Jennifer Brozek | May 2015

Where is Jennifer?

This weekend begins a five week stretch of off-and-on travel. It is the heart of convention season for me and why I pushed so hard to get the rough draft of NEVER LET ME DIE done.

So, where is Jennifer through the end of June?

For most of this, I’ll be traveling alone and the Husband will have charge of the house and the kitties (who will become angry balls of fur at my disappearances). For the one time the Husband will be with me, I’ve got a house/cat sitter lined up (the cats love the sitter, he bribes them with treats).

I’m looking forward to each of these events. I’m hanging out with Katie Cord and Tim Long at Crypticon. Origins is one of my favorite conventions ever. I’m reading at the University Bookstore with Kristi Charish, a super keen author and podcaster. Yay weddings! It’s always fun to go to a friend’s wedding where you will know almost everyone. I’m very excited about LepreCon because my PA, Sarah, will be there with me.

All this means that my life is going to be insane. Because, while I’m doing all this, I’ll be editing two novels and two novellas for myself and for AIP.

It’s going to be crazy but fun.

Bubble and Squeek for 20 May 2015

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 one 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.

Hugo Packet and Scribe Awards

The Hugo Voting Packet is now available for those people who are eligible to vote in this year’s Hugo Awards. In 2014, I had four anthologies published. (Blog post about my Hugo nomination.) I knew that Baen Books was going to have Shattered Shields put into the packet because both Bryan and I were nominated for Best Editor (Short Form).

I chose to have Bless Your Mechanical Heart added as well because it was diametrically opposed to Shattered Shields—which is military fantasy. Bless Your Mechanical Heart is pure science fiction and is still one of my favorite anthologies.

I thought the two anthologies would give Hugo voters a good look at my range. I hope everyone who reads them enjoys them.

Also, in other interesting news, I’ve been nominated for a Scribe Award for two categories. The first is my Valdemar tie-in, “Written in the Wind,” for Best Short Story. The second is my Battletech novel, The Nellus Academy Incident for best Young Adult Novel.

I’m so pleased to discover this. I enjoy both stories and am proud of them. I’m really happy that they’ve been nominated.

Memories of a Fictional Life

For the first time in a long time, I went out to meet a friend I’ve only known on the internet and it wasn’t a convention. The Husband and I met Olli at the Space Needle for dinner to start his coastal trip from Seattle to San Francisco to Maui (envy, I have it) and back.

While we were at dinner, he asked me if I remember how we met. I didn’t remember. It’s because of Andy Weir’s (yes, that Andy Weir) Casey & Andy comic. I was a sidekick character as the sorta hapless, weirdness magnet (international jewel thief) neighbor to the comic’s titular characters.

Apparently, Olli remembers me on the Casey & Andy forums, followed me to Facebook, then Twitter. When he reminded me of this, I realized who he was—one of the only people to ever recognize me from the comic that I didn’t already know.

I hadn’t thought of that comic in ages. It’s a fun read. If you haven’t read the comic, you should. It harkens back to an era I lived through. Casey was one of my real life roommates. Also, because of the comic, I’m an official 200 points GURPs character in the Casey & Andy GURPs supplement.

It was an unexpected trip down memory lane.

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If you are Seattle local and have free time this coming Saturday, May 16th, me, Cat Rambo, Raven Oak, and Tina Connolly will be teach a “How Not to Write a Novel” workshop at Redmond Library from 12:30 to 3:30.