(Note: Yep, this is early but I will be at Gen Con over the normal posting date. ~JLB)
Hello everyone, Glitter Minion here. And there’s a lot of glitter to be thrown around this month, because not only did Jenn get nominated for two(!) Scribe Awards, Shadowrun: The Mosaic Run Auditions won for best Young Adult/Middle Grade. Congrats, Jenn!
There’s more glitter, too! Jenn has a brand new website, and will soon launch a new newsletter! Make sure not to miss any updates as this list will eventually fade away: sign up for her newsletter today (there’s a subscribe bar at the top of her website)!
As always, authors live off of reviews, recommendations, and book purchases, so please show your love however works best for you. And come say hi and pick up her latest releases (and get them signed!) at the Gen Con Writers’ Symposium!
What's up from Jennifer:
Website news: My new author website is up and running. I couldn’t be happier. What do you think? Sign up for the new MailerLite newsletter is live. I will start mirroring this newsletter next month (starting with August’s summary). Sign up today and get free fiction!
Conventions: In July, The Husband and I came home from Origins Game Fair with Covid. I am over it, though, my brain is still not working as fast as normal. The Husband is over it, but it aggravated his asthma something fierce. He’s still coughing because of it. That said, we will be masking all Gen Con (here’s my schedule) except in specific circumstances. I’m also limiting myself to fist-bumps and elbow-bumps in greeting. So, please come say hello and get a book signed at Booth 1611 in the Dealers Hall.
Open Call Sneak Peek: It’s not live yet, but it will be very soon.So keep an eye on things. I will have an ongoing open call! It is for a new venture…a completely IC magazine for Shadowrun! Here’s the blurb for it…Augment is the open-call market for official short fiction set in the Shadowrun universe. This is an “in-universe” magazine that will be referenced in Shadowrun fiction by the fictional characters. Augment is the Cosmo of Shadowrun and is published by a division of Horizon. “Augment your life with Augment Magazine!” Submission Guidelines…
Publishing Tip of the Month:
On the need to rest and to refresh the creative well. A writer who works non-stop without taking breaks is a writer who will eventually hit a wall—creatively and/or physically. There are two ways a writer needs to rest. The first is just resting the brain. Writing is concentrated thinking. It is focused work and if focused too much, the brain will fail. The same with the creative well. A writer who only outputs creative works without inputting inspiration will eventually run out of ideas or motivation or good words. The brain needs to be rested. The creative well needs to be refreshed.
Resting the brain can be a number of small things: daily walks, exercise, working on puzzles, cleaning, driving. Or, it can be big things: not writing (or editing) for an extended period of time, getting out of your routine, taking a social media and/or computer and/or screen break for multiple days in a row. The point is, you need to rest as much as you work. Most of the time, I do this by getting away from screens, taking walks, visiting with my cats in the catio, and doing puzzles.
Refreshing the creative well. Creativity is not an endless resource. Oh, ideas are easy. Execution is hard and messy. A writer who creates in a vacuum is one whose work will become rote and stale. Beyond work breaks, a writer needs to get out in the world and experience things, to enjoy other art, and to share with other artists. There’s nothing like a meeting of like-minded peers to inspire and motivate. Read widely. Visit museums. Enjoy games and movies. Take hikes. Camp (or glamp) with friends. Travel if you can. All these things refresh the creative well.
As always, all writer advice is just opinion based on the experience of the author.
Conventions/Classes
Conventions/Events
2024
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/
No classes are scheduled for the rest of 2024 outside of conventions.
Bubble & Squeek
A Busy Six Weeks with Origins Game Fair, COVID, and a catio build! Check out the blog post with pictures of our new catio!
The husband is streaming 7 DAYS TO DIE on Twitch!
Shadowrun: The Mosaic Run is available! Get your copy today!
Get some more time with the Shadowrun: The Mosaic Run characters by reading the prequel stories in the award-winning Shadowrun: The Mosaic Run Auditions.
The Cthulhu FhCon: Short Stories Starring Cthulhu, Fans & Frenzy Kickstarter was funded! Keep an eye out for more updates! It’ll include my story on what happens when a LARP event gets a little too real…
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: 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
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.