The Hot Mic - News and News and News - Issue #15

The more I fret about long newsletters, the more I hold off on writing them. I think I let Alasdair Stuart’s (Hugo Award Finalist) The Full Lid intimidate me. So this one will be short rapid fire info!

Oh by the way, you can help a creator more than you know by telling a friend about their work, or leaving a review of podcasts or books, or forwarding their newsletter!

On April 20 ONLY: Six Wakes is a Kindle Daily Deal!

……….THIS JUST IN: Hugo finalists have been named for the year, and Escape Pod is up for Best Semiprozine again, and Divya and I are up for Best Editor (Short) again! Last year was a shocker when we found out we were a very close second to Ellen Datlow, but this year there are two strong newcomers to the ballot: Sheree Renée Thomas and Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki as well as the juggernauts of Neil Clarke,Jonathan Strahan, and Sheila Williams. Thank you to those who nominated! I will be at Worldcon over Labor Day weekend.

IN ADDITION TO the Hugo honors, Escape Pod was also nominated for an Ignyte Award from Fiyah (last year’s Hugo Semiprozine winner). The Ignyte Awards “seek to celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the current and future landscape of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror by recognizing incredible feats in storytelling and outstanding efforts towards inclusivity within the genre.” We at Escape Pod established that inclusivity is more than a token BIPOC in your story list. It’s building a team that instills a sense of trust in marginalized communities and authors. This is something we have done with intention over the past few years, and it’s such a huge honor to get this nomination.

(Escape Pod is also super proud that our pod-sibs, Pseudopod and Podcastle are also nominated – and Podcastle also got a Hugo finalist nod! Go Escape Artists!)

I am running my first ISBW Spoilers Club on April 30, 6pm EDT. The purpose of Spoilers Club is to interview authors as writers, covering any and every topic about their book that we want. Most interviews keep spoilers carefully hidden. But in this club we’re hoping to encourage people to read beforehand, and come with questions on how Lillie Lainoff wrote One For All. Get your copy now!*

(I usually link to indie book stores, but, uh, it’s on backorder everywhere I looked. So either damn those supply chains, or good on Lillie for selling more than the publisher anticipated. Regardless, you have to go to a big place or hit your library.)

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

The St. Jude Fundraiser should be fun. I will have rewards that include writing prompts/live writes, pun safe parts of the stream, and summoning Evil Mur for a whole episode. Check out rewards and how to support here!

I am giving 10% of my Patreon income to charities/good causes this year. I want to give back, but also spread the word about good causes. April’s donation was the Lexington Writer’s Room, as my good friend Gwenda Bond reported that the nonprofit she built literally burned to the ground.

I made May’s donation early (I really hope everyone doesn’t suddenly cancel their Patreon support!) when I saw that the group who were going to go to Clarion in 2020 are finally going to get to attend it this year, and they’re looking for help.

I feel strongly about this. We all had things we missed, once in a lifetime things, because of COVID. But as a writer, and someone who attended a workshop (Viable Paradise), I know what a blow it must have been for these folks to have to cancel. These workshops are no joke: Many of the most popular writers and award nominees today were Clarion graduates: Cory Doctorow, Kameron Hurley, A. T. Greenblatt, Cadwell Turnbull, Ann Leckie, Cat Rambo, Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, James Patrick Kelly (twice!) and on and on.

Clarion doesn’t mess around. It’s six weeks long, full residential. In addition to the price of the workshop and room and board itself, students have to put their lives on hold: parenting, school, work, they must stop it all for six weeks. These people are investing in their careers, and taking a big chance. Which is why I’m all for helping these folks get there however I can.

If you’re not a Patreon supporter yet, it’s possible my new tiers may change that for you. Birthday and holiday cards, small gifts, exclusive, on sale merch, signed books, video chats, and more! Check them out here!

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. Ditch Diggers returns in April and you can find back episodes 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 Numbers Ninja, 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!