered hither, thither, and yon, their original quarry was locked in combat with one of the largest security droids either the android or lawyer had ever seen.
“Halt this combat immediately.” The lawyer pulled out his contract with Assembly and read. “By Section 37, Clause 3, Paragraph 15, of the Assembly Contract 597, this troll is to be bound and released into our custody.”
“Negative.” The security drone did not release the troll who continued to scream and pound against its metal frame. “In times of crisis, Security Protocol 19 supersedes Assembly Contract 597, Section 37, Clause 3, Paragraph 15.”
The android nodded. “This is a crisis.”
—
Just got back from visiting Mena at the vet. They need to keep her another night to make sure her pain is managed and to make sure the surgery wound is healing as expected. Mena is on serious drugs and is feeling no pain. At the same time, she really, really wanted to be with me but also wanted her box (aka the litter box—I can see why they leave so little litter in there and clean it immediately).
She knew me as soon as I came in and was both very meowy and purring. She couldn’t get comfortable but was happy to see me. She insisted on having me hold her from time to time and kept trying to rub her wound on me. This freaked me out. I mean, I’ve been dealing with an open leg wound since February and the idea of rubbing is just… not gonna think about it.
Mena will be on a pain patch for two weeks. I’m glad. That surgery wound looks awful to me. It’s open down the side of her face. The skin is suppose to close and the hair is suppose to camouflage the surgical scar. But, everything is reacting as expected.
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.
