6 min read Newsletter

The Hot Mic - Revving Up For Book Launch - Issue #19

I took some time off for WorldCon, moving the kiddo into college, and getting the dog's surgery sorted. Now i'm back, gearing up for the Station Eternity launch!

WorldCon: Read from Station Eternity. Ran a Brindlewood Bay game. Was up for Best Semiprozine (Escape Pod) and Best Editor (short form) Hugos. Lost them both. Met a musician that I flat out idolize. Didn't get Covid.

Kiddo: Moved in, now I miss her. Can confirm that moving a junior into a house they're sharing with friends is a lot more fun than moving a freshman into a dorm where they have to stay alone for over a week to quarantine. Covid still a thing, but we try to move on.

Got my booster. It sucked. But better than Covid.

Doggo: She blew out her knee in mid-August, and we weren't able to schedule surgery until this week. So she's stoned and swollen and kind of unhappy, as is our credit card. But the doc is happy with her progress, so let the healing commence. And let the pet insurance check come quickly!

Ignyte Awards: Given by Fiyah Magazine, the Ignytes "seek to celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the current and future landscapes of science fiction, fantasy, and horror by recognizing incredible feats in storytelling and outstanding efforts toward inclusivity of the genre." We were greatly honored when Escape Pod, Podcastle, and Pseudopod (each magazines published by Escape Artists) all got nominated for Best Fiction Podcast. Hearing that your magazine has been honored for its inclusivity is one of the best feelings in the world. Congrats to the amazing Khōréō Magazine for winning Best Fiction Podcast and being nominated in the Community Award category.

What lies ahead: Station Eternity Live! Station Eternity launch. Unfortunately I am not attending NYCC, and She Podcasts, Live! was postponed for nine months, so my "busy travel" October just turned into me sitting at home and trying not to refresh Amazon rankings.

HOT!

STATION ETERNITY IS ALMOST HERE!

Here's a roundup of STATION ETERNITY news you can use!

LIVE MINI AUDIO DRAMA!

On October 1, I'll be getting together with some friends on Twitch to perform an audio drama of the first couple of chapters of Station Eternity! I really can't wait for this, it's going to be so much fun. This stream features popular variety streamer Brian Gray, stars of the Blittle League live RPG Joey T Badger, Marissa Farmer, Bridget Copes, and John Serpico, familiar voices from my podcasts John Cmar and Numbersninja, and audiobook narrator and voice actor Amanda Berry stars as Mallory!

And if you can't make it live, we'll be posting it on Youtube later! Check out more info here!

LOVE FOR STATION ETERNITY!

Booklist (no link yet, but I got a badge!) and Library Journal both gave Station Eternity starred reviews, and Library Reads called it one of the top ten books coming out in October!

If you are interested in a signed or personalized copy, I've partnered with my local bookstore, Flyleaf Books, to be the spot to order from. I will have a launch event on October 4, so if you're local, please drop by!

Booklist Starred Review Badge

Upcoming Twitch Schedule

Here's what going on until the release date for Station Eternity:

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

Reading and Playing

Nona the Ninth is out, and I've been rereading Gideon (and, shortly, Harrow) the Ninth to get back up to speed. The Locked Tomb series has been interesting, since it consists of vastly different books. I mean, you're working with necromancers, and nigh immortal beings, and weird magic stuff. So Gideon the Ninth was about a woman who just wanted to hit things with her sword and is forced to do so for her nemesis, Harrow the necromancer. The first book introduces us to the world and slowly unwraps just how much freaky magic is involved.

Harrow, well, I need to read again. It's a much more cerebral book, mainly in that its main character is suffering from some intense mental illness at the beginning, and gives the definition of unreliable narrator. Also she doesn't really hit things with swords so much, but there is magic action, and the scene with the soup will forever be etched in my brain. In this book we delve into more weird magic. Saying anything more would be spoilers. But it's a book you need to invest time and effort into, as you will be saying "WTF" at the beginning as Harrow remembers the evens of Book 1 absolutely incorrectly.

From what I understand, Nona is another different book, featuring another woman who is connected somehow to Harrow and Gideon. I haven't spoiled myself too much, but I'm looking forward to getting to it.

nona the ninth

In the world of video games, I've been playing I Was A Teenage Exocolonist which is a trippy game of growing up on a planet that Earth wasn't quite ready to colonize, but did anyway. You start out at 10 years old, with friends and parents, and the game goes through ten years, your growing up essentially. It's one of those games where you need to play through a few times since your character's ability to see multiple universes comes into play, so a major character death in the first play through might be averted in the second version. I've only played through once. It's part visual novel, part solo RPG because you can work on different skills which can benefit you later in the game (or a future timeline), and part deckbuilder, as you get cards as you go through life events. When it comes time to test skills, there's an interesting card minigame that takes a while to master. (Of course, playing the [redacted] Dies memory isn't the most fun thing to do when trying to battle a rampaging alien, but our memories serve us in different ways I guess...)

The art is gorgeous, and the writing is deep. I will be returning to a few more lives for sure.

A choice in Teenage Exocolonist

News / Opportunities / Podcasts

Ditch Diggers | Kameron Hurley Talks Writing Reality Shows — murverse.com So there's talk of a writing reality show. Kameron and Mur talk about all the things that could go wrong with it. (podcast)

[DD] Alasdair Stuart Talks DOJ and PRH and More | The Murverse Mothership — murverse.com What used to be the "Big Six" publishers have been eating each other, dwindling down, and claiming it's in the authors' best interest.

Ditch Diggers | The Way of the Freelancer with Matt Wallace — murverse.com How many roads must a freelancer walk, before they can call her a freelancer? (hint- it's safest to walk many.) (Podcast)

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. You can find Ditch Diggers 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 Numbersninja, 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