All posts tagged: Jenn Lyons

A Galaxy Too Close: Sexual Violence in Season 2 of Andor

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I’m starting to think I need to create a sub-category on this blog dedicated purely to discussions of sexual violence in media, because, here I am again. Let’s get this out of the way: there will be spoilers here. So, a little background: after watching the first three episodes of Season 2 of Andor, I was not surprised that my husband was upset and bothered by a scene of sexual violence that occurs. I was a little more surprised, however, to discover that I was not. At all. I decided that I needed to unpack why that might be, because as a general rule, I am very rarely cool with depictions of sexual assault in media. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a huge Star Wars nerd. I grew up on it. I played with the action figures. I know a truly embarrassing amount of trivia about the larger Star Wars universe. I’m still hoping that Disney’s going to give me that call someday to hang out in the writers’ room. (Seriously, Disney: call …

Splash page for the scifi crowd-funded novel FULL NEGATIVE.

Last Chance to Pledge for Full Negative Book

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Friends. Readers. Fellow nerds with impeccable taste. We are officially in the home stretch. The final 24 hours. The last lap. The dramatic climax of the movie where everything explodes in slow motion and the music swells and someone says something heroic right before punching a fascist in the face. (Okay, that last bit’s just wishful thinking, but after the week we’ve all had, I think we deserve it as a treat.) My point is: we’re down to the last days to pledge for FULL NEGATIVE, my big, bonkers scifi space opera that asks the question: what are you willing to give up for freedom? And also, what happens when the trolley problem is measured on a macro sale. (Spoiler: it gets messy.) Why does it matter? Because, for me right now, and hopefully for you, later, this isn’t about publishing a book. It’s about launching a world—telepaths, shapeshifters, space empires, doomed romance, glorious betrayals—and all the weird, wild joy that comes with that. It’s also about proving that stories like this—genre-rich, character-driven, unapologetically extra—have …

Your Book/Game/Project Needs Better Promotion (and so does mine)

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Hello, dear friends! So, a funny thing happened last night. Some context: every other week, I play in a Fading Suns TTRPG campaign with Bill Bridges. Yes, that Bill Bridges, the one who co-created Fading Suns and worked on little-known titles like Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse. (Fortunately, he’s also an incredibly gracious human being and has never once pulled the dreaded “Well, actually…” on the GM.) Anyway, last night, our GM casually mentioned that a revamped, enhanced edition of Emperor of the Fading Suns—the 4X video game that Bill and Holistic Design, Inc. originally created—is launching this Friday, April 4. Better graphics! Better sound! More empire-building goodness! It’s hitting Steam, and if you want to check it out, here’s the link. Naturally, I turned to Bill and said, “Why didn’t you mention this?” To which he replied, “I didn’t think I needed to. It’s been all over social media for weeks.” I, of course, informed him that my social media feed had not breathed a word of it. Cue much cursing of …

Wrap-around art for the Full Negative cover with the title of the book centered.

Saturday Update – Now with more art and add-ons!

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It’s Saturday, which means it’s time for another update! By popular demand (and because I have no self-control), we’ve added some of my back catalog as add-ons. If you’ve already pledged but now find yourself thinking, Wait, I need that, don’t worry—you can update your add-ons by heading over to ‘Manage my pledge’ in your account. We’re also teetering on the edge of hitting 200% funded—less than $100 to go! When we cross that line, there’s a solid chance we’ll land on Backerkit’s front page under the ‘Hot Now’ section, which would be amazing. Meanwhile, work on Part 1 of the Setting Guide is moving right along. We’ve already got two fantastic pieces of art, plenty of snarky text (because of course we do), and a whole lot of juicy historical lore. If you haven’t seen the cover preview yet, it’s lurking over in the Promos & Merch section of the Discord. That’s all for now. Thanks for indulging me as I ramble about this—it’s kind of a big deal, so… yeah. Excited. See you …

The cover for the first part of the Full Negative Settings Guide: The Past, copyright 2025, Jenn Lyons

Part I: The Past – Our Launch Story and Goals

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Well, dear friends, we are now officially launched and funded. It’s just a matter of how high we’ll go. Hopefully high enough to unlock all of the setting guide, but for now, I’ll happily deal with what we have, namely Part I: The Past. For anyone who’s curious as to why I spread out the setting guide over multiple update goals, I can explain it pretty easily: Because I’m doing all the art. Time spent doing the art is not time spent writing or being paid for that, so…if I let it be tied to a single stretch goal, then I might easily find myself committing to months of work for far less than a livable wage when all was said and done. So much as I want to do the whole thing, prudence prevailed. Basically: tell your friends so they can pledge, too, and we can afford to create the whole guide. (We get the whole thing funded and I might start looking at making physical print copies available, too, and not to just …

The Complicated Nature of Simple Systems

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Keep it simple. We grow up being told that, don’t we? Or rather, Keep It Simple, Stupid, so it has a funny and memorable acronym, KISS. And as a society, we certainly do seem to prefer that, don’t we? Keep the solutions simple. Make it easy to understand. Tiktok and sound bites and break your ideas into bullet points so you can thread them together on X. To be fair, I’m not on X anymore. What does this have to do with writing? Nothing. Everything. When I was first learning how to be a project manager, I was introduced to two individuals who would change my life. (Not personally introduced, you understand, but introduced to their work.) One was a statistician, mathematician, and engineer and the other one was a banker. I speak of W. Edwards Deming, whose management and quality control techniques helped shape the Japanese automotive boom, and Dee Hock, the founder of VISA. I don’t know if they ever met each other. I rather suspect they wouldn’t have gotten along. While both …

Wrap-around art for the Full Negative cover with the title of the book centered.

Join the Adventure: Crowdfunding for ‘Full Negative’ Launch

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I have a story to tell you. One that’s been waiting for its moment in the spotlight for a long time. It’s called Full Negative, and if you love explosive space opera with a touch of noir, betrayal, and all the high-stakes action you can handle, this is one you don’t want to miss. But first, I need your help. On March 18, I’m launching a crowdfunding campaign to bring Full Negative to life, and I want you to be part of it. What Is Full Negative? The best way I can describe it? Think X-Men meets Star Wars by way of Jason Bourne. It’s got everything you’d expect from one of my novels: This is space opera at its best—fast-paced, full of heart, and built on a universe I’ve been developing off and on for almost forty years. Why Crowdfunding? Since you’re here on my web site, you probably know me as the author of the A Chorus of Dragons series and The Sky on Fire–all best-selling epic fantasy books available from Tor. But …

Wednesday. (L to R) Thing, Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams in episode 104 of Wednesday. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2022

A New Woe

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My spoiler-filled review of the new Netflix TV series, why it’s a subversive departure from the normal Addams Family tropes, and why I think that’s a good thing. Did I mention the spoilers?

Baby Steps

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(Or, creating a book using Agile, part 2) So I meant to get this out at the beginning of the sprint… Instead, I’m coming in at the end. That’s fine. Mostly. Wait, do you know what I mean by sprint? Some of you will, but for the others… In Agile, work is typically grouped into what’s called a ‘sprint.’ Now you may be familiar with the term ‘sprint’ as a short Pomodoro-esque writing session, but this is one case where the same term wears many hats. Here? It’s a nebulous but previously determined block of time. The vast majority of sprints are two weeks long, but I’ve seen sprints that are one week and sprints that are a month. Once you decide on a sprint length, you shouldn’t change it unless there’s a very good reason (it messes with the metrics). I closed out the first sprint by checking on what I’d accomplished and what I hadn’t. I did not finish all my research (some of it required reaching people I just couldn’t locate) and …