Jennifer Brozek | All posts tagged 'Melissa Allen'

2016 is the Year of the Tie-In

I’ve already written about what I did in 2015. Now I’m looking forward to what I need to do for 2016. The short version: A whole lot of contracted tie-in fiction, some editing, and a bunch of travel.

Contracts signed: 1 board game mythology/background, 1 reprint RPG fiction collection, and 1 tie-in novel.

Forthcoming contracts: 1 serialized YA tie-in novel, 1 anthology as editor, and 2 tie-in short stories. (As in, discussion is done, I’ve agreed to do it, and we’re just waiting on paperwork.)

Planned contracts: 1 tie-in novella. (Proposal requested. Writing is probably slated for early 2017 if all parties agree.)

Planned editing: 2 novels, 2 omnibuses, 3 novellas, 1 monthly fiction feature, and 1 anthology. (For Apocalypse Ink Productions and Evil Girlfriend Media.)

Events planned: 8 conventions (3 as GoH), 1 workshop, 2 readings, 1 wedding in Iceland.

The writing metrics for 2016 are daunting. It’s about 200,000 words of contract tie-in fiction. This doesn’t count any of the editing for that work or research or one-off anthologies or one-off articles. Or any blog posts. Or any of the 10,000 other things a freelance author-editor does.

What this means is that I’m going to have to buckle down and change my personal working schedule. I’m probably going to have to institute a “no internet before noon” policy to focus on my writing. Leave all the email and such to the afternoon once my word count for the day is done. It is too easy to fritter away my time online, answering emails, reading articles, and watching videos.

Scheduled Appearances:

  • Jan 8-10, 2016, OrcaCon, special guest
  • Jan 26, Reading at University Bookstore
  • Feb 5: Foolscap, Workshop leader
  • Feb 12-14, 2016, RadCon, Writer GoH
  • Mar 23-27, Norwescon, dealer/panelist
  • May 12-15, StokerCon, Panelist
  • Jun 15-20, Origins Game Fair, dealer/panelist 
  • Aug 17-21, Worldcon/MidAmericon, ??
  • Sep 4-6, Tracon XI in Tampere, Finland, GoH
  • Nov 4-6, We Are All SF Con, Ocean Shores, Lead Writer GoH

All I Want For My Birthday…

Happy birthday to me! I turn 45 today. I’ve officially crossed over into that 45-60 year old category. This year, I had four novels, one novella, one fiction collection and an anthology come out. All I want for my birthday is for you to buy one of them and leave me a review. It’s been a standing birthday wish now for about five years. Please consider getting yourself a gift of one of my books for my birthday. You have a great selection.

If you want to know which one I want you to buy… the Melissa Allen series, Never Let Me Sleep, Never Let Me Leave, or Never Let Me Die. I get royalties and kudos on them all but those are the newest.

Apocalypse Girl Dreaming – Fiction collection
Travel from the weird west to the hidden worlds of Kendrick all the way to the far reaches of space. This collection contains twenty previously published short stories and includes the brand new Kember Empire story “Found on the Body of a Solider.” Enjoy your journey and don’t forget your survival gear. Apocalypse Girl is waiting. Includes a foreword by science fiction author Jody Lynn Nye.

DocWagon 19 – Shadowrun tie-in novella
DocWagon—saviors of the needy, rescuers of the desperate. Willing to go anywhere, rescue anyone, as long as that “anyone” has forked out enough advance cash to justify the effort. Reporter Amelia Hart has embedded herself with a DocWagon team to see what their life is really like, and she’s in for a wild ride. From an OD’ing celebrity to an aggressive team of hackers, from pesky gangs to an extremely rich and powerful client teetering at death’s door, this night will give the team all they can handle. But will they survive long enough to remember that in the Sixth World, nothing is truly random?

Chimera Incarnate – Fourth and final book in the Karen Wilson Chronicles
“The Veil is breaking. The Nightmares are coming through.” The supernatural forces of Kendrick may have defeated the Children of Anu, but every war leaves destruction in its wake. And fixing the collateral damage is never easy. The fourth and final volume of the Karen Wilson Chronicles tells the story of what happens when all the chips are down, places of power have been consumed, and one of Karen’s greatest allies teeters on the edge of oblivion. The Grey Lady and her people are fading. Only their pact with the Makah people, and the land of Kendrick itself, is holding their ancient foes at bay. Karen and her allies must find a way to save one of their own before the Veil falls and the world as they know it is destroyed.

Never Let Me Sleep – Melissa Allen #1, YA SF-Thriller
What would you do if you discovered everyone in your house, on your street, and in your town dead? Then discovered you weren’t alone and what was out there was hunting you? Melissa Allen knows exactly how it feels. With only a voice on the phone for help, she must stop what is happening before the monsters find her.

Never Let Me Leave – Melissa Allen #2, YA SF-Thriller
What would you do if you found yourself locked in an underground lab with a murderous alien hunting you? Melissa Allen and her new friends know exactly how it feels. With no help from the outside and time running out, it’s up to Melissa to keep herself and the other teens safe. How can she do that when she’s not sure who she can trust? Someone in the lab helped that alien escape. Someone human.

Never Let Me Die – Melissa Allen #3, YA SF-Thriller
What would you do if your sister was shot and your brother was kidnapped? Melissa Allen knows. It’s been six months since the attack at PAR Lab. Melissa, Carrie, and Adam have settled into a semblance of domestic bliss with Heather as their guardian. Things seem too good to be true. Someone has been watching them. Someone who has no problem trying to kill them.

Naughty Or Nice: A Holiday Anthology – Adult-oriented SF Anthology
With a little bit of nice, a sprinkle of dark, a handful of sexy, and a whole lot of naughty, this adult-oriented anthology is filled with blushes, laughs, and gasps. This is not your average holiday reading. From the story behind Marley's fate, to a little elf who makes the perfect "toy" to the holiday rituals that keep the world going, Naughty or Nice: A Holiday Anthology, keeps the pages turning. Be prepared to be a little bit shocked!

NEVER LET ME DIE has been released!

NEVER LET ME DIE, the third book in the Melissa Allen trilogy has been released. All of these books have been doing really well. NEVER LET ME SLEEP is even on the HWA Bram Stoker Award™ 2015 Reading List!

What would you do if your sister was shot and your brother was kidnapped? Melissa Allen knows.

It’s been six months since the attack at PAR Lab. Melissa, Carrie, and Adam have settled into a semblance of domestic bliss with Heather as their guardian. Things seem too good to be true.

Someone has been watching them, taking photos and keeping notes. Someone who seems to know everything about them. Someone who has no problem trying to kill them.


Happy Book Release Day to me!

Bubble and Squeek for 24 November 2015

I am home from OryCon and SF Authorfest 9. I had a fabulous time. It was so much fun. In lieu of content, here is a Bubble and Squeek.

Article: Mind Meld: More Children’s Movies that Scared the Crap Out of Us.

Podcast: LIMETOWN. If you aren't listening to this podcast, you are missing out. It reminds me of American Elsewhere and Night Vale.

Review: A Lovely review of Jazz Age Cthulhu and "Dreams of a Thousand Young" from Hauntology. I really am fond of this novelette.

For the Melissa Allen section of Bubble and Squeek...
Article: Over on Wag the Fox: Characters with a mind of their own. AKA why the sequel, Never Let Me Leave, exists.

Article: Why a Bat? Over on Damien Walter's blog, I discuss why Melissa Allen use a baseball bat when fighting monsters.

Podcast: SF Spotlight Radio from 14 Nov 2015. I talk about a lot of things. Mostly the Melissa Allen series.

NEVER LET ME LEAVE has been released!

Book two of the Melissa Allen series, NEVER LET ME LEAVE, has been released! I'm really happy with the series. The first book, NEVER LET ME SLEEP, is getting great reviews.

What would you do if you found yourself locked in an underground lab with a murderous alien hunting you? Melissa Allen and her new friends know exactly how it feels. With no help from the outside and time running out, it’s up to Melissa to keep herself and the other teens safe. How can she do that when she’s not sure who she can trust?

Someone in the lab helped that alien escape. Someone human.


NEVER LET ME LEAVE almost didn't happen. This is why it did.

Bubble and Squeek for 20 October 2015

Writing, writing, writing. Here's a "Melissa Allen" themed Bubble & Squeek!

Article: On SFSignal, I write about Melissa Allen and Mental Illness.

Article: Over at Chuck Wendig's blog, I talk about Five Things I Learned While Writing Never Let Me Sleep.

PodcastYA Books Podcast, Oct 7. I talk about all kinds of stuff on this one.


Pre-Order: Never Let Me Leave pre-order is up! Melissa Allen #2 is out in November.


Pre-Order: Never Let Me Die pre-order is up! Melissa Allen #3 is out in December.


Release: Never Let Me Sleep has been released! Lots of good buzz about it. Though, I have to admit, the first Amazon review of it is a little strange.

 

NEVER LET ME SLEEP is Released!

Happy book release day to me! Never Let Me Sleep, the first book of the Melissa Allen series is out now in ebook form. (The three books will be released in ebook form in Oct, Nov, Dec first, then the hard copy compilation in Jan 2016.)

Never Let Me Sleep is a disturbing glimpse into an unfolding apocalypse. This is genuine nightmare territory.” –Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Rot & Ruin and Fall Of Night.

What would you do if you discovered everyone in your house, on your street, and in your town dead? Then discovered you weren’t alone and what was out there was hunting you? Melissa Allen knows exactly how it feels. With only a voice on the phone for help, she must stop what is happening before the monsters find her.

Melissa, a troubled teen under house arrest, is the only person left alive in South Dakota. Unable to leave the quarantine zone and with no help except for DHS agent, David Hood, on the phone, Melissa must figure out what killed everyone and stop it from happening again before the government takes drastic action.


“It's a cliché to say ‘I couldn’t put the book down,’ but greeting the dawn at about the time I read the final words suggests to me that I really couldn’t. The situation is downright creepy, the horror rooted in tension rather than gore, and the protagonist is more than a little fascinating in her own right. Definitely hoping there's a sequel on the way.” –Ari Marmell, author of the Mick Oberon and Widdershins series.

I’m so pleased. It’s gotten some great blurbs. This series is done and I’ve told the story I wanted to tell. I likened it to if Stephen King had been writing for teenagers back in the day. I really hope people like it. I do. I’m so proud of it.

Of course, now is the time of elation mixed with terror.

Add: Here's an article I wrote for SF Signal about the main character: Melissa Allen and Mental Illness.

All About the Covers

I am so happy with my Melissa Allen covers. The cover art was done by Ryan Truso. I don't know the model's name. I wanted a corn fed farm girl from South Dakota and that's what I got. An actual teenager on my YA series. I love this.

October 13, 2015 – Never Let Me Sleep (Set in the town of Onida, South Dakota. The nightmare begins and Melissa has to stop the apocalypse from happening.)

November 10, 2015 – Never Let Me Leave (Set in an underground lab in North Dakota where Melissa discovers she's not the only one to save the world... and that someone on the inside wants to kill them all.)

December 8, 2015 – Never Let Me Die (Set in Richland, Missouri. This is my favorite cover. Melissa has had enough. It's been well over a year since that day in South Dakota and she lost everything. She's gained some of it back but now someone else wants to take it all away from her again.)

January 26, 2016 – Never Let Me (The Melissa Allen Omnibus with the extra story. The extra story "Never Let Me Feel" gives you a hint of what's to come for Melissa after the events of Never Let Me Die.)

I'm talking about this series on a couple of upcoming podcasts.

About the Hugo Awards in Interview Form

Q: Now that the Hugos are over, how do you feel?
A: I feel fine.

Q: Really?
A: Yes, really. Yes, of course I’m sad I didn’t win—it was a beautiful award and I worked really hard. I wanted to win, but as I said on twitter, I’m happy people voted the way they felt they needed to. There are other nominations and other Hugos. All voices need to be heard. I don’t want to dwell on anything else. It’s done for me.

Q: What about the numbers?
A: The numbers came out exactly as I thought they would. Without “No Award,” Mike Resnick would’ve won.

Q: What about the nomination numbers, discounting the slates?
A: I saw that I probably would’ve been 6th or 7th nomination place in Best Editor, Short Form. Respectable. More importantly, I saw that CHICKS DIG GAMING got 92 nomination votes in the Best Related Work category—second only to Jo Walton’s WHAT MAKES THIS BOOK SO GREAT. Which meant, incidentally, I lost a second time on Hugo night. I lost an Alfie to Jo. Still, that means I probably would’ve been nominated for a Hugo whether there was a slate or not. So, I’m feeling pretty good about things.

Q: Alfie?
A: Go ask GRRM. It was a kind gesture.

Q: Hey, in and around the Hugo stuff, I saw that you’ve become the Managing Editor of Evil Girlfriend Media. What happened to Apocalypse Ink Productions?
A: It’s still there. I’m still the Creative Director of AIP. I’ve just added the job of Managing Editor of EGM to my roster.

Q: Can you do both?
A: Yes. I'm talented that way.

Q: So, what are you going to do now that the Hugo stuff is over?
A: Keep on keeping on. I’ve got my YA SF-Thriller series coming out in October, starting with NEVER LET ME SLEEP. I’m editing NAUGHTY OR NICE: A HOLIDAY ANTHOLOGY for EGM. I’ve signed a contract for something very, very cool that will be announced soon. I’m working on the outline of my next tie-in novel. I’m a busy-busy freelancer. There are some great things to come.

Q: Did you bring home anything cool from the con?
A: I did! Cat Rambo gave me a SFWA 50th anniversary coin. Howard Taylor gave me a couple of “Not my circus. Not my monkeys.” coins. I bought a print by Rob Carlos, the newest Ken Scholes fiction collection, and Apparitions, a book of translated Japanese ghost stories. Also, of course, my little Hugo rocket pin
—I earned that sucker.

Q: Are you sure you’re okay?
A: Yes. I promise. I'm okay. I appreciate everyone’s care and concern. I get the warm fuzzies when people tell me how much me and my work meets to them. Yes, I lost three awards this year but I won one and that’s awesome.

Q: Anything else you want to say?
A: Yes. Thank you to everyone for your support. I want to give a special shout out to Howard and Sandra Taylor, Kelly Swails, Jonnalyhn Wolfcat, Minerva Zimmerman, Sarah Hendrix, and Seanan McGuire who were heroes behind the scenes, super kind, and helped keep me relatively sane.

Never Let Me...

In the last quarter of the year, all three of my Melissa Allen books will be released, starting with Never Let Me Sleep. In fact, there is a pre-order page up for it now.

You might notice that this is an ebook only. That’s on purpose—for now. All three Melissa Allen books will be released in ebook form October, November, and December. The hard copy compilation, Never Let Me, the one that will be in bookstores as well as online (and another pre-order page…), is slated for a May 2016 release, and will include a brand new Melissa Allen story.

The release plan is…
October 13, 2015 – Never Let Me Sleep (Set in the town of Onida, South Dakota.)
November 10, 2015 – Never Let Me Leave (Set in an underground lab in North Dakota.)
December 8, 2015 – Never Let Me Die (Set in Richland, Missouri.)
May 3, 2016 – Never Let Me (The Melissa Allen Omnibus with the extra story).

Here is what some people are saying about the Melissa Allen series.

“NEVER LET ME SLEEP is a disturbing glimpse into an unfolding apocalypse. This is genuine nightmare territory.” –Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of ROT & RUIN and FALL OF NIGHT

 “It's a cliché to say 'I couldn't put the book down,' but greeting the dawn at about the time I read the final words suggests to me that I really couldn't. The situation is downright creepy, the horror rooted in tension rather than gore, and the protagonist is more than a little fascinating in her own right. Definitely hoping there's a sequel on the way.” –Ari Marmell, author of the MICK OBERON and WIDDERSHINS series

“Taut, tense, and terrifying, NEVER LET ME SLEEP grabs you and refuses to let you go until the final page.” –Cat Rambo, author of BEASTS OF TABAT

 “The main character in NEVER LET ME SLEEP is irreverent and fun, even if her grip on reality is a little shaky. Teenager Melissa Allen struggles to determine why everyone around her has died. Tension and suspense lead to a satisfying ending.” –H.E. Roulo, author of ZOMBIE DOME

“Action, adventure, humanity, horror, mystery and mayhem mark the pages of the Melissa Allen series. Jennifer Brozek’s deft and exciting writing style keeps you wanting more yet also wanting to get to the finish as soon as possible!” –Jake Bible, author of the Bram Stoker Award nominated novel, INTENTIONAL HAUNTING.