Podcasts, Projects

A Writer’s Christmas Carol

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:23 — 37.4MB)

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Writer's Christmas Carol
“A Writer’s Christmas Carol” is brought to you by patrons Jon Tollerton and Zach Payne, and the letter K!

I wanted to do A Christmas Carol and wonder if Scrooge had been a writer, but ended up talking about my own past, present and future. Stuff got real. We talked about 12 Days of Christmas parodies too.

December 17, 2020 | Season 16 Ep 53 (Episode 551) | murverse.com | Copyright 2020, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

Family, Personal, Projects

Making Patreon changes, and taking time off

I’m Making Patreon Changes and taking time off. Happy Holidays!TL;DR:

  • I’m making Patreon changes! Check out the annual payment option and the mini workshops!
  • Please take my poll to tell me what you’d like to see in my patreon!
  • I am taking the rest of the year off; you might see me online, but no official content creation till Jan. 3. Happy Holidays!

PATREON ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS

I’m making Patreon changes, some now, and some later on in January. First, you can now subscribe annually, pay everything up front and get a discount! It’s a great way to show your support to me, and in return you’ll get a discount of 15% when you do – that’s nearly TWO free months! In addition to reducing transaction fees, you’ll help me create quality content faster and reduce the chance your credit card declines in the future.

For existing patrons, the following steps will help you switch your pledge to annual.

  1. Log in, hover over your profile icon in the top right corner, and select Manage Memberships
  2. From your Active Memberships page click Edit next to the pledge you want to change
  3. You’ll see a familiar checkout page where you can select Annual 
  4. Click Update. Note: you’ll be charged upfront for the discounted price

New patrons, visit my Patreon page where you’ll see the option below the “Join” button of your chosen tier.

Check out this help center article if you have any questions about how it works.

MINI WORKSHOPS

Next, I’m offering a few different perks to Patreon. The thing I’m most excited about is Mur’s Kick in the Pants, which will be a semi-monthly micro workshop I’m holding in the Discord. I will be sending out a writing prompt, and then half an hour later we will meet, audio or video, in a discord room to discuss how the prompt went.  People can share if they want, or we can just talk writing. No big workshops, no long stories. Just quick prompts and quick support! This is at the $7 and above level, aka the Blue Ink Stained level.

The Red Ink Stained level, $30 and up, will feature Tuckerizations and your name in the credits for all my videos!

The Green Ink Stained level at $3 will stay mostly the same, but I’ll be implementing podcast shoutouts to every level.

If you’re supporting at a level that has been unpublished, don’t worry, things won’t change for you. I just won’t be taking new supporters at those levels.

POLL

I would love to hear what folks want out of the Patreon. I’m doing a public survey over there and would love to hear your thoughts. While I’m making Patreon changes, I’d love to make sure I’m doing them for your benefit too.

BREAKTIME!

And, with the holidays here, I’ve decided to take a break from, well, everything. I want to have a quiet holiday, so I’m stepping away from streaming and podcasting this month. I might do a stream or two for fun, but no official ISBW episodes. But definitely I hope everyone stays safe and healthy and has a great New Year!

 

Podcasts, Projects

Writing Groups in Covid, and… Productivity? Now???

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:24 — 38.3MB)

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I wanted to cover the concept of productivity in December, which is hard in a GOOD year. We also touch on the idea of finding writer’s groups in 2020.

Links:

December 15, 2020 | Season 16 Ep 52 (Episode 550) | murverse.com | Copyright 2020, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License

Podcasts, Projects

Derivatives, Tropes, and Cliches

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:28 — 38.9MB)

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People in crit groups can mean so much when they say those three words. What makes something derivative, or a trope, or a cliche?

December 10, 2020 | Season 16 Ep 50 (Episode 549)
Copyright 2020, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License | murverse.com

Meta, Podcasts, Projects

Gift list for writers!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:54 — 36.5MB)

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We cover the gift list for the writers in your life (or, alternatively, what you should put on your wish list!)

December 8, 2020 | Season 16 Ep 50 (Episode 548)
Copyright 2020, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License | murverse.com

Podcasts, Projects

Goals for Writers are Different?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:02:04 — 45.4MB)

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I Should Be Writing cover art, are goals for writers different? Cartoon Mur image.A little bit of NaNoWriMo wrap-up, but then we deal with the idea of goals again, and the trouble I have with these goal programs that are everywhere. I’m wondering if goals for writers are different. And I’m taking another one now, from Udemy. Which is pronounced you-de-ME, not YOU-demy.

December 3, 2020 | Season 16 Ep 49 (Episode 547)
Copyright 2020, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License | murverse.com

Projects

Mur’s December 7-13 Twitch Stream Schedule

I am super excited for streaming this week, both on my channel and Worldbuilder’s. On Wednesday I’ll be having a watch party of a beloved Henson classic with a puppeteer who’s worked with Henson’s company, and on Thursday I’m playing Among Us with other authors for charity! All times EST.

christmas themed graphic of twitch stream schedule

In text:

Personal

Patreon Offer: Postcards from the Murverse!

Patreon Offer: PostcardsI’m doing a special offer on Patreon for the next two weeks- if you support my Patreon you can sign up to receive hand written holiday postcards and birthday postcards from me.

Become a Patron!

(This also applies to current supporters at $3 and up)

I’m removing some things and consolidating some things on Patreon, making it more efficient. I’ve unpublished some tiers (this will not affect the existing supporters) and set up the special postcard offer!

I will need your address if I don’t have it, and your birthdate. (I do nothing with this info, no selling, no marketing beyond what is already done via Patreon, no home mailings beyond cards.)

I would love to send you a card this holiday season. I’ve commissioned original art from Len Peralta for the postcard, which will go out to the first 50 people who confirm their mailing address. I’m hoping this Patreon special offer can insert some cheer into your 2020. It’s a pretty grim time, and it would be nice to have some pleasant postcards come in the mail!

Become a Patron!

Podcasts, Projects

Words Have Power

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:22 — 30.1MB)

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Square graphic that says I should Be Writing - Words Have powerYeah, I know ‘words have power’ is cliche, but the basic decisions on how to describe people, considering your POV and your own biases, can dramatically affect your book.

December 1, 2020 | Season 16 Ep 48 (Episode 546) 
Copyright 2020, Mur Lafferty | BY-NC-SA 3.5 License | murverse.com<

Consuming media

Holiday Watch Parties for Charity on Twitch!

TL;DR

Holiday watch party graphicI’m raising money for Duke Children’s Hospital via Extra Life this season, and figured holiday watch parties on Twitch would be a fun way to do so. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a sucker for holiday romances, and my bar for quality is quite low. Now that Twitch lets you stream Amazon Prime movies, they’re offering watch parties, and I thought that would be a great idea to enjoy some movies, invite some of my snarkier friends to join me from time to time, AND raise money for charity!

If you support over at Extra Life you can get books from me, or even choose the next movie I watch. (Must be on Amazon Prime, and must be holiday related.) But there is one movie I will watch ONLY if I raise $1000, and that’s the movie rated 0% on Rotten Tomatoes: Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas.

To add some fun, I discovered you can create your own custom BINGO cards, so I made a Christmas movie card! Get your own randomized card and play along! I will watch chat during the movie, and the first person to BINGO will win a prize! Here’s a sample card.

Christmas Movie Bingo Card
They’re randomized every time you click the link!

Apologies, there doesn’t seem to be an accessible version, if anyone knows of a way to make it accessible, let me know.

I’m starting TODAY at 3pm EST with A Holiday Engagement. You can watch with me if you can stream it on Amazon Prime, and if you can’t but you have another service with the movie, just put it in another window and start when I do.

I’m still working on the schedule and guests, so watch this space, or over at Twitch, to find out more.

NOTES:
While I would LOVE to pontificate on the political impact of all the fake “not England”* countries that crop up in the new Christmas royalty genre**, and I absolutely cannot WAIT to rewatch the new, expletive-filled movie Holidate, they’re rooted over there at Netflix, which I am unable to stream legally. I have considered just telling you to watch Netflix on your own at the same time as me, but we will have to see how the Amazon Prime parties play out.

I also don’t think I can pause the movie, so any commentary I make will be over the movie itself. But it was good enough for MST3K I guess…

I can’t record this, so live is the only way you can watch it. Not sure if there’s a VOD or not… Anyway, I will be playing with different days and times for these watch parties to try to hit audiences around the world.

* Aside: I might make a map of all these “not England” countries from romances that have American queens now. I think it’s a US plot to take over Not-Europe.
** Y’all, this article was last updated in 2018. There have been MORE movies since then (including a new Princess Switch movie – Switched Again, where Vanessa Hudgens gets to play a THIRD character. I now expect this franchise to go full Orphan Black and nothing else is acceptable.) I may be emailing Jenna Guillaume for an update.