Jennifer Brozek | Wordslinger & Optimist!

The Next Big Thing

What is the working title of your book?

The Children of Anu, Book Two of the Karen Wilson Chronicles.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

This being the second book in the series, I wanted to write about the concept of a lesser evil keeping a greater evil at bay. When that lesser evil was defeated in the first book, what greater evil rises to take its place?

What genre does your book fall under?

Dark Urban Fantasy.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

There are only a few actors I had in mind for the characters. Most of the visages of my characters are based loosely on people I know.

Karen – 20’s brunette Jennifer Lawrence
Aaron – 20’s Michael Shanks (SG-1)
David – 20’s Adam Rodriguez (CSI: Miam)
John Corso – 30’s Johnny Depp
Luke Coleman – 30’s Gary Cole

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

When one evil falls, another one takes its place and threatens the city of Kendrick itself and all of the supernaturals within it.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Self published. It will be published by Apocalypse Ink Productions (my company), edited by John Helfers, with cover art by Amber Clark of Stopped Motion Photography who did the cover of Caller Unknown.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

As it was originally a serial short story collection told over twelve months… it took about ten months to write the thirteen stories in this book.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I’d like to say Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series… but there’s not enough fairies for that. Or the Kat Richardson’s Greywalker series… but it’s not detective enough for that. I think it is closer to Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files with all of the different creatures, supernaturals, and secret societies… but there are no vampires in the Karen Wilson Chronicles at all. I mean… none.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

The story inspired me. The idea of a continuing storyline told in a collection, a mosaic novel. This being the second in the series, its theme is “Consequences.” The first book’s theme was “Revelations.” I wanted to tell the story of what happens after the heroes win. All actions and revelations have consequences. I wanted to see where that would go now that places were set, secrets revealed, and deeds done.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

The Children of Anu is a book about the bad guys doing what they planned to do and the heroes trying to figure the plan out. The heroes don’t know what’s going on. Not every ally is good. Not every villain is evil.

Also, Kendrick is rich in conspiracy, hidden worlds, and supernatural creatures. This is the kind of story that could be going on around as you walk out your front door. The Karen Wilson Chronicles is my love letter to the supernatural Pacific Northwest.

Caller Unknown is available now.

The Children of Anu will be out in August 2013.


I'm tagging: Ivan Ewert, Erik Scott de Bie, A.E. Marling, Lily Cohen-Moore, and J.L. Doty

Bubble and Squeek for 18 Dec 2012

I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I will not be at Norwescon 2013. The good news is that’s because I will be one of the Guests of Honor at GothCon in Gothenberg, Sweden. I will miss going to Norwescon but… Sweden!

More good news is that I will be one of the guest speakers at the Cascade Writers Retreat in Portland, OR in July 2013. I will be on four panels. One group and three solos. There are spots open. This is going to be a great workshop. Lots of industry talent there.

Caller Unknown is out and getting good reviews. I just received a very nice blurb, "Brozek gives us the world the way it should be - full of hidden pockets of magic, ancient evils, and supernatural creatures - along with a heroine fully capable of dealing with all of the above."  - Cat Rambo, author of Near + Far and A Seed Upon the Wind

Ya’ll know that me and the Husband own Apocalypse Ink Productions. We now have an announcement-only Googlegroup. Sign up and hear what all we are doing.

Finally, I was interviewed by The Geek Girl Project. I do a lot of talking about The Lady of Seeking in the City of Waiting.

Tell Me – Amanda Pillar

I've had the great pleasure of working with Amanda Pillar in the past on our award winning anthology, Grants Pass. She’s a talented editor and her anthologies are always word reading. I’ve read Bloodstones and it’s a darned good book. Today she talks about her kind of urban fantasy.

---
I’ve wanted to edit an urban fantasy anthology for quite some time. I’ve worked on horror, post-apocalyptic, dark fantasy and thematic collections, but never a true urban fantasy. I’ve loved every book I’ve ever helped produce, but the genre I tend to read when not editing or writing...well, you’ve guessed it.

Urban fantasy.

But I didn’t want something that involved vampires, werewolves or witches. I love a good vampire story, it has to be said, yet I wanted to pull together an anthology that was different. Unique. And so I needed a theme, something that would interest me and hopefully the future readers of this book. A collection that would make you think; where love and hate and death all danced upon a stage with monsters that may never be popular, may never be truly appreciated, but their appeal unable to be denied.

So, perhaps a little surprisingly for some, I turned to mythology. For me though, it seemed a logical choice. I am an archaeologist in my day job, and have spent far too many hours reading and researching ancient religions and mythologies. From my work, it seemed clear that there would be no end to the inspiration found from old myths and tales; that the authors who submitted to my collection would have a rich field to harvest from.

And I was right. The authors delivered. More than I could have hoped for. The final stories that made the cut were sown from cloth threaded with new takes on old creatures. There were gorgons, minotaurs, ghosts, kraken, faeries, toyols and even a mummy. There were new creatures, too, beings that were inspired by old myths: the foam born, gravelings and killers with odd histories.

The authors involved in this collection searched far and wide for their new – or in some cases, very old – ‘monsters’. There was never one source of inspiration, with the depth and grit of the stories showcasing the authors’ talent.

I’m pleased to say this collection is unique, and that I was truly lucky to work with such a talented group of authors. Without them, after all, this book wouldn’t exist.

Bloodstones TOC:

Dirk Flinthart – ‘The Bull in Winter’
Nicole Murphy – ‘Euryale’
Penny Love – ‘A Small Bad Thing’
Jenny Blackford – ‘A Moveable Feast’
Pete Kempshall – ‘Dead Inside’
MLD Curelas – ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’
Joanne Anderton – ‘Sanaa's Army’
Richard Harland – ‘A Mother's Love’
Christine Morgan – ‘Ferreau's Curse’
Thoraiya Dyer – ‘Surviving Film’
Kat Otis – ‘And the Dead Shall be Raised Incorruptible’
Karen Maric – ‘Embracing the Invisible’
Dan Rabarts – ‘The Bone Plate’
Alan Baxter – ‘Cephalopoda Obsessia’
Erin Underwood – ‘The Foam Born’
Vivian Caethe – ‘Skin’
Stephanie Gunn – ‘The Skin of the World’

Tell Me – Richard Iorio

I met Richard at his Colonial Gothic booth during a GenCon a few years back. The name caught me, the RPG kept me, and then Richard hired me to write for him. I’ve been working off and on for Colonial Gothic ever since. My newest book with them is Colonial Gothic: Locations. I think this is a really interesting RPG and that’s why I’m pleased to present this special 12-12-12 edition of Tell Me.

---
It was a sunny, warm September day (9/7/2011 for those keeping score), when I posted the following on the Rogue Games’ website:

You are not ready. The countdown has begun, and the Rogue of Rogues Games are plotting.
For some, it might be an end, but for us, it is only the beginning. Grab your dice and get ready.


This was the last I said anything, and in secret I continued working on a project that I had been working on since 2010. As of this afternoon, 12:12:12 to be precise, the secret has been revealed, and the world knows I was working on Colonial Gothic 2nd Edition. By now, the some have bought the book and have gotten the PDF. They have noticed the changes.

This is not about the changes, this is about why I did what I did.

Colonial Gothic is a labor of love. This is the game I have always wanted to play, and since I could not find it, I created it. A game like Colonial Gothic does not come about by itself. It is the sum of experiences and ideas I received from others who listened to me prattle on about history, gaming ideas, and how to make everything work. What you hold in your hands is a product of years of work. Many players have played in variations of campaigns based upon the ideas found here. Something about this period always attracted me to running games in it.

The first time I ever thought about running a game set during this period was in 1985, as an eighth grader. My family had just moved to a small Midwestern town at the start of summer. Being a new face in a new town, and not knowing anyone, I had a lot of time to think about new campaigns and new games. Tired of fantasy and having just read Last of the Mohicans for the eighth time, I wanted to try something more “real.” Armed with a library within in biking distance, I spent many days reading and taking notes on the period. As luck would have it, I found some gamers who were interested in my creation and I unleashed it to uneven success.

A year later I found myself in another new town and this time I was about to start high school. Undeterred from the previous summer experiment, I revised the campaign and let it loose on a new group of players. They liked it, but they were not ready for something so different from the orcs, rogues, and dungeon crawls that were so popular at the time. Reluctantly I put the campaign aside and returned to the lands of dragons, fuzzy footed diminutive creatures and magic.

Fast-forward to college, with its huge libraries and new opportunities. Unlike my earlier attempts, in college I was even more versed in the subject because of the resources I had on hand. I was also a little more experienced with kit bashing different game systems and ideas into something playable for myself and others. Each new discovery I made, or historical bit I uncovered in my reading and endless research, was applied to my campaigns. Through the years, numerous players have walked the footpaths and forest trails of Colonial New England or the Southern Colonies searching for the evil haunting the land.

Those people gave me something, the will to keep going to produce this game. What you have in your hands is a labor of love, a project worked on by people that are as equally passionate as I am about good role playing games.  As such, Colonial Gothic would not have been possible without the help of many people.

As much as I tried, it always seemed as it Colonial Gothic never got the attention it deserved. It was always rushed, and it always suffered from being something that I worked on, while I tried to do so many other things. Things changed when Graeme Davis decided to help me out, and he kicked me in the butt to rethink and rework the game. It was during a phone call in January 2010 that I finally agreed that the game needed to be rethought, and I began working on the 2nd edition. I thought the project would be faster, but it turned out to be two years of playtesting, writing, rewriting, and rewriting.

Finally it was 9/7/2011 I had a draft that I was proud of, and a yearlong playtest begun. Every rule was examined, every system rethought, and the guts of 12° were pulled apart, put together, and pulled apart. There were times I wanted to stop, and call it quits, but I didn’t. This game means too much to me, and I wanted it to be what I always felt that it should be.

Colonial Gothic 2nd Edition is a game that I always wanted, and now I have it.

Birthday Awesomeness

For my birthday, the Husband took me to the King Tut exhibit in Seattle. We took the audio tour which was well worth it. Having seen them with my own eyes, I now understand why men would kill for Egyptian artifacts. They are really amazing to see. Beautiful craftsmanship and gorgeous to gaze at. The history, the age, of the artifacts can be felt. Ryan told me that walking through the exhibit would give me story ideas. And he was right. If you get a chance to see the exhibit, take it.

After the exhibit, the iMax movie, and dinner, I came home to a whole passel  of good stuff. First was a confirmed pro story sale. Then was an interview request. Next came an email from the anthology committee verifying one of my anthologies was eligible for a Stoker—which means nothing more than someone nommed it and they have to make sure everything is all good—but I’m chuffed someone thought so well of Dangers Untold to nom it. Then another bit of awesome news dropped that isn’t finalized yet but soon. And finally, I had a about a bajillion Facebook birthday wishes to read. That was a really nice surprise.

Lastly, a reminder that Mastication is my birthday gift to you. Get it free on Apocalypse Ink Productions webstore.

Tell Me – Erin M. Evans

I’ve met up with Erin off and on at various conventions. She is a great person to talk to and I’m pleased to know she, like me, has a fascination with villains and the point of view of the villain. Lesser Evils is the sequence to Brimstone Angels.

---
I can remember watching G.I. Joe as a child—four or maybe five years old—and wondering about Cobra. “They can’t,” I remember thinking, “just be evil.” No one would waste that many resources or poorly aimed red lasers on just being jerks. Not when being good, like G.I. Joe, clearly worked better.  Perhaps, I thought, Cobra believes they are being good. Perhaps they think G.I. Joe are the bad ones.

And there began my fascination with villains.

It’s a level of characterization that I won’t argue that old cartoon earned, but the idea of perspective affecting morality is one I love to read about and write about. Conflict is king, so far as I’m concerned, and nothing makes a conflict rule the page quite like the complexity of different people’s goals, prejudices, and desires coming together as if they’re a united force.

In Lesser Evils, Farideh, a tiefling warlock, is faced with a whole flock of villains. From the devils of the Nine Hells to the representatives of the shadowy City of Shade; from the ancient secrets of a mad arcanist to the fractious mercenaries of the secretive Zhentarim, she’s beset on all sides by people who could be labeled “evil.” Including Farideh herself—as a tiefling some portion of her blood is devilish and it shows in her horns, tail, and strange eyes; as a warlock, she draws powers from the Nine Hells. Put her in a line-up and not a few people would call her evil on that alone.

But in some cases, those evil-doers are allies, or allies of allies, or enemies of enemies—which can be as good as an ally. In some cases the “good” people on her side, aren’t so firmly on her side at all—can you trust someone who sees you as a rival and an impediment? Anyone could be a traitor or a valuable ally, and the line between “with me” and “against me” is one that shifts as the stakes rise and new foes appear. Even Farideh’s goals aren’t all pure and good, as she hunts for a spell to free the half-devil who fuels her warlock pact from his prison in the Nine Hells.

The best part of so many colliding factions? Characters. If I’m fascinated by villains, I’m deep-down, crazy in love with conflicted characters, and Lesser Evils stole my heart.

In their clashes and reflections, the shape of whole organizations can be seen.  Between the three Zhentarim characters, you have a power-hungry leader risen up from the streets, dodging assassinations and following risky rumors of powerful weapons; a merciless assassin as happy to train a starstruck girl as to turn around and run her through; and an archaeologist turned thief willing to do almost anything to keep the Zhentarim happy and funding her discoveries…even return to someone she’d long left behind.  And I hope you can find in that a secret society of people willing to do a lot to get what they want, capable of supporting each other as they build something massive and unstoppable…or undercut themselves by lashing out at the people who should be on their side. A tricky place to be.

So if you love conflict, villains, and alliances that stand the test of great strain as much as I do, be sure to check out Lesser Evils.

Birthday Gift to You Guys

Sunday is my birthday. I’m getting older than I’d like to admit. As much as I like gifts, I decided that for this birthday, I was going to give out a gift of fiction. In 2009, I created a chapbook called Mastication. It’s a series of six stories about things that eat people. We had 200 copies made and that’s it. I know there are physical copies of this once free chapbook out there for sale. Now you can get it at the Apocalypse Ink Productions store for free.

And because people have asked…

My ThinkGeek wishlist is here.

If you are going to donor money in my name, please donate it to a charity caring for animals. In truth, I really love this.

Thanks for sticking around. I appreciate it.

Tell Me – Dave Gross

The one time I met Dave, he described himself as "the evilest nice guy you'll ever meet" AKA an author and a GM. He was right, he really was a nice guy. Thus, I am please to present what it was he wanted to tell me about pitches.

----
Pitching the Pitch
 
Most of my writing in the past few years has been for Pathfinder Tales, always with the same pair of mismatched protagonists. Count Varian Jeggare and his hellspawn henchman Radovan first appeared in the novella “Hell’s Pawns” (my love letter to film noir), but since then their travels have included four short stories, another novella, and three novels. Queen of Thorns is the latest.
 
For almost every story with “the boys,” I try to do something a little different, often inspired by my latest film binge. I even pitch them Hollywood style. For Prince of Wolves, I told my editor it would be “Indiana Jones in Transylvania.” I described Master of Devils as “Varian and Radovan vs. every Kung Fu movie ever.”
 
While my original idea for Queen of Thorns also had a Hollywood angle, the outline soon drifted far from movie inspirations. Rather than drawing on films, I found myself using the Pathfinder setting as my principal and almost sole source of inspiration.
 
Part of that inspiration comes from the map of Kyonin. Ages ago the elves fled the world of Golarion to avoid a cataclysmic event. By the time they returned, demons had claimed their land, and they have fought ever since to reclaim it. Now and then, they stumble upon an ancient ruin—obviously of elven design—that not even their eldest sages can remember.
 
From the start I knew my plot involved the search for a missing person. After researching the map and sourcebooks for Kyonin, I traced a path through sites with evocative names like Omesta, Erithiel’s Hall, the Walking Man, the Wandering Spheres, and the Endless Cairns. Finding a common thread in their histories, I wound it around the personal story of the elven father Count Jeggare had never met.
 
Besides the map, the most important influence from the Pathfinder setting came from its depiction of elves. Except their enormous irises and ears, they resemble Tolkien’s famous version of the fey folk. Under the surface, however, there are a few other slight differences.
 
The elves pity their “Forlorn” kin, elves raised in human cultures. Likewise, the elves tolerate but do not fully embrace the gnomes who settled Kyonin in their absence. Some of those gnomes suffer from a magical ennui known as the Bleaching. Reviewing these facts of the game world, I knew I had to include a Forlorn elf and a Bleachling gnome. They made excellent foils for the half-elven Varian and the devil-blooded Radovan, no less outsiders among their own people.
 
Unlike the more familiar elves of fantasy fiction, Pathfinder elves strive to embody guile, lust, and revenge, the three stings of their chief goddess, Calistria. No one better embodies those stings than a Calistrian inquisitor. Naturally, I had to have one in the story. But for contrast I also wanted to include a classical elf ranger, an incomparable scout and archer. The fun came in showing how each character embodies the passions of their goddess in different ways.
 
When it came time to promote Queen of Thorns, I found myself fumbling for a Hollywood pitch that no longer existed. Sure, you can see some Tolkienesque elements in the setting, and the demons serve a role similar to that of a certain infamous xenomorph. Now that I write those words, I wonder whether I should just give in and start describing the book as “Lord of the Rings meets Aliens.” However, the truth is that Queen of Thorns, more than the previous two Varian & Radovan books, is almost purely a Pathfinder novel.

Bubble and Squeek for 30 November 2012

A bunch of little things to catch up on.

First is a lovely review of Caller Unknown by Steven Saus. I’m glad he liked the book.  A thought for the holiday, if you would like to get a signed and/or personalized copy of Caller Unknown or Industry Talk, go ahead and buy them from the Apocalypse Ink Productions store directly from the publisher and then contact them through the contact page with the personalization request. We’ll get it done.

This month has been a very good month for short story sales. I sold “An Infestation of Adverts” to Blue Shift Magazine, “Sandcastle Sacrifices” to The Guide to the Village by the Sea, and “Memories Like Crystal Shards” to the unnamed limited edition Origins Game Fair anthology for 2013. A very good month indeed.

I have completed my personal NaNoWriMo of catching up on contracted and promised short stories. I scheduled eight short stories. In and around travel, illness, hospital visits, and the holiday, I completed all eight stories for an official word count of 26,292 publishable words.  Written was: “An Infestation of Adverts”, “Sandcastle Sacrifices”, “The Bathory Clinic Deal”, and The Nellus Academy Incident, episodes 15-20. Yes, I did sell two of my NaNo stories during the month of November. It was a good month but I’m tired now.

December is not looking any less insane. On the docket: Editing Beast Within 4 and beginning edits on Jay Lake’s Process of Writing book. Writing-wise I will be working on Colonial Gothic: Roanoke Island and The Nellus Academy Incident, episodes 21-25 (finishing the Battletech webseries off). Research-wise, I investigate the culture of Assam, India in 1920.

As an aside, it is going to be a very Lovecraftian holiday season for me. Colonial Gothic: Roanoke Island is going to be Lovecraft based. Just like Colonial Gothic: Popham was. Only with a different Elder God and its minions to contend with. January is slated for me to work on my novelette, Dreams of a Thousand Young, for Innsmouth Free Press and their Jazz Age Cthulhu book. I’m extremely pleased to be included in the latter. I’ve been wanting to write this novelette for ages. Now I have a professional reason to do so.

Official cover of Beast Within 3: Oceans Unleashed

Here's the official cover of Beast Within 3: Oceans Unleashed - So pretty!
Official release date: 7 Dec 2012


Table of Contents for Beast Within 3: Oceans Unleashed
Edited by Jennifer Brozek


Foreword by Jennifer Brozek
The Roe Girls by Mae Empson
Dry Run by Pete Kempshall
Wreckage by Rosemary Jones
Rites of Justice in Civilized Societies by Amanda C. Davis
Beyond the Reach of Moonlight by Jamie Lackey
The Murmur of Lorelei by Jason Andrew
Salt on the Dance Floor by Nisi Shawl
Mother Water by T. S. Bazelli
Beneath Feather and Fur by Minerva Zimmerman
Woman of War by Ivan Ewert
Trolling by Michael West
Safe by Mari Ness
Spawning Season by Montgomery Mullen
The Wedding Seal by Josh Reynolds
Hunger by Jennifer Pelland
The Summoned by Wendy Wagner

Cover art by Shane Tyree
Interior art by John Ward

Publisher: Graveside Tales