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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 woodpecke
r… 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.
Two years ago, I contacted Rem from Rem Alternis and asked her if we could meet at Gen Con to talk about having her company run the Kickstarter for a passion project I wanted to create. We met. We agreed to everything. And ran the Kickstarter in March of 2024. It funded and as of July 27, 2025, that Kickstarter is over, done, and things involving it mailed/fulfilled.
Dear Penpal, Belgium 1980 was quite the endeavor—telling a MG horror story over a year in 24 physical letters. Yep. If I’m gonna do a Kickstarter, let’s do it on Hard Mode. Next time, if there is one, I’ll do something easy like a novella series. I don’t regret doing Dear Penpal, but I won’t do it this way again.
Here’s some fun facts the Husband put together for the celebration party. I thought they were too good not to share.
So, the final question that has been asked of me… “Will there be any more Dear Penpal stories?”
The answer is maybe. I’ve got an idea for a series of novellas around it. 3-4 more in the series, jumping years in-between each one. Each one would still be in letters. Probably 2 each month, but put together as a novella. This is a nascent idea, kicking around the different places I’ve moved to and interesting things that could’ve happened to fictional Jennifer who can see ghosts: Pennsylvania 1984 (teen), California 1989 (senior in HS), Oregon 1992 (college), Washington 2004 (adult).
Yeah. Maybe. If the idea still calls to me next year, I might chase it down. We’ll see.
Every year, author Greg Wilson AKA Arvan Eleron runs a charity stream on his twitch channel to support the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. Here’s a quick Bluesky thread about ArvCon from Greg. Our goal this year is to raise $5000 for them.
While ArvCon run all Memorial Day weekend, I will be streaming with my Eberron crew all day on Sunday, May 25, from 9am to 5pm Pacific. If you donate on Sunday, we get the credit. Of course, we are competing against the other games on the ArvanEleron channel. Of course, any donation in the channel’s name is a good one.
This year, I am gifting two tuckerizations in the donators’ raffle on Sunday, May 25th, that will be going on during the weekend stream. Tuckerization: I use a name you give me in a story.
This year, I have two different aquatic-themed anthologies I’m writing for. One is about pirates. One is about water based monsters. I decided to write one story from two different perspectives: The pirates’ POV (“More than Blood in the Water”) and one from the monster’s POV (“On Risks and Rewards”). You can be named for one of the pirates or one of the deep ones. Male or female. Don’t expect to make it out alive, and remember, I only kill those I like.
Logline: A pirate ship fishing for food after being lost for weeks, accidentally catches a young deep one hybrid. When they reveal themselves (shifting from aquatic form to human form) to be the child of someone important, the pirates attempt to do what pirates do in such a situation: demand a ransom for the hybrid’s release.
This is my third or fourth (fifth?) year I have participated in ArvCon. The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation is worth your time, money, and attention.
Here’s the numbers. We all love numbers so much.
Thoughts about the numbers:
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!
Tuesday, Dec 3rd, was the equivalent of emotionally speedrunning my life. I do not approve nor do I recommend. It was one of those days that even my editor would look at and say, “Isn’t that a bit much? Maybe spread those events out over the novel instead of a day.”
Bad: Mena stopped eating and drinking on Monday. She was still hiding on Tuesday morning. The Husband and I had already decided she needed to go to the vet. Mena loves her treats.
Good: My cat lover advent calendar and the Husband got me froofy coffee. (Little things count.)
Good: Our 2x a month housekeeper arrived!
Bad: Our housekeeper noticed our refrigerator suddenly wasn’t working. Through investigation, 8 outlets in the kitchen and family room weren’t working. This is something that happened years ago. Got fixed. Broke again.
Good: Plugged the refrigerator into a different plug and it worked. No spoiled food.
Bad: Had to find an electrician.
Good: Not only found an electrician, they were able to come out on the same day, AND were able to fix the issue.
Bad: That was $$$ money we didn’t expect to spend (but that’s what emergency funds are for).
Good: Started a new D&D game at the house. Session 0. Figuring everything out.
Bad: Vet called. Mena has feline pancreatitis. No cure, some mitigation. Caught it early. Mena was kept overnight for more observation. We will see what we need to do when we pick her up today. (Good things: It had nothing to do with the anxiety drugs Mena got put on because of the kittens nor was it due to the arrival of the kittens. This would’ve happened no matter what.)
Good: I sold a little short story I love to a new pro-paying market. This is a short story that has been rejected 20+ times. I’m so glad it found a home.
Other things happened that weren’t big enough to make the list. Also, several of my friends are going through rough times. I know I’m not the only one having a hell of a week (and it’s only Wednesday). Sometimes life is like that. I just wish it wouldn’t involve my cats. Mena is only 12. She’s sweet and silly and doesn’t deserve the pain she’s in now.
Some gentle, general reminders about me.
If you’re here, on my website, and not signed up for my MailerLite newsletter, please sign up for it. It averages once-a-month because my PA (the GlitterMinion) makes me do it. You get to hear about what I’m doing, where I will be, and what open calls I have. Plus you get free fiction. Who doesn’t love a bit of free fiction? (Also, if you are on my Googlegroup newsletter, that group will be deleted 1 Feb 2025.)
If you would like to send me an email, I have a contact form for that. If you would like to send me something in the post, I have a P.O. Box for that. Email is checked more regularly than the P.O. Box. Please don’t send time sensitive stuff in the post without giving me an email ping.
For social media, I am most active on BlueSky and Facebook. I do have an Instagram account and it mostly has stuff about cats and books. Occasionally, there may be other stuff, too.
I am a full-time working author and editor. This means: I am very busy—I never have less than three projects going at any one time. That I appreciate it when you buy my books, review my books (even something as simple as “I really liked this book!” helps), and/or support me on ko-fi. That said, I am always happy to answer questions or lend a helping hand—if time, funds, and schedule permits.
I adore my cats beyond all reason. They rule the roost. I love the Husband even more than writing and I’m so grateful he supports me. He rules my heart. I appreciate my house, my books, my stuff, and my home office that much more since the pandemic started. I have a lot to be grateful for, and I will always try to keep things on the lighter side of life.
I am a Democrat who believes Love is Love. I am a gamer who is happy you are my neighbor no matter where you are from. I am a woman who believes trans rights are human rights, trans women are women, trans men are men, and all women should have the right to choose what happens with their body. I’m a former latchkey, semi-feral Gen X, 50+ year old woman with occasionally colored hair not normally found in nature. Sometimes I am fed up. Sometimes I am tired. Sometimes I’m trouble. Just so you know what you’re in for.
Dear Penpal, Belgium 1980 is in its last full week. The campaign ends at 9am (Pacific) on April 25th. We are funded, and the first stretch goal has been met. Coloring pages in every letter! I’m excited, and I know my artist, the talented Elizabeth Guizzetti, is excited as well. Other stretch goals include, a 25th letter from present-day me (and maybe my sister Shannon) and a 30-day emailed ghost story set to run in Oct 2024 called “The Old House on Highway 109” that will be free to Spooky Fun Pack tiers and above or available as an add-on for the lower tiers.
I thought I’d talk about some of the different packages and who they are for.
Paranormal Package – All 24 letters in a single package. This is for the person who prefers “one and done.” It is a single mailing, mailed when the 24th letter is mailed. You want the story. Then you’re good because you get to choose when to read each letter.
Bimonthly Phantom Post – 2 letters a month for 12 months. This is the core experience of Dear Penpal, Belgium 1980. You will receive two letters a month for a year and will experience the story as it was originally conceived. Plus, you get to come to the Zoom calls and find out what actually happened because a lot of the story is true.
Spooky Fun Pack – 2 letters a month for 12 months and all the extras. This includes the core experience, but if you are a curious person like me and want to know more esoteric details of life in Belgium, you get to hear the songs I listened to, see some of the photos and items I still have from Belgium. Plus, there are stickers! Who doesn’t love stickers? This tier will also get extra bits from the stretch goals we reach.
Haunted House Calls – This is the highest tier with limited spots available. At the time of the posting, 2 of 4 slots were still available. Backers get everything in the Spooky Fun Pack and this tier includes 24 one-on-one calls (2 a month). This one is for the backer who wants my full attention. Want me to be your mentor for a year? Or want to give the gift of a writing mentorship to a loved one? That could happen. Want me to teach a writing class for homeschoolers? I can do that. Run co-writing sessions for you and your writing group? Be your critique partner? All of these things are possible. We’ll talk about it and come to a happy accord. (Note: If this is a gift for a minor, their guardian/parent needs to be present for the opening discussion at a minimum.)
I hope this gives you a better idea of what you will receive when you back my passion project. I’m so happy to have this kickstarter funded. I’ve got so much to share with you. Won’t you be my penpal? Thank you.
Running a kickstarter is not for the faint of heart, lemme tell you that. I am one giant Muppet flail right now. But “Dear Penpal, Belgium 1980” is 31% funded as of the uploading of this blog post. I am beyond thrilled that we’ve come so far. Of course, I’m nervous as hell that we won’t make it. I just gotta believe in this passion project of mine.
The Husband wrote his own blog post for our launch that I didn’t see until it went live. It made me feel a little sappy (Facebook link). I have the best husband ever!
Also, I have a post over on Cat Rambo’s blog, “On Eating Frog Legs and White Asparagus.” It’s all about me learning to be fearless when encountering foreign food while I lived in Belgium.
As I’ve said before, this project is near and dear to my heart. I’m excited to be able to send you my epistolary story and to bring joy to your mailboxes. Yes, actual snail mail that’s not spam, bills, or politics! Keep spreading the word. I know we can make it to $5,000 and I hope we get to unlock some fun stuff for everyone with our stretch goals.
“Dear Penpal, Belgium 1980” is a cozy, middle grade-appropriate, ghost story, loosely based on fictionalized me at ten years old while living in a 300-year-old manor house in Belgium. The story will be told through 24 physical letters (already written) over a one-year period. This is the kind of odd project I could never sell traditionally, so I’m rolling up my sleeves and doing it myself. Won’t you be my penpal?
Leeloo is waiting for you to support her servant so her servant can get back to servant duties…
I have finished the rough draft of the current novel-in-progress. It’s not done by any means, but now I have the whole of the story in my head and I can see so many places that need fixing. However, I haven’t started fixing the novel yet. I’m in that in-between phase that few authors ever speak of.
It’s the “Flailing About” Phase.
My experience is that I have just spent the last 4-6 weeks on “deadline mode.” This mode includes things like “no internet before word count” and “2000 words a day” and “hard core focus on the novel” and nothing else. Lots of creative people know what that’s like.
But, just like post-con blues are a thing, so is the post-novel flap. You’ve known what you were to do everyday for a month without exception. You’ve gotten into the groove. But now the groove is gone. It’s almost like discovering you have hands and discovering your pants have no pockets. What the heck to you do with your hands now?
If you are a regular writer, I recommend a quick once-over, adding all the things you know you need to add RIGHT NOW. Then putting the manuscript away for three months while you write something (anything) else. But, as I am a media tie-in writer, too, I don’t have time for that. I need to turn in the polished manuscript within 3 weeks. That’s my deadline.
But I don’t wanna. I don’t wanna work on the novel. I don’t wanna do the work I know I need to do. What do I want to do? I don’t know and I don’t wanna figure it out. See: flailing about.
Usually I have a bunch of interviews lined up to work on. Which I did this time, too. But they are done. And I polish-edited a short story and turned it in already. I have 3 more short stories to write but I’m not anywhere near doing them. I haven’t even outlined them on paper. Maybe I have in my head, but I don’t want to face the tyranny of the blank page. It is so much easier to fix what’s on the page than to create it wholesale.
Which leads me back to…start the next pass on the novel…and I don’t wanna.
Thus, I’m writing a blog post about the situation. I’m sure other authors have written about this phase of the novel writing process, but I figured it couldn’t hurt if other authors (and readers) understood a little more of what some authors (at least me) sometimes go through. The process of writing and editing novels is always changing, but I think the general phases of the process remain the same.
See? That’s about 500 words of verbal flailing and “productive procrastination” to help me avoid the edits I will begin next. Or tomorrow. It all depends on whether or not I figure out something else to do to avoid what I don’t want to do now.
But still, by tomorrow, I will roll up my sleeves and dive into fixing the novel because this is the “post” part of my mantra of “fix it in post.”
Have a cat picture. Here’s Mena in her tower.
I got to play in a five episode Buffy RPG game with Shadows of Nox for their Twitch channel. I’m playing Bethany Dubois, a psychic who has just come into her power and really doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing. This means she doesn’t know what she shouldn’t be able to do. As an outsider, things are scary, but she’s got a bunch of cool new friends!
Afterwards, you will be able to find them all on the Shadow of Nox YouTube channel.
Also, enjoy this Broken Hearts Club Mix Tape! (It’s a playlist on YouTube.)
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.
