We are also proud to be sponsored by JC Hutchins’ Personal Effects series, both the free podcast novella Sword of Blood and the novel Personal Effects: Dark Art are available (order now!)

• 00:07: ISBW #120
• 00:37: GoTo Meeting Message
• 01:303: I just don’t manage to podcast during vacation.
• 02:40: Collaboration effort with JR Blackwell, Her Side
• 03:57: I have a new agent! Brandi Bowles from the Howard Morhaim agency.
• 04:27 Promo: Nephilim Push
• 06:10: New rule for writing- Don’t be an ass.
• 13:40: Promo: Matthew Wayne Selznick’s Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights
• 14:40: Matthew Wayne Selznick interview.
• 49:33: Promo: Scott Sigler’s The Rookie (use coupon code MUR to save $!)
• 51:40: Feedback: Changing POVs, how to choose what to write, restarting a lost novel, short story listing Ralan, other outlining options.

• Tim Pratt (former guest of this show and an excellent writer) is releasing a “reader-supported novella” called Bone Shop. It’s a prequel to his popular urban fantasy Marla Mason books (first four books on the page). He’s doing it this way for two reasons: he has yet to find a market for it, and his wife, author Heather Shaw, just lost her job. So if you like urban fantasy, check out the Marla books and Bone Shop.

Marla Mason is the chief sorcerer of Felport, a woman who’s tangled with gods and monsters and come out on top (if a bit damaged in the process). But she wasn’t always a formidable engine of brute force and pragmatism; she started out alone, in a strange city, without allies or any more power than the average teenage runaway on the street. Marla was always willing to do anything necessary to survive, and it didn’t take long for her to stumble into a world of magic, danger… and even the occasional moment of grace.

Bone Shop tells the story of Marla’s evolution from runaway to sorcerer’s apprentice to mercenary magician and beyond. Fans of the urban fantasy series that began with Blood Engines will find surprising secrets revealed about Marla’s past, and new readers can meet the character from the very beginning.

• Along the same lines, fantasy author Catherynne M. Valente is writing the free online YA novel The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship of Her Own Making. She’s using a donation model in order to shore up funds in a crappy economy as well. But she shares another similarity with Pratt in that the internet model works as it’s not a book she felt she had a market for:

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making began as a book-within-a-book in my adult novel, Palimpsest, a part of the protagonist’s childhood, a strange novel for children written in the 1920s, about a young girl spirited away to Fairyland by the Green Wind, and her adventures there, battling the wicked Marquess, befriending outlandish creatures, and growing up. As I traveled to promote the book, readers asked me one question more than any other:

Is it real?

And I said no, no, it’s fiction, just part of the world of the novel. And then, every time, the next question would come:

Are you going to write it?

And again, I said no. It’s impossible—a YA book hidden in a very much not-YA novel. No one would publish it…. [more]

This is fascinating and awesome Some, like Jennifer Hudock, author of the new podiobook The Goblin Market, say it’s a revolution, and that we have a worthy fight on our hands.

… it’s time that we as writers, artists, musicians, creators of all breed, take our careers back into our own hands and make them real. It’s time that we put our energy into our dreams so we can tell our dayjobs to stuff it… and if you like your day job, that’s okay too, but wouldn’t you rather be exerting your energy on the things you really love? I know I would and I actually write for a living–just not about the things that matter to me.

A revolution doesn’t have to be a violent thing, though at times it might get brutal. The world may resist it.

Others caution creators, saying that you have to remember that good content is still the goal here. It’s not just the delivery system. Author and blogger David Niall Wilson agrees that times are changing, but content still rules.

Quality is the one factor you can never count out. Anything you think you can just flip over in a week and make a million bucks on—particularly if you base that assumption on the fact someone else made a million in a similar fashion and you think you can discount disparities in fame, talent, and hard work—is going to get you just as much nothing now as it would have before the Internet and digital content became a factor.

So we all agree that things are changing, and if there ever was a time to try something new, now is that time. But in your rush to be innovative, to be awesome, to be a marketing god, never ever forget that it is what you create when you’re NOT hanging out on Twitter or playing games on Facebook or spreading the word about your new project that makes all of this worthwhile.

Writing prompt for July 1: Your protag finds a dropped full box of popcorn with a diamond ring inside. The popcorn is fresh.

And dude, this is something that everyone should know. It’s a golden rule you learn in preschool.

Rule 5- Don’t be an ass.

While this is one of my main rules in life, I hadn’t thought to include it as a specific writing rule. But it seems people need to know. Especially in regards to the Internet. Back in The Day, a popular phrase was “on the Internet, no one knows you’re a dog.” Well now people can not only find out that you’re a dog, but can look up a picture of your doghouse on Google Street View. Back in The Day, you had to work hard to let all your fans know you’re an ass. Now you can do it in a weekend tirade on Twitter. (Notice, of course, that Hoffman did not apologize to the reviewer whose personal information she put on her Twitter account; she apologized to her READERS. This is a passive aggressive move, and continues to break the “don’t be an ass” rule.)

I don’t care if you’re a NYT Bestseller or a wanna-be about to write your first fanfic. There are tools availalbe to everyone to search the web to find when you or your product are being talked about. (For example, I casually mentioned a Brad Sucks song on my Twitter account – and note that I did NOT @bradsucks, I just mentioned his name – and he replied within 10 min.) You can vent about rejection, about reviews, about your bad day, sure. We’re all human. BUT the moment you target someone, the moment it goes from, “Damn, I just got rejected,” to “Jane Agent doesn’t know what she’s [EXPLETIVE DELETED] talking about, she wouldn’t know a good book if it hit her in her [REDACTED],” you’ve damned yourself. If Jane Agent is online and paying attention (and a LOT of agents are, these days), she’s going to notice, brand you as a sour grapes author, and probably note that if your attitude is like this now, it may not change if your writing ever improves to make her consider you for representation.

I saw a funny tweet today from @TeresaMedeiros: “RWA [Romance Writers of America] Survival Tip: Never talk about author/editor/publisher in bathroom. Odds of them being in next stall: 100%.”

People. The Internet is the bathroom, and Google searching tools are the next stall. If you talk about someone, they will hear you. Don’t be an ass.

There are a lot more links to deal with, but that will be a later blog post. Bizzy bizzy day ahead for me.

Writing prompt for June 30: They had to lay off the executioner because crime rates dropped. Now what?

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Sudden thought today: it seems the scifi authors who wrote about things that actually ended up happening (like the Internet or nanotech) seem to happily embrace the swiftly changing landscape of the world, while others (cough*Ray*cough*Bradbury*cough) seem to hate the science-fiction-come-true of today. Do we think there’s a connection?

Vacation has been full of family and painful tumbles down stairs (i’m fine, just bruised) so posting will continue to be light. Although I do hope to get you some podcasts shortly.

Writing prompt for June 23: The light is scary because it gives you no good place to hide, right?

But now that I’m here, I can blog, write, read and plan, in between family visitation. Which is good, cause I’ve got stuff on my mind, which is the topic of today’s blog post.

I feel pregnant.

Now, as I’ve actually been pregnant, I don’t literally feel pregnant. Pregnancy felt bloated, anxious, and all wiggly inside. It wasn’t not a feeling connected to creating, even though that’s what I was doing.

But the metaphor of feeling pregnant before you create still seems to apply, even though a cynical part of my brain has to be told to shut up when she pipes up (writing a book is nothing like labor – there’s no blood, no vomit, no epidural to make things easier or to fail horribly, you don’t tear, you don’t have people calling you the wrong name as they’re coaching you to push…)

Ahem.

Anyway, I’ve been feeling this great sense of potential. It’s hiding there, behind a tree. Sometimes it looms and scares me a little bit. I feel like I need to put away the shiny electronic devices and get out the old pen and paper to make some notes.

I wonder what’s lurking there, what baby is waiting to come out. What scares me is that I already have many, many projects in the queue. Apart from my WIP (Heaven Season Five: WAR), there are four more novels waiting. Also two podiodrama series. And an unknown number of freelance gigs to come in between now and, uh, later.

I’m itching to outline, to plan. I’m reading an ARC of Jeff VanderMeer’s Booklife and it’s already speaking volumes to me. Perhaps it’s the inspiration. I don’t know. All I know is I need to get back to that whole creating thing. Finish one project so I can move onto the next.

I feel vague. Unsure of myself. But absolutely full of potential.

Writing prompt for June 20: The nicest lady in town is middle aged, widowed, and has the largest private collection of carnivorous plants (even some contraband) in the US.

• Excellent advice from Joanna Penn about What I Wish I’d Known Before Writing My First Book — (This inspired today’s Measurable Goals post, for the record.)
• Is anyone using the Atlantis Word Processor? It has a “publish to ebook” feature with the new update, and I’m curious how well it works. If you are using it, please let me know! (I’d test it, but it looks to be PC only, dangit.)
• More authors taking control of their own careers online: Jet Pack.
• Next month I’m going to have I Should Be Writing participate in the microloaning site, Kiva.org, looking for people to support in creative endeavors. I’ll be featuring them here.

Measurable goals.

Having a clear goal in mind when you start any project is vital to its success. And it’s something I have lacked.

Sure, when I start a project, I vaguely want to finish it. I want it to “sell” or “be a success” or “be popular.” But except for the goal of “finish what I started”- none of these are measurable goals. When will I know that my project has reached “success”?

So earlier this year I got a notebook and gave each project I’m working on its own page. I left most of the pages blank to make room for various ideas/to-dos to be completed later, but at the bottom of each page I listed a measurable goal. $X a month, Y listeners by Z date, etc. I find this helps me focus so much better on what I’m working on. Yes, I’m doing the same thing as before- writing, producing, etc. But now I know why.

Know when you want to finish that novel. Know when you want to send it out. Know when your agent hunt is going to start, and, possibly, stop. Know when you’re going to podcast or self-publish and how you’re going to market. I’m not saying you need this all laid out before you start, but you need something to work toward, something you can measure.

If you’re just starting out you need measurable goals as well. Think about how many words to write a week. Think about finishing a story by the end of the month. Think about submitting a story by the end of next month. Having a goal instead of “I think I’ll write a story” is a good way to push yourself to finish. Because one of the biggest problems with writing when you just start out is that no one else cares; I don’t mean you don’t have a support system, I mean that it’s not like your job in that you don’t have a manager giving you project specifications, milestones, etc. You will not suffer a consequence if you don’t finish that story. With goals, you will know what you need to do, and while still you don’t have another person waiting on you, you will at least have a more structured plan to work on as if someone had given you specifics.

I got some good outline info from my post on Monday, so I’ll be compiling them soon.

Writing prompt for June 17: It’s the crazy cat lady down the street’s birthday. What does one buy her?

So we have snowflake, what other outlining tools are there? I’ll be looking for some, but if you know any please let me know, send links!

Writing prompt for June 15: MacGuffin: a CD case with the wrong CD in it.

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 such as J.C. Hutchins, Matt Wallace, Christiana Ellis, Matthew Wayne Selznick, and Philippa Ballantine to name a few – podcast your work, build your audience, get noticed by publishers. But each of us has a different story, different publishers, different plans for the future.

Sometimes I get down and think that I wish my career or my writing or my skills were more like that of any number of authors. I wish even that I could have their fighting spirit, or their fearlessness, or their compassion. But down that road is madness.

I’m me. I’m not them. I’m me and I’m going to have the career I’m going to have. The minute I start trying to be like them, I become untrue to myself and could even squash my natural skillset, a skillset that has proven to work for me, if I could just stop whining and open my eyes. Can I take cues from my peers? Sure! It’s wise to learn from people with experience. But there’s a difference between learning from someone and trying to force their carbon copy onto your unique person. It just won’t work. At best, you’ll be seen as a copy, at worst, you’ll fall flat on your face.

So be you. When you write that book, write your book. When you decide how to release it, decide what’s best for you. When you decide how to promote it, decide what fits you best. When you decide how to communicate with your audience, do what fits your personality. Learn from your peers, but BE YOU.

Writing prompt for June 13: Begin writing a scene. The moment you stop writing to think about what to say next, write, “what I really want to say is-” and get going. Maybe you’ll continue. Maybe you’ll end up writing the scene you were meant to write. It surprises your mind into being more honest.

Video of the day: Being you can be scary. But neat things can happen when you’re you. (watch till the end. It’s so worth it.)

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: ISBW #119
• 00:37: GoTo Meeting Message
• 01:30: Balticon was a blast!
• 02:30: War launched June 1
• 05:23: Promo: John Mierau’s Serving Worlds
• 06:17: Ghostbusters’ lessons – and yes, I now remember SW’s character was not Zool – If someone asks you if you’re a god, YOU SAY YES. (most of the time)
• 13:35: Promo: Feedback: A Hero’s Calling Season 2
• 14:50: Interview with Seth Harwood, author of Jack Wakes Up
• 35:07: Promo: JC Hutchins’ Personal Effects: Sword of Blood
• 36:58: Feedback: Very awesome “I’m a writer” email, outlining including the snowflake method, wordcount, standard manuscript format (see edit below), mentors, you’re allowed to suck, kill your darlings, self publishing, more outlines, putting work online, Super Note Card is good writing software for PCs, how to send mss to publishers when you can’t afford printing, always send polished mss to agents/publishers!

EDIT- mistakenly said standard manuscript format is 10 pt Courier- I was wrong. It’s 12 pt Courier. Sorry! Thanks to people who reminded me!

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” on the cover page. I’m still not 100% happy with it.

I wonder, if HEAVEN ever sells to a publisher, if i’ll need to change the title simply because it’s not a Christian book, it’s not inspirational, and the title could be misleading. Interesting that I never worried about this when it was a free podcast.

My work in progress after HEAVEN Season 5- War is called merely Project: Underground. That’s named after one of the businesses in the novel, Underground Publications, but I do know that the final book won’t be titled that. I still don’t know what to call it. It’s driving me mad.

Another book I’m brewing in the back of my head had a perfect title. Then I found out that a YA book is coming out this fall with the SAME DAMN TITLE. I know it doesn’t stop some people- hell, there are several books title “Playing For Keeps.” How many songs are titled “I Love You” or “Lullabye” or “Crackity Jones”? (OK, I’m pretty sure the last one has only one.)

Titles can come from characters’ names. Or settings names. The setting names seems like a cop-out. I just read Amberville by Tim Davys and the book takes place in Amberville. On the other hand, the TV show “The Office” is perfectly name, as it brings across the bland existence that the characters endure in the office. Titles can come from something that happened, or a specific maguffin in the story (”Charlotte’s Web”). But what symies me is when to decide what path to take. Person, place, thing? Action? Specific occurance in the book? How about a quote from the Bible or Shakespeare?

This is more of a rant than anything else. I struggle with this with everything I write. Sometimes I feel like I hit it, othertimes not so much. And I always wonder if a story/book would have more resonance if they had had the perfect name.

I’m dealing with a funk that was supposed to be done with on Wednesday night (Yes, sometimes I do demand my moods stay on schedule, don’t you?) and I’m really hoping to kick it this weekend. I don’t like functioning like this. So pardon the lack of useful blog post.

Writing prompt for June 12: New supporting character: The half-brother no one ever talks about comes home. He doesn’t need money, a job, or hiding from the law or the mafia. What does he want?

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 pretty upset, and as I was driving around yesterday afternoon, I was going through all the situations of what I could do now. What my next step should be. I was brainstorming at top speed, coming up with 100 different ideas.

Then I stopped.

Yesterday at the height of disappointment was not the time to make decisions. As I’ve said before, I needed to give myself a definite span of time to feel bad, to mourn, for lack of a better word. It’s not a good idea to make any decision when emotions are high, and that fits in writing as well.

And the next step is always clear in writing:

1. Write.
2. Finish.
3. Send it out.
4. Work on the next project – AKA- GOTO 1. (Sorry. A little BASIC joke.)

So I have my next step. And when the emotions calm down, I can think about what to do about Yesterday’s Great Disappointment.

But for now, I write.

Writing prompt for June 11: Someone gives your protag a gift certificate to a spa for a day of pampering. Does s/he go?

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 nuclear holocost. Whatever you throw at me, I’ll scuttle away from. Sure, you might bend a leg, or damage an antennae, but I will remain.

Why am I a roach? Everywhere around us we encounter people telling us we can’t, or shoudn’t write. The message is the same, but the meaning behind this is mind bogglingly myriad.

I apparently shouldn’t write because:

• I had a dream to write once, and I failed, and you will too.
• If you succeed I have to look at my own failures and wonder why I didn’t do as well.
• You aren’t good enough; if you don’t sell/make a bestseller the first time out, you might as well be crap.
• There are so many writers better than you who had minuscule careers.
• It’s too hard; there’s too much work with too little payoff.

The people who tell me this are telling me why THEY shouldn’t write. Why THEY don’t dream high anymore. And good for them, that they know their obviously stilted limitations.

Me? I’m a roach. Try to step on me. Throw a bomb at me. Go for it.

I’m invincible. And I’ll keep going long after you think I should be dead.

Writing prompt for June 10: Your supporting characters have their own goals aside from your protag. What are they?

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.

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 fascinating. I can’t wait to actually start following the clues in the retail version of the book.

Other podcasters in the vlurb: Philippa Ballantine: Chasing the Bard, Digital Magic, Weather Child, Scott Sigler: Infected, Contagious, Ancestor, Seth Harwood: Jack Wakes Up, Jack Palms 2 & 3, Young Junius, Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff: Number One with a Bullet, Shadow Falls, Diary of a Madman, Christiana Ellis: Nina Kimberly the Merciless, Space Casey, Matt Wallace: The Next Fix, The Failed Cities Monologues, James Melzer: The Zombie Chronicles – Escape, Stephen Eley: Editor of Escape Pod, and publisher of the horror fiction podcast Pseudopod, Mark Jeffrey: The Pocket and the Pendant, The Two Travelers, Phil Rossi: Crescent, Tales from the Vault, Eden, and Matthew Wayne Selznick: Brave Men Run, Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights.

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 most of the weekend off, as I was relaxing Saturday and sick yesterday. I now am behind, but at least I’m well rested.

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So I promised you a writing secret. The secret is this- Nearly everything I tell you not to do, I’m guilty of. That’s how I know it’s bad. When I get rejected, I’m positive my writing is utter crap and there’s a tiny little voice saying, “Maybe you should just quit.” When I get even constructive criticism that is meant to make the work better, part of me is crushed that it wasn’t perfect the first time out. I find it nigh impossible to write every day unless I’m faced with a deadline.

Essentially I don’t want you to think I’ve conquered all of these things. I haven’t conquered a damn one of them. Which is why I continue to blog and podcast about them. This is a war that may be won some day, but for now all I see are battles. Someday perhaps I’ll have the thick skin needed to really charge ahead no matter what arrows hit me.

Writing prompt for June 8: Send a character on a healing walkabout.

Tough love post for the day: What are the odds of your first novel actually being your first novel?

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 God Do This Now project, which was a 15-20 thousand word project due in less than a week. I actually overwrote and got 25 thousand words in four days.

I was tired.

So yesterday I took a day off. The most taxing thing I did all day was answer some emails that had piled up during the week.

And dang, it felt good. I relaxed, cleared my head from the stress of the rough draft, and this morning woke up ready to get started again. I have War to edit and record and post, an ISBW that you have been waiting for, and oh yeah, get started on edits for the OMGDTN project, final draft due this Thursday.

But days off are pretty cool. Don’t forget that.

Writing prompt for June 7: Having a story start with a character waking up is overused and cliche’. But what happens if you start a story with the last thought a character has before s/he goes to sleep?

Article you must read: Show or Tell? Can Creative Writing be Taught? (via my buddy @pixelvixen707 on Twitter) And I’ll have a longer blog post about my response to this later.

I fiddled with a chapter. I sent some email. I looked around in confusion. I went to bed early.

I guess sometimes you do run out of words.

Project is due today for better or for worse. I’m going to hit it, there is no doubt about that, but I’ll be a drooling vegetable by the end of the day. (And for the record, when this thing gets announced, you better believe I’m pimping the hell out of it!)

Thus, no pithy writing comments today, except to say I *do* have an episode for you, it just needs editing. Will get to it as soon as I can, promise.

Writing prompt for June 5: Someone gives your main character a plant that’s particularly hard to take care of. How do they react?

Advice you simply must have: The economy sucks, publishers are very careful about what they’re buying, is it time to quit? No, says Nathan Bransford, it’s time to Step Up Your Game.

I’m going to channel my inner Coach Taylor on you now and speak in declarative sentences.

“Listen up! We got a big submission Friday night, and the publishers out there are going through some hard times. They want to see your submissions sparkling! They want perfection, and as the literary agent of this here team I aim to give it to ‘em! It’s time to look deep inside yourself and step up yer game! This means everything from revising to your queries to your submissions needs to be absolutely 110% perfect. And anyone who wants to cry about it can take off their shoulder pads and get off my field!”

That was fun.

So I feature the archives of perhaps the first great agent blog. Miss Snark was anonymous, and therefore allowed to say whatever she liked on her blog. While she was loved and #queryfail was reviled, I’ll never know. (Although I’m sure many didn’t love her honesty, but it sure answered a lot of questions for me.)

Miss Snark no longer blogs, but that doesn’t mean her archives aren’t as useful as ever. Searching can be clunky, but if you’re patient you can find the answer the your questions.

Writing Prompt for June 4: go to Google Images. Type in one word. Write about the first image you see. (Caveat- you may want to have safe search on, depending on what you’re writing.)

And I hit that goal. And still managed to screw up. My goals weren’t well defined.

Not only does this project have a wordcount, but it also has a chapter count. I wrote the right number of words, but the wrong number of chapters. So some of the words were extraneous and may need to be cut. This is not good use of words.

Must define goals more rigidly.

Writing prompt for June 3: What is your main character allergic to?

Must-read blog post: Jay Lake’s On Exercise – something all writers need to heed.

Once I was able to accept [exercise, or body movement] as a writing-related program activity, just as important as story marketing, reading or research, then it became a lot easier to adapt my behavior.

I hear this with parents of multiple kids. I’m here, exhausted from taking care of my one six-year-old, and I ask my friend, the mother of twins, “how the hell do you do it?” She just looks at me blankly and says, “I just do.” Well of course she does. Because she doesn’t have a choice.

When it comes to writing, sure, you have a choice. You can NOT write that novel, or NOT hit the wordcount. I’m sure you’ve NOT done these things several days out of your life. But at some point you have to decide if the consequences of you not doing something are worth it. If not, then you have to do it. You have no choice. There’s no other driver waiting on you, no nanny’s going to come to your door. You have to do that project.

I recently accepted a freelance writing project that has a night-impossible wordcount for 5 days. And I’m going to do it.

Because I can’t not.

In fact, I need to get started.

Writing prompt for June 2: Your character has a “dead” anniversary; celebrating something that no longer exists (example- s/he’s divorced, fallen off the AA wagon, something). How does s/he deal with or commemorate such a day?

Writing advice for the day: Practice failing until you can fly, from The Creative Penn (sounds a little like “you’re allowed to suck,” doesn’t it?). Incidentally, @thecreativepenn is a Twitter handle every writer should follow.

Writing prompt for June 1: Your character has one birthday in the past s/he won’t talk about. Why? How does that affect your story’s present day?

Best Writing Advice for the Day: 8. Don’t ever type a comment or blog post while angry.  Step away, call a friend, eat an entire pie. From 10 Author Online Promotional Don’ts

Query Advice for the Day: Don’t talk about your children, pets, or job unless it’s directly related to what you’re writing. Every aspect of your query letter should be focused toward selling book. (Actually, I’m pretty sure you never mention your children, even of – or especially if – you’re writing a children’s book.)

In this video, we have two versions of my WAR trailer, and lots of help and love from fans. I asked for content, and got well over TWENTY comments, videos and audio clips. Deluge of love! I couldn’t use them all, but I do plan on putting each comment either on the site or in an audio promo, so don’t think you did a bunch of work for nothing.

And as usual, I forget someone in the credits- ARGH. Natalie Metzger did some graphic design doctoring on the WAR cover, and she created the amazingly creepy image of our new villain, the masked woman you’ll see in the video. Also, Will Hoffacker took the still pics of me and JR Blackwell from Balticon.

[EDIT You can get all of the ISBW video episodes on YouTube now!]

Camera work by John Cmar, Additional Direction by David Moldawer

Second, I have some plans for this blog come June 1. Yeah, that’s when WAR launches, call me crazy. ISBW the blog will be changing a bit then, too. I encourage you to subscribe via RSS or email so you don’t miss anything. And yes it’s a secret, I have to TANTALIZE. It’s how I roll.

Third- links links links! (Incidentally, I need to do a blog post about industry pros you need to follow for writing advice links. But not now.)

• A bit of common sense publicity advice from the Books and Such Literary Agency.
• Don’t get me started on the irony, but O’Reilly did a lengthy study about the effect free ebook distribution has on book sales, and has released the findings in a $99 PDF. I’m waiting to hear people talk about it, myself, but I am interested in the results.
• Writing your “About” page on your website from Write to Done

That’s it for now, but there’s always more on the horizon. Hope to see you at Balticon!

The kit:
Pens
Self-adhesive #10 envelopes for small queries and SASEs
Self-adhesive large envelopes for larger queries/partials
Tracking system for queries
Stamps (USA just raised postage to $0.44)
Adhesive address labels
And a chair.

Sponsored by Personal Effects, Dark Art.

She’s on a mission to kill the man who loves her. Why? Because he’s an idiot. Ten years ago, Nina Kimberly the Merciless was cheated out of the life of adventure that she truly deserves. Her father, the fearsome barbarian conqueror Marcus the Merciless, met his first and only defeat at the hands of, well… a gopher hole. Ever since this epic humiliation, she and the rest of the horde have been stuck in the rural backwater kingdom of Langia. Now Francis IX, the idiotic king, has decided that he and Nina should be married. She can’t kill him without starting a succession war, but the alternatives? Eww! Nina has long yearned for a hero to sweep her up on a glorious quest, but Francis’ unwanted affections have forced her hand. No more waiting for a quest to find her, it’s time to get proactive. She sets off into the big wide world, but the King decides to tag along, complete with a security spell to alert the Kingdom if he’s killed. Nina is forced to swallow her pride and keep him safe… at least until she can find a way to break the spell. But nothing is ever simple in the life of a barbarian princess, and nothing is ever quite what it appears. The dragon is a pacifist (sometimes). The handsome rogue is a con-artist, but who is he conning? And even the wizard has a few surprises in store. While seeking the answer to all her problems, Miss the Merciless discovers that what she’s always wanted may not actually be what she wants.

…and now you can get her story for free. In this feed you will find the full PDF of the novel Nina Kimberly the Merciless. If you like it, please support the author an pick up a copy on Amazon either in print or for your Kindle.

I’m a fan of this book, I call it what happens when humor author Terry Pratchett meets fantasy author Robin McKinley. Good for YA and adult readers alike. If you like a fun adventure story, Nina Kimberly is the heroine for you.

We are also proud to be sponsored by JC Hutchins’ Personal Effects series, the podcast Sword of Blood, launching for free on May 15, 2009, and the novel Personal Effects: Dark Art, launching mid-June (pre-order now!)

• 00:07: ISBW #118
• 00:37: GoTo Meeting Message
• 01:43: More writing on War
• 03:00: Promo: Christiana Ellis’ Nina Kimberly the Merciless
• 04:16: How to restart a project.
• 11:30: Outlining can be your friend.
• 13:30: Promo: JC Hutchins’ Personal Effects: Sword of Blood
• 14:50: Interview with Christiana Ellis, author of Nina Kimberly the Merciless
• 32:10: Promo: Starship Sofa features Michael Bishop
• 36:40: Feedback: chasing after freelance checks, number of projects at once, the value of an MFA, collaborative writing tools, colored lights for writing, how to hit the balance between detail in SF without boring people with details.

We are also proud to be sponsored by JC Hutchins’ Personal Effects series, the podcast Sword of Blood, launching for free on May 15, 2009, and the novel Personal Effects: Dark Art, launching mid-June (pre-order now!)

• 00:07: ISBW #117
• 00:37: GoTo Meeting Message
• 01:43: Crossed the 20K word mark on War
• 03:03: Promo: JC Hutchins’ Personal Effects: Sword of Blood
• 06:00: Download archives of  ISBW at Murverse
• 08:30: Mur’s Four Basic Rules of Writing
  (EDIT) I’ve had request for the four rules to be in text form on the site, so here you go!
• 17:34: Promo: Nina Kimberly the Merciless
• 19:22: Interview with Scott Sigler, author of The Rookie
• 42:40: Promo: Scott Sigler’s The Rookie
• 44:47: Feedback, or lack thereof

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

• 00:07: ISBW #117
• 00:37: GoTo Meeting Message
• 01:27: Allergy Attack!
• 01:52: Change in show format – adding interviews, subtracting nothing
• 03:57: Progress report on WAR
• 04:40: Hope to see you at Balticon- sign up for our ISBW Workshop!
• 05:30: Join me for breakfast at Balticon!
• 05:57: Promo: Jack Wakes Up
• 07:52: What can you get out of writing magazines? We peruse two to find out.
• 18:00: Promo: How To Succeed In Evil: The Novel
• 19:17: Interview with China Miéville, author of The City & The City
• 01:02:39: Promo: The Signal
• 01:04:20: Feedback! You can do book galleys at Lulu.com
• 01:07:34: Voicemail: How DO you write a prologue? We look to Nathan Bransford’s blog for answers.

As a mom, I’m very aware of what is “safe” for my daughter. Away from the hot oven, bike helmet on, don’t poke the hissing cat. And in this case, “safe” is very good. Because if you do not play on the “safe” side, you are in danger of harming yourself. Even in terms of being a daredevil or practicing unsafe sex, the rewards of a bit of excitement are definitely not worth the dangers of harming yourself, someone else, getting pregnant, etc.

But then we talk about taking chances creatively. You’re afraid of failing, of having people laugh at you, or worse, not reading you at all. You feel that trunking that story, or heck, not writing it in the first place, is “safe”. And in this case, “safe” is a bad word. Because if you do the “risky” thing, then the rewards so vastly outweigh the penalties that I wonder why we worry about it in the first place.

But of course we do. We’re human. Emotions rule us much stronger than the logic of, “If I submit that story, I have a small chance of being published. If I do not submit it, that small chance drops to 0%.”

But think about it. The next time you’re scared to do something, and you want to remain “safe” – ask yourself if it’s “safe as in seat belt” or “safe as in story submission.”

Stupid sidewalk.

[ending the metaphor here because I am not sure how to continue with the thought that walking that particular sidewalk is what I've wanted to do since I was twleve. Bear with me.]

Don’t worry about failure. Agents don’t care how many times you failed when they look at your book. Editors don’t care. The only time someone is going to care how much you failed is when you’re successful and hopefuls will ask you how long it took you to get there.

So how do you keep going?

1) Let yourself mourn.

“Mourn” feels strong here, but I just mean that you need to acknowledge those feelings of hurt, rejection, and anger. Some people feel more determined when this happens: stiffening the upper lip and all that. But I know myself well enough that if something bad happens to me, I need to let myself feel like crap. I don’t wallow in it; I have a specific time period where I let myself feel bad, and then I make myself move on. But if I don’t give myself that day, I’ll feel a low grade depression in the back of my consciousness for a couple of days later. I know what I need, and I need a little bit of time to process the fact that I’ve been knocked down.

Make sure you get some food, some sleep. Take a walk. These are all basics, but you would be surprised with how much taking care of those three basic needs will improve your mood.

2) Realize that agent hunting is a two way street.

You don’t want anyone who isn’t absolutely crazy about your book representing you. I could get scores of writers on the show who can tell you about the agents what done them wrong. If an agent won’t represent your book, they don’t think it’s right for them, but also, they aren’t right for the book. So you are lucky that they said no. The only thing that sucks is you have to take more time to find the agent who is right.

3) This is not the only story you will ever write.

Many people get so excited that they wrote a story or a book that they invest all their emotional energy into it, not realizing that if they want to do this and get published be a pro writer, they have to write more, have more ideas. If you wrote something that didn’t sell, or needs to be trunked, write something else. That one may do better. Think about your favorite author- have they ever written something you don’t like? You need to keep moving, keep writing, stay hungry and always moving forward, like a shark. That story you’re trying to sell or the novel you’re trying to get represented should be a secondary thing; the primary thing on your mind should be what you’re writing now.

You are writing now, aren’t you?

4) Remember that you are in control of your career.

I don’t mean that you can force agents and editors to do what you want. I mean that it’s in your power to trunk the story, edit it, send it back out, put it on your blog, release it via audio, make it into a youtube video, or any number of other options. Because one person says you can’t go down one street, that doesn’t mean the city is closed.

I forget this all the time. It’s kinda funny, actually, as I have done the POD, podcast, audio drama, PDF, etc pathways. And yet I find myself stuck on How Things Should Be and don’t see How Things That Could Be.

5) Quitting means you’ll never succeed.

Sure, if you keep going, you may keep getting rejected. But if you quit, the removal of the chance of rejection also means the removal of the chance of acceptance. Yeah, you’ll never fail again. Good for you. How many people do you admire who quit in order to minimize risk?

I interviewed Dr. John Kessel, winner of the 2009 Nebula Award for best novella novelette (eep- sorry, best novella was won by “The Spacetime Pool” – Catherine Asaro)! We talked in a coffee shop, so please forgive the background noise.

• Did I mention you can get the early info of the new Heaven book at the site, if you join the Inside Story?
• Promo: Get a $3 discount off Scott Sigler’s The Rookie with the discount code MUR
• Interview with Dr. John Kessel, author of Pride and Prometheus, winner of the Nebula award! Audio files at his website, the story here, and his free, CC licensed short story collection from Small Beer Press here. We talk education, longer short fiction, and translating a story to television.
• Promo: Amaz!ng Meeting 7
• Lastly, what direction would YOU like to see ISBW go in? More interviews? Mix of interviews and advice? I need your input!

I Should Be Writing by Mur Lafferty is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Set in a lethal pro football league 700 years in the future, The Rookie is a story that combines the intense gridiron action of “Any Given Sunday” with the space opera style of “Star Wars” and the criminal underworld of “The Godfather.”

Aliens and humans alike play positions based on physiology, creating receivers that jump 25 feet into the air, linemen that bench-press 1,200 pounds, and linebackers that literally want to eat you. Organized crime runs every franchise, games are fixed and rival players are assassinated.

Follow the story of Quentin Barnes, a 19-year-old quarterback prodigy that has been raised all his life to hate, and kill, those aliens. Quentin must deal with his racism and learn to lead, or he’ll wind up just another stat in the column marked “killed on the field.”

And if you use the code MUR you can save $3!

This is a limited edition book – once it’s sold out, that’s it. It’s hardcover, embossed, and includes eight color plates inside.

Football fans love this book. As do adults, scifi fans, teens, crime fans, and even sports-haters. There’s a reason this is Sigler’s most popular podcast- it’s a widely appealing book.

Remember, use the code MUR for a discount off the cover price and save!

And I’ll have Scott on the podcast in May to discuss how this promotion ran, so stay tuned for another Scott Sigler interview!

I come up from illness to say hi and talk about stuff!

• My Story “Mother Sponge” came out in Hub magazine!
• Friend me at GoodReads!
• Promo: GreatHites
• Beginnings, prologues, and yes, you are allowed to suck!
• Promo: Nina Kimberly the Merciless
• 6 yr old Nicholas Skidmore, author
• New software: Jer’s Novel Writer, DarkCopy, JDarkRoom

But from the outside, here’s what we KNOW happened: many, many books, focusing mainly on gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, disabled, feminist, and sexual abuse issues (this included Heather Has Two Mommies, a bio of Ellen DeGeneres, and Paul Monnette’s 1992 National Book Award winner Becoming a Man) were pulled from the Amazon search rankings. What this means is that they won’t show up on bestseller lists, and searching for general topics (for example, “homosexuality” – imagine if you were a kid struggling with some issues and saw this search…) will not reveal the books.

It was a holiday weekend. Amazon is on the west coast. So I’m going to be watching keenly later today to see how they deal with this. I really can’t see the largest bookseller consciously doing a censoring action this huge and not addressing it, or fixing it ASAP.

But what concerns me is the response of some of people. Not even homophobes – just people who didnt really understand why this matters. Many authors were outraged at seeing their own books pulled. But one comment on a blog scared the crap out of me. Someone said that their books weren’t pulled, so they weren’t too upset.

By the electric hammer of Thor, are you insane?

I’m not gay, I don’t write books with queer themes, and I know this action – whatever the cause – is bad news for all authors and readers. As a reader, if you want to search for a book but can’t remember the title or the author, but it’s got this lesbian as the heroine and you remember the general theme, searching on amazon won’t help you.

And I can tell you, as a small press author who can probably safely say at LEAST 90% of my sales have come through Amazon, having your ranking pulled is a nightmare. If people are just looking for a general book about your theme, they’re not going to find it. And that kills your sales.

And also, it matters because, as Neil Gaiman says, once they censor the stuff that YOU don’t agree with, or even care about, they will have the precedent to censor more, and eventually they will censor the stuff that you think is OK, and then maybe they will censor the stuff that you actually like, and then you will think, “Oh no! We must stand up and FIGHT this!” And everyone will look at you, tired and beaten, and say, “Where the hell were you last year, jerk?”

As Gaiman says [the brackets are mine]-

Because if you don’t stand up for the stuff you don’t like [or write], when they come for the stuff you do like [or write], you’ve already lost.

Writers have to read. Seriously. How in the hell do you intend to know how to write a book if you don’t read them?

I remember when I helped moderate the forums at Lulu.com and I read a post about a writer who defended that s/he didn’t have to read because they learned all about plot from movies. (and somehow they expected others to read THEIR books…)

Oy.

I used to read a ton. And I still love books. I keep buying them. But I’m reading at a much slower rate than childhood, or even when the Pink Tornado was a baby. But there’s less reading. And lots of buying. This doesn’t add up.

It came to a head when I was looking for a John Kessel book the other day before my interview with him (which was awesome, and I can’t wait to bring it to you). I knew it was in my To Be Read pile(s), so as I started shifting through them, I was horrifed at the size, the dust, the horribleness of it all.

I’ve tried to read more in 09. Reviewing for Tor will help this, as there’s actual monetary incentive to read books. And although I did slow down when I hit Thunderer, I need to pick back up. So I’m going to try the public humiliation thing. I will be updating my GoodReads profile in the coming days with my To Be Read shame. Feel free to friend me on Good Reads, and I’ll be keeping track of my reading here in the sidebar.

It’s not even all scifi! I have memoirs, collections of letters, essays, non-fic, how-to, etc. I want to expand my mind, see. And I can’t do that if I spend most of my evenings online (not even writing).

I should be reading. I’ll need support.

In writing, we as writers ask established writers for advice/critiques, ask agents to represent us, we ask editors to publish us, we ask reviewers to read and review (favorably, hopefully!), we ask other authors to blurb us, and we ask readers to buy our books. We’re a needy bunch.

One of my favorite stories involving a particularly myopic writer was told in Tobias Buckell’s twitter stream. Apparently a writer had asked him to read his novel and critique it. Toby had patiently replied with a list of good reference books for writers. The writer responded saying he didn’t have time (emphasis mine) to read the books, and couldn’t Toby please just give him comments already? Never mind that Toby is a full-time writer, both fiction and freelance. It never once occurred to him that Toby might not have time to read and crit a novel, which is no small task. Only his own situation was on his mind.

Another way not to ask for a favor is to disparage the person you’re asking. Sounds like common sense, right? That’s what Tess Gerrirsen thought, but check out her blog post on the subject. A publisher said they’d only send a PDF (read- no cost) of the book if she would guarantee a blurb, and a number of other non-professional coments.

And then, of course, we have the neverending brouhaha of #agentfail and #queryfail. Agents know what authors go through, because they work with authors, they get (highly unprofessional) responses to their rejections, and they see themselves portrayed as evil. They know very well what we think of them. But until recently, unagented authors really didn’t know about the agent life. They thought it was three-martini lunches and laughing with editors and swimming in rooms full of money like Scrooge McDuck. But when agents started blogging, talking about their slush piles, their lives, their pets, and *gasp* what they do when they’re not reading slush, some authors got angry. They say they don’t want to hear about the agents’ lives, pets, overwhelming work. But what I heard was, “You are not supposed to be human. You are supposed to work tirelessly until you discover me, then nourish my career. Then you may be allowed some time off to take me to lunch to discuss my huge advance, but till then, you are not permitted a life.”

This is not winning friends and influencing people. This is believing the entire world revolves around you and your manuscript, and everyone else are supporting characters in your life story, existing only to move your personal plot along. Everyone has a life. Everyone has a bad day at work. And everyone has a right to let off some steam.

Dude, rejection stinks. Trust me. Trust me. I have been pretty transparent about my career on this podcast and blog, but I haven’t told you everything. Trust me when I say I’ve drunk the large glasses of bile, I’ve pounded my fists into things, I’ve sat in stunned silence thinking, “Me? This is happening to ME and my BRILLIANT book?” But I have to remember that everyone else involved is not thinking, “Gee, how can I screw with Mur today?” They’re thinking, “Gotta take the dog to the vet, and I hope the kid doesn’t have pink eye again, and I need a good paranormal romance to pitch to Tor, and there are four Korean contracts to negotiate this afternoon, and good, I have five minutes to look over some queries as I drink a cup of coffee, let me see if any catch my eye… no? OK. I’ll look at more after lunch.”

So when you’re asking for something (blurb, critique, representation, etc) then remember that the person on the other end is having their own issues, their own life, and honestly may be wondering what helping you will do for them. Which is why you are polite, offering a favor in return, if a favor is what you want, or letting the agent/editor know why your book will serve them (and it’s NOT because, “this is the greatest book evar and will make us both rich.” Think more along the line of, “I know you have successfully represented/published X and feel my book is comperable.”)

Again we go back to Mur’s Golden Rule: Don’t be an ass.

*Dude, eighty cents on the Kindle, and as relevant in 2009 as it was in mid 20th century, although it is sometimes alarming to read, “when the first World War ended, I…”

—
Apropos of nothing, except speaking of Tobias Buckell, I found this on his blog:

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” -H. Jackson Brown

“This reminds me I have no one to blame for not achieving things than myself and my own dedication.” -Tobias Buckell

—
Progress on Heaven Season Five: War:

Get your wordcount meter from Writertopia

Show Notes:

• I’m doing a new thing with War – subscribe to the premium feed at the Heaven site!
• Promo: Dice Jockies
• You must check out the new interactive storytelling site, Storytron!
• David Moldawer and I are running a beginning writer workshop at Balticon this year!
• Create your own ebooks at Smashwords.com, you can also place your work at Scribd.com and Fictionpress.
• For scriptwriting, Celtx 2.0 was just released.
• I say I dont know where to get feedback on queries, but since this recording, Nathan Bransford has started the Be An Agent For A Day contest that you can submit to and have other authors look at your queries.
• Promo: French Quarter Hustle
• I’m going to start asking for feedback opinions from other podcast novelists, and the first is about character deaths from JC Hutchins, author of 7th Son and the upcoming novel, Personal Effects: Dark Art (pre-order now! You know you want to…)
• Let’s cheer on Carrie with her novel in the comments!
• The Book, a project portal
• We hear from a listener who got to see Mary Jo Pehl in Cinematic Titanic live! *jealous*
• Dead Robots Society on Create Space.
• I endorse, again, the Online Writer’s Workshop.
• I mention Viable Paradise and Clarion as good workshops for SF writers.
• More writing software: Write Room.

Not a lot of news this morning (people still mostly talking about the #*fail discussions). So I’ll talk about writer’s block.

I am sometimes guilty of scoffing at someone else’s problems, easily thinking up two or three ready solutions and wondering why they can’t just fix everything. That is, until the problem hits me and I feel it first-hand. Then I understand.

I had been scoffing at the concept of writer’s block. If you’re a writer, then you can write something. Anything. If you’re overthinking it, stop. If you don’t know what to write next in your story, switch scenes, switch stories, write a blog post. Outline the chapter. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Allow yourself to suck. Etc. Get the machine moving and you can get the work done.

I also find that I am much less likely to be blocked when I have a deadline. (Although I know that doesn’t work for everyone, as was proven during a rather train wreck of an RPG book I coauthored several years ago. I delivered on time. My co-author hit a wall and didn’t write word one.)

I never run out of ideas. I’ve lamented with my friend Ursula about how we have too many, how we don’t have time to follow them all up, and how they just bug us as we’re working on other things.

And yet. I wasn’t feeling my best this past Sunday night. I knew I wanted to get back into wordcount, so I opened up War. I had outlined the chapter. I knew what was going to happen next. And yet I couldn’t write. Chalk it up to exhaustion or writer’s block, but the words wouldn’t come.

Yesterday I opened the same file and sweated out 600 words before I had to do some errands. I’m not sure they’re good words, but it’s easy to edit bad words than no words.

I know where I’m going. I’ve outlined. The path looks clear. And yet the effort to get every paragraph down feels monumental and exhausting. Is this writer’s block? I have no idea. But I do sympathize better now with people who suffer it. And, as always, what I need to do is take my own damn advice. Change scenes. Write something else. Just move on and allow it to suck.

And keep writing.

Get wordcount generator from Writertopia

STATUS OF THE BLOG:

• More publishing news. There are a lot of things going on, and I want to be the one to deliver it to you.

STATUS OF THE PODCAST:

• One podcast to be edited and released ASAP.
• One interview with China Mieville to be edited and released in a couple of weeks.
• One video podcast idea brewing in my mind. Lots going on.

PUBLISHING:

• I’ve said frequently that there are many places to find out how to write a good query letter. One of the rules says that you should NOT assume that your book is destined for #1 NYT Bestsellerdom, the Nobel, the Pulitzer, or any other grand plan. It’s egotistical and it turns agents/publishers off. But if you don’t believe me, Rachelle Gardener’s blog has an excellent post about exactly WHY it turns them off.

• I talk about this in the upcoming ISBW, but as a response to #queryfail, the Bookends LLC Literary Agency blog just hosted #agentfail, where they invited writers to come and complain about agents. And the blog post has quite a few responses. Some are important – better communication is needed – but many were just railing against submission guidelines (no response = “no”).

  What amazes me is the sense of entitlement people have. That their having finished a book means that people will come begging at their door – never mind that every agent is dealing with 500 or so people a week with the exact same expectation. Manage expectations. Don’t be egotistical or self-defeating. Just understand what you’re going up against and know that if you follow the rules, you’ll have a good shot at getting attention. But think outside your own point of view. There are other authors. There are agents who are dealing with deluges of slush – and don’t forget their real job- actually representing clients. If you whine about the slush pile as a wanna-be-agented-writer, I bet you’re the kind who will whine when your agent pays attention to his/her slush instead of selling your book 24/7.

  Another thing that baffles me is when people complain that agents are saying they have too much work, but they Twitter and blog. That’s like the people complaining that George RR Martin is posting a blog when he should be releasing his next book. Do YOU ever tweet at work? Do you blog? Do you go get a cup of coffee? Pee? Smoke a cigarette? None of these are sanctioned work actions. Give these guys a break. We’re all people, we all need a breather, downtime, and agents have the same right to dedicate 140 characters to “holy crap I have a lot of work to do” or a blog post to “my pets are so damn cute” as you do.

  And this just in from Ginger Clark, agent from Curtis Brown on her client, Gretchen McNeil’s blog. Response from a non-failing agent

• So if you were incensed over #queryfail and think you can handle this agent stuff, Nathan Bransford has a challenge for you: Be An Agent For A Day.

I could post more links, but this is enough for now, and besides, I should be writing.

Also, David Wellington was ISBW #111, not 112. My bad. I need a fact checker…

Visit JC Hutchins’s site for more innovative marketing. And remember, learn from people who are original, but don’t directly copy them. Make your own awesome.

Someone has to be.

• My Fingertips project
• Promo: Two Minute Danger Theater
• Interview with Paul Malmont of Jack London in Paradise
• Promo: Buffy Between the Lines
• Interview with Brett Savory of Chizine

Regular shows resume next week!

• Promo: Get Committed to the Brink from Personal Effects: Dark Art
• Interview with Mary Jo Pehl of MST3K and Cinematic Titanic.
• Promo: V for Vertigo
• Interview with Tobias Buckell, author of The Cole Protocol (Halo), Ragamuffin, Sly Mongoose, and Crystal Rain.

[Edit 3-11-09: Very sorry, I neglected to point out that several skype hiccups interrupt the interview with Mary Jo Pehl. Apologies to both the listeners and Mary Jo!]

Ah well.

Notes of the show:

• I outlined War, am now about 2500 words into writing it. Who wants to help me come up with a contest?
• Promo: Movie Mantras
• Interview with author David Wellington, author of Vampire Zero: A Gruesome Vampire Tale
• Promo: Acts of Desperation
• Feedback! Don’t forget our feedback line at 919-794-8498. We talk about Creative Commons and the Creative Commons Network, open source script writing software called Celtx, and Personal Essays.org.

Promo: Grizzly’s Growls Podcast

Promo: Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing

I’m also done with The Takeover, and project code name: UNDERGROUND! W00000t!

[Edit- welcome readers of BoingBoing! Hope you enjoy this interview and take a look around the site!]