Posts Tagged ‘escape pod’

I Should Be Writing, Podcasts, Projects

[ISBW] Exploring Romance and Reality in Writing with Valerie Valdes

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“You should be writing, because that’s the only thing that ultimately you can have
even a hope of controlling.”
~Valerie Valdes (Lia Amador)

New 2025 logo, tiny Mur on pink/orange background with purple circle saying I should Be Writing.Welcome back to the talented Valerie Valdes, also known as Lia Amador! We are here to launch her newest book, a fantasy rom-com titled Witch You Wood. We talk magical reality shows, romance, and tropes. We also get real about the struggles that persist even after being published.

Valerie discusses her experiences with self-doubt and how she manages to push through these challenges. We also explore the nuances of writing romance, the balance between subtlety and straightforwardness, and the significance of knowing your audience.

Blue logo to join the Fabulists via Patreon(This post went live for supporters on October 20, 2025. If you want early, ad-free, and sometimes expanded episodes, support at Patreon!)

 

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Purple illustrated book cover for Witch You Would, two people standing opposite with a cauldron in between themLinks

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“Exploring Romance and Reality in Writing with Valerie Valdes” is brought to you in large part by my supporters, the Fabulists, who received an early, expanded version of this episode. You can join our Fabulist community with a pledge on Patreon!

Some of the links above may be affiliate, allowing you to support the show at no extra cost to you. Also consider leaving a review for ISBW, please!

CREDITS
Theme song by John Anealio, art by Numbers Ninja, and files hosted by Libsyn (affiliate link). Get archives of the show via Patreon.

October 23, 2025 | Season 21 Ep 19 | murverse.com
“Exploring Romance and Reality in Writing with Valerie Valdes” by Mur Lafferty is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

In case it wasn’t clear: Mur and this podcast are fully supportive of LGBTQ+ folks, believe that Black Lives Matter, and trans rights are human rights, despite which direction the political winds blow. If you do not agree, then there are plenty of other places to go on the Internet.

News

[News] Hugo Nominations are out!

Escape pod logo beside the Hugo logo, 2021 Hugo awards Best SemiproZine FINALIST and Best Editor Short Form Nominees Mur Lafferty and SB Divya(I’m writing this early , so this will be edited with full nomination list soon)

Holy crap, y’all.

The Hugo Award nominations were announced today, and I can finally announce that not only did Escape Pod get nominated for Best Semiprozine, BUT also my brilliant co-editor S.B. Divya and I are nominated for Best Editor(s), Short Form!

In further amazing news, our sister magazine, Podcastle, was also nominated for Semiprozine!

There is so much amazing speculative fiction happening right now, if I stop to think about how our magazine is in the same fighting class as sites like Fiyah, Strange Horizons, and F&SF, I might actually get frightened and freeze up. I would love to go back in time and tell Young Mur what her career would turn out to be, but I don’t think she’d believe me.

I’ll be honest, though. The Escape Pod nomination isn’t that shocking because our team is phenomenal. I kind of hold on tight while Divya’s hard science brilliance shines and Benjamin C. Kinney’s management of our immensely talented and diverse associate editor team deftly handles all the incoming stories. With the thoughtful host spots of Tina Connolly and Alasdair Stuart (who has a slew of his own good news to share today!) and the skill of producers Summer Brooks and Adam Pracht, the magazine we create is a thing of beauty.

But credit also goes to our authors. We couldn’t bring our audience amazing content every week if you didn’t trust us with your stories.

The editor nod is just … still not real yet. Let me work on processing that.

Luckily I have time to process because the Hugos ceremony isn’t until December. Just … eight… more… months. (Thanks, Covid.)

Personal, Podcasts, Projects

My return to Escape Artists

If you don’t listen reguarly to Escape Pod, you may not know that I have recently returned to Escape Artist’s staff as Editor at Large. What that means will become more clear in months ahead, I’m working on some behind the scenes stuff, and will take on some hosting duties on all of the EA shows (Escape Pod, Podcastle, Pseudopod).

I had to leave because when I was in grad school, something had to give, and it broke my heart to leave my editorial position at Escape Pod, so I’m absolutely thrilled to be back with the awesome Escape Artists!

Podcasts, Projects

New at Escape Pod: Sprintime for Deathtraps

We have a fun story this week at Escape Pod about deathtraps, in a series that has been popular to our listeners. I heartily recommend it!

Springtime for Deathtraps
By Marjorie James
Read by Dr. John Cmar
Discuss on our forums.
An Escape Pod Original!
All stories by Marjorie James — including EP007– The Trouble With Death Traps and EP224– The Ghost In The Death Trap.
All stories read by John Cmar
Rated 13 and up for language

Springtime for Deathtraps
By Marjorie James

The building sat in a small clearing in the jungle, its stone walls radiating solidity and the midday heat. Giant statues of warrior-gods crushing skulls beneath their feet flanked the doorway. Xnab looked from the ornately carved keyhole to his customer and back again.

“And the key is where, exactly?” he asked.

“In the treasure chamber,” the big man said in a small voice. “We had just finished putting everything away and, well, it had been a long day. I think I must have put the key down on the altar or something. The problem is, the place locks automatically, and our entire fortune is in there. We had a few locksmiths out to work on it, but they didn’t get very far.”

Xnab nodded. He had already noticed the blood spatter around the keyhole.

“So that’s why we called you. Everyone said that if anybody could get in there, it would be you.”

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