writing

2025 Year In Review

It's time for a 2025 Year in Review! The immediacy of social media means important posts are quickly forgotten in favor of the Next New Thing, and I think it's important to pause every now and then and celebrate the many good things that happened as the year flew by.

I published 2 novels: THE UNIVERSE WITHIN (wrapping up the Cosmic Shores trilogy of stand-alone sci-fi adventure novels) and LIMINAL SPACE (the first book in the final trilogy of the Amaranthe universe).

THE THIEF was a rock-star of a novel this year, winning the Indie Author Project Sci-Fi Book of the Year and being named one of the best Alien Sci-Fi Novels of the Year by Discover Sci-Fi. (Yes, yes, and there was a tiny kerfuffle around the SPSFC in which The Thief was thrust into a semi-starring role. Let me tell you, going viral on X is not for the faint of heart....)

Five of my short stories landed on the moon! Thanks to the incredible Lunar Codex project and Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines' groundbreaking missions, "Apogee," "Solatium," "Venatoris," "Re/Genesis" and "Chrysalis" will reside forever in the stars.

I was a Pro at Dragon Con again this year, speaking on some fascinating panels, selling books and meeting awesome readers and authors at what is seriously the craziest geek con on the planet. I also attended Lilac City Comicon and the Local Author Celebration by the Community Library Network, fulfilling a promise to myself to put down roots in my new Inland Northwest home by getting involved in the regional author community.

Oh, and I sold my 700,000th story. Thank you, all of you, for enabling me to do what I love!

Favorite book I read this year? House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds; I deeply love that book. But it was a reread, so favorite first-time read of the year? Probably Ancilliary Justice by Ann Leckie; it deserves all the accolades it received. Favorite non-fiction? The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene; the prospect of multiverses is real science, guys.

Favorite video game? Baldur's Gate 3, again. It should be Clair Obscur, but I disliked the narrative rug-pull at the end. Also, Kingdoms Reborn turned out to be a delightful city-builder of a game!

What about 2026? THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING will definitely release, and I'll start writing NAKED SINGULARITY, the final novel in the 25-book Amaranthe saga (* sobs *). More regional author events are on tap, including my first time appearing at Emerald City Comicon in Seattle. I believe there's another lunar landing or two (or...four??) on the schedule, too.

I'm genuinely happy with the year 2025 shaped up to be, and excited for the opportunities waiting to ambush me in 2026.

How about you? What were the highlights of your 2025?

Choose the Form of Your Destruction

Is the universe doomed to suffer a Heat Death (which means cold) or a Big Crunch (or possibly Big Bounce)? Which is it, dammit? For the last 3 decades, scientists have insisted the expansion of the universe was accelerating; that one day no more galaxies would decorate our sky, then no more stars. Then the universe would grow still and cold.

Now some pretty reputable research says...oops? Maybe not? Maybe the expansion is slowing, will eventually stop, then reverse?

You don't need to read the article unless you're into astrophysics. The point is that, for a science fiction writer, all the things we DON'T understand can be very frustrating - but possibly nothing is more frustrating than when we're confident we DO understand something...until we don't.

The fact that the universe is expanding, and that the expansion is accelerating, is baked into the Amaranthe worldbuilding, and not just as background - it's actually somewhat important to the Rasu/Dzhvar shenanigans. If scientists eventually decide that, no, they're now definitely sure it's doing no such thing, that flip is going to painfully date my books for future readers.

And I'm going to be ANNOYED.

https://thedebrief.org/a-potential-paradigm-shift-in-cosmology-scientists-uncover-evidence-the-universes-expansion-is-slowing-down-not-accelerating/

P.S.: For the record, I actually prefer the Big Bounce scenario. If all life in the universe is going to end, better for it to do so in an exciting rush of colliding galaxies and stars into a dramatic singularity, then an explosion to start all over again. No one wants to die cold and alone in the dark.

P.P.S.: A reader on X pushed back a little bit on my take, pointing out that science is not frozen into a fixed, unchanging doctrine like religion; instead it bends and changes as our knowledge grows, and that’s a good thing. And it IS a good thing; in fact, it's one of the most admirable aspects of science. It's just frustrating when you're trying to make your scifi grounded in scientific plausibility & the foundations keep changing. But, that's what I get for writing out on the far edge of what we know!

Happy Halloween

Two years ago, I wrote this little flash fiction ghost story for Halloween. If you've finished Liminal Space, you know that the events underlying the story are now Official Amaranthe Canon. Because I never can leave well enough alone....

***

Proele.

The word whispered through her dream, carried along by an eerie, haunted wind. Wisps of fog obscured any details of where she was, but everywhere she turned, there was only the word.

Proele.

Nika awoke with a start. Silvery moonlight drifted into the bedroom, and she turned to see Dashiel sleeping peacefully beside her.

Taking care not to disturb him, she eased out of bed and tip-toed to the kitchen, where she poured a cup of coffee and took it over to the windows looking down upon Mirai One.

Proele. She knew the word, though not from where. It took only a fraction of a second to delve the history banks and she had her answer, though not her ‘why.’ Proele was the name they’d given to the planetoid where, near the end of their two-century-long Exodus away from the Anaden Empire, they’d first discovered kyoseil. Though the rock wasn’t fit for habitation, they’d paused there for several weeks while a team set up a camp on the surface to extract and study the mineral. After loading up sizeable samples in the holds of their generation ships, they’d continued their journey, and only after settling on Synra had the first experiments integrating kyoseil into their biosynthetic bodies began.

She wondered. Had Magnus Forchelle known as he stood on the planetoid’s surface what he had found?

Proele.

She jumped in surprise. She wasn’t dreaming any longer, was she? She pinched herself. No, she was not. Yet the ghostly voice had echoed anew in her mind nonetheless.

She sighed, sending ripples through the steaming coffee held at her lips. It appeared she was going to Proele.

Read the rest at the link: https://www.gsjennsen.com/news/2023/10/31/ghosts-of-proele

(Image Credit: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona)

Book and Character Art Banner

A new header image went up on the social media profiles this week, and I thought you all might enjoy seeing it. The theme: “The people who will save the universe - if it can be saved.”

You can see high-res versions of the character art - and some additional characters - on my concept art page: https://www.gsjennsen.com/concept-art/. Click to expand a pic, then right click to download it if you like.

The Notebook

At various times in the last 10 years, key parts of Aurora Renegades, Aurora Resonant, Asterion Noir, and Riven Worlds have all been brainstormed in this notebook on long drives.

When I initially posted this pic on social media, in real time, I said, “Wonder what I'll write in it today?”

Now, of course, I know what I wrote in it. And that’s all I’ll say about that. For now. ;)