jennifer_brozek | Entries tagged with sfwa

I've finished MAKEDA RED. I've edited 3 novels and I'm on a novella. I'm starting to prep for WorldCon and Tracon—both of my schedules require research. Life is slowing down. It is. But this is the calm before the storm.

Article: On the Semiotic Standard: The Collective: Bringing Books to Film. I didn't cheat and say Melissa Allen. I talked about my true love... THE DARK TOWER.

Awesome: The daughter of a friend has just cosplayed one of my characters: Melissa Allen. Achievement unlocked!

Review: Nice review for the World of Shadows anthology from Forgotten Tomes.

In the SFWA section...

SFWA Chat Hour about game writers... wherein we talk about the background behind the decision to admit gamer writers.

Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America to Admit Game Writers. The actual guidelines.

Follow-up SFWA Admits Gamewriters, All Heck Breaks Loose, Film at 11.

No, the guidelines aren't perfect. Yes, we are looking at specific cases. Yes, it will take time. We will not be making a knee-jerk reaction to everything.

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

I’ve already written about what I did in 2015. Now I’m looking forward to what I need to do for 2016. The short version: A whole lot of contracted tie-in fiction, some editing, and a bunch of travel.

Contracts signed: 1 board game mythology/background, 1 reprint RPG fiction collection, and 1 tie-in novel.

Forthcoming contracts: 1 serialized YA tie-in novel, 1 anthology as editor, and 2 tie-in short stories. (As in, discussion is done, I’ve agreed to do it, and we’re just waiting on paperwork.)

Planned contracts: 1 tie-in novella. (Proposal requested. Writing is probably slated for early 2017 if all parties agree.)

Planned editing: 2 novels, 2 omnibuses, 3 novellas, 1 monthly fiction feature, and 1 anthology. (For Apocalypse Ink Productions and Evil Girlfriend Media.)

Events planned: 8 conventions (3 as GoH), 1 workshop, 2 readings, 1 wedding in Iceland.

The writing metrics for 2016 are daunting. It’s about 200,000 words of contract tie-in fiction. This doesn’t count any of the editing for that work or research or one-off anthologies or one-off articles. Or any blog posts. Or any of the 10,000 other things a freelance author-editor does.

What this means is that I’m going to have to buckle down and change my personal working schedule. I’m probably going to have to institute a “no internet before noon” policy to focus on my writing. Leave all the email and such to the afternoon once my word count for the day is done. It is too easy to fritter away my time online, answering emails, reading articles, and watching videos.

Scheduled Appearances:

Jan 8-10, 2016, OrcaCon, special guest

Jan 26, Reading at University Bookstore

Feb 5: Foolscap, Workshop leader

Feb 12-14, 2016, RadCon, Writer GoH

Mar 23-27, Norwescon, dealer/panelist

May 12-15, StokerCon, Panelist

Jun 15-20, Origins Game Fair, dealer/panelist

Aug 17-21, Worldcon/MidAmericon, ??

Sep 4-6, Tracon XI in Tampere, Finland, GoH

Nov 4-6, We Are All SF Con, Ocean Shores, Lead Writer GoH

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

When it comes to year in review posts, there’s two ways for me to look at it: What did I do? Did I enjoy myself? The short version answer to these two questions is: A lot. Yes.

Being a full-time freelancer, I need personal metrics that keep me going. To let me know I didn’t just spin my wheels. To know that I have done good. I can’t rely on money to tell me whether or not I’ve been productive. The publishing industry is so weird about money and timing. It’s feast or famine… mostly famine. Even if you’re working all the time.

So, to answer the second question first. Did I enjoy myself? On the whole, yes. I’m happier that I’ve ever been. Yes, there were hard times. Yes, I really do understand “leveling up to a better (harder) class of problem” thing. And yes, not everything was a success. But, by and large, I had the best time.

As for the first question of: What did I do? I keep a daily summary log. I need to. I must schedule myself and I must know what I’ve done and when I did it. Thus, I can quantify my freelance year like so:

Writing: I wrote 110,000 of new fiction. This does not count any blog posts or articles written.

Editing: I edited 10 novels, 4 novellas, 1 anthology, and 90 EGM.Shorts flash fiction pieces.

Submissions: I had 5 of 9 short stories accepted. Not bad. Just didn’t have a lot of time to submit short fiction around.

Published: 4 novels, 1 novella, 1 fiction collection, 1 anthology, and 5 short stories. That is a lot. A whole lot.

Email: Answered email 320 days out of the year. This is much worse than last year. I answered email 268 days in 2014. I had hoped to do less email. I failed.

New Positions: Managing Editor of Evil Girlfriend Media and voted in as a SFWA Director-at-Large. I am still the Creative Director of Apocalypse Ink Productions.

Awards: I had 4 nominations (Scribe x2, an ENnie, and a Hugo). 1 win (Scribe for best YA tie-in novel for The Nellus Academy Incident).

Reading: I read 41 novels (mostly for pleasure). Not bad, given my schedule.

Vacation: Took 23 days off to do nothing. This is better than I did last year. This averages 2 days off a month. Though, most of these came in the last third of the year.

Honestly, reading this list makes me both proud and tired. I already know I will be doing a lot less of some and a lot more of another in 2016 but that’s for another post in a week, next year.

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

Q: Now that the Hugos are over, how do you feel?
A: I feel fine.

Q: Really?
A: Yes, really. Yes, of course I’m sad I didn’t win—it was a beautiful award and I worked really hard. I wanted to win, but as I said on twitter, I’m happy people voted the way they felt they needed to. There are other nominations and other Hugos. All voices need to be heard. I don’t want to dwell on anything else. It’s done for me.

Q: What about the numbers?
A: The numbers came out exactly as I thought they would. Without “No Award,” Mike Resnick would’ve won.

Q: What about the nomination numbers, discounting the slates?
A: I saw that I probably would’ve been 6th or 7th nomination place in Best Editor, Short Form. Respectable. More importantly, I saw that CHICKS DIG GAMING got 92 nomination votes in the Best Related Work category—second only to Jo Walton’s WHAT MAKES THIS BOOK SO GREAT. Which meant, incidentally, I lost a second time on Hugo night. I lost an Alfie to Jo. Still, that means I probably would’ve been nominated for a Hugo whether there was a slate or not. So, I’m feeling pretty good about things.

Q: Alfie?
A: Go ask GRRM. It was a kind gesture.

Q: Hey, in and around the Hugo stuff, I saw that you’ve become the Managing Editor of Evil Girlfriend Media. What happened to Apocalypse Ink Productions?
A: It’s still there. I’m still the Creative Director of AIP. I’ve just added the job of Managing Editor of EGM to my roster.

Q: Can you do both?
A: Yes. I'm talented that way.

Q: So, what are you going to do now that the Hugo stuff is over?
A: Keep on keeping on. I’ve got my YA SF-Thriller series coming out in October, starting with NEVER LET ME SLEEP. I’m editing NAUGHTY OR NICE: A HOLIDAY ANTHOLOGY for EGM. I’ve signed a contract for something very, very cool that will be announced soon. I’m working on the outline of my next tie-in novel. I’m a busy-busy freelancer. There are some great things to come.

Q: Did you bring home anything cool from the con?
A: I did! Cat Rambo gave me a SFWA 50th anniversary coin. Howard Taylor gave me a couple of “Not my circus. Not my monkeys.” coins. I bought a print by Rob Carlos, the newest Ken Scholes fiction collection, and Apparitions, a book of translated Japanese ghost stories. Also, of course, my little Hugo rocket pin—I earned that sucker.

Q: Are you sure you’re okay?
A: Yes. I promise. I'm okay. I appreciate everyone’s care and concern. I get the warm fuzzies when people tell me how much me and my work meets to them. Yes, I lost three awards this year but I won one and that’s awesome.

Q: Anything else you want to say?
A: Yes. Thank you to everyone for your support. I want to give a special shout out to Howard and Sandra Taylor, Kelly Swails, Jonnalyhn Wolfcat, Minerva Zimmerman, Sarah Hendrix, and Seanan McGuire who were heroes behind the scenes, super kind, and helped keep me relatively sane.

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

It's been an amazing couple of weeks. Really amazing.

Awards: I've been nominated for two different Scribe Awards. One for best tie-in short story. One for best tie-in YA novel.

Conventions: I've been named on of Gen Con's Industry Insider Featured Presenters. I'm really excited about this.

Election: I've been voted in as one of the new Directors-at-Large for SFWA along with Matthew Johnson. I will take office on July 1, 2015.

Interview: I've been interviewed by Katie Teller, focusing on my Dark Quest Books anthologies.

Review: Thomas Gondolfi of Scifimonkeys.com reviewed CALLER UNKNOWN and gave it an "Unexpected A-". He had some interesting points to make.

Sent to my Googlegroup first. Here because I remembered. :)

Because I think I would forget my head if it wasn't attached, I've asked my PA, Lily, to collect monthly round ups for me so that ya'll will hear from me once a month. They won't be as long as this one normally.

April 1-May 31
At the end of April, Jennifer was able to upgrade to active status with SFWA after recent sales to DAW. Go Jennifer!

===Sales:
"Discordance" to the anthology Tales of Valdemar #7 (DAW)
"Showdown at High Moon" to the Westward Weird anthology (DAW)
"A Promise Made" to Showdown at Midnight anthology (Science Fiction Trails)

===Events:
Norwescon 34, April 21-24 in Seattle was a fantastic weekend attended by Jennifer, who could be spotted anywhere from the Apex Books table in the dealers room to the green room, sitting on a number of panels and catching up with folks along the way.

===Publications:
APRIL
Jennifer’s “Making of an Anthology” series at the Apex Blog published a new installment, on invites and anthologies. http://www.apexbookcompany.com/2011/04/making-of-an-anthology-part-2-invitations/

Over at Geeks Dream Girl, her “Dice and Deadlines” series delved into expanding your horizons as a RPG writer. http://geeksdreamgirl.com/2011/04/19/dice-deadlines-expanding-your-horizons/

==On the editorial side…
Issue 64 of The Edge of Propinquity published, with new stories from universe authors Kaolin Fire, Peter M. Ball, Ivan Ewert, Alina Pete and guest author Lillian Cohen-Moore.

Human Tales, the dark and twisted anthology of ‘faerie tales’ from the supernatural side was released by Dark Quest Books.

MAY
Jennifer’s “Dice and Deadlines” columns’ newest installment discussed the nature of the freelance job hunt, and how a positive approach makes all the difference. http://geeksdreamgirl.com/2011/05/10/dice-deadlines-to-find-jobs-just-ask-and-share-the-love/

At the Apex Blog, Jennifer’s “Making of an Anthology” series saw a May installment, discussing how story selection for anthologies can work. http://www.apexbookcompany.com/2011/05/making-of-an-anthology-part-3-choosing-the-right-stories-for-an-anthology/

==On the editorial side…
Issue 65 of The Edge of Propinquity published, with new stories from universe authors Kaolin Fire, Peter M. Ball, Ivan Ewert, Alina Pete and guest author Mars Hage.

===Interviews
In April Jennifer was interviewed by MilSciFi.com about her story in No Man's Land, book four in the Defending the Future series. http://www.milscifi.com/files/inter-JB-NML.htm

===Reviews:
Rigor Amortis Review, by Nick Bronson.
Jennifer’s story “Swallow It All” appeared in the anthology.
http://www.shocktotem.com/05/14/2011/rigor-amortis/

CTHULHUROTIC - by Robert Derie. http://www.yog-sothoth.com/threads/20856-Unusual-Finds-Cthulhurotica-%28Adult%29
Jennifer’s essay “The Sexual Attraction of the Lovecraft Universe” appeared in the anthology.

Beauty Has Her Way review
http://sciencefictionmusings.blogspot.com/2011/05/beauty-has-her-way.html

Written by the Fabulous Lily.
Edited and approved by Jennifer.
Thank you all for reading.

Sincerely,
Jennifer

Some very cool stuff has happened or is happening right now. So, to catch up…

As Editor:
1. Human Tales – dark twisted fairytales from the supernatural's point of view is officially out!

2. Beast Within 2 is off to the publishers and I am working with the cover artist now for some kick ass cover art.

3. I am knee deep into Space Tramps: Full Throttle Space Tales #5, acceptances have gone out and edits have begun.

As Author:
1. No Man's Land: Defending the Future. My story "M.O.V.E." is in here. It is set for a May release and is looking good. "This collection has a lot going for it […] there's not a single piece here that isn't well worth reading. I modestly — but confidently — predict that I will be very far from the only man who's very, very glad he's read this collection." —David Weber, best-selling author of the Honor Harrington series.

2. Earlier, I announced the sale of "Showdown at High Moon" to the DAW anthology, Westward Weird. This is edited by the wonderful Martin Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes.

3. Today I get to announce the sale of "Discordance" to the DAW anthology, Tales of Valdemar #7. The 14 year old girl in me is squealing and squeaking in an excitement beyond human range. The mere fact that I'm in an anthology edited by Mercedes Lackey is enough to make me cry. The fact that it is a Valdemar story is… beyond words.

4. Because of the two recent DAW sales, I have now upgraded to active status in SFWA. Earlier in the month, I upgraded to active status in the HWA because of my work on AEON.

I really feel like a real author.

I can't wait for what comes next.