The Hot Mic - Worldcon, Fall, and new Covid Booster on horizon- Issue #18
End of summer. It's weird to look forward to WorldCon, dread sending my kid back to college the same weekend , and fear the latest Covid strain that I might catch while traveling, ALL AT ONCE. But that's the world we live in.
Crossing my fingers I don't catch it. New booster apparently coming soon. Stay safe, y'all. It's still not over.
Next Spoilers Club!
Next Spoilers Club What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon), August 27, 7p EDT. https://twitch.tv/mightymur
With Spoilers Club, we want to have already read the book so we can discuss everything with the author! We fear no spoilers! Come join us!
More Giveaways!
Cozy up this fall with your new favorite SFF reads!
Enter for a chance to win all 9 books including STATION ETERNITY!
Enter by August 28, no purchase necessary, US residents only.
Win an advanced copy of STATION ETERNITY via Goodreads before it’s released! Just click the link and fill out the info to win a print copy by Sept 4. US residents only
https://goodreads.com/giveaway/show/349675-station-eternity
Worldcon 2022 - Chicon Schedule
Thursday Sept 1
- 7pm: Reading from Station Eternity
Friday Sept 2
- 11am: The Great Brindlewood Bay Bake Off (RPG)
- 5:30pm: Podcast Genres: Audio Fiction
Saturday Sept 3
- 10am: Autographing
- 1pm: Ask An Editor
Sunday Sept 4
- 11:30am: Table Talk (aka Kaffeklatch)
I'm on TikTok. Kind of.
I don't know if it's turning 49, or me shying away from social media firehose of terrible, or just weird stuff like my dog being afraid of the vacuum cleaner? But I fear TikTok. I think I see TikTok as flash fiction. You don't have a lot of room to get it right, so you really have to get it right. Novels, Twitch, etc, you can relax and possibly get some stuff wrong, but as long as you're mostly good, people will be cool about it. Not flash stories. Or TikTok. But my assistant Tim (@timminneci) and my buddy Grant (@theToiley) are encouraging me/supporting me/bullying me into getting more into it. So. Follow me. I'm totally cool with this new (to me) platform. Look at how confident I am .
Upcoming Twitch Schedule
Going to be a busy month!
- Aug 22 - 4:30pm - Ditch Diggers with Kameron Hurley
- Aug 23 - 3pm - Gaming- ISBW on break
- Aug 24 - 3pm - Stream canceled
- Aug 25 - 3pm - Gaming- ISBW on break
- Aug 25- 8pm - Arsenic and Old Dice, A Brindlewood Bay Livestream
- Aug 27- 7pm - Spoilers Club: What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
- Aug 29 - 12pm - Ditch Diggers with Matt Wallace
- Aug 30 - 3pm - Gaming- ISBW on break
- Aug 31 - stream canceled for trip prep
- 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
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher -- Obviously, since we're doing Spoilers Club about it this Saturday!
Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie -- I've seen the dramatization but not read the book. I love the setup: four people playing cards and one of them murders a guy in a tall easy chair nearby, but I fear it may have too many details about bridge as the key to the murder. I have never understood bridge.
Cult of the Lamb -- Sometimes when you're playing the same thing everyone else is, you feel like you're just, uh, well, a sheep following the popular thing. But sometimes you feel like you're part of something bigger and weirder. I heard someone on Twitter says "don't mind me, just waiting for Cult of the Lamb to download." And I was immediately intrigued, so I preordered (like 2 hours before launch) so I could get the Cthulhu skin.
It's the kind of game that's horrific and against most people's morals. And nearly every streamer I watch is playing it. You start about to be sacrificed, but a god rescues you and asks you to start a cult in his name. Thus begins "Hades meets Stardew Valley plus some cult action", where you farm, log, mine, and cook for your cult, and then go out and have a rogue-like adventure while you work towards killing four gods. There are ritual sacrifices, jailing of the unbelievers, cannibalism, and even coprophilia.
But it's okay because the art is SO CUTE.
(Yeah I don't know why they added poop eating. It's not a big part of the game. But it's there. Also you can eat your followers. As one does.)
News / Opportunities / Podcasts
Apply to the Rin Kelly Scholarship for Fiction > The Fabulist Words & Art CALL FOR APPLICANTS The family of Rin Kelly is offering up to three $350 scholarships to emerging fiction writers for use in enrolling in San Francisco Writers Grotto fiction classes during the period November 1, 2022 through May 2023. In keeping with Rin’s writing style, the scholarships will be rewarded to writers in the following […]
I Should Be Writing | Mindy Carlson, "Her Dying Day", & Characters — murverse.com Mindy Carlson talks building characters, their needs, and her new hysterical murder mystery, Her Dying Day. (podcast)
I Should Be Writing | Emotions & Trilogies: Valerie Valdes Interview — murverse.com Valerie Valdes joins the podcast to discuss her new book, "Fault Tolerance" and how she crafted the trilogy. (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!
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