Archive for Personal

Personal, Travel

Return to the world, and attending WorldCon

I’m back from hiatus, and in a whirlwind of packing to get ready for the Dublin, Ireland WorldCon. I’m very excited for this one since I love Dublin, and I have many good friends nominated for Hugo Awards (Including Ditch Digger writer and electric monk, Alasdair Stuart, for Best Fan Writer–You can see his writing on the Ditch Diggers site, actually!) Now I just have to pack to get there…

I’m old now, 46, and half the stuff I’m packing are medications and vitamins. So it goes.

Anyway, I wanted to get a post up this week to talk about the con, and post my schedule. Note- I don’t have an autograph session, which irked me but I realized it after the deadline of “you can complain up to this date”– which I totally understand, they can’t muck with the schedule this close to the con; I’m more blaming myself. But if you want a book signed, you’re welcome to come up to me in the hallway or after a panel. Don’t be shy.

Here is my schedule! (sic)

  • Fuzzy lines: decategorising creative work
    15 Aug 2019, Thursday 14:00 – 14:50, Liffey Room-2 (CCD)
    Authors write blogs, fanzines go online, publishers create fanzine-like websites, fancasts publish fiction, YouTube videos offer original dramatic performances. Is a fan artist defined by economics or by context, and what exactly constitutes a series anyway? How do we define the categories into which our creative outputs fall, and must every project fit into a category?
  • Creating Podcasts: Ideas, People, and Themes
    15 Aug 2019, Thursday 16:00 – 16:50, Wicklow Hall-1 (CCD)
    Podcasts are living, breathing conversations that at their best entice the participants and the audience in the free flow of entertaining, engaging, and enlightening conversation.  How do you pull this off?  How do you you pick the ideas, people, and themes  that give the right mix of energy and chemistry?  Come get some clues into how the magic is done from some of the best in the business. (And then go see our panellists’ podcasts over the rest of the convention.)
  • Kaffeeklatsch: Mur Lafferty
    16 Aug 2019, Friday 15:00 – 15:50, Level 3 Foyer (KK/LB) (CCD)
  • Hugo finalists discussion: Best Novel
    16 Aug 2019, Friday 16:30 – 17:20, Stratocaster BC (Point Square Dublin)
    The panel will discuss the finalists in the Hugo Award category for Best Novel.
  • Tabletop RPG as inspiration for creative writing
    17 Aug 2019, Saturday 16:00 – 16:50, Wicklow Room-3 (CCD)
    Tabletop roleplaying games (RPGs) take us to fantastical new worlds and allow us to explore these places with others; it’s no wonder that they inspire us far beyond the table. In this panel, authors will discuss how games they have run or played in provided inspiration or source material for future creative endeavours.
  • What I read when I was young
    18 Aug 2019, Sunday 10:00 – 10:50, Second Stage (Liffey-B) (CCD)
    The books we read in childhood often have a lasting influence. In this panel, finalists for the Hugo Award for Best Novel discuss the books that had a profound effect on the people they became. How did these works change them? Was this influence a good or a bad one? Is there a book they think everyone should read at least once in their life?
  • Ditch Diggers podcast: live recording
    18 Aug 2019, Sunday 14:00 – 14:50, Wicklow Hall 2B (CCD)
    Join the Ditch Diggers team of Mur Lafferty and Alasdair Stuart as they record their yearly live RPG where authors travel through the haunted woods of publishing to get to the golden castle of the NYT Bestseller list! On deck for this year’s game is Ursula Vernon. Promises to be asinine and include dice.
Meta, Personal

Taking July off!

(Boy do I wish that were true…)

I’m taking some time off from podcasting while I finish my work-in-progress, which is close to being done. But I’m driving hard to write as much as possible, launch Minecraft: The Lost Journals, and stay sane during the summer of busy travel and family stuff. So I’m taking some time to finish the book, and then some time to recover. I may put some stuff out here and there, but I can’t promise anything till August.

Thanks so much for your support!

News, Personal

Update on me

HEY- Hugo nominations are open until March 15! If you’re eligible to nominate, don’t forget to do so!

January was crap. That’s all there is to it. It’s over now, which is great.

I have talked about hemochromatosis here, but the update is I can’t find a good hematologist. One did a quick breast exam, sent me for a mammogram, then set up a breast surgery appointment without discussing the mammogram results. (No, I didn’t go. Got another opinion.) The one I went to after that told me I didn’t in fact have both genes for the disease, and I could stop getting phlebotomies, but she wanted to check me yearly. Went in for checkup last year and POOF, she was gone, they had no record of this “misdiagnosis!” Turns out I DO have both genes, they even showed me the lab report, and the new hematologist who has taken over my case has determined I must have monthly phlebotomies to get my iron levels down quickly because it’s been building up.

Punch line- I haven’t met my new doctor. I speak to him through his physician’s assistant.

Second punch line- breast-surgery-recommending doctor (#1) has moved to my new hematologist’s office. I have said under no uncertain terms will I allow her to be my doc again. And if you know me, you know I’m not good at standing up for myself.

Are there any good blood docs in this fucking area of medical innovation?

Since this is my fifth pint of blood I’m losing in as many months, it’s starting to get to me, and I’m losing several days to exhaustion. I was going to try to get work done this morning, but it turned out that I wanted to complain/blog about my health instead. I really am getting older. Next, I’ll kvetch about the weather.

Nah- I’ll tell you that I have one ISBW and one DD ready to go, I just need to get them posted. Hurrah!

Writing: I started a new original book and a new project (vague, I know) recently. I will tell you more when I can. I also have a book for a younger audience coming out this summer, but it’s not announced yet, but it’s on Amazon for pre-order, so… that’s weird. This is not an announcement.

 

Oh and Reedsy listed Six Wakes in the 100 best sci-fi books of all time.

 

Family, Personal

Burnout; Hiatus

I probably should have known better than to follow a month of daily shows (the NaNoWriMo show I do in November) with another month of TWO daily shows – one of them video. So with the kiddo stressed about school and me stressed about a number of things, we’re stopping the Advent calendar videos.

I’m also putting I Should Be Writing on hiatus until January.

Ditch Diggers’ daily show will continue as Matt and I have a good rhythm going, and we have one more DD regular show to release. So no stoppage there.

This year I wrote two books and promised myself December to take some self care time, and that’s not happening. Partly because of my own poor planning and partly because of other projects, so I’m just taking time now to try to get as much off my plate so I can appreciate the holidays and get ready for the new year of projects coming up.

I hate starting projects and having them fizzle and die, but I think this is best for the mental health of the family and for recovering from the hectic work I did this year.

Family, Personal

Burnout; Hiatus

I probably should have known better than to follow a month of daily shows (the NaNoWriMo show I do in November) with another month of TWO daily shows – one of them video. So with the kiddo stressed about school and me stressed about a number of things, we’re stopping the Advent calendar videos.

I’m also putting I Should Be Writing on hiatus until January.

Ditch Diggers’ daily show will continue as Matt and I have a good rhythm going, and we have one more DD regular show to release. So no stoppage there.

This year I wrote two books and promised myself December to take some self care time, and that’s not happening. Partly because of my own poor planning and partly because of other projects, so I’m just taking time now to try to get as much off my plate so I can appreciate the holidays and get ready for the new year of projects coming up.

I hate starting projects and having them fizzle and die, but I think this is best for the mental health of the family and for recovering from the hectic work I did this year.

Podcasts, Projects, Travel

Ditch Diggers #67: Live from WorldCon

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:36 — 62.9MB)

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  • The Ditch Diggers come to you from San Jose, California for their 4th Annual Ditch Diggers Live! from WorldCon 76 with special guests, authors KM Szpara and Margaret Dunlap!
  • Matt and Mur put Kellan and Margaret through the first ever Ditch Diggers’ Choose Your Own Publishing Career, forcing them to assume the roles of an aspiring fiction writing team building their publishing career from the ground up (with the audience’s help in determining their fate at each decision point).
  • Live Q&A with the WorldCon 76 audience, including a special guest appearance by Mur’s agent (and podcaster herself), Jennifer Udden of Barry Goldblatt Literary!

(Spoiler, we won the Hugo.)

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