Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #49: Happiness in darkness

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:09:31 — 49.3MB)

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  • Mur and Matt come to you live from Morgan Freeman’s iPhone 7 BlueTooth Headphone store.
  • Matt didn’t know before he bought one that the iPhone 7 has no headphone jack and he is unhappy about it. Loudly.
  • Mur cites a study she read comparing apps that make people happy to apps that don’t and how much time we spend using both, and the results led her down a path of several writing career related epiphanies.
  • Matt recaps the week in professional writers getting screwed, particularly the wake of DNAinfo and Gothamist being shuttered by billionaire Joe Ricketts after both writing staffs voted to unionize.
  • The Ditch Diggers discuss what about the current online market and publishing models need to be changed and how writers have to react to begin bringing about that change.
  • Twitter Q&A! Topics include agents requesting marketing plans from querying authors, how much editing/rewriting is too much, and consuming drugs and alcohol while writing.
  • The apps and happiness study cited by Mur in this episode: http://www.timewellspent.io/app-ratings/
Podcasts, Projects

ISBW #386: NaNo Primer 2 // Grant Faulkner Interview

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:06 — 42.8MB)

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Grant Faulkner QuoteIt’s time to really prep for NaNoWriMo! We then talk to Grant Faulkner about time hunts, his new book, and how to kill writer’s block.

Remember to send me your NaNo username to add you as a friend and to enter a drawing to win BOTH Pep Talks for Writers AND I Should Be Writing!

Podcasts, Projects

ISBW #385: NaNo Primer 1 // Nicky Drayden Interview

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:26 — 35.3MB)

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NaNoWriMo is in less than a month! AUGH! So we talk prep, and we talk to Nicky Drayden, author of The Prey of Gods (which was a NaNo book!)

If you want to friend me on NaNoWriMo, I’m mightymur there as usual!

Remember, if you want to win The Prey of Gods, email me! I’ll draw a name at random and announce it on the next show!

AND if you want a daily NaNoWriMo boost, then support the Patreon! I’ll be doing a daily podcast there, a short note to encourage people to keep going. It’s fun.

Next on the podcast: Grant Faulkner from NaNoWriMo and author of Pep Talks for Writers.

  • Current Writing Project: Remora and Sam, a Patreon-only serial.
  • Currently reading: The Salt Line by Holly Goddard Jones (follow me on Goodreads if you like, I’m usually reading a bunch of stuff at once.)
  • Last movie seen: Blade Runner 2049
Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #48: Sensitivity editing with Elsa Sjunneson-Henry

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 57:34 — 41.9MB)

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Posting in a hurry cause I’m on my way to NYCC today! Hope to see people there!

– Matt and Mur come to you live from Morgan Freeman’s PSA Sound Booth with special guest co-host, author, editor, and activist Elsa Sjunneson-Henry!
– Mur has a new dog, and Matt explains what Morgan Freeman’s PSA Sound Booth means.
– Elsa’s history as a child activist, and how she was still in single digits when the CIA once investigated her background.
– Elsa talks about all of her, in Mur’s words, “many feathered hats” and the Ditch Diggers discuss how being a writer sometimes get lost when you do twenty different things as a freelancer.
– An introduction to sensitivity readers/editors, what they do, and why they’re necessary.
– Elsa talks about being a sensitivity editor and the many ways writers in all mediums/industries screw up dealing with visually impaired characters.
– How much you can expect to pay a sensitivity editor, and how to find one to hire them.
– Elsa fields Twitter Q&A! Everyone wants to know how to hire the One True Sensitivity Editor, and Elsa explains why that’s impossible and how to approach it correctly.
– Obligatory rambly end-of-show shilling.
Writing in the Margins’ Sensitivity Reader Database: http://writeinthemargins.org/sensitivity-readers/
Keep up with Elsa’s writing (and hire her!): http://feministsonar.com/elsa/
Elsa on Twitter: @snarkbat
Elsa on Instagram: @snarkbat
Upsidedown Inverted Tropes Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Upside-Down-Inverted-Tropes-Storytelling/dp/1937009440
Dead Scare Tabletop RPG: http://www.deadscare.com/
Personal, Podcasts, Projects

ISBW #384: The Black Dog Doesn’t Care

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:58 — 13.6MB)

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This is a personal one. I’ve had a mild depressive spell lately. It’s a dip in a normally healthy life, and I have them every so often, so I’m not concerned. But I am addressing it, both in my life and in this show. As my husband Jim told me, the black dog doesn’t care when you have problems, or even when you don’t have problems. It comes when it wants.

Feels weird to shill on a personal show, so I’ll forgo that.