It’s been a hell of a ride. Thank you for your support. Special thanks to Dr. Phil Plait, The Bad Astronomer, for advice regarding some of the adventure in this episode.

Episode 15, at which Kate explains her revelation. They return to The Sheridan.

Kate, Daniel and crew enter Leviathan city, find Barris and Ishmael, and prepare to meet the queen.

In which Barris meets a new friend and Kate, Daniel, and crew hit the water and formulate a clever plan that cannot fail.

Also, if you are interested in buying prints from War, check out our new art page!

Daniel returns, Barris goes shopping, and Professor Burns makes a decision.

Click for the full-size image (pretty darn huge).

The complete intro, the whole tragic story up to now, is done by the talented James Melzer, author of The Zombie Chronicles: Escape.

Thanks for your support in making this a thrilling series to develop!

• I failed to post this because of the Balticon excitement, but I was interviewed on JC Hutchins’ awesome new podcast Hey Everybody! where I talked about War, the Inside Story, and other sundries.
• At Balticon I had the honor of being on interviewed on Erk Pod – Erk is an Austrailian podcaster who is seeing more of America over these few weeks than I ever have.

Thanks to these fabulous podcasters- and if you want to interview me, you can reach me at mightymur AT gmail DOT com. Fixed typo in email address, thanks Jennifer!

In this video, we have two versions of my WAR trailer, and lots of help and love from fans. I asked for content, and got well over TWENTY comments, videos and audio clips. Deluge of love! I couldn’t use them all, but I do plan on putting each comment either on the site or in an audio promo, so don’t think you did a bunch of work for nothing.

And as usual, I forget someone in the credits- ARGH. Natalie Metzger did some graphic design doctoring on the WAR cover, and she created the amazingly creepy image of our new villain, the masked woman you’ll see in the video. Also, Will Hoffacker took the still pics of me and JR Blackwell from Balticon.

[EDIT You can get all of the ISBW video episodes on YouTube now!]

Here’s where you come in. Word of mouth is about all the advertising I can afford these days, and this is a free podcast. I need you to convince your family and friends that they NEED to go to Heaven. Send them to Heaven. No, don’t kill them, make them go to the Heaven website where they can learn more about the story, download the first four seasons (did I mention it’s free?) and be ready to listen with the rest of us when WAR launches on June 1.

I know it’s last minute, but they are novellas, not novels, and pretty easy to plow through. Put them on your mom’s MP3 player as she’s going out for some yardwork, or give to your cousin right before he embarks on a road trip.

So tweet it (I’m @mightymur, by the way), blog it, spread the word, get people checking it out! The easiest ways to get each book are the podiobooks.com links:

• Heaven
• Hell
• Earth
• Wasteland

And be ready for WAR. It’ll launch on podiobooks.com, over at Heavennovel.com, and, of course, here on the Murverse.

I was on YouTube looking for book trailers to get an idea of how to make a trailer for Heaven Season Five: WAR. Turns out that a lot of them suck. So I’m doing an ISBW video episode, trying to make a really bad book trailer, have that transition into a discussion, and then back out to a real trailer for WAR.

Here’s where you come in.

I need blurbs. I need text blurbs, audio blurbs, even video comments. If you like Heaven, say what it did for you, what it meant to you, how much you’re looking forward to WAR. If you haven’t been a fan of Heaven, but you liked Playing for Keeps or my short fiction, you can just send a general comment along the lines of, “Mur Lafferty writes intriguing characters,” etc. And if you want to send me video, you can record something around 10-15 seconds long, and then email me to discuss delivery.

What do you get out of this, besides a credit on the podcast? WAR is season five, the last story in an epic tale. There’s going to be a rather lengthy “Story So Far” or, as I like to call it, “Whole Tragic Story Up To Now” to read before episode 1. I need someone to read that. I need you. So everyone who sends me a blurb, whether text, video or audio, gets put in a drawing for the right to read that intro.

And of course my undying love and gratitude.

So! To wrap up, email me (mightymur AT gmail DOT com) your comments on my writing in general or Heaven in specific – text, audio or video, I need them all – and you’ll be put into a drawing to record the Intro.

CAVEAT- I admit it- Balticon threw off my schedule. WAR launches NEXT MONDAY, June 1. We need a super-fast turnaround on this. I will need your entries by TOMORROW NIGHT, May 28, 9pm, Eastern time. And if you win, I’ll need your audio back to me by Saturday noon! I trust you in this. I know you can do it. And you have my everlasting gratitude!

• I Should be Writing Writer’s Workshop – Sat 9am – Derby
  This is a three hour workshop where I and editor David Moldawer will be easing beginners into writing. We’ll cover technique, submissions, and the business side. This is intended to be for the absolute beginner: people who would normally be intimidated by con workshops. There’s still room if you want to sign up.
• How to Teach an Old Blog New Tricks – Sun 4pm – Derby
• Podiobooks: A Novel Way To Listen – Sun 5pm – Chesapeake
• Mur Lafferty Reading (50 minutes) – Sun 6pm – Salon D
  The public world premier of Heaven Season Five: War! Come listen to what people won’t hear until June 1!

I’ll also be a guest on the live Vintage Gamer recording, which I think is Sunday night at 10, but don’t hold me to it.

Are you a subscriber to the Heaven Inside Story? I’ll be hosting a doughnut and coffee breakfast on Sunday morning at 9am to discuss Heaven, War, PFK, or whatever people would like to talk about! This is for Inside Story members ONLY, so if you want in on the breakfast, and a sneak peek of WAR, then subscribe now.

And if you can’t manage to attend any of those events, I’ll likely be in the bar. I’m short with long brown hair, generally quite loud, and easily coaxed into conversation with gin.

(And hey, if you’re at Balticon this year, you might want to attend my reading… just sayin’…)

But then I thought, why wait till June 1 to release it? Why not see if people will be interested in the goings on of the writing process, get a peek at the plot, maybe even see the PDF before anyone else hears audio?

So I’m trying something new. I’m offering the Inside Story, a brand new premium podcast. If you’re jonesing for the sneak peek of War as I’m writing it, then sign up! For $4.99 you will get:

• Access to a secret, protected Twitter feed where I will update with word count and little plot nuggets (no real spoilers, just hints).
• PDF releases of full chapters before anyone else sees/hears them.
• I’ll be hosting private breakfasts at every con I attend this summer (currently Balticon, Origins, and DragonCon – WorldCon is TBD) just for Inside Story subscribers!

But whoa, you didn’t charge us for any of the other Heaven podcasts! What gives?
And you don’t have to pay for this one, either. On June 1, War will launch in audio format, for free (as always), on the new Heaven site (launching very soon as soon as I stamp on some bugs), on the Murverse, and on podiobooks.com.

The Inside Story is just for people who are dying to have a peek at the story as it’s coming out, and get a look into my head as I write the thing. If you can wait for the free, then that’s cool too.

I am not sure. Can I wait to hear what others think about the Inside Story?
Sure! Early supporters get a bonus and can sign up from now till June 1 for $4.99. After June 1, anyone can still join to download the PDFs (if you don’t want to wait till the end of the audio story), see the Twitter stream, see other goodies before the rest of the world, and the price will go up to $7.99.

I’d love to see how you write, but I am not a listener of Heaven!
No problem. Four novellas are waiting for you- the best place to get them is podiobooks.com.

OK- I’m sold. How do I sign up?
Go to The Heaven Site and register, then follow the directions there.

When I ended Wasteland last spring, I said I’d release Heaven Season 5: War, in the fall. But then, unexpectedly, Playing For Keeps got picked up by a publisher and I had to spend my time marketing that. Right after PFK came out, I signed with an agent who wanted me to work on turning Heaven and Hell into a book to give to publishers, so I had to spend a great deal of time editing those novellas together.

I also have another novel (code name Project Underground) I’m writing that I didn’t want to put aside, so I’m dedicated to finishing the rough draft of that.

So now we’re at the beginning of 2009 and we have no War! Augh! How did this happen? Well. I just went over that. But still. I feel bad people are waiting so long for it. Right now my priority is finishing Underground, then starting on War. It’s going to be a heck of a project, so I hope you’re still looking forward to it. I’ve got some awesome plans!

Thanks for being patient!

And heck, if you haven’t listened yet, you can catch up.

* “Hypothetical” means, “we’re pretending it’s fake but it’s really not,” right? … Right?

A rescue attempt, improbability storm, and we discover what happened to the Earth Mark Two. Plans for the future are made.

Kate discovers where all the gods are in the world, and Daniel finds one himself. A god is kidnapped.

Daniel visits Lathe, the city of the tinkers, while Kate discovers the secret of the temple in Meridian.

We learn more about Meridian and the city underneath.

Meridian, the city in the air. There are other unexpected things in the air, too.

Now with transportation, Daniel and Kate make plans for their next stop.

The first city of the new world is surprisingly advanced, and religion has gone in directions that surprise Kate and Daniel.

Daniel meets a rancher and his namesake.

Wasteland, or new world? Our heroes explore and learn about their new home.

Season 4 of Heaven is live at last! I felt bad making people wait so long for it, so you can get the whole book on your schedule at podiobooks.com. You want all of it? Want it daily? Weekly? Podiobooks can do that for you.

If you’re a subscriber of the Murverse, you can get daily episodes here, starting today!

The official Heaven site has been moved to the Murverse – heavennovel.com points to the correct site now. No links yet for WASTELAND, that’ll be Wednesday on podiobooks.com, but if you subscribe to the Murverse feed, you’ll get one episode per day (ten total) starting Thursday!

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I appeared in the audio drama Feedback: A Hero’s Calling Episode #7, as the chopper pilot, Drive.

BrokenSea Audio Productions is proud to announce the release of FEEDBACK: A HERO’S CALLING, Episode #7 “Cover of Darkness” for 3/6/08, (or what we like to call New Audio Thursday!)

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And this awesomeness from Bitstrips.

I want Barbara Blackburn to accompany Jolly Blackburn to Origins this year so I can meet her. It’s very strange and wonderful to get fan mail from someone you’re a fan of.

I want someone to get me in touch with Christopher Moore so I can meet him and pick his brain and interview him for ISBW. I have many questions for him. (I just finished reading Dirty Job, and it was fantastic.)

I want Richard Dansky to introduce me to his sifu so I can start attending kung fu again. I miss punching things in a constructive manner.

I want the Pink Tornado’s dinosaur to stop looking at me like that.

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Yesterday was an up and down day. I’ll be doing lots of recording this week, and need to take care of my voice. But I figured the mood dropped right around the time my body said, “You know what? You didn’t sleep much, then you poured caffeine into me, then you forgot to eat lunch. I hate you!” (My body often acts like a fourteen year old.) But food, comics, a tromp through the graveyard at UNC with the PT and a rummaging through the UNC Student Stores (shopping during Spring Break FTW!) cheered me considerably.

I started Agent Hunt 2 two days ago. Queried five agents via email so far: two rejections, one request for a full. This is for HEAVEN, which, for those who don’t know, consists of an editing together of the novellas HEAVEN and HELL. If you’re paying attention, you’ll realize that book two of the series will consist of EARTH and WASTELAND. Season five of HEAVEN will be the last, and will be a full-length novel. I am so freaking excited about this one. This series has definitely turned into something… else… something I hadn’t expected, either in popularity or my own happiness with it.

Green cleaning continues. We’re currently dealing with the delicate balance of the following: we’re in a drought, so they ask us not to rinse dishes before putting into the dishwasher. However, the green soap we use to avoid pouring poison into the environment doesn’t have quite the cleaning power that Cascade does, so we’re trying to find that happy medium of saving water but getting our dishes clean… baking soda does an amazing job of cleaning out tea stains, by the way. I’m so excited about the response people have given regarding their interest in green cleaning since I’ve been blogging it. Some local friends want to go in with me to buy some DIY home cleaning supplies. A Viable Paradise X buddy, Dru, just emailed me this site, giving advice on how to make your home more energy efficient.

Time to brew that tea and head to the mic. I’ve WASTELAND to record.

WASTELAND: 3100 (DONE at 26500)
I forget all the other clever things I mention. I drank herbal tea. I listened to anime soundtracks (Ghost in the Shell and Princess Mononoke). I did not dream of Katie Holmes.

Today I took off to launch Murverse and relax. Tomorrow I have to edit Cowgirl Secret Space Detective and start thinking about UNDERGROUND again. And start planning the recording of Wasteland.

Going to bed early tonight. I’m beat.