editor

Hello everyone. There’s a whole lot going on behind the scenes, but things, they are moving. For example, I have an insurance payment on the “sudden catastrophic waterline break” kitchen, and I might have my new kitchen in the next two months! I’m very excited about that. Really. It is a first world problem, but I will never look at my kitchen sink the same again. (Ditto with my dishwasher.)

So, this happened. I am a finalist for the Short Form Editor Hugo Award! Maybe third time’s the charm? I’m so pleased. While I admit, I had a calmer reaction than last year (The Second Nomination is the Best), I did get an adrenaline dump so big that I felt it hit the bottom of my feet. However, I will never not be thrilled at an award nomination. So, yes. I will see you at Worldcon in LA this year.

First, thank you to everyone who has already wished me congratulations. I sincerely appreciate it. Also, congratulations to the rest of the Short Form Editor finalists: Scott H. Andrews, Neil Clarke, Lee Harris, Michael Damian Thomas, and Sheila Williams!

What do you do when you get nominated for a major award? Cora Buhlert has a lovely and informative Open Letter to the Finalists that is worth reading. Also, Seanan McGuire has a really wonderful and uplifting thread on BlueSky on How to be a Hugo Nominee. My favorite part is “protect your joy.”

Do I want to win? Hell yes. It is an honor to be nominated, it really is, but I’d love a Hugo win. Just once. What happens if I win? As I promised Seanan long ago, if I ever won a Hugo, I’d let her put her mantises on me and take pictures. Her mantises are varied and large. Wouldn’t you want to see Seanan put mantises on my head? If you can help make that happen, I’d be ever so grateful. 😀

Last year, I went a little nuts and bought three different dresses and two different tiaras. This year, I’m holding off on the clothing. I have to figure out what to wear in LA in August. I did buy a couple of new puzzles to celebrate. You have to celebrate an achievement like this. Otherwise, what is the point?

Hopefully, I’ll have my new kitchen by the time I go to LA.

Award season is upon us. The Hugo Award nominations are open. I would be pleased if you would consider my works for nomination. You must be a member of Worldcon (2025 or 2026) to nominate eligible works.

For your consideration, I am eligible for Best Editor, Short Form. I co-edited one anthology, Gudnak Means War, and I was the managing editor for 4 issues of Augment Magazine.

Also for your consideration: Augment Magazine is eligible for Best Semiprozine, by Jennifer Brozek, John Helfers, and Kathleen Hardy. Augment is a fully in-universe quarterly publication, and can be used in Shadowrun games as well as enjoyed by the casual reader. Everything from the art to the articles to the ads to the covers is in-universe fiction. Of all the award nominations, this is the one I am the most interested in and believe we’ve done excellent work. Augment your live with Augment magazine!

In specific, John Helfers, a long-time pillar in the publishing industry, is one of the hardest working editors I know. Honestly, it’s criminal that the last time he was nominated for a Hugo was in 2013. Kathleen Hardy, my art director, managed all of the artwork and ad copy for the magazine. This magazine wouldn’t be half as good as it is without her art direction. All of the contributors (artists and writers) did such excellent work. Also, no AI was used in any part of Augment Magazine.

If you would like to read any issue of Augment Magazine, please contact me. I’ll send it to you.

Nominations will close on Saturday, March 28, 2026 at 9:00am Pacific Time / 12:00pm Eastern Time / 4:00pm GMT.

Shall we start with the numbers?

• Books published: 1, Tales of the Hucked Tankard, flash fiction fantasy collection
• Short stories published: 7, “Shadowrun: Shadowbytes”, “Not Birds of a Feather”, “Observations of a LARP in Three Acts”, “No Matter the Shape” (co-written with Samantha Chalker), “BattleTech: Praise for the Honored Dead”, “More than Blood in the Water”, and “Lady Affra’s Curse” (co-written with Marie Bilodeau)
• New words written: 55,000
• Anthologies published: 1, Gudnak Means War (co-edited with Christopher Schmitz)
• Magazine Issues published: 4, Augment magazine issues 1-4 (Spring 2083, Summer 2083, Autumn 2083, Winter 2083)
• Fiction Lines/Projects Managed/Edited: 6, Shadowrun Monthly Free Fiction (CGL), Shadowrun Novella line(CGL), Augment magazine (CGL), Shadowrun anthology line (CGL), Shadowrun GTM fiction (CGL), Titanskeep (Hexed)
• Awards nominated for: 1 (Finalist for the Hugo award, Short Form Editor)
• Kickstarters completed: 1, Dear Penpal, Belgium 1980 was completely fulfilled!
• Stories submitted: 12
• Stories sold: 6 (50%)
• Stories rejected: 6 (50%)
• Stories outstanding: 0 (0%)

* * *

Thoughts about the Numbers…

(TL;DR: I did a lot more than I thought I did, and a lot less than I wanted to do.)

I did so much more editing and managing of fiction than I did writing it. As you see, I didn’t even finish a novel in 2025. On the other hand, I created a whole year’s worth of a magazine, managing/editing 14 authors, 5 fact checkers, and a slush pile just for it. That, in and of itself, is worthy. On top of it, I solicited, read for, curated, and edited three Shadowrun short fiction lines (Novella, FF, and GTM). That included so much overhead.

On one hand, it was a lot of work and I don’t really want to do it again. On the other hand, all of these Shadowrun fiction lines have a long tail and 80% of the hard work of them is already done. Now that I have them up and running, all I have to do is keep the ball rolling.

As for writing. I did get 5 new short stories written and sold them all. I’m in the throws of my third Colors Quartet Shadowrun novel, Imre Grey, after its released date got pushed from 2025 to 2026. Am I disappointed? A little. But not enough to castigate myself over it.

It’s taken me a lot of freelancing years to understand that I am not the sum of my output.

What about the other things?

Decluttering: I’d say we got about 2/3rds of the way through the Declutter project list box. We’re still working on it, pulling a project out of the box each week. Mostly. Between my schedule and the Husband’s graduate school, we’ve had some “amnesty weeks” where life took precedence. So, it will continue on.

The Year of the Unfinished Book: In 2025, I read 33 books.

• 8 New books. The best of which was Overgrowth by Mira Grant
• 12 Unfinished books. The best of which was Becoming Crone by Lydia M. Hawke
• 13 Books for work.

One Day Off the Internet a Week: By-and-large, I stuck to this. Boy, did I ever need that time away from the computer/work. This is one of those habits that will stick. I’ve got a new one I want to start but that’s a blog post for next year.

Last week, while the Husband and I walked around the neighborhood, a flash of red against black and white caught my eye. It was so unusual that I had to stop and get a better look at the bird. It turned out to be a woodpecker. Not just any woodpecker… It was a “Woody the Woodpecker” kind of woodpecker.

I had never seen this type of bird in the wild before and I was thrilled. It’s been a while since I’ve encountered new-to-me wildlife. This was so unexpected. Of course, I could not remember what kind of woodpecker it was. Thus, when I got home, I googled it.

Normally, I use udm14.com. I don’t like AI in my searches. I find UDM14 to be a lot cleaner and more correct. I forgot this time. What popped up for me when I asked Google?

A northern flicker (See below).

Once again, AI reared its ugly head and was wrong. Now, I know what a northern flicker looks like, and it does not look like Woody the Woodpecker. But, if I hadn’t already known, I could’ve walked away with incorrect information and been none the wiser.

Look, in certain circumstances, the pattern recognition of a LLMs is amazing. Especially in medical fields, and I imagine, in programming. However, you need to have a good foundation of knowledge before you can trust whatever AI comes up with.

As it stands now, in everyday life, AI is a travesty. Too many times, it is wrong—as in it guessed wrong. There’s no hallucinating going on. It would not get a passing grade in school. Yet, people trust its answers all the time. I wish to goodness AI was actually trustworthy. It’s not.

BTW, the correct answer is: Woody the Woodpecker is based on the Pileated Woodpecker.

I guess this is your old woman yells at clouds moment for the day.

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!

—

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

(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!)

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…

• Augment magazine, issues 1-4, will be released.
• I’ve also got the Shadowrun novella line to take care of.
• And, on the schedule, at least one more Shadowrun anthology. 
• Also, there’s a couple of BattleTech things on my plate to edit and write.
• Not to mention finishing Shadowrun: Imre Grey and, at least starting Shadowrun: Elf in White.

For me, personally: I plan to self-release several projects in 2025.

• First, we will finish up “Dear Penpal, Belgium 1980.” Then I will have to decide if I want to write the next of those. I won’t do it in actual physical letters, but if “Dear Penpal, Pennsylvania 1984” happens, it will still be an epistolary work vaguely based on my life as a teenager.
• Second, I will release a small fiction collection of my original Tales of the Hucked Tankard (from Campaign Magazine), including the unreleased story and a second original “twenty years later” story.
• Third, I’ve got plans to update Industry Talk to Industry Talk Revised: 15 Years Later. A lot has happened in the last 15 years. Some of my advice has changed. Some has not. But I think I have a lot more to say than I did last time.

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.

• Decluttering: “I need to declutter.” I’ve been saying this for 3 years now. This year, with the help of the Husband, we’ve decided to gamify the project and tackle it together. I broke the house out into 36 projects, wrote them down, and put them into a wooden chest. Each week, we will pull one out and do it. I think this will work. I hope it will. I can feel the weight of things on my shoulders.
• Unfinished Books: In 2024 (and 2023, 2022…), I started reading various novels, novellas, collections, and graphic stories. For whatever reason (work, distraction, exhaustion, travel, etc…), these books have not been finished. I spend too much time online. I want to remedy that. I declare 2025 to be the Year of the Unfinished Book. I will keep track of every book I read by category (Unfinished, New, Work), and publish it at the end of the year. Hopefully, this will convince me to renew my reading habit.
• One day off the internet per week: I think I’m going to see if I can take one day a week off the internet. The world will survive one day without me looking at email. I just need to figure out which day of the week it will be. (Probably Sunday—the day I have no scheduled meetings nor other online commitments–except for the “Dear Penpal” zoom calls.)

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.

• Books published: 2, Shadowrun: Auditions and Shadowrun: The Mosaic Run
• Anthologies published: 3, 99 Fleeting Fantasies, Shadowrun: Magic, Machines, and Mayhem (co-edited with John Helfers), and Shadowrun: Through the Decades (co-edited with John Helfers)
• Short stories published: 4, “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)

• New words written: 105,830
• Words edited: 441,00+

• Awards nominated for: 2 (both Scribe awards)
• Awards won: 1 (Won the Scribe award for Shadowrun: Auditions)

• Stories submitted: 12
• Stories sold: 6 (50%)
• Stories rejected: 4 (33%)
• Stories outstanding: 2 (17%)

Thoughts about the numbers:

• I’m pleased with the number of things that were published. It’s nice to have new novels and stories out in the wild.
• You’ll note that I did a LOT more editing this year. Gotta pay the bills. The Husband has retired from tech.
• The Scribe award nominations and win were very nice. I appreciate being acknowledged by my peers.
• As for the stories submitted and sold/rejected…I really am on target with that one. My acceptance rate hovers around 50%. This year I made my 100+ short story sale. That was cool.

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!

It’s that time again. Here’s what I’ve produced in 2022 that is eligible for awards consideration. Thank you much for taking a look. Hugo noms close on April 30.

Editing…

The Reinvented Heart anthology is my favorite of the year. I believe Cat Rambo and I showcase our skills as editors with this first in our Reinvented Anthology series. The Reinvented Detective comes out in 2023. When voting for short form editors, please think about us as a duo! “Jennifer Brozek and Cat Rambo.”

Writing…

Novel – Shadowrun: Elfin Black. High adventure Shadowrun tie-in novel set in the PNW.

Novella – Truumeel’s Light. High adventure space opera set in the FiveFold Universe. A story of love, family, and sacrifice.

Novella – Shadowrun: Unrepairable. Shadowrun tie-in novella. Vexing megacorps for fun and profit. A pair of twins have a rough day in the shadows.

Short story – “The Necessity of Pragmatic Magic.” Heroic Hearts anthology. Urban fantasy story set in the Kendrick universe with older women protagonists.

Short story – “Seven Stones to Throw.” Rogue Artists Origins Game Fair anthology. Inspired by the protagonists from “The Necessity of Pragmatic Magic” a gentle urban fantasy story of rogue magic.

Short story – “A Message From Mommy.” Wily Writers Present: Tales of Evil anthology. Straight up horror. Sometimes evil is disguised as love.

Short story – “A Test of Vigilance and Will.” Wily Writers Present: Tales of Foreboding anthology. Straight up horror. How much self-control do you have in dire circumstances?

Life is exciting. Time is a construct. Schedules get changed. Things get forgotten. This post is about all of those. Due to life being as it is, we have the wonderful opportunity to have two release celebrations for the same anthology! THE REINVENTED HEART anthology had its ebook version released on time yesterday (Mar 10, 2022) and, due to supply chain issues, its print book version will be released on May 31st .

The Reinvented Heart is released in eBook form now.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Reinvented-Heart-Jane-Yolen-ebook/dp/B092JNGX85

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-reinvented-heart-jane-yolen/1139229735?ean=2940165273438

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-reinvented-heart

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1562923075

The print copy will be released on May 31st. It can be pre-ordered now.
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-reinvented-heart-caezik/1139312391?ean=9781647100421

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9781647100421&ref=nb_sb_noss

What happens when emotions like love and friendship span vast distances — in space, in time, and in the heart?

Science fiction often focuses on future technology and science without considering the ways social structures will change as tech changes — or not. What will relationships look like in a complicated future of clones, uploaded intelligences, artificial brains, or body augmentation? What stories emerge when we acknowledge possibilities of new genders and ways of thinking about them?

The Reinvented Heart presents stories that complicate sex and gender by showing how shifting technology may affect social attitudes and practices, stories that include relationships with communities and social groups, stories that reinvent traditional romance tropes and recast them for the 21st century, and above all, stories that experiment, astonish, and entertain.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword by Cat Rambo
HEARTS
Poem: They: A Grammar Lesson by Jane Yolen
Retrospect by Seanan McGuire
Lockpick, Locked Heart by AnaMaria Curtis
Touch Has a Memory by Lisa Morton
Ping-Pong Dysphoria by Madeline Pine
In Our Masks, the Shadows by Sam Fleming
Ships of Theseus by Felicity Drake
With All Souls Still Aboard by Premee Mohamed
More than Nine by Beth Cato
HANDS
Poem: There Is a Hand by Jane Yolen
The Shape of the Particle by Naomi Kritzer
No Want to Spend by Sophie Giroir
Little Deaths and Missed Connections by Maria Dong
Sincerely Yours by Lyda Morehouse
Photosynthesis, Growth by Devin Miller
No Pain but That of Memory by Aimee Ogden
Go Where the Heart Takes You by Anita Ensal
MINDS
Poem: Mars Conquest by Jane Yolen
The Star-Crossed Horoscope for Interstellar Travelers by Fran Wilde
Canvas of Sins by Mercedes M. Yardley
If My Body Is a Temple, Raze It to the Ground by Lauren Ring
PerfectMate™ by Xander Odell
Etruscan Afterlife by Rosemary Claire Smith
Our Savage Heart Calls to Itself (Across the Endless Tides) by Justina Robson
Afterword by Jennifer Brozek

I am super proud of this anthology. I’ve enjoyed the heck out of working with Cat Rambo and am happy to being working with her again on THE REINVENTED DETECTIVE.