Event - Monday, 18 March, from 6-9pm, I (Battletech, Shadowrun) will be joining James Sutter (Pathfinder) and Jak Koke (Shadowrun) for Games & Gizmos first ever book signing in Redmond, WA. Come join us to buy books, get your books signed, and kick it with three RPG authors. We'll be hanging out, playing boardgames, and answering all of your questions that we can. There will be mini-cupcakes and sandwiches to snack on. I suspect, since Paizo is local, there will be more Paizo people joining the fun in an unofficial capacity.


Review - Roleplayers Chronicle gave Colonial Gothic: Locations a very nice review.

Announcement - Cat Labs announced the Shadowrun Returns Anthology Reward For Kickstarter Backers and I'm one of the authors for it.

Announcement - I've been sitting on this for a while but now I can announce that I am co-editing an anthology with Jean Rabe for Mad Norwegian Press. It's called Chicks Dig Gaming and it is part of the "Chicks Dig" line of non-fiction essays by women in SFF. I absolutely adore this anthology we're creating. I'll get ya'll a link to stuff as soon as I have it. Chicks Dig Gaming is due out in November 2013

Cover art. While I was out at the Rainforest Village Writer Retreat, the cover for Writing Fantasy Heroes popped up. It has a fab line up of people.

Interview: MIND MELD: SF/F Reading And Buying Habits In A Digital World.

Review: Horror Novel Reviews likes DANGERS UNTOLD.

Sale: I have sold my Shadowrun story, "Locks and Keys", to the Shadowrun Returns kickstarter anthology edited by John Helfers. This anthology is based around a number of missions in the forthcoming game.

Cover: Final cover of BEYOND THE SUN anthology forthcoming from Fairwood Press. Isn't it awesome. I love seeing my name on book covers. It never gets old.

This one is all interviews and reviews:

An interview with Firbolg Publishing. Pacific Northwest Haunts: Jennifer Brozek comes in out of the rain!

I was interviewed by Cat Rambo for the SFWA blog.

Shock Totem reviewer Sherri White gave DANGERS UNTOLD a very nice review.

I found out via Apocalypse Ink Productions that I have a couple of new (to me) short reviews of my books:

INDUSTRY TALK - five stars
"This book contains a number of essays about two specific fields: Role-Playing Game Freelance Writing and Editing Anthologies. It was though the author had been looking over my shoulder and decided to help me out by giving advice for all of my pending projects. If you are interested in either topic, I highly recommend this book." -Jason Andrew

CALLER UNKNOWN - five stars
"I was surprised at how well this was written. It was complete in and of itself while fitting into a series (or so it is advertised -- I plan to find out by reading the series). You can read more than enough about the plot or the setting. I just wanted to confirm it is carried off well without gratuitous sex or other miscellaneous material. Two thumbs up." -S. Marsh

Despite everything, it’s still been a good holiday season and goodness is yet to come in the form of visiting in-laws. The Husband’s sister and husband is coming out to visit us over the New Year. I’m looking forward to that.

I really love this “A Softer World” #911 and its quote: “The terrible things that happen to you didn’t make you you. You always were.” Highlight: “It isn’t the storm that makes the ocean dangerous.”

A couple days ago, I posted this on my twitter and Facebook. It’s proven very popular. “Now, you can honestly say you have made it as an author. I spotted your fantasy novel in a used bookstore today.” —a friend of mine in CA. I was amused when he IM’d me with that. Too bad he didn’t get a picture of the book.

Also, I can announce this finally – I sold a chapter story for the newly announced Shadowrun 5th edition. It will be the Rigger chapter story and is called “The Danger of Side Jobs.” It's about a very tall human female rigger, her huge, tricked out tow truck, and a very charming, short troll with a job offer.

I have also typed “The End” on THE NELLUS ACADEMY INCIDENT webseries for battlecorps.com. This gritty YA Battletch web serial has hit right at 58K words over its 25 episodes. I still have to edit and polish the last five episodes but I’m pleased that everything turned out the way I wanted it to.

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.

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.

I have a lot to be thankful for in my life and I try to remind myself on a daily basis of it. I have all the basics covered: food, shelter, health. I have the husband of my desires, the career of my dreams, the home that is becoming a castle complete with gargoyles. I have a pays-the-bills job that has saved my bacon on more occasions than I care to admit. I have a pride of fuzzy butts who are pains in the butt but oh-so-cute and bring me so much joy. Yes, there’s a lot to be thankful for.

Recently I’ve been thinking about all of the things that have gone wrong in my life that have brought me to the right place.

Losing my ROTC scholarship made me come back home and get a job in CA. That job led me to a QA career that ended me up in a company that got bought out. The company that bought us out moved me up to the Seattle area and had me meet the best and worse bosses of my QA career. Losing my best boss allowed me to say yes to his D&D where I met the man who would become my husband. Losing my best boss also gave me the courage to leap off a cliff and dive into a writing career. Having an emergency with my first cat led me to a pays-the-bills job that I adore.

These are just the big examples of things going wrong that put me where I needed be. Recently I read a pithy comment that struck me: “When things fall apart, maybe they’re just falling into place.” It’s a silly phase, a platitude to make people feel better. At the same time, I can identify with it.

It’s just something to think about. Sometimes failures and disasters can lead to great things.

Also, on the NaNoWriMo front, my second NaNo story has been accepted by its target market. So, here’s where my personal NaNo stands right now.  4 of 8 stories written. 2 of those 4 stories have been sold. The 3rd is off to market early because it’s way over word count and the editors need to read it and determine if it is good enough to make an exception over the word count.

“An Infestation of Adverts” – sold to Blue Shift Magazine.
“Sandcastle Sacrifices” – sold to The Guide to the Village by the Sea.
“The Bathory Clinic Deal” – under consideration by the Future Embodied anthology editors.
The Nellus Academy Incident, part 16 – Done.
The Nellus Academy Incident, part 17 – In progress.

Lots of cool things going on right now.

The Broad Universe Sampler is out with the first part of The Lady of Seeking in the City of Waiting. The Sampler is free. Download and enjoy.

For those of you waiting for part two of The Nellus Academy Incident, it has begun on battlecorps.com and started with a bang I might add.

This month is NaNoWriMo.  Unlike past years, I’m doing my own version of NaNo. I know I have to get the Colonial Gothic: Roanoke Island supplement done in December. So, I’m working my butt off to get 8 short stories completed this month in and around everything else. 3 of them have been promised to different markets, 5 of them are for The Nellus Academy Incident, part four.  Currently, I am starting story #4 of 8.

SALE! Linked to the above in a joyful way, I’m happy to announce the sale of “An Infestation of Adverts” to Blue Shift Magazine, Issue #1 edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt. The first issue goes live in May 2013 and I will be joining the likes of Rick Novy, Robert Silverberg, and Mike Resnick. As an aside, the editor mentioned a dearth of female authored science fiction stories and would like to see more. Their submission guidelines are here.

All in all, pretty darned good.

The first review for my RPG supplement Colonial Gothic: Locations has come in from RPG Resource and it’s a good one!

Alliteration Ink hosted a six part roundtable interviews with me and many of the Dangers Untold anthology authors: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six.

I sold my science fiction western short story, “Dust Angels,” to the Beyond the Sun anthology. This was a successful kickstarter anthology and already has some fabulous headliners.

My forthcoming collection of linked stories, Caller Unknown, has snuck out the door at Amazon a bit early and already has a five star review. The official release date is November 15th and that is when all of the electronic versions of the book will be available. Amanda Pillar reviewed it at her blog and really liked it.

Lots of things are going on in my life. All good. All busy. All the time.

My Dangers Untold anthology has been released and it look wonder. We even have Dangers Untold review from Dark Media.

Millennium Knights, a Savage Worlds supplement from Savago Mojo, is coming out in pieces. The first piece, the Primer, is free. Play a 1999 James Bond type spy against the supernatural menace. Wear the tuxedo, load the Walther PPK, and save the world!

Colonial Gothic: Locations has been released. Four settings. So many secrets! Each town if fully described with events and mysteries. Campaign starters included for each one. I also really like the cover on this one. Rogue Games did good.

SF Signal Podcast #155 during WorldCon. I was interviewed by Patrick Hester. Also, here is a page to all of my podcast interviews.

SFWA Northwest Reading Series - The next event in the Seattle area (Wild Rover Restaurant and Pub, 111 Central Way, Kirkland, WA 98033 ) will be held on Tuesday, October 16 and will be hosted by Seanan McGuire, accompanied by Phil and Kaja Foglio and Jennifer Brozek. Please come and support your local authors. Besides, October Daye and Girl Genius! It's going to be an awesome time.

Finally, happy birthday to my beloved husband, Jeff. You are the keystone of my world.