6 min read Newsletter

Running from the Twitterpocalypse

Subscribe now

Why Substack, Why Now?

Hi folks! It’s your pal Mur, back with my newsletter, The Hot Mic. I’ve taken a few weeks off due to a few things, mainly NaNoWriMo, but also I needed a new newsletter platform.

I am sending this to my Revue and Patreon subscribers. I’m moving my newsletter to Substack. Revue will be retired, Patreon will not.

I’m sure you have heard of Elon Muskyboi and his last few months. “I’mma take over Twitter so comedy is free again, except you can’t make fun of me, also I’m a billionaire begging a millionaire for eight dollars, also we don’t need moderation or payroll or to follow the EU’s laws, also if you quit we will give you severance, except haha no we won’t, also if Apple stops advertising and giving me money it’s an attack on free speech…” — and is there anything new? I can’t keep up.

It’s funny how it all goes wrong
when nothing’s up, the threat is gone
the evil god has had its day

unless of course it’s not that fair
say what are you doing there?
look at how they have their fun

“REMEMBERTHEM” by The Garages, written by Riley's Room

Anyway, this is not meant to be a Muskyboi bash fest; it’s actually relevant. What you may not know is that my previous mailing list platform, Revue, is owned by Twitter. Twitter was my favorite social media platform, so I figured it was a great connection. (lolsob)

But even if Twitter weren’t on a big old poop fire, it was probably time to move on. Apparently Revue was a bad purchase for Twitter, and will be dying soon anyway. (HT to my friend Ty Schalter and his great newsletter, where he linked to this article about Revue's demise).

November News

I won NaNoWriMo!

screen shot of NaNoWriMo badges, including the winner badge

If you don’t know me, or you’re wondering what the big deal is since I’m a professional writer, here’s the thing: I’ve had seven books professionally published and I’m about to finish an eighth. And yet I’ve never won NaNoWriMo. Now I have that feather in my cap, and it feels really good.

My only slightly bitter thing is that I had to stop writing my novella about 11k words in because I had a novel edit due, so I started counting all the new words I wrote on the novel. So it’s 50003 words split between draft 1 of a novella (“The Assassin and The Matchmaker”) and draft 3 of a novel (Chaos Terminal).

The Quiet of December

I’m taking this month to get some mental rest, enjoy the holidays, finish book edits, and plan out next year’s podcast plan. I have some changes I need to make, both for mental health and for monetary reasons. I’ll keep y’all posted, of course, on what I decide.

It’s been a weird month so far. I haven’t felt depressed, as in clinical depression that I’m medicated for, but my brain weasels/inner critic are working overtime to judge me for my incomplete projects, the quality of my work that I do finish, how behind I am on reading, etc. I’m working on journaling and walking to try to get my head back on straight and, if I can’t fabricate some confidence, at least stop beating myself up. It’s wasted energy.

Personal Mission Statement

I thought the idea of a mission statement for an individual was silly. I am not a team, or a company, or a bunch of rats in a trench coat. I’m just me, and I like to make stuff.

But one thing I learned when reading about mission statements (I think it was in some training Patreon offered) was how a personal mission statement helps you when you have decisions to make. And considering how hard it is for me to make decisions, I welcome that idea.

So that’s another thing I’ll be doing in December: making a personal mission statement. I can guarantee it will be something akin to helping others get the confidence they need to create. But where I hit a roadblock is, how do I find a statement that both reflects my work to help other writers/creators, and reflects the creative work that I do myself?

I will noodle on this some more. But when I have one, I’ll let you know.

Actually, now that I think about it, I can probably find a good mission statement in The Garages lyrics, like from Greer Gwiffin…

I'm rooting for you - I'm hoping for good things, or for the strength to make it through
I'm proud of you, I am more proud of you than you could ever know
Take some self care of yourself
Stay safe, stay kind

gwiffin's prerecorded gwisdoms no. 1 by The Garages, written by cass paint

Awards Eligibility!

Nebula Award nominations are already open! So I wanted to do an award eligibility breakdown: in 2022 I had one novella, one novel, and one (forthcoming) short story! I am still doing three podcasts for consideration.

FUN Stuff

Writing prompt: Someone in your story is newly broken up/divorced.

Twitch schedule for December(ish)

  • Monday: Ditch Diggers 12 noon EST
  • Tuesday: I Should Be Writing Barcon 3pm EST
  • Wednesday: Gaming! TBD. 3pm EST
  • Thursday: I Should Be Writing
  • Friday: Blaseball Fall Reports 3pm EST (possibly on Joey T. Badger’s channel)
Polkadot Zavala by @numbersninja

godspeed, you beautiful bastards
send me a postcard while you're up there
godspeed, without you we're disasters
if it were up to me, i wouldn't let you go

“Godspeed” by The Garages, written by woodthrush

SPEAKING OF BLASEBALL! It’s coming back! We were excited, then a little disappointed, when Blaseball’s return started with brief reports every Friday at 3pm where we got one player returning to each team, but we just got a date for the actual games to start, which is January 9! The Falls will continue every Friday until Dec. 30, and I will be reporting on it either on my Twitch channel or my friend Joey’s. If you’re new to the game, please check it out, it’s starting fresh and new, and the only thing we have are five players for each team now. On the site now are notes about each team, and a video describing how the game works. There is no better time!

  • Reading: King of the Dogs and Queen of the Cats by James Patrick Kelly (plus listening to a variety of Christmas rom-coms)
  • Playing: Inscryption
  • Watching: All the Christmas movies, Peripheral, Blockbuster

What’s Next?

Follow me on all the non-Twittery sites. I’m doing TikTok as Evil Mur, and I’m trying to remember to use Hive and Mastodon more like Twitter. Although it’s a lot like Instagram: I will use it, no problem… if I THINK to use it.

Get your signed copy of Station Eternity for the holidays!*

I hope to have some kind of holiday event or game going on before Christmas (12 Days of Evil Mur was suggested), but we will see. I’m often too ambitious for my own good.

illustration of Mur with mustache and devil horns
Evil Mur art by @numbersninja

* Why indie bookstores are the best: I ordered a book for my Secret Santa recipient from my local store, and they just emailed me saying they wouldn’t get it in to send it back out in time for Christmas. So they sent me a list of other books they thought my person might like, and offered to send one of those instead Flyleaf Books is awesome, y’all.

Patreon and Substack

Substack lets me send out a free newsletter, but it also allows for paid content. Nothing wrong with that, but I already offer paid content on Patreon. So you can support me here or there; you won’t miss anything.

Supporting me here gets you paid content in the form of longer newsletters, early podcasts, podcast archives, and exclusive discord access, and some exclusive content.

Thanks for reading The Hot Mic! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Mur Lafferty

Mur Lafferty