If you haven’t heard, Amazon and my publisher Hachette are bickering, and Amazon is punishing the authors by messing with book delivery times. So I will say that Barnes and Noble is having a buy 2, get 1 free sale, and my books are included in there.
And if you want the books signed, you can always order from Chapel Hill Comics.
I was asked to be part of podcaster and author John Mierau’s Walk the Fire 2: May the Ferrymen Take You anthology, as one of the many authors writing in his world. I had a lot of fun with this one, and hope you check it out. Learn more about it on John’s site.
I recorded a show this week, and discovered the audio file got corrupted. i have to record again, which is sad-making. I’ll try to get it done this weekend and struggle back into a regular schedule.
This week I went to Busch Gardens with the kiddo, where we discovered that people do not want to go to an amusement park when there is the threat of rain, even if it’s lovely and mild, but if it’s 40 degrees and sunny, they will go in droves. We preferred the sort of rainy day. That is, until it started raining really hard.
We stayed at a nice hotel in Colonial Williamsburg, but that part of the state is strange, with few restaurants that aren’t attached to the historical area (and therefore packed.) The hotel restaurant was in a separate building (not a big deal unless it’s raining like crazy and 40 degrees.) and didn’t do room service.
The amusement park was fun, but the unexpected fun we had was at Colonial Williamsburg where we heard about this spy game they had for kids. Codes and cyphers and secret meetings with actors in town! We got all the information and went on our merry way. The letter you get starts with how revolution is starting, only Williamsburg is full of British sympathizers and they need to find people who are loyal the the rebels’ cause.
We got a blue bandana to wear, which would let the other couriers and people know who we were. Excited to play, we started out. Then we realized that Williamsburg was packed, completely packed with people playing this game. How were we going to have a secret meeting with the courier when hundreds of people around us were waiting for the same thing?
When the kiddo spotted a dog with the blue bandana on, that was it. We knew we were done. So, dejected, we wandered Williamsburg and tried to decide what to do. That’s when I came up with the idea that the town was fine, I couldn’t find any British sympathizers at all. The rebellion was downright healthy here. It seems what was needed was British double agents. So we walked around secretly collecting information for the British in order to report back about these Colonials who were getting uppity. It was amusing to us at least.
At night I tried to do work, but then I discovered my audio was corrupted. So, no editing for me. 🙁 But I’ll get some work done this weekend, and will have all sorts of awesome stuff for you next week!
Today BoingBoing posted an exclusive chapter from Ghost Train to New Orleans, and a little intro from me about ghosts!
And I put the Patreon up last night, and was a bit startled at how many people grabbed higher monthly payments. The five mentorships sold out quickly, and lots of people are paying for the access to the archives. I’m so excited!
I’ve struggled for years – years – to make a good premium content method. It’s been clumsy and my supporters have been very patient with me. Now the product has caught up with the need, and Patreon is here.
So I’m putting a halt to new supporters of my Fabulist group and am giving out new perks to Patreon supporters.* I hope you check it out, I think it’s a great way to support someone’s creative work a little bit at a time.
* Existing Fabulists, I’ve posted about this in our private community, check it out there if you have questions.
Reminder of Ghost Train to New Orleans* events!
And watch this space for info on at least one event in April, convention updates, and more!
(Remember you can preorder anytime! And soon you can order signed copies of both Shambling Guide and Ghost Train from Chapel Hill Comics!)
*Word is that Waterstones is shelving it under horror. It’s urban fantasy/humor. Not terribly scary.
**Apparently it’s already hit some stores in the UK, but I haven’t seen/heard about it in the US
A while ago I read a blog post complaining bitterly about changing Starbuck into a woman, and how all these wimmins were destroying science fiction. I was tired; instead of arguing that no, we aren’t, I decided screw it. Let it happen. Let’s destroy science fiction with our fallopian tubes, bitches! SF writer (and now a Hugo winner) Pat Cadigan caught up the call, delighted to yell WITH MY FALLOPIAN TUBES, BITCHES!!!
A few years later, someone else was talking about women destroying SF, and Lightspeed magazine decided, what the hell, let’s do it too. So they planned an issue of the magazine with a guest editor, with only female authors, with a female podcast producer, and a female podcast host. That host person is me!
Submissions are still open for another week! Check it out and submit, submit!
They’re doing a Kickstarter to support it, and it’s got about a week left. It’s gone so well that they’ve decided to destroy horror as well (stretch goal reached!) and destroy fantasy too! (less than $8000 to go)
So check it out and support if you can, it’s going to be an excellent issue of Lightspeed and I’m so proud to be part of this destructive campaign.
Hi there! I’m finally back. January was more intense than I expected it to be, and that’s saying something.
I had my final Stonecoast residency this month, and this was both more and less intense than the others. It was more intense because this time I was an instructor, responsible for an hour-long lecture, also a live reading. It was less intense because I had no workshops to participate in, and although I could attend the lectures, I wasn’t required to write anything about them.
My reading went well, the room was packed for myself and two of my fellow students. People laughed in the right places, and even in places I didn’t expect. Jim Kelly gave a wonderful introduction to my work that made me want to cry, damn him.
My presentation was about if it’s possible to teach humor, learn how to write humorously, and if a joke can live once you take it apart to talk about why it works. (My answers are yes, yes, and yes. The lie of “you either have it or you don’t” lies in the problem of talking about humor isn’t funny, and therefore isn’t fun. Or, in short, it’s WORK.) It was well-attended and very well received. I was pleased.
I graduated with my MFA that Saturday and had my tearful good byes on Sunday. Now I’m Master Mur, and very happy with my experience.
When I came home, I jumped almost immediately into the recording of Ghost Train to New Orleans and that took a week. Recording for hours for the book didn’t make me really eager to come home and record a podcast. Sorry.
Now we are a month from book launch and I’m back, blogging and podcasting more regularly. Promise.
Tomorrow- what happens during the recording of an audiobook.
Ghost Train to New Orleans – Out March 4
(I am aware I have been quiet for some time. I went to Stonecoast, graduated with my MFA, then had to record the audiobook for Ghost Train to New Orleans for six days straight, so I’m pretty beat. I’ll have a podcast update soon.)
I’m going to be careful with the details here, but I try to be honest about my career, even when there are downturns. So I’m not going to name names. People who know me can probably figure things out, but don’t guess in the comments. You can ask me privately if you like. But bad/annoying/disappointing stuff happens and we need to talk about it.
It’s said time and again, that you don’t Arrive when you get that agent, or when you get that book deal, or when the book comes out, or even when you win an award. You’re always fighting upstream, and whenever something great happens, like winning an award or gearing up for your second book launch, life will tend to try to knock you out of your groove with something shitty.
Anyway, I – through the proper channels, namely Orbit’s awesome publicist – tried to get a book event at a non-local indie book store that I like very much. They agreed, sent me possible dates, I chose one, and made my plan to drive to [REDACTED.] Today I found out that, hm, no, wait, they don’t want to do it anymore. They’ve pulled out. Canceled. GO AWAY MUR.
They are worried I won’t draw enough local interest.
The punchline is that this book store is probably the best indie bookstore that is closest to my hometown.* Local interest, indeed.
I don’t know if they know I’m from a town nearby. I am not sure if the publicist knows this. I probably should have told her; I didn’t even think to. But she told me they’re firm. No book event.
(This store recently hosted an old college buddy of mine who turned out to be an author too. But he writes literary fiction. Out of respect for my Stonecoast friends, I will refrain from any rude comments here. I didn’t even italicize literary. I feel like I’m growing as a person here.)
It’s not the end of the world, of course. I do have a reading at Boskone in 3 weeks, and I’m having a book launch in March at the awesome Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, and am planning at least one other local event. I’m going to be around, in public. It’s cool. Also I’ve had other authors commiserate with me that this has happened to them too, and it does indeed suck. So I’m not alone in the “HAHA JUST KIDDING NO BOOK EVENT FOR YOUUUUUU” situation.
But damn. This is my second (pro) book. It got a good review from Publishers Weekly. I won the Campbell last year. I’m not about to drunkenly stumble up to them and scream “Don’t you know WHO I AM?” but it’s times like this that make me realize that there will be times in my life, over and over again, where I feel like that newbie writer who can’t get a break.** It’s depressing. And humbling. But what can I do except do the usual rejection treatment***, and get back to writing?
* Granted, it’s still a bit of a drive from my town to said store. I’m from a VERY small town in the mountains. Everything is a bit of a drive.
** People told me I had to stop saying that I was a “wannabe writer” in my podcast. Times like this put me right back into that feeling.
*** Red wine. Blanket. Feeling sorry for self. Tomorrow morning, we’re done, and we’re acting like a pro again, what with the writing and the podcasting and stuff. But for tonight, well, poop.
It’s late. We went to see Mythbusters. no video. But we did open the advent calendar!
