Mur Lafferty's Blog, page 96

I’m me. Be you.

I just sat down and read Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity, by Hugh MacLeod, in one sitting. It’s a quick book to get through, and it has some very basic advice on creative living. But the biggest message I go out of the book is this simple thought:

I’m me. Be you.

The first part is so freaking hard for me to stick to. My writing career has taken a weird wonderful path that is so unlike how I thought it would. But even then, it’s treading a path that is at least parallel to authors

ISBW #119 – Are You a God? / Seth Harwood Interview

Once again we are proud to have GoTo Meeting as a sponsor this week! Get a Free 30-Day Trial!

[image error] We are also proud to be sponsored by JC Hutchins’ Personal Effects series, the podcast Sword of Blood is available free now, and the novel Personal Effects: Dark Art, launched this past week (order now!)

Note- I recorded this before I spent two weeks of hardcore writing and editing. I wrote 25,000 words in four days, and did basically nothing else. So I apologize for not getting this up until now.

00:07:

Titles

I hate hate hate coming up with titles. Hate it. Sometimes they come to me, but that’s very rare.

My favorite title is for my short story, I Look Forward to Remembering You, about time travel and how our main character hires someone to go back in time to change her past. So it fit. I feel like that was my ONE CLEVER TITLE I’ll ever get.

Playing For Keeps’ working title was Keepsie’s Bar. That changed when Cory Doctorow workshopped the first chapters at Viable Paradise and wrote “GET A REAL TITLE”

Don’t make hasty decisions

The more I deal with professionals in my career, the more I have to be vague. I’m not going to blog my rejections, or even who did them. It’s unprofessional, and if an agent/editor googles you and sees you talking crap about people who rejected you, you’re going to look bad.

If you and I were in a bar somewhere, I’d have no problem telling you anything going on. I just don’t want it in public, or searchable. Gotta be professional.

So with that said, yesterday I got a great disappointment. I was pr

Roaches Unite

I am a roach.

I may not impress you. The filth that I live in, and spread, is genre fiction. It’s ghetto fiction, it’s “why don’t you write something important?” fiction. Other insects—the delicate literary butterfly, the industrious nonfiction ants—look at me with disdain. Why write escapism? Why write about fantastical bullcrap?

The thing is, I am also the most persistent of the bugs. My persistence when it comes to my writing is vast. It can withstand you stepping on it, it can withstand a nucl

Support the Clarion Write-a-Thon

Back to editing the OMGDTN project. So quick blog post for the day.

K. Tempest Bradford is doing a write-a-thon to earn money for Clarion scholarships. I love this idea, and the Clarion foundation is a worthy charity to support scifi writers. I’ll be sponsoring, think you can donate five bucks or so? This is how writers help each other.

Writing prompt for June 9: Write a scene about the most selfless thing your main character has ever done. Now wonder how that colors the things they do every day.

Personal Effects: Dark Art Launches Today!

Frequent guest, sponsor and good friend JC Hutchins has his print debut hit the bookshelves today. Personal Effects: Dark Art is a novel, a transmedia experience, and alternate reality game. We’ve mentioned it before, but now you can see what podcasting novelists thinks about it.

As I said- in full disclosure, Hutch is a sponsor, and a friend, but I wouldn’t endorse this book as heavily if I hadn’t read an advance copy and think it’s worthwhile to read. It’s scary, touching, creepy, and fascinati

This blog available for Kindle – and a secret

As there’s a lot more regular content on this blog now, I’ve decided to publish it via the Kindle platform. If you want writing prompts delivered to your Kindle wherever you go, regardless of connection, subscribe for $1.99 a month!

And if you’re not a Kindle owner or don’t want to subscribe for whatever reason, but you have a moment, could you drop by and rate the site and leave a comment? I’m hoping using the Kindle and Amazon will also drive traffic for the podcast. Why the hell not try?

I took

This blog available for Kindle - and a secret

As there’s a lot more regular content on this blog now, I’ve decided to publish it via the Kindle platform. If you want writing prompts delivered to your Kindle wherever you go, regardless of connection, subscribe for $1.99 a month!

And if you’re not a Kindle owner or don’t want to subscribe for whatever reason, but you have a moment, could you drop by and rate the site and leave a comment? I’m hoping using the Kindle and Amazon will also drive traffic for the podcast. Why the hell not try?

I took

A Day Off- Rough Draft Completed

Write every day, hit your wordcount every day, you must write and write and write…

Well yeah. That is true. But sometimes you need a day off. As a freelance writer and podcaster, I rarely allow myself days off. Sure, I spend time with my family on weekends, but when the time comes for it to be downtime or “me” time, I typically pick up my laptop and get back to work.

This doesn’t mean I write every day. There’s lots of other stuff to do. I just mean I am always working.

Last week I had the Oh My Go