“Meta Cast and Wole Talabi Interview” is brought to you in large part by by my supporters, who received an early, expanded version of this episode. You can join our Fabulist community with a pledge on Patreon or Substack!

Some links below are affiliate links and I may earn some money at no cost to you when you use them. 

ISBW S19 Ep28

If you’re a creator, when someone wants to give you money, you say, “yes, please!”

I’m taking a break from podcasting to finish my book. Doing some housekeeping and then presenting an excellent interview with Wole Talabi, author of Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon!

Transcript

Wole Talabi: 19:50- …And I’ve been to the British Museum several times. The last time I was there, I saw a few items in that I really wanted to, like, take with me, including the brass head of Obalufon, which is a real object. … I felt the urge to conduct a heist. So I just decided to write it into the novel.

List of Talabi’s publications and short story links

Temi Oh’s work

T. Kingfisher won the Manly Wade Wellman Award! Congrats, Ursula!

Escape Pod is a finalist for the Hugo Award, Best Semiprozine category!

I don’t talk enough about the I Should Be Writing book. It exists. Did you know that?

Evergreen Links

* Mur’s newsletter, The Hot Mic

* Socials: Bluesky, Mastodon, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Focusmate. No more bird site. Alas.

* Theme by John Anealio

* 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!

(some book links are affiliate, go here if you can’t see the widget)

And remember, we can’t do this without you. Thanks for your support.

CREDITS

Theme song by John Anealio, art by Numbers Ninja, site design by Clockpunk Studio

and files hosted by Libsyn (affiliate link). Get archives of the show via Patreon.

August 15, 2023 | Season 19 Ep 28 | murverse.com

“Meta Cast and Wole Talabi Interview” by Mur Lafferty

is licensed under

Ditch Diggers episode 8, “Data Wonking with Podmother Gail Carriger”  is brought to you in large part by my patrons, who received an early version of this episode. You can join our Fabulist community with a pledge on Patreon or Substack! You can get the entire archive and bonus episodes!

Streamed live, July 10, 2023

Below are some affiliate links that support indie bookstores and may benefit me financially with no cost to you.

S9 Ep8

Horny chaotic god energy is what we’re all about in today’s Ditch Diggers, “Data Wonking with Podmother Gail Carriger” where Gail joins us to talk about sifting through data in self publishing. It is some heady stuff, and we discuss tying your self worth to “bad” data and more!

Gail Carriger: 30:30 (ish): My sense of failure will kick in when a reader says I love Gail Carriger. And I didn’t know she had a new book out, that’s when I feel like I failed at my job. I am an author, that’s the one job I had is to make sure that people who liked me can read my new books, right? That’s it.

Transcript

* Let’s Get Weedy

* Twitter doesn’t kiss well

* When you have a new book out, your main job is to make sure your existing fans know.

* We <3 librarians!

Links

* Gail’s blog

* Gail’s books

* Matt’s site

* Mur on Focusmate!

* Mur on Twitter, Instagram, Youtube

* Newsletter, The Hot Mic

* Support via Patreon! Or Substack!

* Theme song by Devo Spice

(check here for all mentioned books)

Support Local Book Stores!

Ditch Diggers credits:

theme song by Devo Spice, art by Numbers Ninja,

site design by Clockpunk Studio and hosted by Libsyn (or Patreon).

July 20, 2023 | Season 9 Ep 8 | murverse.com

“Data Wonking with Podmother Gail Carriger” by Mur Lafferty and Matt Wallace

is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Old I Should Be Writing episodes are new again with classic podcasts from 2005! If you wonder what I Should Be Writing sounded like back in the old days, when podcasting was new and before I was published, look no farther! I’m releasing most of my old episodes with commentary, and maybe some new interviews with old friends.

The shows will also be released with transcriptions for free, but Patreon and Substack supporters will get early, ad-free podcasts and annotated transcripts too!

I Should’ve Been Writing S1 Ep5

It’s September, 2005, and I have breaking news- rewriting was difficult then, and it still is. I’m at a point where I guess I have to just accept some things and move on. It will always be difficult.

Transcript

Mur Lafferty 8:00: When I have bad days with my novel, I just tell myself, the first draft is allowed to suck. First drafts are always allowed to suck, because the first draft is not what you’re going to be sending the editor.

Music: Dana Countryman

CREDITS

Art by Numbers Ninja, site design by Clockpunk Studio

and files hosted by Libsyn (affiliate link). Get archives of the show via Patreon.

July 18, 2023 | Season 1 Ep 4 | murverse.com

“Is Rewriting Still Difficult?” by Mur Lafferty

is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

“Beyond the Mental Editor vs Writer Battle” is brought to you in large part by by my supporters, who received an early, expanded version of this episode. You can join our Fabulist community with a pledge on Patreon or Substack!

Some links below are affiliate links and I may earn some money at no cost to you when you use them. 

ISBW S19 Ep27

Wrestling with the little person in my head who thinks she so smart…

Transcript

Mur Lafferty: 9:50(ish) I feel like the person is telling me that the idea is stupid. Or I shouldn’t write or won’t go anywhere, or I won’t sell it. I don’t feel like that person is a writer at all, I don’t feel like that person is involved with my writing career at all. This is not the editor who will help me look critically at a piece and make it better later. This is just like, some jerk yelling out the car window. Only the car is my head.

T. Kingfisher, Richard Dansky, and I are all nominated for the Manly Wade Wellman Award! It will be given at Congregate this weekend.

Escape Pod is a finalist for the Hugo Award, Best Semiprozine category!

Black Mirror says just tell the story instead of worrying about the science. Gene Wolfe said it too.

There are many voices that tell us different things, and some of those voices aren’t writers.

Interviews will be more frequent moving forward.

I don’t talk enough about the I Should Be Writing book. It exists. Did you know that?

Evergreen Links

* Mur’s newsletter, The Hot Mic

* Socials: Bluesky, Twitter, Mastodon, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Focusmate.

* Theme by John Anealio

* 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!

(some book links are affiliate, go here if you can’t see the widget)

And remember, we can’t do this without you. Thanks for your support.

CREDITS

Theme song by John Anealio, art by Numbers Ninja, site design by Clockpunk Studio

and files hosted by Libsyn (affiliate link). Get archives of the show via

Old I Should Be Writing episodes are new again with classic podcasts from 2005! If you wonder what I Should Be Writing sounded like back in the old days, when podcasting was new and before I was published, look no farther! I’m releasing most of my old episodes with commentary, and maybe some new interviews with old friends. The shows will also be released with transcriptions for free, but Patreon and Substack supporters will get the episodes first, and annotated transcripts too!

I Should’ve Been Writing S1 Ep4

Episode four, and my very first interview! I meet with Mike at Dragoncon and use my tiny digital recorder to get the audio, which I’ve tried to clean up.

Transcript

Mike Stackpole: this is one of the big things that everybody who reads and contemplates writing usually runs into and I still run into this with reading really, really good writers, is you read this stuff and you go, Oh, my God, I could never do that. And what most writers don’t realize was that that book that you’ve gotten your hands went through at least five different editions, you know, think about a magician who gets to make the card disappear five times, and only has to be right on one of those, you know, in the last time, if you can’t get it right after five shots at it, then then you really shouldn’t be doing it. But we get to revise stuff.

* Music: Dana Countryman

* Michael A. Stackpole’s books

Get the annotated transcript when you support via Patreon or Substack!

CREDITS

Art by Numbers Ninja, site design by Clockpunk Studio

and files hosted by Libsyn (affiliate link). Get archives of the show via Patreon.

June 21, 2023 | Season 1 Ep 4 | murverse.com

“Revisiting the Michael A. Stackpole Interview” by Mur Lafferty

is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

“Bout of Melancholia” is brought to you in large part by by my patrons, who received an early, expanded version of this episode. You can join our Fabulist community with a pledge on Patreon as low as $3 a month!

Some links below are affiliate links and I may earn some money at no cost to you when you use them. 

S19 Ep26

Short episode this time, and not having the best brain day. So I’m sharing with you because this happens to everyone.

Transcript

Mur Lafferty: And maybe what I write is crap, but I’ll never know unless I write it. And then I think lies the key. It’s not even allow yourself to write crappy first drafts, It’s: a pro thinks they suck, but they write it anyway. And there’s your Deep Thought for the Day.

What I’m Reading: Savage Crowns and Dead and Gondola. Affiliate links to all of these and the other books I mentioned in the episode.

Evergreen Links

* Mur’s newsletter, The Hot Mic

* Socials: Bluesky, Twitter, Mastodon, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Focusmate.

* Theme by John Anealio

* 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!

(some book links are affiliate)

(If you can’t see this book widget, go here)

And remember, we can’t do this without you. Thanks for your support.

CREDITS

Theme song by John Anealio, art by Numbers Ninja, site design by Clockpunk Studio

and files hosted by Libsyn (affiliate link). Get archives of the show via Patreon.

June 120, 2023 | Season 19 Ep 26 | murverse.com

“Bout of Melancholia” by Mur Lafferty

is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Ditch Diggers episode 7, “Author/Agent Seth Fishman Answers Our Questions”  is brought to you in large part by my patrons, who received an early version of this episode. You can join our Fabulist community with a pledge on Patreon as low as $3 a month! You can get the entire archive and bonus episodes!

Streamed live, June 19, 2023

Below are some affiliate links that support indie bookstores and may benefit me financially with no cost to you.

S9 Ep7

Mur’s agent Seth Fishman joins us to take your questions about agents and children’s publishing, and we fill up an hour FAST.

Seth Fishman: …the industry is right now, where editors are just, they just have, they’re just too busy. There’s just not enough people working in publishing. So it’s harder for agents to do to sell books is really what we’re saying. There’s a number of times that were like, were you passing because of this, you don’t want to put that like, work into it or whatever. But you know, what the people pass for all sorts of reasons, we get the books into pretty great shape, before we send them out. And I mean, we try to, and if an editor is passing, for those reasons, they’re what they’re really probably saying is more along the lines of developing of an author versus, like editing an author.

Transcript

Links

* Seth’s books

* Seth’s agency, The Gernert Company

* Matt’s site

* Mur on Focusmate!

* Mur on Twitter, Instagram, Youtube

* Newsletter, The Hot Mic

* Support via Patreon!

* Theme song by Devo Spice

(If the widget doesn’t work, check here)

Support Local Book Stores!

Ditch Diggers credits:

theme song by Devo Spice, art by Numbers Ninja,

site design by Clockpunk Studio and hosted by Libsyn (or Patreon).

June 19, 2023 | Season 9 Ep 7 | murverse.com

“Author/Agent Seth Fishman Answers Our Questions” by Mur Lafferty and Matt Wallace

is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

I Should Be Writing is new again with classic podcasts from 2005! If you wonder what I Should Be Writing sounded like back in the old days, when podcasting was new and before I was published, look no farther! I’m releasing most of my old episodes with commentary, and maybe some new interviews with old friends. The shows will also be released with transcriptions for free, but Patreon and Substack supporters will get the episodes first, and annotated transcripts too!

S1 Ep3

Are Submission Guidelines from 2005 Still Valid?

Episode three and we have my very first “oops, didn’t get this up on time.” But in the olden days, I still attended DragonCon and I was still writing on many projects I’ve forgotten about. Then, submission guidelines!

Transcript

Mur Lafferty 11:05: It’s hard to write your story. But when you’re done, you feel so damn good. And if you get your rewrites done now, we’ll cover rewrites later in a later podcast. Get your rewrites done. And then you feel really good. And then you say, Damn, I am ready. Here I go. And you go and you find the first magazine you can find and you’re so excited, you send it off. And you don’t do any research. That is a waste of postage, a waste of your time, and a hit on your ego. You can write whatever you want. And be a writer, call yourself a writer. Go ahead, just do it. You got my permission.

(Things have changed a little…)

* Music: Dana Countryman

* RIV Ralan.com

Get the annotated transcript when you support via Patreon or Substack!

CREDITS

Art by Numbers Ninja, site design by Clockpunk Studio

and files hosted by Libsyn (affiliate link). Get archives of the show via Patreon.

June 13, 2023 | Season 1 Ep 3 | murverse.com

“Submission Guidelines from 2005 – Still Valid??” by Mur Lafferty

is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Ditch Diggers is brought to you in large part by my patrons, who received an early version of this episode. You can join our Fabulist community with a pledge on Patreon as low as $3 a month! You can get the entire archive and bonus episodes!

Follow the show on your favorite service!

Streamed live, June 13, 2023

Below are some affiliate links that support indie bookstores and may benefit me financially with no cost to you.

S9 Ep6

It’s our 1001st episode (not really) and Matt is here to launch the final book in the Savage Rebellion trilogy, and it’s a very honest episode. Serious Ditch Digging here, y’all. He doesn’t hold back. It’s publishing, warts and all. Links to Savage Crowns and other books below!

Matt Wallace: I was like, what if I did ‘the Wire’ as an epic fantasy? That was my other thought when I started it. So my mother says there are strong women characters, there are, Thank you, mom. And I was raised, but I was raised by a strong woman who’s definitely a character.

Transcript

Links

* Matt’s site

* Mur on Focusmate!

* Mur on Twitter, Instagram, Youtube

* Newsletter, The Hot Mic

* Support via Patreon!

* Theme song by Devo Spice

(If the widget doesn’t work, check here)

Support Local Book Stores!

Ditch Diggers credits:

theme song by Devo Spice, art by Numbers Ninja,

site design by Clockpunk Studio and hosted by Libsyn (or Patreon).

June 13, 2023 | Season 9 Ep 6 | murverse.com

“Savage Crowns Book Launch!” by Mur Lafferty and Matt Wallace

is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

“Can YOU Write a Pile of Garbage?” is brought to you in large part by by my patrons, who received an early, expanded version of this episode. You can join our Fabulist community with a pledge on Patreon as low as $3 a month!

Some links below are affiliate links and I may earn some money at no cost to you when you use them. 

S19 Ep25

I got to interview game designer turned YA romance writer James L. Sutter in this episode, and it was a blast. So much good stuff here! I also talk about my latest anger at ADHD and what I’m reading. 

From the transcript:

James L. Sutter 34:10: And so it was hugely enlightening for me to see, sort of these authors were very talented and established, going through the same outline process, you know, struggling with their pitches, struggling with characters and realizing that like, oh, every great work of art, like starts out as a pile of garbage. And like, I can make a pile of garbage.

(emphasis Mur’s)

Download the full transcript!

What I’m Reading: Darkhearts, of course, but also These Prisoning Hills and People You Meet on Vacation. Links below!

Mentioned: The Artist’s Way podcast (Apple link)

Evergreen Links

* Mur’s newsletter, The Hot Mic

* Socials: Bluesky, Twitter, Mastodon, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Focusmate,

* Theme by John Anealio

* 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!

(some book links are affiliate)

(If you can’t see this book widget, go here)

And remember, we can’t do this without you. Thanks for your support.

CREDITS

Theme song by John Anealio, art by Numbers Ninja, site design by Clockpunk Studio

and files hosted by Libsyn (affiliate link). Get archives of the show via Patreon.

June 12, 2023 | Season 19 Ep 25 | murverse.com

“Can YOU Write a Pile of Garbage?” by