Interview – Jennifer Brozek
Once upon a time, there was an author named Jennifer Brozek… But before you became a full time writer, what did you do? And how does any of that experience still influence or inform your writing now?
For about 15 years, I was a software test engineer. It was my job to break code. Actually, to be more precise, it was my job to make sure the code did what the specification document said it would do. I have tested a huge number of products – everything from video games to implantable defibrillators to Epson R&D printers to Office Live Meeting (formerly known as Placeware) to software/firmware of Active Notifications in Microsoft’s Hardware Innovations group.
Being a Quality Assurance engineer still affects me today. You need to be able to both look at tiny details and the entire picture, keeping the produce and schedule in scope. Sound familiar? Switching from the tiny but vital details in a story to look at the entire picture of a novel due by a specific time? I think I have just enough technical expertise to be dangerous. I know enough to know that I don’t know enough about anything. So, when my writing takes a turn into something that needs technical jargon and real world experience, I know I have to stop and do a bit of research on the topic in question – whether it be how automobile engines work or who actually staffs the morgue in a hospital.
Writers rarely become overnight successes, and even many of those who wind up fairly famous still don’t earn enough money to quit their day-jobs and write full time. How do you manage? What do you sacrifice to make it work?
I was lucky and smart. After publishing professionally for years and working a day job, in 2006, I decided it was time to shift to fulltime writing. When I moved up to Redmond, WA, the housing market was very good and the condo I bought appreciated by a significant amount. So, I planned to take a year off to “just write” and live off the equity of the condo. I started that 2007. Really, it was very much akin to leaping off a cliff not knowing whether or not you had a parachute packed correctly—or at all.
The thing I sacrificed most was my security. I had no idea if I would make it or not. I had no idea if I would have to go back to QA work after my Writing Year. I did not really have a plan for failure, but nor did I expect to fail. I did have backup plans for recovery though, if things went south. I also sacrificed a lot of my playtime with friends. My writing was more important to me.
It turned out my Writing Year went better than I could have imagined. Not only did I write 330,000+ words of new fiction that year, I learned how to tech write for major corporations that turned into the part-time job I have now. I made a specific effort to make new industry contacts, to get new contracts with new RPG companies and to get my anthology, Grants Pass, accepted for publication.
What were the most important breakthroughs you’ve had along the way? What did you have to figure out the hard way?
Becoming a successful author is an active thing. You must write. You must submit your work around. You must actively look for places to submit your work. You need to ask publishers if they are looking for stuff that you already have or have an idea for. You must go to places that people in the industry are. You must know how to conduct yourself as a professional and you must be prepared as a professional.
It took me years to learn this lesson. I learned it the hard way from a friend through the following snippet of conversation. We were talking about a friend who was a publisher and I said that I would love to write for him,
Friend: “Yeah, I thought that. So, I suggested you to him but he said no.”
Me: “Why?”
Friend: “He told me you were just a dreamer and not a real author. You were a good writer but you never actually did anything with it except for gamer fiction. You never tried to get yourself published professionally and until you did that, he couldn’t use you.”
Let me tell you, I was furious and hurt. Mostly because it was true. I was just a dreamer and I never did risk myself and my ego. I dreamed about becoming a professional author but I never did anything about it. Right after that, I emailed Don Bassingthwaite of Black Gate Magazine and asked him if he was looking for a female RPG reviewer. I told him I thought I could bring a different perspective to the table. Don agreed to bring me on in 2001 and that was the beginning of my professional writing career.
Six years later, I co-write an RPG book for our mutual friend, Dave Webb of OtherWorld Creations.
There’s no question as to which you prefer, but what’s the hardest part of writing to pay the bills as compared to the hardest part of writing your own original fiction?
As much as I like writing, “pays the bills” writing isn’t fun. If I won the lottery, I would still write but I would not do the ‘have-to’ writing that I do today. The hardest part of it is making sure that that stuff is done first, or at least, on time. It is work. Marketing copy, editing PowerPoint presentations, writing user guides for products… all writing, but none of it that I would choose to write.
The hardest part of writing my own original fiction is getting stuck in the minutiae of details on things. How much information does the reader know versus how much information does the author need to know to write intelligently. Authors do an incredible amount of research to make sure their fiction makes sense to the informed and uninformed alike. Sometimes that takes more time and energy than I care to spend, but it is needed work.
Everybody blows it sometimes. What are some mistakes you’ve made as a writer? In what ways do you still run into trouble?
On a professional level, I think my biggest mistake has been turning in the wrong version of a manuscript as if it were the final (and correct) version. This one just recently came back to bite me in the butt. What a horrific experience to discover you have turned in substandard work. I have to really remember to look at which manuscript version I am turning in.
On an everyday level, my biggest mistake that I fight with all the time is the “dropped word” phenomena. My brain goes faster than my fingers do and, if I’m not careful, I miss the fact that I did not put the word “to” or “not” in a sentence where it is needed. I am always doing this and I rarely catch it on my own until it is too late. Drives me batty.
Writer’s block sucks. What seems to fire up that terrible, horrible, no good, very bad chain reaction for you? And how do you dig your way out of that black hole?
I rarely get writer’s block per se. I do get scatterbrained and have “second sock syndrome.” Sometimes, when I am working on one project, it will drag and be like pulling teeth because my mind wants to work on a different project. If I have a deadline, I will bull through it and get something down. If I don’t have a deadline, and if it is abundantly clear that my mind wants to work on something else, I will go to that other thing. The problem with this is the fact that sometimes, after I switch, my mind changes its mind again and I don’t get anything done. When that happens, I usually take a day or two off and forbid myself to write. No blogs. No Twitter. No Facebook. No just-for-fun gamer fiction. Nothing. That usually does the trick. A talent denied gets uppity. After two days, then I can go back to the original piece of work and get it done.
Do you ever get in a rut and find yourself retelling an old story or committing trope-abuse? Do you have a favorite archetype that you love to reinvent? Or is there some classic concept or scene to which you enjoy bringing nuance?
Well, I’ve discovered that I have a thing about writing stories of things (stores, houses, etc…) and monsters eating people. I did not realize this until I looked at all of the stories I had written and discovered the trend. It has allowed me to put a collection of them together.
Reinventing old archetypes is what all writers do all of the time. There are no original stories; there are only new ways to tell them. However, I guess I could say that I would love to breathe new life into non-zombie apocalyptic fiction. Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a favorite of mine, it always has been. I think that is what I tried to do with my upcoming anthology, Grants Pass (Morrigan Books, August 2009). I used a modern concept (online journals) to link together an old story (apocalypse survivors).
You’re not only a writer; you also run a semiprozine and edit submissions for a book publisher. Is it easy for you to switch gears between writing and editing? How does being an editor yourself help you as a writer, and vice versa?
It is actually very easy for me to shift from writer to editor. I spend so much time editing my own work (before it goes out to readers or my other editors) that it is nice to be able to switch over to editor mode for TEoP or Apex. That way, I am reading the story for the first or second time and I am able to enjoy it as a story before I start editing it.
Becoming an editor and a slush pile reader has been one of the all time best things I could have ever done for my career. I have seen the light from the other side of the screen. I understand what slush readers and editors go through. I have learned a lot of the little (or big) things that editors dislike or downright hate. I have become a better author from reading piles of crap with a few precious gems mixed in. I have learned, on an emotional level, that rejections are not about the author – they are solely about the story and the technical writing that tells the story. Tell me a good story that is well written and suits my needs and I will buy it from you.
Writers have to submit their stories (and articles, etc.) if they want to get published, but submission doesn’t guarantee acceptance. The very possibility of rejection keeps many aspiring authors from even trying. Do you still suffer from that kind of trepidation? And how do you handle rejection when it comes?
Rejections, while not pleasant, are not bad things. Even the straight up form letters. They are proof that you are doing what 90% of other writers are not doing. You are putting yourself out and risking it all. To me, every personal rejection is a victory. Yes, the editor is telling me “no” but is taking the time to tell me why. That means something to me. Some of the best and hardest rejections to take are the ones that say basically, “Great story but it doesn’t play well with the other stories in the anthology.” I treat rejections like what they are – obstacles to overcome the next time. I mark it on my submissions scorecard and go on.
I always have a sense of trepidation when submitting my work to a new editor; even when it is contracted work. I think the trepidation never goes away. Not even for seriously successful authors. There is always the question of, “Will they like it?” in the back of the mind. In truth, there is always someone we are writing for – our special audience. It could be the spouse, the author friend, the editor or the target audience. And we want them to like what we’ve produced. It won’t happen all of the time but it will happen most of the time if you keep at it.
You do a lot of fun-sounding work on a number of RPGs. What’s it like writing in someone else’s universe? And where does one even look for that kind of work?
I have a blast writing in established worlds. Not only do I have a whole history that I can work with, I get to make a piece of it my own. I can take an offhand comment in some flavor text and turn it into an entire new country, city, noble house or whatever else is called for—complete with plot hooks and fiction. Then, I get to link it into the canon information that is already there and make it canon, too. I get to write, create and play in a world I already love.
There are a number of ways to get into writing RPGs for companies. Looking at their websites for calls for submission is one way. That is how I got into writing for White Wolf. I actually went through their SAS slush pile and my book proposal, Proverbial Monsters, was chosen to become an official product.
Another way to get into the market is to meet up with the editors and designers of your favorite games at conventions and talk to them. Ask them if they are looking for new authors or for new ideas. Get some face-to-face time with them so they know your name when your submission comes through. If they remember you in a positive light, it could help; not always, but it doesn’t hurt if you have already had an intelligent conversation with them.
Finally, pulling on the Nepotism Network is an option. If you know someone in the business that knows you personally and can vouch for your work—even if you have never been professionally published before—they can pull you into a product and get you past a lot of the hurdles strangers have to navigate. But, be warned, this could backfire on you. They may not hire you simply because they know you. Be careful on how you use the personal friends’ network.
Freelancing can be very stressful. What’s your balance between the uncertainty and the freedom?
I am very lucky. I spent a year living off of my home equity, not knowing if I was going to make it or not. The next year, I married the man of my dreams and he is a successful programmer. While I am a successful author and tech writer, I can always fall back on my husband helping me through any lean times (and there have been some). I know this only because we have done the numbers. We could live on his salary alone but we would not like it. So, being successful in my writing has helped a lot in that. We have a safety cushion. I am aware, though, if need be, I could go back to being a QA engineer. However, he is indulgent of me and my desire to be a fulltime author. He would rather me be happy and making 1/3 to 1/2 as much as I did as an engineer that for me to be unhappy—well-to-do or not.
Writing isn’t everything. What do you do outside of author mode?
I am a tried and true gamer geek. I LARP every Saturday night, pretending to be a bloodsucking creature of the night. Actually, right now, I am helping run the 100+ person vampire LARP. That takes up a lot of time. I read a lot. Not as much as I did when I was younger but I average about a book a week. I also enjoy some TV shows like Lost, Fringe, Mythbusters, Ace of Cakes and Mega Disasters. My husband and I record our favorite shows and watch them when we have time. Occasionally, I go to the Zoo and I shop. I’m not a big shopper but I do go out from time to time. Of course, I have a house to care for and kittens to pet and friends to see. My life isn’t that exciting except around convention time and then all bets are off.
What’s next for Jennifer Brozek?
Well, that depends on when this interview is posted. All months include Apex slush reading and the Edge of Propinquity slush reading, editing and publishing. In June, I will turn in redlines for Proverbial Monsters. In July, I will write Colonial Gothic: Plymouth Rock and start reading stories for my second anthology, Close Encounters of the Urban Kind. August has GenCon and the debut of my first anthology, Grants Pass. I suppose after that, I may actually get to settle down into some serious novel writing. I don’t really know.
About the author
Jennifer Brozek, the creator and co-editor of the Grants Pass anthology (Aug 2009, Morrigan Books), is a freelance author for many RPG companies including Margaret Weis Productions, Rogue Games and Catalyst Game Labs. Her contributions to RPG sourcebooks include Dragonlance, Castlemourn, Colonial Gothic, Shadowrun and Serenity. She has also co-authored three books including Dragonvarld Adventures with Margaret Weis, and is published in several anthologies.
Jennifer is the creator and editor of the semiprozine, The Edge of Propinquity, and is a submissions editor for the Apex Book Company. When she is not writing her heart out, she is gallivanting around the Pacific Northwest in its wonderfully mercurial weather.
You can learn more about her by visiting her blog at http://jennifer-brozek.livejournal.com.
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