The Murverse Mothership

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:52 — 42.1MB)

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EDIT- the file is there now. I am a professional, dammit.

• Matt and Mur come to you live in this penultimate installment of Ditch Diggers before the landmark 100th Episode from the Padded Room Full of Teddy Bears in DD Manor!
• How is Matt? A seemingly simple question that feeds into the larger and much more complicated issues of the episode, recorded June 30th, which will deal with the harassers and abusers called out in June, particularly in the SFF publishing community.
• Before that! Actual writing talk! Mur is restructuring a novel (for which she thanks Scrivener in a totally un-sponsored plug), and Matt has been writing a video game, because that’s his first full-time job, but he can’t talk about it, because you can never talk about the video game you’re writing.
• Mur and Matt are going to talk about what’s been going on, but have made the choice not to use names in this episode, and they explain why.
• Matt talks about how to respond (more specifically how he responded) when you have a professional relationship with someone who is called out for abusing or otherwise harming others.
• The difference in perception between the privileged (e.g. cis able-bodied white dudes) and marginalized or at-risk folks dealing with powerful, abusive people in the industries and communities in which they exist.
• The idea of not being aware you have power over others in your industry/community is discussed.
• Making decisions based on your own safety, and deciding how your personal principles will factor into your decisions, re: dealing with the knowledge of working with abusive people.
• Structures and organizations within SFF publishing where abusive people can be reported (and a brief aside about that wizard school author and Stephen King).
• Matt and Mur thank their listeners for helping them reach episode 100, coming soon, and Matt STILL has a book coming out (SAVAGE LEGION— Be a dear and order, won’t you?) that he pitches poorly to the same listeners, because that’s where he is right now.
• A final note on how alcohol/being drunk does not excuse your behavior. Ever.
• Sites mentioned:
  • Writer Beware
  • Jason Sanford’s Genre Grapevine post on recent abuse allegations in SFF publishing community

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:19 — 35.2MB)

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[Note- this is the correct file. I had an episode numbering problem. Check episode 95 if this is a repeat for you.]

Mur and Matt come to you live from Ditch Diggers Island Pear Farm on Animal Crossing.

• The fruit-based economy of Animal Crossing is discussed, with a focus on the disdain for pears and Matt’s belief that AC pear hatred is coded fatphobia.
• Props are given to Escape Pod, the first and longest-running fiction podcast celebrating its 15th anniversary, and Matt predictably rants about how podcast fiction is “invented” every year, erasing the originators of it.
• Mur has discovered South Korean baseball, and is very excited about it.
• Cooking and curries, or how “curry” isn’t actually a thing.
• An anonymous publishing source emails Matt and Mur to address a previous episode about the lack of book publisher’s leaning into ebook and other digital marketing in the time of COVID.
• How, despite general book sales staying steady or even rising right now, the sales of kids books are falling alarmingly.
• Yoga mat/block scarcity is real, as is puzzle scarcity.
• Matt and Mur discuss the issue of whether or not authors should ask a prospective agent’s clients about that agent before querying them, and the fallout/varied opinions that flooded Twitter after an agent threatened to blacklist authors for doing so.
• Q&A! Alternative options for selling books, freelance writers to follow on Twitter for smart freelance writing talk, and more.
• Mentioned in this episode:
  • Print Run Podcast
  • Wonder Stories
  • Bookshop