Jennifer Brozek

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

Heads down on my novel, NEVER LET ME LEAVE. Have some links and podcasts and reviews and books!

Article: Writing Tips by Amanda Pillar. These are worth a read.

Article: Suvudu editor Matt Staggs asked for an article on anthologies. I decided to write about the little-discussed art of putting a Table of Contents together.

Interview: I was interviewed by Kindra Sowder for Horror Geeks magazine: Gamer Nerd and Wordslinger. Horror Geeks magazine is really neat. I like it.

Podcast Interview: Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing. Talking about Shattered Shields with Bryan Thomas Schmidt. The topics ranged from marketing to diversity to RPG books.

Podcast Review: Game on Girl by Regina and Rhonda reviews Chicks Dig Gaming. My Google alerts gave me this one. It's really a fun look at the anthology. Especially when they refused to name author names but I recognized who and what they were talking about.

Review: Attack of the Books Reviews Shattered Shields. The reviewer, Daniel Burton, really enjoyed the anthology.

Review:  Paul Weimer of SF Signal reviews Chicks Dig Gaming. 4 out of 5 stars. He enjoyed the book and asked some of the questions I asked.

Pre-order: JAZZ AGE CTHULHU with my novelette, "Dreams of a Thousand Young." Visit Assam, India, where a British dilettante wakes up one morning covered in bruises and welts, with a dead man in her bed and no memory of what happened in the last 24 hours. Her only clue is a trashed invitation to the exclusive Black Ram Club.

Publication: Short run boxed set: Under an Enchanted Skyline. Apocalypse Ink Productions has joined Martain Cantina's boxed Urban Fantasy set. 8 novels and novellas. $0.99. From now until December 30th. Includes my mosaic novel Caller Unknown and fellow AIP author Peter M. Ball's Exile.

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

My life is boring from the outside. All I can talk about is what I've edited or written. I'm in a groove of work and not much more right now. A number of projects are falling in my lap all at once.

I just finished the final edits of my Shadowrun novella, Doc Wagon 19. It's been officially accepted and all that. I also just turned in Never Let Me Sleep (Permuted Press), the first book of the Melissa Allen series, my YA SF-thriller where I kill a whole state in the first chapter. Today, I'm working on the page proofs of Shattered Shields and I know page proofs for Chicks Dig Gaming are on their way.

Now, I'm shifting to writing-writing-writing. I'm working on Chimera incarnate (Apocalypse Ink Productions), the final book in the Karen Wilson Chronicles. Then I will be all about Never Let Me Leave, which is Melissa Allen #2. I also have 3 short stories due by the end of the year. So, my days will be marked by word counts, revisions, and page proofs. It's boring from the outside but awesome for me. I'm busy but I'm happy.


Still to be released in 2014

• August, Doc Wagon 19 (Catalyst Game Labs)


• October, "Dreams of a Thousand Young," Jazz Age Cthulhu (Innsmouth Free Press)


• November, Shattered Shields  (Baen Books)


• November, Chicks Dig Gaming  (Mad Norwegian Press)


• December, "Written in the Wind," No True Way and Other Tales of Valdemar (DAW)


• December, Apocalypse Girl Dreaming (Evil Girlfriend Media) - Though, this may move to early 2015

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Chicks Dig Gaming:
A Celebration of All Things Gaming by the Women Who Love It
essay collection slated for November 11th release

Mad Norwegian Press is proud to announce the forthcoming publication of Chicks Dig Gaming --- an essay collection and sister publication to the Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords, the Hugo-nominated Chicks Dig Comics, and more.

The book is edited by Jennifer Brozek (Apocalypse Ink Productions), Robert Smith? (Who’s 50: The 50 Doctor Who Stories to Watch Before You Die) and Lars Pearson (editor-in-chief, the Chicks Dig series), and features essays by nearly three dozen female writers.

Contributors include Catherynne M. Valente (The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland…, Indistinguishable from Magic), Seanan McGuire (the October Daye series); G. Willow Wilson (Alif the Unseen), Rosemary Jones (Forgotten Realms), Emily Care Boss (Gaming as Women), Mary Anne Mohanraj (Bodies in Motion), Jody Lynn Nye (the MythAdventures series), E. Lily Yu (“The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees”) and more.

Also included: exclusive interviews with Paizo CEO Lisa Stevens and Dragonlance author Margaret Weis.

Chicks Dig Gaming will be published on November 11, 2014, and retail (print version) for $14.95. The book will also be available as an ebook on Kindle, Nook and iBooks on the day of release.

To request a review copy of Chicks Dig Gaming, or to schedule an interview with one of the editors or contributors, please email: MadNorwegian@gmail.com

A web-quality version of the Chicks Dig Gaming cover is attached; please email: MadNorwegian@gmail.com if you require a print-quality version.

I'm super proud of this collection. I had an idea of what I wanted to do with it. Lars and Mad Norwegian Press took it in ways I didn't expect. This is a fabulous set of essays. Really. I don't think I could be more proud than I am right now about this book.

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

Book release day is always fun. KEYSTONES, Karen Wilson Chronicles #3, is out. Buy it at Apocalypse Ink, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.

“The Keystone. It must be destroyed.”

Defeated.

By the Children of Anu.

But the Children aren’t done with Karen or the city of Kendrick yet. The supernatural societies of Kendrick are being attacked, one by one. As each falls, the Avatar of Anu grows stronger, and Karen is left to defend the city with fewer and fewer allies… while also being hindered by a new leader of Kendrick's Special Unit Police Force.

Karen knows that she and her allies must stop the Children before everything important is destroyed. Only by working together, and sacrificing what some hold most dear, will they prevail. It’s time for the denizens of Kendrick to determine what they’re willing to give up in order to stop the evil running  rampant.

Some will sacrifice everything they have—and everything they are—to protect the ones they love.

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

Is this not awesome? Larry Dixon talks about the artwork here. BLESS YOUR MECHANICAL HEART will be released in mid-April and will be available at Norwescon 37.

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

Here are some great Nellus Academy Incident blurbs! I'm really excited about this first one because the author is also active duty USMC. When I write military fiction, I want military members to enjoy it and not groan at the mistakes. The Nellus Academy Incident release date is 27 Jan 2014. Next Monday!

“This is the first Battletech novel I've ever read, and given that I knew nothing about the “Battletech universe” prior to this as well, I had no idea what to expect going into it.

What did I find? A well written story where I immediately identified with each of main protagonists: eight, hand selected, teenage military cadets. This is a story where it would be so easy to write a “Mary Sue” or “Gary Stu” type character, but Brozek doesn't do that. She not only manages to carefully balance and develop each character, but she does it naturally and through the flow of the narrative, so the story never feels bogged down with extraneous details - instead, it pulls the reader along, making it very difficult to put down.

As an active duty member of the military myself (USMC), I am grateful for the fact that she didn't shy away from broaching difficult/realistic subjects such as courage and fear in the face of battle, loss and sacrifice, and of course the effects of the trauma that the cadets go through. Additionally, like real combat, just because you're a “well developed character,” that doesn't protect you from dying - meaning, there are no “red-shirts” here. No one is safe in this story, no one. And I appreciated the stark reality of that brutality. It hurt my heart to read it, and that's how war should feel: painful.

Brozek creates well-developed and complex characters whose failures and successes, strengths and weaknesses pull you in, making you care about them and their fate.  I would definitely recommend this book for older YA Lit, New Adult, and Adult readers.”
– Janine K. Spendlove, War of the Seasons trilogy, USMC pilot 

“Jennifer is a pro. Her dedication to the Battletech series is worth your time.”
– Ivan Van Norman, Outbreak: Undead and King of the Nerds

 “A fun read. Jennifer Brozek’s Battletech novel, The Nellus Academy Incident, takes us on a wild journey as we follow Cadet Allegra Greene from the classroom to the battlefield. Battletech fans, this one’s a winner.”
– Bobby Nash, Evil Ways and Earthstrike Agenda

“In a solid reworking of the classic rites of passage story, Jennifer Brozek uses solid characterization and great action scenes to make The Nellus Academy Incident a real winner.” 
– Michael A. Black, author of Chimes at Midnight and Sleeping Dragons in the Mack Bolan Executioner series

 “Brozek's made the world of Battletech accessible to those new to the game with The Nellus Academy Incident, all while putting new names and faces into a world beloved by longtime Battletech fans. If you're looking for action-packed, smartly paced sci-fi, then get your hands on a copy of this book.”
– Lillian Cohen-Moore, Convention Book: Void Engineers

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

A couple years back, Jason Schmetzer, the fiction editor for battlecorps.com, asked me if I wrote stories about “big stompy ’Mechs.” My answer was an unhesitating “No.” Jason, not to be denied, asked me if I could crash a big stompy ’Mech and then write him a story. I thought about it and said that I thought I could… if I could think of the right story.

It took two years and some back and forth between me and Jason to hammer out the idea for The Nellus Academy Incident – a YA Battletech webserial about 8 cadets and a General in a PR event gone horribly, horribly wrong. I figured it would be about 25 episodes of about 2000 words each and was designed to go up on a weekly basis. That’s not exactly what happened but, in the end, the webserial was 25 episodes and almost 60,000 words.

I was surprised and delighted beyond words when Jason told me that The Nellus Academy Incident was going to be packaged up as a novel for general sale. This wasn’t my intent when I wrote the serial but, wow, it looked like I had written a YA novel without planning on it.

Yesterday, I got the cover. The book will come out towards the end of January. Isn’t it pretty?

As a side note, I do know what I’d write for a sequel if Jason asked for another serial for battlecorps.com.

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

A day late and not a bit sorry. I’ve had family here for New Year’s and it was fabulous. We went to Pike’s Place Market, the Space Needle for brunch, the Chihuly exhibit, drove out to Ocean Shores (and got to see sun, clouds, rain, and snow along the way) where the ocean almost ate our car at high tide. Introduced them to the BBC series Sherlock, and generally had a mighty fine time. But now, it’s time to get back to my writerholic routine.

I’m very much of the opinion that if you don’t know where you’ve been, you don’t know where you’re going. I also believe that if you don’t have a plan, you won’t get to where you want to go. As I am an author, I think of these things in terms of writing. Especially since I’m my own boss. I need something to hold up to myself and say… I did good!

Looking back at 2012

• New short stories written: 10; 8 sold, 2 pending


• Total short story subs made:  17; 9 sold, 5 rejected, 2 pending


• New articles written/published: 6


• RPG contracts: 8


• Anthologies edited: 3 (Dangers Untold, Beast Within 3, Coins of Chaos)


• Total new words written: just over 146,000


• Things published: 3 fiction books, 10 episodes of the Nellus Academy Incident, 3 RPG products, 4 short stories.

Looking at 2013 (turned in or contracted)

• Short stories to be published: 5


• Nellus Academy Incident episodes to be published: 15


• Anthologies to be published: 2


• Fiction books to be published: 2


• RPG books to be published: 2

Goals for 2013

• Short stories to write: 13 (Book 4 of the Karen Wilson Chronicles)


• Novelette to write: 1 (“Dreams of a Thousand Young” for Jazz Age Cthulhu, Innsmouth Free Press)


• Novel to write: 1 (YA book #2)


• RPG projects: 2 (Colonial Gothic: Roanoke, GRUNTZ fiction ebook)


• Books to edit: 3 (AIP projects #1, #2, #3)


• Anthologies to be edited: 2 (Project #1, Project #2)

Not bad for 2012 or for projected 2013. Of course, I’m not all writing, editing, game design, and publishing. No. I’ve got some travel in the mix. Projected conventions: 7. I don’t know for sure if I will make them all but this is what I have planned.

1. Rainforest Village Writers Retreat, WA – Feb 27 - March 3 (Session 1 attendee)


2. GothCon, Sweden – March 28-Apr 1 (GoH)


3. Origins, OH – June 12-16 (Panelist, Dealer)


4. WesterCon 66, CA – July 4-7 (Panelist, Dealer)


5. Cascade Writers Workshop, OR – July 25-28  (Guest Speaker)


6. GenCon, IN – August 15-18 (Panelist)


7. Convolution, CA – Nov 2-4 (Panelist, Dealer)

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

Here are some very cool odds and ends.

I've seen the new Shane Tyree cover for The Beast Within 3: Oceans Unleashed from Graveside Tales and it is to die for. Were-shark for the win!


I have a new review of Industry Talk: An Insider's Look at Writing RPGs and Editing Anthologies by the esteemed Richard Dansky. He liked it and that makes me happy.


Danielle of Dark Quest Books emailed me a new review of Human Tales anthology on the Billion Light-Year Bookshelf by Liegh Kimmel. Liegh had a very interesting point of view of the dark stories within this anthology.


If you like Battletech fiction, my new episodic gritty YA story, The Nellus Academy Incident, has begun on Battlecorps.com. You need a subscription to the site to read the story. Here is the announcement about it.


That's it for me. I hope all is going well with you.