The Hot Mic - Mur Lafferty's Weekly Newsletter - Issue #6

Things that distract

Hello and happy October everyone! In the top three months of the year for me. Actually it’s probably the best, since aside from fall, which is awesome, my kid’s birthday and our wedding anniversary are in October.

Besides, totally dope decorations.

TOC:

I don’t know if it’s depression, ADHD, or my personality just simply IS this way, but there are some moments in life which create an emotional response in me that elicits vast loneliness. For I am the only person to have felt such intense emotion.

When I lost the Astounding Award (formerly the Campbell Award) the disappointment was nearly overwhelming. I felt as if my soul had fallen out and I was wandering around the Chicago hotel, dragging it behind me like one of Marley’s lockboxes. At one point, I lifted my head and realized that the majority of nominees had also lost that night. That’s how awards go. For every category there were four people or more who were probably as disappointed as me. I just didn’t see them dragging their dusty souls behind them.

After giving birth, something that happens to about 35% of humans on Earth (I’m guessing here, don’t @ me), I felt as if my birth story were the beautiful and glorious event that no one can ever feel.

I’m very close with my daughter. Therefore, when she went to college, the intense sense of empty nest loss was such that I believed no one has ever felt it. MY pain was unique, you see.

I mean, I’ve even felt that the emotions from my COVID situation is unique, and I’ll be the first to say that’s offensive to anyone who’s gotten sick and/or lost loved ones to this pandemic.

I’m starting to call this “it’s just me” syndrome, because once you name it, you can fight it. (I think I read that in a fantasy novel about fairies or something). While it feels selfish, it’s also self-destructive because if you don’t share with others to learn their experiences, you will think you’re the only one. Some people wonder why they’re the only ones to feel something (like depression after finishing a book), and the point is just no one is talking about it.

So when you get rejected and you’re convinced that no one has been that disappointed, you’re not alone. When you feel that the pandemic has slowed down your career, you’re not alone.

And guess what? If you hear that there are tons of people who are still struggling with the past 20 months events, but you only see people who are working and happy and successful, remember that you’re not seeing the people who are lost and depressed because instead of being in the public eye or on social media, they’re probably wandering their house like you, wondering if things will ever improve.

Haven’t heard from a friend in a while? Send them a note. I got a PAPER NOTE WITH A STAMP AND ALL in them mail today from someone who saw me having a bad day on Twitter and she wanted to say hi.

In a lot of ways, we are not unique. And sometimes that’s very good, because it helps us understand each other. Be kind. One way to help yourself is helping others; for most, it literally gives your brain a burst of happy chemicals.

“When you help others, you can’t help helping yourself!” ~Avenue Q

I wrote a five chapter adventure story about people running around a necropolis trying to stop murder monks and save a prince who’s kind of bumbling but very sweet and bookish. Oh and they need to figure out who killed the moon.

It’s available on the Zombies, Run! app, and it’s something I’m very proud of. I’ve wanted to tell the story of the Godmaker sitting in her cottage above the Necropolis, patiently carving little household gods to sell even as the sun priests call her a blasphemer.

Zombies, Run! is free, and has a bunch of non-zombie adventures to run if you like the idea of the app but don’t like zombies. (despite the setting, my adventure has no zombies. It may have other undead things though.) When you download you can get the first two episodes of GODMAKER for free.

I just spent forever looking for a good Godmaker image. But I can link you to the promo tweet.

Making merch is harder than I thought. I’m old; I remember when you had Cafe Press and you could get a t-shirt and YOU LIKED IT. Now you can customize so many thing, my ADHD brain has trouble choosing.

I’m launching the merch store with a few things: shirts, masks, journals (of course), and stickers. I plan on creating a NaNoWriMo bundle shortly.

NOTE: If you want something specific based on the designs I have, I will be happy to make something for you and throw it into the store. I mean any merch Streamlabs makes, but mainly the phone cases. I have to make a SEPARATE entry for every phone model and that prospect shut me down. If you want a phone case and don’t see your phone, PLEASE let me know.

Also if you want something you see on one piece of merch but not another, let me know that too. For example, the “working writers” saying is only on a t-shirt but I can put it elsewhere too.

Description: Gray tshirt saying “You know who gets rejected? Working writers. I’m doing my job. I should be writing.”

I’ve been grousing about having to do rewrites on my novella a lot, but I do have to say my editor is very patient and what we ended up with is exciting. My Blues Clues meets 1984 with a little bit of Alexa thrown in story is finally going to see publication via audio. We don’t have a release date yet, and I don’t know how fast Audible turns stuff around once the writing is done, but I will keep you posted.

You will need Audible to listen to this, I’m afraid, but my agent will be shopping it around to sell the ebook and print rights, and I will let folks know if those rights sell.

Life comes at your hard, yanno. Matt has to step away from Ditch Diggers again, and he’s not happy about it. (ie, he’s forced to because of personal reasons, not that he’s tired of the show.) Finding and scheduling guest hosts this past summer took a lot of out me, and I’m not sure I can do that again. My schedule may be changing soon, (more on that when I can… shhhh) and it may be that DD going on hiatus is a good thing.

I’m throwing around a few ideas that are NOT putting the show in hiatus. Rest assured I will let y'all know when I decide what to do with it.

Am I doing NaNo this year? I have no idea. Aforementioned changes in my schedule may make that dodgy. BUT I am ALWAYS here to support the writing audience!

Only partly Patreon-related, I will be looking at my rewards list and changing some things based on feedback I’ve received this year.

Support via Patreon || Support via Ko-Fi || Support via Twitch

This week on I Should Be Writing I’ll be interviewing Gwenda Bond, author of Not Your Average Hot Guy.

On the final weekly Ditch Diggers, I’m trying to rope in Ursula Vernon to co-host with me. Stay tuned!

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

If you can’t support via financial ways, I totally understand. You can still help by telling a friend about my work, or leaving a review of my podcasts or books, or forwarding this newsletter!

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. For Ditch Diggers, use these links: 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 3.5 Creative Commons licensed. Contact me through email: mightymur@gmail.com, my agent: Seth Fishman of The Gernert Company. Other ways to contact me are on my website.

See you next week!