You have to celebrate your friends who are more successful than you. ~Jim Kelly

In this special 20th anniversary episode of I Should Be Writing, recorded live at Worldcon 2025, I reunite with my mentor and long-time friend, James Patrick Kelly. We talk about the last two decades of writing, the evolution of our careers, and the ever-changing landscape of storytelling.

We still face bullies like self-doubt and shiny new ideas, but we also explore strengths like community support and celebrating each other's successes. We discuss all the bullies unveiled, the concept of "bullies" that plague writers, including the Imposter Cop, the Blade, and the Nap.

And as always we discuss how to handle creative hurdles.

Transcript

Links

• James Patrick Kelly

• The First Law of Thermodynamics

• Escape Pod

• Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.

Evergreen Links

• See all books from Season 21

• Like the podcast? Get the book! I Should Be Writing.

• Socials: Bluesky, Instagram, YouTube, Focusmate

• Theme by John Anealio

• Savor I Should Be Writing tea blends

• Support local book stores! Station Eternity, Six Wakes, Solo: A Star Wars Story: Expanded Edition and more!

• OR Get signed books from my friendly local store, Flyleaf Books!

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Some of the links above may be affiliate, allowing you to support the show at no extra cost to you. Also consider leaving a review for ISBW, please!

CREDITS Theme song by John Anealio, art by Numbers Ninja, and files hosted by Libsyn (affiliate link). Get archives of the show via Patreon.

September 5, 2025 | Season 21 Ep 16 | murverse.com "20 Years of ISBW, Live from WorldCon with James Patrick Kelly!" by Mur Lafferty is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

In case it wasn't clear: Mur and this podcast are fully supportive of LGBTQ+ folks, believe that Black Lives Matter, and trans rights are human rights, despite which direction the political winds blow. If you do not agree, then there are plenty of other places to go on the Internet.