The Murverse Mothership

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• Matt and Mur come to you live from the Alternate History Wing of Morgan Freeman’s Private Art Museum with special guest co-host, Dread Nation author Justina Ireland.
• Justina talks about the long (and often exhausting) ramp-up period in YA book promotion and its roots in old school internet “first” culture.
• The Ditch Diggers discuss author expectations with Justina, who recounts the story of how the amazing cover of her forthcoming novel Dread Nation came together.
• Justina talks about the story of Dread Nation and reader expectations, including not delivering a wall-to-wall zombie-killin’ fest.

• Justina takes the Ditch Diggers through her publishing industry journey to-date, beginning with writing as a way to distract herself from the discomfort of pregnancy and maintain her own identity to her first book deal.
• The racial politics of book covers and placement in big chain stores like Barnes & Noble.
• How having a book tank commercially and being dropped by her publisher led Justina to risk writing a hot mess to arrive at Dread Nation.
• Justina and the Ditch Diggers revist one of the show’s favorite topics/warnings: Not chasing the market as an author.
• Matt asks Justina what she would change about the publishing industry if she had to power to enact a single change today.
• Justina talks about how she sees her path going forward as an author (or rather how she doesn’t see it).
• Mur asks Justina about a recent Twitter controversy concerning Justina advising authors to consider publishing’s predominently white gaze when writing.
• The customary end-of-episode shilling.
• Justina on Twitter

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