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Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #53: The Money Taboo

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:05:10 — 43.5MB)

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  • Matt and Mur come to you live from Morgan Freeman’s Gender-Neutral Statue Factory in New Jersey (and talk about why they chose the show’s patron well).
  • Matt talks about adjusting to his new schedule with a full-time marketing writing job atop his existing full-time fiction writing job.
  • Mur apologizes for the delay in getting the last episode posted via the blog (and how she’s a pro-am DJ).
  • Mur recaps ConFusion (including a shoutout to author Michael R. Underwood), and Ditch Diggers possibly featuring a guest appearance by Justina Ireland in the near future.
  • A brief interlude to silence Mur’s excitably adorable dog.
  • Mur talks about the importance of medicating regularly when you’re prescribed medication, the consequences of not doing that, and how to cope with it.
  • How that led to an epiphany on Mur’s part about the meaning behind being mindful. She explains that epiphany, and Matt weighs in with his take on mindfulness.
  • Everybody needs schtick.
  • The Ditch Diggers talk about author Fonda Lee’s Twitter thread concerning how much she makes from her books, the response to it, positive and negative, and share their thoughts on transparency in authors’ income.
  • How to address the core issues behind the money (of lack thereof) authors make (Matt uses pro-wrestling as an analogy).
  • The disparity in people’s reaction to women making money vs. men making money in our industries, and how it is used to derail the real discussion/discourse.
  • How to positively build on the actions of author’s like Fonda Lee, and Mur talks about her own experiences selling and publishing her newest novel, SIX WAKES.
  • A writer’s self-perception vs. the their perception of “successful” authors.
  • A lament for Ursula K. Le Guin.
  • Matt offers up his Hugo Award recommendations.
  • There are no viewer questions this week, but we do have shilling and Hugo nomination pleas to get through!

Author Fonda Lee’s Twitter thread about author income.

Podcasts, Projects

ISBW #390: Timelines

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:05 — 14.9MB)

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serial box logoThe dogs and I have some things to say about when you should worry about what, and how worry is just another form of procrastination.

ISBW is sponsored by Serial Box! Yes, my publisher for Bookburners, one of my favorite projects I’ve worked on in the past few years! Get a discount on a whole season of content with the code WRITING18.

HEY- did you know I’m going to start offering transcriptions of both ISBW and Ditch Diggers? They will go up as soon as I get them for Patreon supporters, and a bit later for everyone else. It’s only at the $1 level, and you’re helping me offer a more accessible show, so pledge now!

Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #52: Cleaning Out Old Business

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:01 — 47.4MB)

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NOTE: I was in Detroit for ConFusion and didn’t get a chance to post this until today- Mur

  • The Ditch Diggers come to you live for the first time in 2018 from Morgan Freeman’s snow bungalow (which is actually a bungalow made from snow)!
  • Morgan Freeman and Kryptonian technology, how he is the only man who can act as his own attorney and is NOT a fool, which is also the premise of his next movie, and his eternal feud and love affair with Betty White.
  • Matt talks about fulfilling his major 2018 writing career goal right under the wire, defying all freelance writing conventions of the industry closing down over the holidays, how it came about, and thanks everyone for their support and encouragement.
  • Mur talks about dog surgeries and her novel SIX WAKES being nominated for the prestigious Philip K. Dick Award!
  • Ditch Diggers will now be recording weekly!
  • Wrapping up their career recaps, the theme of the premiere episode of the year emerges: Old Business!
  • Mur and Matt continue to be bad at segues, and gods willing they always will be.
  • Mur assures listener Allie Wade that we WILL answer her questions about contracts by dedicating a whole episode to it in 2018. We will also get Cameron Rowe’s blueprints for Morgan Freeman’s imagined compound up on the website.
  • Mur digs into the email bag for questions unanswered from 2017.
  • The Ditch Diggers respond to a question about new authors using samples of their work as free promotion, and when and how that crosses the line into working for free.
  • @TheFaldor on Twitter asks what a good daily word goal is. Matt believes it to be more than one and less than eleven thousand. Mur is, thankfully, more helpful with her answer.
  • @WordsByStacia asks how the Ditch Diggers feel about reading fees, and Mur and Matt expound on the differences between beta readers, sensitivity editors, and manuscript doctors.
  • Having handled the old business, the Ditch Diggers look to the new business of 2018.
  • Matt launches into an epic pitch/plea for the podcast being nominated for a Hugo in 2018.
  • Mur makes suggestions for other potential and deserving Hugo nominees you might have overlooked (Matt promises to have his recommendations next time).
  • The obligatory end-of-episode shilling of books and other things.
Podcasts, Projects

ISBW #389: GET BORED

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:12 — 14.7MB)

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serial box logoI have one resolution this year, and that’s to get bored more often. Also, I talk fears and NBC’s The Good Place. I was supposed to have an interview but I just discovered it’s crap and I have to re-record. Sorry about that.

ISBW is sponsored by Serial Box! Yes, my publisher for Bookburners, one of my favorite projects I’ve worked on in the past few years! Get a discount on a whole season of content with the code WRITING18.

Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #51: End of the Year Spectacular, guest starring Hurley and Wendig!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:25:34 — 83.6MB)

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  • The Ditch Diggers come to you live from Morgan Freeman’s Nicer-Than-Chuck-Wendig’s-Writing-Shed with special year-end episode spectacular guest co-hosts, Kameron Hurley and Chuck Wendig!
  • We briefly clarify who the guests are and who the hosts are, and talk about the momentous completion of the Hurley/Wendig Trilogy on Ditch Diggers (Matt insists there will be a “third act twist” which leads to an argument about what constitutes the third act in this scenario).
  • Everyone recaps their 2017 as writers. Hurley talks about throwing out two-thirds of a new book. Chuck talks about only focusing on a single book for a change (as he usually writes approximately 7,574 books per year). Mur talks about the sale and release of Six Wakes. Matt laments many personal hurdles that added height to professional hurdles.
  • Einstein had sex with everything, including James Joyce, which segues into Hemingway/Fitzgerald slash fic (briefly, but notably).
  • A digression into grandmothers, Nazi boots, radio turkeys, hills and valleys and the difference between the two (Matt is the only one confused by the old idiom, apparently).
  • The foursome discuss Hollywood, and the differences between the film/TV industry and the publishing industry.
  • Everyone looks ahead to 2018 and discusses their plans, hopes, and fears (spoiler: those are all basically the same thing).
  • The recent Patreon debacle, what happened, what it means, and what it signals for authors, and all freelance creators, in the future.
  • Everyone performs their final shilling of the year, and we wish everyone a much better 2018!
  • Chuck Wendig: terribleminds.com
  • Kameron Hurley: kameronhurley.com
  • Hurley’s Patreon: patreon.com/kameronhurley
  • Hurley’s Tip Jar: paypal.me/KameronHurley
  • Hurley’s newsletter: bit.ly/hurleysheroes
  • The Stars Are Legion: http://a.co/1NpquVn
  • Invasive: http://a.co/2JVKIw0
Books, Projects

ISBW #388: End of Year Thoughts

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:40 — 25.5MB)

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Time for those end of the year pontifications, where I talk about the immolation of Patreon, thoughts for future features of the podcast, and some thoughts about extended universes in general, and The Last Jedi in specific. (No spoilers.)

I also say it’s #387 but that was a guess, and it’s wrong. It’s #388.

Happy holidays, and thanks for listening all these years!

Podcasts, Projects

ISBW #387: Learning to strike out // Jacob Sager Weinstein interview [REPOST]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:02 — 29.7MB)

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I’ve had some website issues lately, and this went up on the temp website, but not this one, so I’m posting this if you missed it, and the new one will go up tomorrow.

Thanks for your patience!

—

This one is all about WHY it’s all right to write poorly, and what it can teach you.

Guest: Jacob Sager Weinstein

Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #50: Your Value

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:18:13 — 77.0MB)

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  • Matt and Mur come to you live from Morgan Freeman’s Decommissioned Disney Vault for this, their 50th episode!
  • Mur doesn’t get Matt’s cultural references, but she does bring the audience up-to-date on what she’s been working on while in the dreaded “waiting” zone of being a freelance writer.
  • Matt is choosing professional optimism and creating a shiny cocoon of success around which the whole world can burn for all he cares.
  • A bizarre and hilarious digression involving Top Gun slash fic, Patreon, and Beyonce.
  • The Ditch Diggers finally arrive at the topic of the episode, which is knowing your value as a writer.
  • Matt and Mur discuss the mass firings and sale of LA Weekly, how the new owners are despicably attempting to replace professional journalist with unpaid amateur contributors, and what writers and readers can do about it.
  • Working remotely in the publishing industry, the need to structure more entry level roles that can be performed without living in NYC, and how all of that affects writers.
  • Suggested by James Sutter, Matt and Mur discuss when and why to leave a project, partnership, or genre in which you’re heavily invested (Mur lyrically explains the “sunken cost fallacy”).
  • Twitter and email Q&A! Topics include when/how to utilize Patreon, pitching standalone books vs. pitching series, and licensing and incorporating as a freelance writer.
  • The customary shilling, including info on how to party live in person with Matt on December 9th!
  • James L. Sutter’s website

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