May 2024 Summary
Jennifer Brozek
Hello everyone, Glitter Minion here. Anyone who’s been following Jenn for a while knows that she keeps busy…and last month was no exception. Between giving workshops, finishing up edits on Shadowrun: Mosaic Run (can’t wait!), and a full day charity stream at ArvCon, Jenn is an expert at getting things done!
Jenn’s Dear Penpal, Belgium 1980 Kickstarter might be over, but lovers of her short stories will be thrilled to learn that she’s one of the authors in the Cthulhu FhCon Kickstarter, and you can get tuckerized into her story (meaning you give a name and she’ll use it…no guarantees of survival! If you’ve read her stories, you know this).
Show your love to Jenn and all that she does by buying her a coffee and picking up the latest anthologies, Shadowrun books, or dig into some of her great re-releases!
What's up from Jennifer:
I’m editing like mad. My stuff. “Pays the bills” stuff. It all needs editing. Sometime in June, Shadowrun: The Mosaic Run will be released. I’m excited for it!
It is convention season. First up is Origins Game Fair in June. Come see me in Authors Alcove and on panels! If you go to Gen Con, I have three workshops this year: The Art of the Pitch, Project Management for Creatives, and Seven Steps to Better Self-editing. These workshops do sell out. You can find my schedule online.
Now for the BIG news. After decades of hand-coding my website, I’ve hired a terrifyingly competent and efficient dev to rebuild it from the ground up and change my hosting. This will include moving my newsletter to a different service off of Googlegroups for many reasons (including DMARC that is shoving my newsletter and other email into spam). Don’t worry, there will be plenty of time for the move. In any case, woo! New website is good. Change is scary. I hope everything works out as painlessly as possible.
Publishing Tip of the Month:
This month’s writing tip is to keep your mind from getting bored or running into a block. The way I do this is to have multiple concurrent projects in the works. Usually 2-3 is all I need. This is different from “productive procrastination” (a future topic). This is all about working on one project until you need some time to think about things—either concentrated thinking or mulling something over in your hindbrain. Once you hit that point, you can shift to the second project and work on it with a fresh mind because you’ve already given your mind a break from that story.
The other way of doing this is to have one project in draft mode and one project in edit mode. This way you can either do one in the morning and the other in the evening. Or you can write one day, edit the next. Whichever way you work best. For me, if it is writing / editing, I write in the mornings and I edit in the afternoons. Generally. Sometimes I need to switch it up just to keep it interesting.
The point is, when you run into a roadblock on one project, you can shift to the second (or third) and keep going. For me, this is a great way to keep my mind engaged and interested in whatever it is I am working on.
Conventions/Classes
Conventions/Events
2024
June 3rd Brick and Mortar Book Indie Author night, signing 6-8pm, Redmond Town Center.
In conversation with Seanan McGuire (July) - book releases, signing, panel
Origins Game Fair (June) - Authors Alcove, Panels
Gen Con (August) - Writers Symposium, Workshops, Panels
Can-Con (November) - Editor GoH
Written in the Northwest Bookfair with Seanan McGuire (November)
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/
Bubble & Squeek
Shadowrun: Auditions is live! I’m so happy with this book! Shadowrun: Auditions
Shadowrun: Mosaic Run is coming out in June!
Cthulhu FhCon: Short Stories Starring Cthulhu, Fans & Frenzy: the Kickstarter funded in under an hour and there’s still time to back—it’ll include one of my stories! Also, there’s still a tuckerization left.
Gen Con registration is open! Search for Jennifer Brozek to sign up for my panels and workshops.
Tell Me: J.W. Donley talks about how limits give you the freedom you need to write
Shout out: Not only is Trendane a magnificent person and a talented voice actor...one of my Shadowrun novels is waiting to be produced by him. If you can help out, that would be kind.
Recent Releases
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…
The Reinvented Detective Anthology
The evolution of crime, punishment, and justice in the future.
What happens when time and technology change the definition of crime and punishment? Science fiction often focuses on future technology without considering the society housing it. Social norms may change as tech changes — or not. What will criminals, investigators, judges, and juries look like in a complicated future of clones, uploaded intelligences, artificial brains, or body augmentation? What stories emerge when we acknowledge the possibilities of new laws, new police methods, and the birth of sentient Artificial Intelligence, as well as all the ways they can clash or combine?
Edited by Cat Rambo and Jennifer Brozek.
Written by the Glitter Minion.
Edited and approved by Jennifer.
Thank you for reading.