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Posts Tagged ‘Ditch Diggers’

Ditch Diggers #49: Happiness in darkness

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:09:31 — 49.3MB)

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Mur and Matt come to you live from Morgan Freeman’s iPhone 7 BlueTooth Headphone store.
Matt didn’t know before he bought one that the iPhone 7 has no headphone jack and he is unhappy about it. Loudly.
Mur cites a study she read comparing apps that make people happy to apps that don’t and how much time we spend using both, and the results led her down a path of several writing career related epiphanies.
Matt recaps the week in professional writers getting screwed, particularly the wake of DNAinfo and Gothamist being shuttered by billionaire Joe Ricketts after both writing staffs voted to unionize.
The Ditch Diggers discuss what about the current online market and publishing models need to be changed and how writers have to react to begin bringing about that change.
Twitter Q&A! Topics include agents requesting marketing plans from querying authors, how much editing/rewriting is too much, and consuming drugs and alcohol while writing.
The apps and happiness study cited by Mur in this episode: http://www.timewellspent.io/app-ratings/

Ditch Diggers #48: Sensitivity editing with Elsa Sjunneson-Henry

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 57:34 — 41.9MB)

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Posting in a hurry cause I’m on my way to NYCC today! Hope to see people there!

– Matt and Mur come to you live from Morgan Freeman’s PSA Sound Booth with special guest co-host, author, editor, and activist Elsa Sjunneson-Henry!

– Mur has a new dog, and Matt explains what Morgan Freeman’s PSA Sound Booth means.

– Elsa’s history as a child activist, and how she was still in single digits when the CIA once investigated her background.

– Elsa talks about all of her, in Mur’s words, “many feathered hats” and the Ditch Diggers discuss how being a writer sometimes get lost when you do twenty different things as a freelancer.

– An introduction to sensitivity readers/editors, what they do, and why they’re necessary.

– Elsa talks about being a sensitivity editor and the many ways writers in all mediums/industries screw up dealing with visually impaired characters.

– How much you can expect to pay a sensitivity editor, and how to find one to hire them.

– Elsa fields Twitter Q&A! Everyone wants to know how to hire the One True Sensitivity Editor, and Elsa explains why that’s impossible and how to approach it correctly.

– Obligatory rambly end-of-show shilling.

Writing in the Margins’ Sensitivity Reader Database: http://writeinthemargins.org/sensitivity-readers/

Keep up with Elsa’s writing (and hire her!): http://feministsonar.com/elsa/

Elsa on Twitter: @snarkbat

Elsa on Instagram: @snarkbat

Upsidedown Inverted Tropes Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Upside-Down-Inverted-Tropes-Storytelling/dp/1937009440

Dead Scare Tabletop RPG: http://www.deadscare.com/

Ditch Diggers #47: Being Done // Missing Stairs

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:57 — 42.8MB)

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So for the first time in months, I’ve missed a week. I’ve hit a low period again, and this podcast is kind of heavy, which made me hesitate to post it. But here’s this one, and then the ISBW for this week should go up tomorrow.

Matt and Mur come to you live from Morgan Freeman’s Lasso of Truth Loom.
Matt and Mur take the word “loom” for a fun test drive, and the Ditch Diggers talk about what they’re up to in their own freelance careers.
Matt offers up a lesson about the idea of wasted effort, and how to look at (and eventually use!) the work you do that doesn’t sell or get you the writing job you were pursuing (and Mur offers tips on grocery shopping online to save time for writers!).
Mur asks the question, “Are you ever done as a fiction writer?” And the Ditch Diggers discuss the idea of retiring from writing, or telling all the stories you want to tell and being “done.”
Ditch Diggers plea for someone with the juice to hook Mur up with a gig editing an anthology based on the ancillary secondary characters from the sitcom Friends.
Mur talks about working for Serial Box on the serialized/seasonal Bookburners series, the recent summit of Serial Box writers in NYC, and working with a team of writers on the book series.
The Ditch Diggers plans to market an “Overwatch Pajamas Mur Barbie Doll,” and Mur tells an adorable story about how her daughter thought video games were played when she was very small.
Matt and Mur attempt to tackle the very heavy issue of “missing stairs,” or how writers (or any industry professional) should approach addressing/exposing known harassers and abusers in their industry, especially when the harassers/abusers in question are industry “heroes.”
The obligatory end-of-episode shilling, including Mur’s new book on writing based on the podcast, I SHOULD BE WRITING, which is now available in stores and online.

Affiliate links to our books!

Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #46: Post Hugo report // Writer Expectations

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:12:57 — 54.0MB)

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Hugo losers Matt and Mur come to you live from Morgan Freeman’s Tobias Funke Memorial Sobbing Shower.
Matt and Mur discuss how it feels to lose a Hugo Award, what it means to be a Hugo loser, and Mur recaps the events of the post-Hugo ceremony Loser’s Party (which Matt did not attend because he wasn’t at WorldCon).
Matt recaps the events of his not being at WorldCon, which dove-tails into Mur praising Mary Robinette Kowal (and rightly so).
Third Annual Ditch Diggers Live recap.
Mur talks about the unexpected problems that arose on the launch day of her new I SHOULD BE WRITING book, how she as a professional author dealt with them, and the status of the book now (with bonus discussion and explanation of meta data!).
Matt talks about professional expectations (e.g. winning a Hugo Award right before your agent takes your new book to market) and how to manage disappointment and adjust to changing events as a freelance creator.
Twitter Q&A! Including several topics on which the Ditch Diggers vow to do extended episodes, including what to include on your author/freelance creator website, managing multiple drafts and story notes, and sensitivity readers.
If the Ditch Diggers Patreon reaches $3k a month, Matt and Mur will take the show weekly! So, give us more money!
A final “thank you” to everyone who supported us for the Hugo Award and got us so far this year, and everyone who continues to listen to and support the show!

Affiliate links to our books!

Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #45: LIVE from WorldCon!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:14 — 44.0MB)

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A very tired Mur lands in Finland and is greeted by giant Morgan Freeman! Photo- Natalie Metzger — A very tired and disheveled Mur lands in Finland and is greeted by giant Morgan Freeman! Photo- Natalie Metzger

Ditch Diggers comes to you LIVE from Morgan Freeman’s International Airport (no, seriously, see photo!), a.k.a. WorldCon 75 in Helsinki, Finland!

- Mur’s special Ditch Diggers Live! guest co-host Alasdair Stuart is not Matt Wallace, and yet he has to be Matt Wallace. But no, for real, Matt can’t be in Helsinki so Alasdair and his adorably proper British accent are doing their best to sub in for him.
- Mur introduces The Hugo Games! It’s like the Hunger Games, but with/for Hugo Awards!
- Mur introduces willing tributes, super agent (because she’s Mur’s agent) Jennifer Udden, who represents multiple Hugo nominees, and Hugo nominated editor Navah Wolfe!
- Lacking a third combatant, Hugo Best Short Story finalist (spoiler- winner!) Amal El-Mohtar volunteers as tribute!
- The Hugo Games tributes choose their weapons (spoiler alert: Navah picks a throwing axe).

THE HUGO GAMES, WORLDCON 2017: (Back L-R) Jonathan Snipes, William Hutson, Alasdair Stuart, Jennifer Udden, Daveed Diggs, Navah Wolfe, Mur Lafferty. (Front) Amal El-Mohtar.

At some point the members of groundbreaking Hugo Award nominated hip hop group clipping. (Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes) join the panel, which is amazing!
In the course of preparing for Hugo combat (Amal’s longterm survival strategy is writing a novel), our tributes discuss topics including new authors breaking in and pseudonyms, transitioning from creating works independently to working with executives, and dealing with assholes in the industry and beyond.
We unfortunately run out of time before the blood sports can begin, but Mur promises the blood sports will happen tomorrow (they don’t).

Affiliate links to our books!

Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #44: Gavia Baker-Whitelaw and Freelance Ditches

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:09:51 — 64.1MB)

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How to dig freelance ditches

And what are freelance ditches anyway?
Digging Freelance Ditches: Sniper with doberman

Mur and Matt come to you live from Morgan Freeman’s Pop Culture Popcorn Boutique, and Mur actually lets Matt do the intros.
The Ditch Diggers welcome special guest co-host, staff writer for The Daily Dot and pop culture analyst extraordinaire, Gavia Baker-Whitelaw!
Everyone immediately agrees that Gavia’s mom would make the best agent ever, and that would also be her pro-wrestling gimmick.
Gavia talks about being a full-time writer for The Daily Dot and her areas of expertise.
Matt asks Gavia what makes a good cultural criticism writer, and Gavia does her best to answer such a broad question.
Gavia talks about how livejournal fanfiction led to her current career, how she selects topics to cover, and the life of a piece at The Daily Dot.
Gavia talks about her side project The Rec Center and being steeped in fandom as a writer.
The validity of liquids in sandwiches, and the validity of fanfiction as a writing medium.
Twitter Q&A, including how a book, movie, etc. gets the attention of a market like The Daily Dot.

Links of interest:

Note: Mur will be appearing at WorldCon in Helsinki in a few weeks and doing a LIVE Ditch Diggers with writer and publisher Alasdair Stuart standing in for Matt (with Matt’s approval, naturally. We’re not staging a coup to replace Matt even though Al does have a better accent.) See my program here!

Affiliate links to our books!

Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #43: Care and Feeding of your Author

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:25 — 18.0MB)

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We are together again talking about care and feeding of the author inside you! Sadly, with technical difficulties.

Care and Feeding Show Notes

Matt and Mur come to you live, actually in-person (well, the two of them are, anyway) from Morgan Freeman’s Outside OBGYN Clinic.
Matt’s fictional uterus and a brief history of why we’re talking about it on this episode.
Actually, Matt and Mur are at their yearly retreat in the backwoods of Ohio with friends and family, several of whom are in the audience during the recording of this episode.
Matt and Mur introduce the topic of this episode, “the care and feeding of your author” (a topic suggested by Matt’s fiancée, Nikki).
How writers and the writing industry/community emphasize doing the work over taking care of yourself, physically.
Mur talks about how we romanticize the Hemingway-esque and Poe-esque stereotypes of the alcohol-soaked, depressed author and why that is obviously wrong and harmful.
Self-care, how alcohol and writing don’t mix, and Matt’s unabashed love for Mott’s for Tots apple juice and how it can replace the former habit.
Mur and Matt talk about smoking and drug abuse, citing writers like Joe Ezsterhaus and Stephen King as examples of how both invariably go disastrously wrong when you mix them with your career.
The episode is cut abruptly short, and Mur explains why (and offers apologies, although we did the best we could).

Affiliate links to our books!

Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #42: The Freelancer’s Rebuttal Guide

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:59 — 41.4MB)

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Foxes fight, quote from show, rebuttal guide It’s time for some role playing and rebuttal action as Matt and Mur bring you some FINE acting shit.

Rebuttal Guide Show Notes

Matt and Mur come to you live from Morgan Freeman’s Debate Club practice room, and Mur remembers to say the show’s tagline for once.
The Ditch Diggers try to decide whether this episode takes place two weeks or five minutes after the last episode.
Matt asks Mur what she’s been up to, and the answer somehow involves John Without Garfield (edit- it’s actually Garfield Minus Garfield.)
Mur talks about being in the oft recurring “proposal period” of a writer’s career, sending pitches out for multiple projects including novels and interactive media, hating outlining, and learning new skills.
Matt talks about finally finishing his first (anti) epic fantasy novel, working on the final Sin du Jour novella, reaching the end of his current book contract, and what comes next (including a middle grade novel).
Mur unintentionally segues into the topic of today’s show, which is The Freelance Writer’s Rebuttal Guide, a Matt Wallace Technology (Mur makes fun of Matt for this last part, and rightfully so).
Matt and Mur role-play The Freelance Writer’s Rebuttal Guide, with Mur’s snarky and insightful annotations throughout.
Matt encourages freelancers to submit new scenarios to the Guide, which is different from emailing Ditch Diggers questions (Mur explains).
Email questions! Topics include freelance writers and social media, publishing rights, and how to best keep track of pending submissions.

Books, Meta, News, Podcasts, Projects

Site Housekeeping

I was on vacation last week and missed posting the latest ISBW. So there will be a new Ditch Diggers later today, ISBW later this week, and ISBW next Monday to make sure we’re caught up. Then a live DD the following Monday cause I’m seeing Matt in person soon.

And I’m cooking up something cool for the live DD at WorldCon! And I will NOT mess up the recording this time! Cross my heart and all that.

I am working on a redesign to my site (OK, Pablo Defendini is working on the redesign, I’m just watching) and in cleaning some things up, I have broken others (mainly the Ditch Diggers site). This will be fixed when the new site launches.

Simpsons- old man yells at cloud Speaking of things that I broke: many of you have told me that the Ditch Diggers feed isn’t updating, and I’m sorry about that. I have gone into iTunes and put a new feed for ITunes to grab, and it should be fixed within 24 hours or so.

<— Aside- BACK IN MY DAY fixing your feed within iTunes was nigh-impossible. Once you told iTunes what your feed was, you were stuck. I wasn’t too optimistic about this fix, but then found out iTunes has changed in the past 10 years. Who would have thought?

So the Ditch Diggers feed should be fixed shortly. Crossing fingers.

HEY did you know that you can win a copy of Bookburners from Goodreads? It’s true! Enter the giveaway here to win the glorious doorstop of a book with stories by me, Max Gladstone, Margaret Dunlap, and Brian Francis Slattery.

I hate to toot my own horn, but who’s gonna toot it if I don’t? Last week Six Wakes got awesome coverage in Popular Mechanics! They listed Six Wakes as one of the best SF books of 2017 (so far). Seriously.

Podcasts, Projects

Ditch Diggers #41: HOT BUTTON TOPICS

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:24:34 — 58.4MB)

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What Are People Mad About Today?

Matt and Mur come to you live from Morgan Freeman’s 24-hour news network control room where we are discussing the latest hot button topics on the news! (Mur has a new applause machine, but it’s not working right now, so you’ll have to infer the applause.)
Sound f/x as the new vernacular, and addiction to sound f/x machines.
Mur and Matt are tackling ISSUES on this HOT BUTTON EPISODE of Ditch Diggers. AKA heatedly discussed topics recently on writer social media.
Matt explains (poorly and too meta, according to Mur) what hot button issues are and how they come into being.
Mur explains (far more eloquently) the nature of click-bait and how it drives/poisons discourse on the internet.
Hot Button #1: The infamous “if you don’t write every day you’re not a real writer” article and the larger “real writer” myth.
Hot Button #2: The “don’t you dare smack talk your copy editor on social media” debate, and the larger issue of how important discourse gets derailed by pretense and false premises. We also discuss the difference between discussing issues and discussing individuals, and authors criticizing other authors.
Hot Button #3: “Literary” magazines publishing genre fiction, and also not paying authors.
Matt and Mur go on a tangent about the detriment of labeling fiction and how the market has shrunk.
Returning to the hot button, Matt and Mur talk about the difference between the business of “literary” and SFF magazines.
Twitter Q&A! Questions include outlining book series, “bonehead” things aspiring writers do again and again, and knives.

Matt and Mur shill their books, GREEDY PIGS and RENCOR and SIX WAKES respectively, and remind Hugo voting listeners Ditch Diggers is up for best fancast, so vote for us!

Affiliate links to our books!