4 min read Newsletter

The Hot Mic - Issue #17 - Summer of Murder Grannies

It's been a hell of a summer, y'all, and only part of it good. I won't go into the gory details, but we had a pet death (poor Tricky got lymphoma and declined rapidly in June), family stress, air conditioning breaking, and travel. I also had a lot of good writing time, a starred review from Library Journal for Station Eternity, and a new livestream, Arsenic and Old Dice, a Brindlewood Bay game. (launching tonight at 8pm EDT actually!)

It's been great having my kid home for the summer, and we have had some fun family time and we remain COVID-free even as the new variant suddenly seems to be getting everyone we know. I'm a little worried about WorldCon next month, and then I may be attending New York ComicCon in October, and that could be exciting or terrifying. I don't know.

Roughly, COVID-willing, my fall looks like this:

And that Brindlewood Bay game, starring Ursula Vernon, Gwenda Bond, Joey T Badger, and my own Numbersninja, starts tonight at 8! Hope you can make it!

twitch.tv/mightymur || Thursdays at 8pm EDT

Thrills & Chills Giveway

What's better than winning one book? What about five books? You can win all five of these titles (including mine!) via the Penguin "Thrills & Chills" Giveaway. Just click the link below to enter - it's free. Make sure to do so by August 17th.

Thrills and Chills Giveaway

Look no further than Berkley for your mystery, thriller, and horror needs! — sites.prh.com Look no further than Berkley for your mystery, thriller, and horror needs! Enter for a chance to win five of our upcoming titles.

Spoiler's Club #2 Report: John Scalzi & Kaiju

Spoilers Club!

Spoilers Club: John Scalzi talks The Kaiju Preservation Society! — www.youtube.com WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! John Scalzi joined us to answer questions about the Kaiju Preservation Society and all the spoilers we wanted details on! murverse.c...

Next Spoilers Club is What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher, August 20, 7p EDT.

Upcoming Twitch Schedule

Going to be a busy month!

  • Aug 4- 3pm - ISBW with Mindy Carlson (Her Dying Day)
  • Aug 4- 8pm - Arsenic and Old Dice, A Brindlewood Bay Livestream
  • Aug 8 - 12pm - Ditch Diggers with Alasdair Stuart
  • Aug 9 - 3pm - ISBW
  • Aug 10 - 3pm - Gaming TBD
  • Aug 11 - 3pm - ISBW
  • Aug 11 - 8pm - Arsenic and Old Dice, A Brindlewood Bay Livestream
  • Aug 15 - 12pm - Ditch Diggers with Matt Wallace
  • Aug 16 - 3pm - ISBW
  • Aug 17 - 3pm - Gaming TBD
  • Aug 18 - 3pm - ISBW
  • Aug 18- 8pm - Arsenic and Old Dice, A Brindlewood Bay Livestream
  • Aug 20- 7pm - Spoilers Club: What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
  • Aug 22 - 4:30pm - Ditch Diggers with Kameron Hurley
  • Aug 23 - 3pm - ISBW
  • Aug 24 - 3pm - Gaming TBD
  • Aug 25 - 3pm - ISBW
  • Aug 25- 8pm - Arsenic and Old Dice, A Brindlewood Bay Livestream
  • Aug 29 - 12pm - Ditch Diggers with secret guest
  • Aug 30 - 3pm - ISBW
  • Aug 31 - 3pm - Gaming TBD
  • Sep 1 - stream canceled, WORLDCON/CHICON

Podcast/writing streams appear live at twitch.tv/mightymur, then later in the podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.

Reading and Playing

I'm reading The Midnight Library (yeah, I know, I'm behind the times) and I'm listening to Her Dying Day (by Mindy Carlson.) Also Before the Coffee Gets Cold (by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, translated by Geoffrey Trousselot). I'm definitely feeling the summer reading bug. I don't have the time for full reviews, but Midnight Library is as good as you've heard, and a fast read. Her Dying Day has a funny and wild voice, and Before the Coffee Gets Cold is a cozy little time travel book.

I did just buy a LOT of books from my friendly local book store, so I'm eager for those to arrive. I'm really looking forward to Killers of A Certain Age (by Deanna Raybourn) and An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good (by Helene Tursten, translated by Marlaine Delargy) because I am HERE for murder grannies. I'll write more about books next time. (Speaking of my FLBS, did YOU know you could pre-order Station Eternity SIGNED? Also if you're local come hang out with me on October 4! Station Eternity also has a murder granny.)

I'm playing Return of the Obra Dinn on Switch, another thing that proves I'm not on the cutting edge of anything. But this bizarre, investigative, gory game is enthralling. Not for kids. Images are static, audio is graphic. (Return of the Obra Dinn has no murder grannies--well, not that I've found yet. Might yet have one.)

Click the watch and get transported back in time to see how this poor guy died.

Thanks!

Thanks for reading, or forwarding to a friend, or commenting, or reviewing my podcasts or books, or supporting, or just listening. I appreciate you.

You can support me on Patreon, Jemi, or just buy me a Ko-fi. That helps support my many creative projects.

Just want to catch the podcasts? For I Should Be Writing, you can subscribe on iTune or take this RSS feed and plug it into your preferred player. Ditch Diggers returns in April and you can find back episodes here: iTunes, RSS, and Spreaker.

Or just search I Should Be Writing, Ditch Diggers, or Mur Lafferty on any podcast site.

Podcast credits: ISBW production by Summer Brooks, ISBW theme song by John Anealio, DD theme song by Devo Spice, art by Numbers Ninja, site design by Clockpunk Studio and hosted by Libsyn.

This newsletter is BY-NC-ND 4.0 Creative Commons licensed.

See you next week time!

Mur Lafferty

Mur Lafferty