So much editing. So much writing. So much kitchen reno stuff. Have a Bubble & Squeek!

Rerelease: BattleTech: The Nellus Academy Incident has been re-released in a new format, with 2 new stories, and a lovely new cover! Isn’t it pretty?

AANE – July 10, 2026. Neurodivergent Authors on Writing, Identity, and Visibility. I will be on a panel with 4 other authors.

Awards: Always nice when your publisher says nice things about you (Facebook link) because you were nominated for a major award.

Convention: I will be in the Authors Alcove at Origins Game Fair in June.

Convention: Here’s my Gen Con schedule (minus signings and meetings). Add my popular Project Management for Creatives to your wishlist.

Twitch: Memorial Day weekend is ArvCon, the annual charity to support the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. It is the finale of my long-running Eberron game, Oracle of War, all day on 24 May. Come support us and a worthy cause!

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.

It’s been five years since I stepped into the BattleTech arena as a writer. Over ten since I wrote my award winning YA BattleTech novel, The Nellus Academy Incident. I’ve never written a one-off BattleTech short story. Now I’ve written two…and one of them is currently available for free on the Catalyst Game Labs “free download” page.

For August only, “Praise for the Honored Dead” is available for free, and it takes place after about a week after the events of The Nellus Academy Incident, and thus will have many spoilers for the novel. Gotta admit, I’m in love with the cover of this short story.

“GET READY FOR THE WORST TIME OF YOUR LIVES.”

The press is calling it “The Nellus Academy Incident.” For the cadets that fought against and survived a brutal mercenary assault intended to spark a war between the Free Worlds League and the Lyran Alliance, it was only the beginning. 

Now, they must navigate the gauntlet of appearing in public…and dealing with what happened on Phobos. Barely days past risking their lives—and seeing their fellow classmates sacrifice themselves for the others—the four remaining cadets must come to terms with what has happened…and lay their friends to rest while under the pitiless glare of government cameras that record their every move…

Rereading The Nellus Academy Incident more than 10 years after I wrote it was interesting. I had some genuine moments of “Oh, that’s good” and “Damn, I don’t remember writing that. It really works.” Of course, I had a couple moments of “I could’ve written that better.” But not many.

It was like bumping into an old friend after a long absence and realizing, yeah, they were cool and you’re glad you know they and met up again. There is joy in realizing that, yeah, you do do good work. I hope you enjoy returning to the Nellus Academy for a brief dip back into the cadets’ lives.

(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!)

Today’s Tell Me is from my friend and peer, Bryan Young. He talks about a truism in novel writing that is rarely spoken about. Also, he talks about another love of mine…James Bond novels.

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. 

—

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.

Next week is Gen Con. I actually don’t know how many of these conventions I’ve gone to (more than 10? 15?) but, I suppose, at this stage of the game it doesn’t matter.

This year is going to be a little bit different for me. I do not have a table in Authors Avenue. I chose not to have one because I’m at a point in my career where it is not necessary. Also, there are other newer, more hungry authors out there who need that spot. Thus, I bow out. Also…honestly, I’m feeling my age a little. I cannot vend in the Dealers Hall and do workshops/panels for the Writers Symposium. There is a half mile jaunt between locations which is a 12 minute brisk walk one way (ask me how I know).

Thus, this year I am only participating in the Writers Symposium, the BattleTech/Shadowrun group signing at the Cat Labs booth, and various business meetings. The Writers Symposium is located on the 2nd floor of the Downtown Marriott and will have much signage to help you find it.

Here is my schedule for the Writers Symposium. The link will take you to the events page and my official schedule. You can search for any author’s schedule in this place. In addition to my panels and workshops, I will be doing three signings:

• Friday, 2:00-2:50pm BattleTech Signing – Signing: Multiple BattleTech Authors, ICC – Catalyst Game Labs booth 1611
• Friday, 3:00-3:50pm Panel GCWS – Signing: Chesya Burke and Jennifer Brozek, ICC : Signing table near Authors Avenue. Both of us will have books to sell.
• Saturday, 11:00-12:00pm Shadowrun Signing – Signing: Multiple Shadowrun Authors, ICC – Catalyst Game Labs booth 1611

Finally, the Symposium will be releasing the first-ever Gen Con Writers’ Symposium Collectible Drive! This USB drive will only be available in person at Gen Con 2023, and limited to 500 drives. It contains 19 retail books, including 2 new releases and one pre-release. GCWS-exclusive collections of previously unpublished short fiction from E.D.E. Bell, Jennifer Brozek, and Richard Lee Byers. The drive also includes several bonus short stories, music from The Road, and an audiobook narrated by C. S. E. Cooney.

I’m really looking forward to Gen Con this year. I hope to see you there.

Wrapping up stuff that happened at the end of 2022 and started this year. Releases, reviews, and interviews!

Miscellaneous: I finally made a linktr.ee site. https://linktr.ee/JenniferBrozek Just cause.

Release: My new FiveFold Universe novella, Truumeel’s Light, has been released!

Review: Review of Truumeel’s Light. They like it. Yay!

Review: A lovely compliment about me as a BattleTech author. Sometimes all you need is a brief, unexpected compliment to make an author’s day so much better.

Release: My latest Shadowrun YA novelle! Shadowrun: Unrepairable. This is my third standalone YA Shadowrun novella. Gotta tell you, things don’t look good for the home team 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.

Video Interview: This was on GenConTV with Rem Alternis interviewing the entire FiveFold Universe author crew. It was good fun.

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.

Despite the fact that 2021 was another emotional kick in the shins for me, I did produce a number of works I believe are worthy of notice.

 Short Fiction
“Seven Steps to Immortality” – Daily Science Fiction
Science fiction/Fantasy
(I am particularly pleased with this one.)

 “Unsavory” – Boundaries: All-New Tales of Valdemar anthology, DAW
Fantasy, Tie-in

Novella
Shadowrun: See How She Runs, Catalyst Game Labs
YA, SF, Tie-in

Novel
BattleTech: Crimson Night, Rogue Academy 3, Catalyst Game Labs
YA, Military SF, Tie-in

 Anthology (edited)
99 Tiny Terrors, Pulse Publishing
Flash fiction horror anthology

Audiobook
BattleTech: The Nellus Academy Incident, Catalyst Game Labs
YA, Military SF, Tie-in

If you are on the jury for anything you believe these works qualify for, contact me and I will send you an electronic version of the work.

Deadlines, like lemmings, all rush to the same point. Same thing with updates and book releases. July was a huge month for me.

•    Audiobook Release: BattleTech: The Nellus Academy Incident audiobook. This is my award-winning YA BattleTech book read by the ever-talented Liisa Lee.

•    Reading: Shadow Bytes for Wily Writers. I read the origin story for By-the-Numbers for Wily Writers, a group that is designed to help all writers succeed. This was one part of Shadow Bytes hosted by The Violent Life podcast. (YouTube video.)

•    Release! Shadowrun: See How She Runs. YA Shadowrun novella set in Barcelona. Ridley Ruiz has plans. Big ones. However it seems that the shadows have plans for her, too.

•    Release! BattleTech: Crimson Night, Book Three of the Rogue Academy trilogy. Just released! Can Jasper and Nadine Roux save their planet from a rogue Draconis Combine warlord? Winner takes all in this explosive conclusion to the Rogue Academy trilogy.
 

•    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.

Behold the beauty of my newest cover reveal!

BATTLETECH: CRIMSON NIGHT

Book Three of the Rogue Academy trilogy!

Icing on the cake? Cats Labs updated all of the Rogue Academy covers. They are all beautiful. The cover artist for all three is the ever-talented Marco Mazzoni. 

Iron Dawn and Ghost Hour look wonderful. What do you think? If you haven’t read the first two books, now is a good time to catch up. I didn’t get to celebrate the release of Ghost Hour. I will get to celebrate the release of Crimson Night at Gen Con and Origins this year. Woot!