Jennifer Brozek's Blog, page 55

Bubble and Squeek for 6 August 2013

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

Review: This review really liked the Shadowrun Kickstarter anthology with my story "Locks and Keys" in it.

Publication: Blue Shift Magazine #1 is out. It includes my satrical SF story "Infestation of Adverts."

Contest: Apocalypse Ink Productions is doing a GoodReads giveaway of Children of Anu, Book 2 of the Karen Wilson Chronicles.

Event: I'm about to run off to SpoCon and then GenCon. My SpoCon schedule is:

FRIDAY
5:00pm – Spokane Falls, Ballroom C
Creating a Background Story for Your RPG Character / Villain
Come join our panel of experts to up your game on a believable and dynamic background story for you RPG characters/villains.


SATURDAY
11:00am – Parkside II
World-Building: Developing a Realistic Cityscape
No, you don't have to be an architect or engineer. And while it certainly couldn’t hurt to have some knowledge, what you need can be gained from any city. Just be observant; look and watch the actions of the world around you. Take account of how things are set up in the city…. Buildings, streets, sidewalks, bridges, and yes, even skywalks, too. Consider anything that you would find useful in your city, and then build upon it - futuristic, fantasy or even ancient ruins. The more real it is for you, the better you can share it with others. Talking it over with others can help. So come and hear what the Pro’s do to create their cities.

12:30pm – Reading Room
Reading by Jennifer Brozek - probably from "Infestation of Adverts."

6:30pm – Parkside I
How to Get Your Gaming Works Published
Come engage with the pros on how to get your fantastic ideas from the gaming dungeon to the halls of published gaming works.

Tell Me – Jim Hines

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

Jim Hines is a friend of mine, a great writer, and I love these books. I think all readers and writers want to know what it would be like to pull something--a lightsaber, a wand, the grail--from a book to have for their very own. Here, he talks about his protagonist's greatest love.

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One of my favorite things about Libriomancer and Codex Born is the protagonist’s attitude toward magic. Isaac Vainio is a librarian and shameless geek, with the ability to pull things from books—phasers, light-sabers, magic rings, pretty much anything that fits through the pages.

And he loves it. Isaac is completely and utterly in love with magic … occasionally to the detriment of whatever he’s supposed to be doing at the time. Even when he’s facing steampunk-style insects that escaped from a book and are oddly determined to kill him, a part of Isaac’s mind is distracted by the beauty of their construction, the combination of magic and miniature jewels and gears, the elegance of the metalwork...

He’s constantly asking “What if?” about both the books he reads and magic in the real world. How far could Harry Potter travel with that apparating spell? Did J. K. Rowling’s witches and wizards ever blip over to Mars to explore the planet? Could magic seeds from Piers Anthony’s Xanth series be pulled into our world to revolutionize farming? And where could Isaac get his hands on a magical chronoscope that would let him check out the lost episodes of Doctor Who?

Magic comes with a cost, of course. Overusing a particular book leads to magical charring, damage that spreads through every copy of the book and can make Bad Things happen. Magic also weakens the boundaries between the lirbiomancer and the book, meaning characters from those books can begin to creep into the libriomancer’s mind. And there are the occasional monsters and villains trying to use magic to take over the world.

But the core of the series is about hope and discovery and the thrill of learning something new. It’s about an insatiable need to learn, and to explore the possibilities of magic.

I have nothing against darker, grittier fantasy novels. But there seems to be an awful lot of it these days, where the world is a harsh, ugly place, and magic is a burden to be suffered with stoicism and occasional angst.

Isaac’s life certainly isn’t perfect. Any number of things are busily trying to kill him, his love life is confusing to say the least, and he’s not on the best of terms with Johannes Gutenberg, the centuries-old founder of the world’s magical organization. I mean, what kind of author would I be if I didn’t torment my characters?

But no matter what I put Isaac and his companions through, it never takes away that central thread of joy. The thrill Isaac feels when he discovers something new or finds that a long-understood “rule” of magic was actually more of a guideline.

At the heart of the series is the idea that magic is awesome. And that’s one of the things that makes these stories such an absolute blast to write.

 

Cascade Writer’s Workshop & JayWake

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

First up, I was interviewed on Alethea Kontis’ website for her MoAA Interviews series. It was a fun little interview.

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The Cascade Writers Workshop was a really good small writers conference. About 100 people in total—I believe. Admittedly, I was a second stringer with all my lectures competing with  the likes of Cameron McClure and Nisi Shawl. Still, I really enjoyed the lectures and panels I did. This conference was a relax-a-con for me over all. It was, basically, a writers workshop for introverts, by introverts. Low impact and everyone understanding when someone ran back to their room to “work.”

The highlight of the conference for me, as always, is the people I meet—both new and familiar. On the new side of things, I got to meet Tor Books Senior Editor Claire Eddy, Donald Maass Agent Cameron McClure, and Evil Girlfriend Media President Katie Cord. All three women are delightful and great to talk to.  I think I have found an evil twin in Katie. There are already plans in motion. Keep your ears open about a forthcoming project or two between me and Evil Girlfriend Media.

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The other hat I wore was my small press publisher hat as JayWake was hosted in the same hotel Saturday night. Jay Lake and Apocalypse Ink Productions decided that JayWake would be the perfect place for a book release party and a JayWake limited edition of his Process of Writing book. We had 50 hardback copies and they all sold out. We have 1 held back for a official release date contest along with a JayWake pin and a smooshed penny.

I must admit, it was a hard, weird, good evening for me. I was so happy to see Jay so tickled pink. I was happy so many people loved the book. But, at the same time, the reason for the party was hard. Really hard. I’ll admit to hiding behind my wall of table and books and just listening to the laughter of the roast… and not much more.

Tell Me – Kimmi Allbee

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

I will be at Convolution in the SF Bay Area, Nov 1-3. I'd really love to see the Goblin King's Masked Ball happen.

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I'm Kimmi Allbee, and I'm Chairwoman of this really amazing convention- Convolution 2013.  We're a new sci-fi/fantasy genre con, taking place in the San Francisco Bay Area on November 1-3rd.  Last year was our inaugural event, and we had unexpected success.  This, our second year, is shaping up to be more of the same-I have a hard time not gushing when I speak of how awesome it's going to be. 

Our Guests of Honor include Brian Froud & Wendy Froud, who's work you'd recognize from films like "Labyrinth", and "The Dark Crystal", Wendy & Richard Pini, celebrating 35 years of their brilliant ElfQuest comic book series, and Richard Kadrey, author of the dark fantasy series "Sandman Slim", which was recently announced as being developed for a new television series.  Featured Guests include Toby Froud, puppeteer and filmmaker, and Ivan Van Norman, RPG game creator, and one of the finalists from TBS' "King of the Nerds" TV series.  We're also closing the weekend with a private screening of the Cabal Cut of Clive Barker's epic horror film "Nightbreed", which was just announced at SDCC as being picked up for a new DVD release with the all-new, reworked scenes that were cut from the original release, bringing it back in line with Clive's original vision for the film.  Russell Cherrington, the man behind this film being made will join us, along with Craig Sheffer, star of Nightbreed, who played Boone.

When I first bid to chair this year's convention, I had a dream, and it's been amazing to watch that dream become a real thing, and to get to share it with all the people who are so excited for it to happen. We're also working our collective butts off to make it be a bigger, more amazing thing than it could have been on it's own, by running a Kickstarter campaign for Saturday night's dance, The Goblin King's Masked Ball.

We'll have live music performances from singer and cellist Unwoman, and from the trio of amazing performers who make up Tricky Pixie- Alexander James Adams, SJ Tucker, and Betsy Tinney.  We'll have local DJs spinning atmospheric music, and live performers from The Vespertine Circus.  The whole evening is themed after the iconic dream sequence in the film "Labyrinth", and we want everyone to don a fancy costume and mask, and come to the ball as your brightest dream, or your darkest nightmare, and revel for Halloween weekend in style and decadence.

We currently have 52 backers, with $4,944.00 pledged of our $12,500.00 goal, and we're not quite halfway done- we have 17 days left. We're at 39% funded-and this is a fantastic thing. In the next week, you'll see more updates as we add new performers, and unveil some extra reward level items to titillate new backers. We've gotten endless support from all of our wonderful Guests of Honor, and Featured Guests, and it just keeps coming, which is both humbling, and invigorating, as it repeatedly shows me that my dream is something that I can share, and have it become bigger than it was when it just lived in my head.

Please, go give it a look. There has been so much work, from so many people, going into making this project a success that I cannot possibly ask for more from any of them-but I can ask for more from you. Even if it's just $5, one less latte for the week-every little bit helps, and every little bit adds up to become part of a greater whole. And then, you'll have thrown a little bit of positivity out into the world, knowing you helped make a dream come true.

Time to Think

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

A couple weeks back, the Husband bought two iron rocking chairs for the back deck along with a sun umbrella and a little matching table. We also go a found lovely little fountain. Suddenly, the back deck is a welcoming place to hang out and enjoy the greenery of the backyard. Just in time, too. Temperatures have been stupidly hot lately and in the evenings, the back deck has been a cool haven.

I’ve spent a lot of time outside on the deck since we made it a place where we could be comfortable and I’ve discovered something: the benefits of just sitting and thinking in the quiet. If I have music, it’s instrumental music like the Elder Scrolls soundtrack, Two Steps From Hell, or Classical. I discovered that the more I sit in the rocking chair, sipping my coffee, watching the squirrels and birds, the more my mind wanders, noodling over plot problems, story ideas, and daydreams.

This is something John Pitts talked about in his Genreality piece, Finding My Way Back to the Sea. He talks about rocking in a chair his family gave him and looking into himself to find his inspiration, to find the story. A lot of this is all about the ability to stop being distracted… or distracting yourself… and letting yourself be alone with your thoughts, to have the time to think, to consider, to ponder whatever comes to mind.

The more often I just sit and think, the more creative well is refilled, the more the story I’m telling becomes clear. I don’t sit and think for long. Just 10-15 minutes at a time… the length of a cup of coffee. But it’s enough. It also makes me realize how much we are overwhelmed with stuff every single day and how little we have time for our thoughts.

As an author, I need time to think. I didn’t realize it but it explains why activities like driving without music, showering, and gardening are so good for the soul. And why I usually have some of my best ideas when I’m nowhere near pen and paper. It’s in these times that you refill the creative well and your mind quiets enough to hear past the static and stress of everyday life.

I’ve been a professional author / editor for over a decade now and I’m still learning things every day. I’m glad I realized this need for time to think and daydream… and that I now have the perfect spot to do so.

More Short Fiction

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

It’s been a couple of good weeks for me, short fiction wise. Along with my novelette sale of “Dreams of a Thousand Young” to Jazz Age Cthulhu (Innsmouth Free Press), I sold two more short stories. The first is “For the Love of a Troll on a Mid-Winter’s Night” to Night Terrors III (Blood Bound Books). The second is “The Bathory Clinic Deal” to Future Embodied (Simian Publishing).

I’m very pleased by the sales and even more pleased by the different genres each story is in. “Dreams of a Thousand Young” is a Lovecraftian horror story set in 1920’s Assam, India. “For the Love of a Troll on a Mid-Winter’s Night”  is a dark urban fantasy story set in modern day Seattle. “The Bathory Clinic Deal” is a dark sci-fi story set in a nameless future city.

I also want to remind everyone that I do have a Karen Wilson Chronicles short story in the kickstarter anthology What Fates Impose (Alliteration Ink) that is in its last week. I really want to see this story published as well as the anthology. Please take a look and see if you’d like it. Also, one of the $40 donation levels includes the first three Karen Wilson Chronicles books.

Tell Me – J. A. Pitts

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

I have the great pleasure of calling John Pitts a mentor and friend. He is an excellent author and the Sarah Beauhall series deserves to continue on. I know a lot hinges on trade paperback sales. Forged in Fire is worth picking up in physical copy. Something to think about.

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On July 23rd, the trade paperback of Forged in Fire hits the shelves.  This is the third in the Sarah Beauhall series about a young lesbian blacksmith in present day Seattle who repairs a sword that just happens to be the legendary Gram and the chaos that ensues.

In Forged in Fire, Sarah has uncovered even more that is wrong with the world in the form of a blood cult lead by a seriously anti-social necromancer.  Justin, the necromancer, just happens to have once dated Anezka, one of the blacksmith masters that Sarah has had the pleasure of working with.

I love this book for several reasons.  It was a good chance for me to step out of my comfort zone in several areas which is a HUGE bonus for writers.  Breaking through the walls and trying things, exploring themes or touching on subject matter that is outside our norm makes for powerful story telling.

Sarah really has embraced the way her world is unfolding and is approaching it with a fervor she never knew she had in her.  Katie, her lover and best friend, begins to really come into her own as a bard, with the music and magic literally bursting out of her. 

The rest of the crew jump in and round out the story with depth and consequences.  Every action has meaning, magic has a cost, and even the most well intentioned decision has a ripple effect that goes beyond any careful (or not so careful) planning on everyone's part.

Another thing I find fascinating about this series in general is the fun of layering in story.  I get a very real sense of joy by planting clues that may bear fruit in this book, or maybe the next.  The world isn't a single D&D adventure that is completely wrapped at the end.  Oh, the story has a fine resolution, but the world rolls on, the characters have lives beyond this book, and I dearly hope that you the reader can't help but wonder just what might happen next.

At least that's the feedback I've been getting from eager readers.  Of course, as the author, there are things I know that the readers don't always catch.  But I can live with that.  What I'd really love is when you read the books, that you'd contact me, ask questions, let me know what you liked and what you didn't like.  Let me know if there are things I should do better in the future, or things that you want to see.

I can't promise I'll do any of those things, but it's a real boon to a writer to hear what's working and what isn't.  I especially want to know if the things I'm foreshadowing are what you the reader is anticipating as the next thing.

Beyond that, I just hope you're entertained.  That's the whole point of this exercise, after all.  I'm a sucker for a damn good story, and I hope Forged in Fire fill that for you. 

Tell Me – Nayad Monroe

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

Nayad is an author / editor friend of mind that I’ve been privileged to work with upon occasion. This is one such occasion. I have a story in the kickstarter anthology, What Fates Impose, that Nayad talks about below. In an unexpected turn, Nayad asked me to write my own “Tell Me” about the Karen Wilson Chronicles and the story that is in this anthology.

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What Fates Impose: Tales of Divination

When I consider potential anthology themes, I'm really thinking about what kind of stories I would like to read. That's what led me to pitch the idea for this book of stories about predicting the future. I was curious about what various writers would think of when given the theme about fortune-telling. I wanted to see the dark side and the conflicts of divination, and the possibilities that other people would imagine. I was thrilled when Steven Saus of Alliteration Ink decided that he wanted to publish it.

Getting a glimpse of what's ahead is a special kind of cheat. It's not as easy as you want it to be. You don't know how the piece you're told will fit in with the whole puzzle of your life. You don't know when it will happen, or what will lead to it. Oracles are notoriously vague and inclined towards a trickster mentality; they're not trying to make life any easier for you. You can never tell how much of the truth they're telling, if they're telling any truth at all.

Looking at my own ideas about these matters: I don't believe that fortune-telling can work because I don't believe the future is already planned. I think that each decision we make steers the future in its own little way, but we each have a range of decisions we could make in any given moment. But what if predictions could be made based on trends and probabilities? What if there were ways to use magic to catch glimpses of what could be ahead? I can imagine worlds in which fate is inescapable, and worlds in which there are ways to change a predicted future.

The authors who wrote stories for me came up with ideas I never would have gotten on my own. A psychic elephant came from Eric James Stone. A conspiracy to fulfill a prophecy came from Ken Scholes. Jennifer Brozek's Tarot cards can change the world. Tim Waggoner shows us a fortune-telling creature that lurks behind a waterfall in the forest. And Lucy Snyder's predictions come from a grim creation in a secret cellar. All of the twenty-two stories I chose for the book showed me distinct, interesting possibilities.

From now until July 14, 2013, Alliteration Ink is running a Kickstarter campaign to raise enough money to pay professional rates for these stories. If we reach our goal, we get full funding, and if we don't reach our goal, we get nothing. Want to help? By pledging from the Kickstarter page, you can pre-order copies of the book and choose from a wide range of backer rewards. We are also offering random prize-drawings for backers when we reach important milestones. You can see it all here: http://bit.ly/kickfate (and you might want to do your ears a favor by listening to a portion of the book's intro, written and read by Alasdair Stuart). We will be gushingly grateful for all support.

Short Fiction Bonanza

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

Just a reminder. Me, Kat Richardson and Lillian Cohen-Moore are reading at University Book Store tomorrow night! 7pm. It's Lily's first reading. It's in celebration of the second Karen Wilson Chronicles book release. Kat's got a Clockwork Fairytale Story to read.

Right now, a lot of my writing is long form writing. I’ve been working on my Shadowrun novella for a bit but I keep being interrupted by edits or proofing of short fiction. It messes with the way I write sometimes.

The Nellus Academy Incident, Book Four, my Battletech YA webseries, is now running on Battlecorps.com. I just turned in the revisions on Book Five, the final section of the series (episodes 21-25). I was happy that I was still pleased with most of the writing.

I also just proofed my story, Dust Angels, for Beyond the Sun anthology. Bryan Thomas Schmidt’s sci-fi anthology due out from Fairwood Press very soon. Again, I didn’t hate the writing. I’m slowly getting better. I feel like I’ve leveled up a bit.

Also, two Kickstarter anthologies, Time-Trveled Tales and What Fates Impose, are running right now. TTT is funded already and that makes me happy dance. I have one of my weird west Mowry stories in that anthology. WFI is half funded and I’m really hoping for a successful kickstarter on it. I have a Karen Wilson Chronicles story in it set between books 3 and 4. Also, one of the limited levels is to get the third Karen Wilson Chronicles book, Keystones, before the rest of the world does.

I’ve just sold my novelette, Dreams of a Thousand Young, to Innsmouth Free Press for their Jazz Age Cthulhu anthology. It’s got a Spring 2014 release. I’m very pleased about this one. It was a story I thought about writing for years. It’s nice to get a good Lovecraft story out there.

Right now, I’m in the process of reading stories for my Baen anthology, Shattered Shields, co-edited with Bryan Thomas Schmidt. Some of the stories we’re getting are just amazing. It pleases me to no end. The full ToC won’t be revealed for a while but, I love working with pro-authors. They always give such good story.

Finally, I do have three other anthologies I edited coming out later this year. Coins of Chaos is due out in October. Chicks Dig Gaming, edited with the marvelous Jean Rabe, is due out in November. Beast Within 4: Gears & Growls is due out in December (I think).

Tell Me – Amber Michelle Cook

(Crossposted from Jennifer Brozek)

What is FCI?

It's my term for three of the most wonderful things in life:  fantasy, creativity and imagination. 

Life is a serious business.  We have to be deeply grounded in reality.  But life is also incredibly complex.  It’s made up of matter and the rules that govern matter, and it’s also made out of emotion, thought and desires that all affect one another in sometimes unpredictable and immeasurable ways.  In a complex world, FCI is one of the best tools to help us negotiate them all and find our place in life. 

My blog, Caution: Adults Playing, is where I take the misconceptions around FCI seriously, while having fun playing with them.  There is an oppression of young people, and an oppression of adults.  Like you can insult a man by comparing him to woman when you believe women are less than men, you can insult an adult by comparing them to a child because we believe children are beneath us.  The oppression of adults runs a little differently.  Adults are expected to sacrifice everything in order to be, or at least appear to be, capable and productive.  As such, you can’t be seen acting ‘childishly.’  Between the two oppressions, they account for most of the personal and societal pressure to cut FCI out of our lives just when we need it most: to counteract the wear and tear on us from the burdens of too many routines and over-responsibility.  Just like we don’t have to adhere to a list of attributes attributed to our gender, we don’t have to go from being a child to leaving everything from childhood behind in order to become an adult.  

In my writing I champion and explore the benefits of using your FCI.  And I write my stories using all three. 

My first book, What the Faeries Left Behind, is an urban fairy tale in which Abigail Watson—stuck in a rut—is given an unexpected opportunity to allow FCI back into her life to help rejuvenate it.  My second book, Defense Mechanisms (coming out later this month), is also an urban fairy tale.  It’s the story of how thirty something Janey was bullied into giving up FCI growing up, and what it takes for her to reclaim it and give herself permission to be her real, whole self.  And my third book, Sleepwaking (coming soon) is a modern adaptation of Through the Looking Glass that takes us back to Wonderland—an urbanized version of it with an adult Alice—because the satire, word play and innocent fun that delighted us as children can be just as refreshing and stimulating for us as grown-ups. 

I’m launching Deep Meaningful Fun:  Defense Mechanisms, an urban fairy tale—a Kickstarter campaign for the release of my second book—on June 24th, 2013, to run for the next three weeks.  As an author/artist I’d love to connect with more people who relish their FCI and want to read more fun fiction—deep, meaningful fun fiction that is.  Participating in the campaign is like ordering an advance copy of my novel and getting backstage passes to the behind-the-scenes world of writing and publishing a book. 

And come to www.ambermichellecook.com, the gateway page to more of my FCI:  my Wubbulous Writing Website, the blog, and Chromatic Daffodil Shadows.