September 2024 Summary
Jennifer Brozek
Hello everyone, Glitter Minion here.
Can you believe autumn is already here? As the leaves turn and the weather grows chillier (if you’re in the northern hemisphere, anyway), so the work continues for Jenn as she gets words down on Shadowrun: Imre Grey.
As usual, she’s juggling many shiny and dark balls, so it’s certainly far from the only thing gracing her desk…like her 24th(!) anthology just dropped, which she co-edited with John Helfers! Check out Shadowrun: Magic, Machines, and Mayhem!
Not to mention that work continues apace on the new in-world magazine, Augment! If you’ve always wanted to try your hand at writing a Shadowrun story, now’s your chance: Jenn has an open call. Check out the guidelines!
As always, authors live off of reviews, recommendations, and book purchases (of all titles, not just Shadowrun!), so please show your love however works best for you. You can also treat Jenn to a cup of coffee (as she is made of caffeine).
What's up from Jennifer:
Reminder: My new author website is up and running. I couldn’t be happier. Sign up for the new MailerLite newsletter is live. I mirror this newsletter there. Sign up today and get free fiction! (Note: This Googlegroup will go away as of Feb 2025.)
I took an actual vacation in September to visit the in-laws. It was a very good trip. I even got some words done on Shadowrun: Imre Grey. Yes, it was still a vacation because I didn’t have to deal with all of the other projects I’m working on.
Still working on Augment Magazine, I turned in the final manuscript of my 25th anthology, Shadowrun: Through the Decades, to my co-editor. I’m happy to get that project off my place so I can focus a bit more on Augment and Imre. At the end of the month and into November, I’ll be in Ottawa, Canada at Can-Con as the Editor Guest of Honor! I’m looking forward to the trip.
Overall, things are busy but good. And I’m so glad spooky season is here!
Publishing Tip of the Month:
This month’s publishing tip is all about co-writing short stories with someone else, different techniques, and what you can learn from each of them. I have co-written a number of short stories with authors of varying levels of skill. Every experience has been a valuable one.
Written with Seanan McGuire, “Home and Hope Both Sound a Little Bit Like ‘Hunger’” basically boiled down to a chase scene through a house from the perspective of the predator and the prey. With this story, we discussed it then tossed the story back and forth, writing it from each perspective. We left guiding notes at the end of the sections. I learned that I could trust my co-author to do what they do best.
Written with Katie Cord, “When a Patch Won’t Do” is a military medical novelette. We both had an idea of what we wanted to do. Katie wrote the first draft from stem-to-stern and I edited it, layering in the themes we wanted to punch up. I learned that I didn’t have to control the story from the get-go, but that my contributions were what made the story what we both wanted it to be.
Written with Raven Oak, “Eye of the Beholder” is a noirish slipstream crime story set in Seattle. I had an idea, but I didn’t have the crime-writing chops. Raven did. We talked about the story. She wrote the foundation of the story and the crime. I came in and added the slipstream part, building on what Raven wrote. I learned that I didn’t have to be the subject matter expert to get the story I wanted written.
Written with Samantha Chalker, “No Matter the Shape” is a Well World story where I was the writing expert and Samantha was the Well World expert. We discussed the story and I wrote the foundation of it, leaving placeholders for the parts that I did not have the details for. Samantha filled out the details. Then we passed the story back and forth, refining the prose and dealing with edits. I learned that I learn just as much when I teach. Foundations of writing are important and teaching them cements them in place.
With each story I co-write with someone (and there are several more I didn’t mention), I grow as a writer. I learn new techniques and experience different perspectives. This is something I highly recommend you try. You will learn something new—even if it is that you are a better solo author than a co-author.
Conventions/Classes
Conventions/Events
2024
Can-Con (November) - Editor GoH
Written in the Northwest Bookfair (November) - Spotlight Media Tie-in Author
Classes
Jennifer and the Cat Rambo Academy for Wayward Writer Classes.
You can find all the information from this one link. Spots and scholarships are available.
http://www.kittywumpus.net/blog/faculty-jennifer-brozek/
No classes are scheduled for the rest of 2024 outside of conventions.
Bubble & Squeek
Shadowrun: Magic, Machines, and Mayhem, edited by John Helfers and myself, is live!
Do you love Shadowrun? Would you like to write for it? My open call for original fiction for our official in-world Shadowrun magazine! “Augment your life with Augment Magazine” is still open. Submission guidelines here.
New story alert! Coming in March 25, 2025, I’ll have a story (co-written with Samatha Chalker, Jack’s daughter) in Permutations: A Well World Anthology, edited by David Boop.
Shout out: I really loved Shadowrun: Dark Synergy by Russel Zimmerman. I highly recommend checking it out!
Recent Releases
Shadowrun: Magic, Machines, and Mayhem
IT'S A WILD, WILD, WILD SIXTH WORLD…
There are a million stories in the dark, gritty world of Shadowrun, and this all-new volume brings sixteen of the best together for an in-depth look at this dark future of megacorps and the street warriors fighting against them.
Featuring established authors as well as brand-new voices, each tale is a vicious slice of life in the Sixth World. An injured street samurai whose call to DocWagon turns into the opportunity of a lifetime…if he can just live to collect it. A street-smart runner team confronts their most dangerous mission yet—hiding out in an isolated rural town. A corporate executive squares off against a ruthless vice-president in their own megacorp in a razor-sharp battle of wits and words. This collection also features stories about top runners such as Winterhawk, and a brand-new story featuring Wolf and Raven.
From the highest floors of a megacorp's global headquarters to the darkest streets of the dirtiest sprawl, every story here delivers that unique mix of magic, machines, and mayhem Shadowrun fans demand.
WHEN HOME BECOMES A PRISON...
Fixer BlotterBabe has been around longer than most people realize. Long enough to have built herself a secure home in a protected park reserve. She greased all the right wheels, paid off all the right people, forged all the correct documents, hid all the tracks of her passing, created the perfect security systems inside and out. She planned for every contingency—except one.
The need to escape from her own home.
After realizing her sanctuary has been discovered, BlotterBabe brought just the right people to the right place to help her flee from her gilded cage with everything she holds dear—but she is too late. Now she has to escape the underground complex she spent decades building.
The enemies are inside the perimeter. They have control of the security systems. Spinrad Global will stop at nothing to keep her a prisoner in her gilded cage.
BlotterBabe and her friends must risk everything for her freedom—including their lives.
99 Fleeting Fantasies Anthology
EVEN A DREAM CAN BE CAUGHT IN PROSE…
There’s nothing better than a moment of whimsy and a dash of the fantastical to get the mind wandering. 99 Fleeting Fantasies is a flash fiction anthology readers can tiptoe through for a bit of wonder or while away an afternoon as they meander from old-time tales to far-flung fables to serious snippets of legend and lore that come from all over the world, including Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, and the United States. Featuring stories from the imaginative minds of Cat Rambo, Charles Stross, Crystal Frasier, Jody Lynn Nye, Jonathan Maberry, Premee Mohamed, Seanan McGuire, Wole Talabi, and many more!
FOUR SECRET AUDITIONS…
Fixer BlotterBabe must have exactly the right actors for a production that requires very specialized talent. The actors must not only be skilled, they need to have the right attitude and an ability to adapt to extraordinary circumstances.
A Kiss to Die For: Kintsugi and Sartorial choose love over duty, but their respective families will do everything in their considerable power to stop them from being together.
See How She Runs: Terrapin witnesses a murder and is handed a package destined for some important and lethal people. Now she is running for her life.
Unrepairable: Landon and Liana love vexing megacorps for fun and profit with their Matrix show. Unfortunately, the megacorps always play dirty, and will do whatever’s required to shut them down for good.
The Kilimanjaro Run: Charlotte, Neema, and Elijah embark on an unexpected adventure that turns into a nightmare when they discover nothing is what it seems. They are left with no choice at all when choosing between the abhorrent and the right thing to do.
FOR THE MOST DANGEROUS RUN OF ALL…
Having auditioned thousands, BlotterBabe is out of time. It’s come down to these few teenagers. Either they will save the day or lose it all…
Written by the Glitter Minion.
Edited and approved by Jennifer.
Thank you for reading.