TL:DR version- my fiction is free. Please download it and consider me for the John W. Campbell award, if you are a WorldCon member.

Mur Lafferty Ebook Packet 1- Mobi (plus 2 PDFs)
Mur Lafferty Ebook Packet 2- Epub (plus 2 PDFs)

I have been writing fiction and giving it away (and more recently selling it) to an audience for years. I was not officially a “pro” however until I sold a 1500 word story to Jeff and Ann VanderMeer. And it was that sale that made me eligible for the John W. Campbell award – for which I was then nominated OMGEEEE.

If you are a Supporting or Attending member to the Worldcon 2012, you will receive a Hugo Packet containing most of the nominated works, as well as a representation of works from the Campbell (not a Hugo) nominees.* As they only asked for a sampling of my “pro” publications, I was only able to give them the story from Cabinet of Curiosities.

Not the fan-favorite Afterlife series, which earned nearly $20,000 on Kickstarter last year.
Not the Parsec-award-winning Playing for Keeps.
Not the dark, photo-enhanced novella Her Side (w/ JR Blackwell) or the lunar gladiatorial story Marco and the Red Granny, which I think are some of my best work.

So I thought, what the hell, I’ll just give those away too.

Through May and June, all of my ebooks will be available for free. And that’s to everyone, not just Hugo voters.

If you are not a Hugo voter, please download and enjoy this sampling of my work. Remember me when my book comes out next year, and/or please leave a review at Goodreads or Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Mur Lafferty Ebook Packet 1- Mobi (plus 2 PDFs)
Mur Lafferty Ebook Packet 2- Epub (plus 2 PDFs)

If you are partial to audio, go get all of the above (except for Her Side, which kinda needs the photos) at Podiobooks.com for free! (Um, ignore the top two results, I have no idea why they came up before my books do.)

* And seriously, who wouldn’t be a supporting member? 5 novels, 5 novellas, 5 novelettes, 5 short stories, and a whole lot more – not to mention the right to vote for the Hugos! – for only $50?

In other news…

There’s a whole lot going on right now, so as Indigo Montoya said, let me sum up.

• The Parsec Award nominations are open! Please go and nominate your favorite SF podcasts.
• I’m speaking at Blogworld in June, and if you’d like to attend to hear me, Kate Baker, Rob Walch, and Evo Terra talk podcasting, please come check out the show!
• I was on the Storyforward podcast talking about Kickstarter, and I was on the Writer’s Roundtable podcast.
• I was interviewed as part of Jim C. Heins’ Campbell Award Nominees interview series.
• I have a short story in the Don’t Read This Book anthology, based on the horror board game, Don’t Rest Your Head!
• Princess Scientist will have a new video soon, and it’s going to be pretty amazing. Stay tuned!

Nothing as exciting as a sale or anything, but I do have some news:

I will be writing The Afterlife Series Book 6 (as yet unnamed). I figured people knew this, but then I remember news about my life is not front page material, and when I casually mentioned this on Twitter many people showed shock. When I ran my Kickstarter campaign in April, I said if someone donated at the $1000 level, I’d write book six. That pledge came about an hour after I started the campaign. O_O So I’ve been brainstorming this summer, with just rough ideas, but finally this week the idea solidified. I have my plot, I just need to write it. So yes, book 6 is coming. That’s about all I can say.

Playing For Keeps 2: No Take Backs is coming, but I am waiting on a contract to get back to it.

I started a new book this week, one I’ve been mulling over for over a year now. Why start a new book when I have the above projects? Well, I am going to grad school. I was accepted into the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast MFA program, and will be attending in January. I need something to workshop, and this is the book I want to focus on. It’s called — nah, I won’t reveal the title yet — and will be set in the Mother Sponge universe.

During some hacking last year, we lost a lot of Playing For Keeps content. I posted a bunch of content created by other people during the launch, and they were quite popular. I’m going to slowly be re-adding them here for your downloading pleasure. For now, two of the most popular episodes from Stories of the Third Wave: the novella Pallas and Stan, by Matt Wallace, and “The Pink Torpedo,” by Scott Sigler.

It’s been a shitty week- both husband and kiddo have been ill with various viruses and strep, we lost power for a day and Internet for two days. As life has been either busy or crappy for several weeks, I’ve fallen way behind. But still! The world has not stopped, so we continue!

• First, as it’s my birthday month (July 25th), I decided to offer my book, Playing For Keeps, for sale in the Amazon Kindle store for $.99. It’s a super-cheap download, so if you’re a Kindle user, I hope you check it out!
• I also will be offering a new mobile version of the book for free, as soon as I can get to it. Stay tuned!

• 

  Crescent

  Speaking of Amazon, fellow podiobook author Phil Rossi released his book, Crescent, on Amazon yesterday. He asked everyone to buy it at once to push it higher in the charts (a way to use your existing audience and get attention for small press books), and as far as I know, he hit at least the 50s. I got a blog post out on ISBW for this, but not here at the Murverse, so today I’m asking you to keep that book up there. If you haven’t checked out the book Crescent, then I recommend you download the early chapters for free to listen to, then go and buy if you enjoy it.

Darkness has inspired fear since mankind first watched the sun go down. Bad things hide in the dark feral beasts with mouths full of razors waiting for a taste of flesh. But now, the darkness is stirring with a life of its own. Crescent Station is the last bastion of civilization, floating in the cold, outer systems where colonized space gives way to the sparser settlements of the Frontier. Like the boom towns of distant Earth s Old American West, Crescent Station is a gateway to power, wealth, and opportunity for anyone who isn t afraid to get his or her hands dirty. But deep within the station s bowels, in Crescent s darkest and most secret places, an ancient evil is awakening and hungry, and it threatens the very fabric of space and time. Will the residents of Crescent Station find a way to stop it before the terror drives them insane? Or is it already too late?

• 

  The Zombie Chronicles: Escape

  And more good news for podiobook authors! James Melzer, author of The Zombie Chronicles: Escape, has been a frightening force to watch. He started last September with the release of his podiobook, then quickly got a sponsor, then sold the rights to the print version (to Permuted Press, his sponsor and the parent company of my publisher, Swarm), and now has announced that Permuted has made a deal with Simon and Schuster to release seven zombie novels, including James’. It’s been a whirlwind and fun as hell to watch. Congrats, James, keep moving up! The Zombie Chronicles: Escape will be released in 2010.

• I’ve been confirmed as a WorldCon participant, so I’ll be on five panels next month in Montreal! I hope to see you there! Come up and say hi!

Quick sundries!

• I was interviewed on the Dead Robots Society podcast!
• I’ll be having a book signing and reading at Chapel Hill Comics on February 28 at 6pm! Hope you can make it – we’re planning a fun event! More info as we get closer.

• My latest Suicide Girls column is live! Remember, the column itself is SFW, the site as a whole is not.

There were several of us geeks in high school, several who saw those four years as long, arduous tests intended to cause so much trauma to us in order to prepare us for the rest of our lives. But as I make friends, many of whom tell me of their geeky status in high school, one question stands out to me.

What happened to all the popular kids?

• Remember when I asked you guys to help me find a genre for Heaven? Well, it exists. It’s called Bangsian Fantasy. (Thanks SFFAudio!)
• Playing For Keeps is now available formatted for your iTouch or iPhone! Check it out at the AppStore. Remember, you can also get it formatted for your Kindle.

• I was thrilled this week to find an article in Strange Horizons magazine called From iTunes to the Bookshelves: The First Wave of Podcast Novelists. Shaun Farrell of Adventures in SciFi Publishing did the article, interviewing several podcast authors over this year, writing an honest and excellent article on the medium and where it may be going.
• You will rarely see me in Second Life – if ever – but this Monday it’s for sure as I am a guest at the monthly Podcasters Meetup on Podcast Island. Hope you can make it!
• I was featured in a blog interview on Bibliophile Stalker.

Boy howdy – things have been a little crazy here since DragonCon, and I’m very sorry I haven’t been updating! News before we get to the podcast:

• Playing For Keeps won the Parsec Award for Best Novel! What a shock and honor! Congrats to the other nominees and winners!
• I now have an agent; I’m being represented by Byrd Leavell of The Waxman Agency.
• Playing For Keeps remains in the top 1% of books on Amazon.com.
• Playing For Keeps is now available on the Amazon Kindle (and the free – and DRM-free – PDF is still available as well – the Kindle Version is formatted for that platform).

This episode of Stories of the Third Wave is a report of a football game from – heh – Lafferty Field. Unfortunately the game is interrupted… Thanks to Randy Hinckley from The Naked Bootleg Podcast for this fun piece!

• I am traveling to the city of my birth, Charlotte, NC, for a signing this Sunday at 2pm at Park Road Books. Hope to see you there! (Yes, I will have copies of PFK with me for purchase!)
• I appeared on I Killed Awesome Man Episode 1!
• The state of modern religious music upsets me. I like our Unitarian Universalist church, but man the music sucks. It kinda makes me sad that composers that make music that move me like Handel are more likely to write movie scores instead of music for worship. This is why we need grants for the arts, people. So I don’t have to sing folk music at church.
• If you hadn’t noticed, I’ve let The News From Poughkeepsie quietly die. I loved the idea, but it was stressing me out a bit much. It was a fun project, sorry I couldn’t keep it up.
• That’s it for now. There’s cool stuff going on behind the scenes, but nothing I want to talk about yet. ;)

I suck at con reports. I think I say that every time. But hell, cons are so kinetic with many many people to see and many many things to do that I always fear I’ll leave something out, so I end up being overwhelmed and not making any kind of report.

But this one was kind of important, so I will do my best.

The highlights of the con were spending time with dear friends I don’t see nearly enough. I recorded ISBW #100 to a full room (very gratifying to see people willing to come out at 10am on a Saturday) with a surprise gift stack of books from Podcasting’s Rich Sigfrit. I spent most of Friday and Saturday preparing for the Parsec Awards, which I was co-MC with John Cmar. We had to prepare the script and the presenters, and I had to stress about my dress, which I handmade (with a shitload of help from Dree Gideon at the 11th hour).

At the Parsecs, I lost the Best Writing Podcast to the very deserving Adventures in SciFi Publishing, but then was very excited to win Best Novella for Wasteland. I then had the top of my head blown off with shock when I won Best Novel for Playing For Keeps. I did learn that when you stress about MCing an awards show, it is a good idea to remember to write acceptance speeches. I did not. I was shocked for a good hour after that, then got bombed on sake at a late sushi dinner.

The rest of the con was napping, hanging with friends, my signing (nearly sold out of books), a couple of panels, some drinking, and a big blur. I don’t want to name everyone I hung with because I worry I will leave someone out, but i had a blast with everyone, some I didn’t see enough of, and I’m already looking forward to next year. I think I’ll make a costume with a jetpack.

One thing about the con is that it gave me the good feeling a sort of reboot of the creative process. I spend time with so many creative friends that it gets me thinking about the next big thing.

Scott Sigler, author of violent and bloody podiobooks Earthcore, Infected, Ancestor, The Rookie, Nocturnal, and Patty’s Wonderful Day at Play Park, has created a Stories of the Third Wave about a different “hero.” The Torpdeo is a strong Third Wave man who has decided to screw anyone who says he can’t be a hero. He bucks the system. He thumbs his nose at authority. He, well, you’ll see.

DragonCon is today. Hence the disjointed intro.

Yesterday I got interviewed on NPR’s The State of Things, our local interview show. If you missed it (and thanks so much to everyone who listened in live!) you can download is here. I’m about 40 min in.

As of 11:00pm Eastern Time, Playing For Keeps reached:

#1 in Hot New Releases
#1 in Movers and Shakers
#1 in Science Fiction
#1 in Action/Adventure
#2 in Science Fiction & Fantasy
#2 in Genre Fiction
#3 in Literature & Fiction
#16 in Books

To say I’m stunned, humbled and grateful is an understatement. I expected to break the top 100. I hoped to break the top 50. This amazing thing i did not expect.

The people who waited until today to buy a copy, even though Amazon had it available much earlier, people who helped promote this by blogging and tweeting and just buying multiple copies to give away, went above and beyond what I could ever ask from a listener/reader. And I got reports in from people who bought it from their local indie bookstore, which I wholeheartedly support.

This new media thang is experimental. At times it’s controversial. But I had faith in it, that giving my work away would pay off. And you guys have proven it. This is not a solo career anymore. For me, anyway, this writing thing is not a lone movement. I have my community behind me, which is a stunning and amazing thing. The force of new media is thrilling and I’m so glad to be part of it.

Thank you. Everyone who purchased, listened, blogged, told someone. Everyone who believed in this little book.Come up to me at DragonCon, or at a local signing (more on that later) and I’ll be happy to shake your hand and say thank you. (and, you know, sign the book. :) )

Thank you.

[video didn't turn out like I'd hoped. More tomorrow!]

No, I’m not keeping up with Amazon. blame final cut. Blame it too for the dropped frames. BLAME EVERYONE BUT ME.

And it’s not Fidgert introducing the podcast (which is what the credits say), it’s Podcasting’s Rich Sigfrit. Sorry, guys. the Fidgert video died.

Wheee. This is a rush. Latest Amazon rank- #20 in books.

Playing for Keeps was first delivered via podcast in audio and PDF form and is now available in print from Swarm Press. It tells the story of Keepsie Branson, a bar owner in the shining metropolis of Seventh City: birthplace of super powers. Keepsie and her friends live among egotistical heroes and manipulative villains, and manage to fall directly in the middle as people with powers, but who just aren’t strong enough to make a difference. Or that’s what they’ve been told. As the city begins to melt down, it’s hard to tell who are the good guys and who are the bad.

Available now via iPod (text), audio (full 600+ MB download), podcast (via podiobooks.com), online, Kindle, and free PDF. You can of course order from your favorite local indie bookseller.

Playing For Keeps Website

We had some issues with video and sound, but dammit, it’s time to launch these vids. Special “good luck!” note from Scott Sigler.

Opening animation by Earl Newton!

Here it is. August 25. This is the day I need you to go to Amazon and purchase Playing For Keeps- you’re all doing it at once so we can attract the interest of people who perhaps do no listen to podcasts, or read blogs. This is the last move to attract other readers.

What else can you do? Glad you asked! Review the book. Tag the book. Blog it. Tweet it. (I’m @mightymur on Twitter). And know you have my utmost appreciation.

I’m scared. I’m excited. Let’s do this thing.

I have been excited about this one for a while. Many months ago, Matt Wallace approached me to write the history of Seventh City’s most famous hero and villain, and the birth of the Academy. We talked at length about what I had in my story bible, and Matt created this fabulous epic out of it. It’s long, but so worth it. Matt, author of The Next Fix, is a fine author and a good friend. (and we share a birthday, so he’s got to be good people)

But he is my nemesis and someday I will destroy him. Just not today.

The week in the Outer Banks was well-needed, even despite all the stress of making sure the podcast updated automatically. Gods bless Wordpress. Much to blog about, but here are some notes:

• News: I will be on The State of Things, a local NPR live interview show, on Tuesday, Aug. 26. You can listen live or download the audio file when it’s done. (Thanks to my fabulous publicist, Matt Staggs, for setting this up for me!)
• Podcast/blog interviews: Geek Cred, JC Hutchins’ Ultra Creatives, Comixtreme, ADD Cast (with Vegas Jim Vegas)
• I posted a FAQ about my book launch tomorrow, I know you just read it in the previous blog post, but it bears repeating.

I was on vacation all last week, and I’ve gotten a lot of questions. What follows is a FAQ to cover them all:

1. Your book is listed as available on Amazon. Did I miss the launch?

No! Amazon made it available earlier than I expected, but since I’d already been spreading the word about August 25, I decided to keep that the launch day and have been asking people to please wait, if they can. The big official launch is TOMORROW.

2. Does my purchasing it on amazon.co.uk, or .ca, or .de, or .au, or [insert other country here] count toward the big Amazon assault?

Sadly, no, only amazon.com purchases will count. If the shipping is not much different, I’d ask you to buy at the US site, otherwise, don’t spend extra money on the rankings push.

3. I bought the POD version. Is this one different?

Nope. This one has professional editing and a new cover, but nothing different inside. But if you send me a picture of yourself with the new book AND the old book, I might put you in the next book!

4. What time should we buy?

I’m not sure if it’s important that everyone buy at the same time. I’m just suggesting any time after 8am Eastern Time.

5. Your book is listed out of stock! (This likely will happen, but hasn’t happened yet.)

My publisher uses POD technology, so this is meaningless. You’ll get your book in a timely manner, I promise. Ignore this.

Thanks so much for your support. Any other questions will be answered in the comments! One day to go.

Grant Baciocco managed to do this amazing piece for me in the middle of doing The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd, the music of Throwing Toasters, and umpteen other projects! It’s more Garrison Kellior parody here, plus music! Be sure to watch for the PDF in the feed later today!

Thanks to everyone who helped out with this, especially Paul Fischer and Martha Holloway!

This is the full book, including a new short story, Parasite Awakens.

He likes Pallas. He likes who he is when he experiences her life out of her eyes. And now he looks through her eyes at his own sleeping brown face as she peers at him through the crystal porthole in his stasis chamber.

After twenty years, Parasite will wake up.

Congrats to <a href=”http://christianaellis.com”>Christiana Ellis</a> for winning the Podcast Peer Award for her podcast Shallow Thoughts! Her content is amazing, and I recommend all of her stuff. She  brings us a look at Seventh City with plenty of… pathos…

We dont have a winner yet, but we do have a fantastic video! Thanks to everyone!

[Distribute as you like!]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 25 Release Date for Mur Lafferty’s Playing for Keeps

Swarm Press is pleased to announce the upcoming release of breakthrough podcaster and author Mur Lafferty’s newest novel of superheroic action Playing for Keeps. Originally a self-released “podiobook,” this new printed version of Lafferty’s novel is due to hit shelves on August 25, 2008.

Playing for Keeps by Mur Lafferty.

Welcome to Seventh City, the birthplace of super powers. The First Wave heroes are jerks, but they have the best gifts: flight, super strength, telepathy, genius, fire. The Third Wavers, like bar-owner Keepsie Branson and her friends, are stuck with the leftovers: the ability to instantly make someone sober, the power to smell the past, absolute control… over elevators.  They just aren’t powerful enough to make a difference… at least that’s what they’ve always been told. But when the villain Doodad slips Keepsie a mysterious metal sphere, the Third Wavers become caught in the middle of a battle between egotistical heroes and manipulative villains.

“Playing for Keeps grabbed me and kept me reading straight through when I should have been plotting a new fantasy series for Tor Books. Mur, thank you. Tor, however, does not thank you.” – David Drake, author, Hammer’s Slammers.

Mur Lafferty is an American podcaster and writer based in Durham, North Carolina. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated with a degree in English. Her nonfiction work has appeared at www.SuicideGirls.com, as well as in the magazines Knights of the Dinner Table, PC Gamer, Computer Games, Scrye, and SciFi Magazine. Her short fiction has appeared in Hub, Escape Pod, and Scrybe. She was, until July, 2007, the host and co-editor of Pseudopod, and is currently the host and creator of the podcasts Geek Fu Action Grip and I Should be Writing. Visit Mur online at www.murverse.com

###

Media: to schedule an interview with Mur or to request a review copy of Playing for Keeps, contact publicist Matt Staggs at mattormeg@gmail.com.

The Academy opening a TV studio? What are they thinking? Find out exactly what on Block Party, by Jason Block.

JC Hutchins is the author of the trilogy of podcast novels, 7th Son and the host of the Ultra Creatives Podcast. (Not to mention the brain behind Obsidian, his own anthology which I took part in.) His books 7th Son Book One, Descent, and Personal Effects: Dark Art will come out in in print in 2009. He is a tireless podcaster, amazingly creative, and it was an honor to have him write the first bit of fiction for Stories of the Third Wave. I bring you the amazing short story, Gestalt.

We have another existing podcast contributing to Stories of the Third Wave! Ivy Reisner of Knit Sprit gives us a look at Seventh City through the eyes of a knitter who wishes to clothe a hero.

Our first full-cast Stories of the Third Wave is brought to you by Kimi Alexandre. Love Lines producer, editor, and concept created by Kimi Alexandre. All the participants created their own characters and their own lines for Love Lines.

• Dora Holly – Kimi Alexandre
• Jason Block – Jason Block
• Amora – Ivy Reisner
• Bruno – Chad Henderson
• Shelly – Paulette Jaxton
• Julie – Pamela Templin
• Kim – Comic Book Goddess

I was excited when Joe Mieczkowski from On The Podcast wanted to do a parody of a, ah, popular public radio show. I think what he came up with is a lot of fun, and I hope you like it too: Conversations About Things With Wheels.

DK Thompson is a writer I met at Viable Paradise, a great guy, and contributor to several magazine markets. He is currently podcasting his superhero novel, The Unbelievable Origins of Superspiff and the Toothpick Kid. He stretches his superhero wings – I think that’s a mixed metaphor, sorry – on this tale in Seventh City, The Cockroach’s Bite.

Although it’s not something I have explored a lot of in the actual writing, faith and how the heroes enter into is has been on my mind since the beginning of writing Playing For Keeps, and John Cmar offered to write about it in the radio show, Faith Matters.

Let’s calm down from the political discourse to hear some gentle anecdotes from Bewilder Pond, just outside the Seventh City limits, told to us from Matthew Wayne Selznick.

Christopher Lester and Bryan Watson of the Metamor City podcast created the show Political Heroes for us, a look at the Seventh City police force from two points of view.

Promo: Collapse at Hidden Verse 332

The latest episode of Geek Survival Guide focuses on how to deal with super villains! Thanks a lot to Zach Ricks for dedicating his latest podcast to PFK!

• Leave an Amazon.com review!
• Playing For Keeps wiki
• Promos from Natalie Metzger of Radio Isopod
• Song: Superhero by Sherby
• Super 107 by Casey Shultz of SciFi Surplus
• Song: WoW by the Futuristic Sex Robots

Music provided by the Podsafe Music Network.

We have Tom Rockwell from Sudden Death giving us a special Playing For Keeps-themed version of his podcast, Manic Mondays, the best podcast for funny music. Thanks Tom!

In the original release of Playing For Keeps, I hid audio easter eggs in the PDFs. Being that they were hidden, I didn’t give credit to the fantastic contributors, and I wanted to put them here with some credit and some commentary.

• Easter Egg #1 – by JC Hutchins of 7th Son and OBSIDIAN
• Easter Egg #2 – by Christiana Ellis of Space Casey and Shallow Thoughts
• Easter Egg #3 – by Scott Sigler of Nocturnal and Infected
• Easter Egg #4 – by Evo Terra of Podiobooks.com
• Easter Egg #5 – by Christopher Lester of The Metamor City Podcast

Next up- original content by podcaster and comedy rap artist, Tom Rockwell!

I FINALLY have a promo for Playing For Keeps‘ print release, the video contest, Stories of the Third Wave, and a little announcement! Please have a listen, and if you’re a podcaster, please take it and put it in your podcast! I’d be most appreciative and love you forever and name my first kid after you.

Well, the NEXT first kid I have, I mean.

But I’d be really grateful.

Music, of course, by Beatnik Turtle.

Are you still subscribed to the Playing For Keeps feed?

You should be.

Starting today, August 1, content will be rolling out on the feed at an astonishing rate, delivering podcasts to you as we build up to the big launch of the print version on August 25.

Sure, we all know how the print media are affected by superheroes. It’s exhaustively shown in several popular stories. But how would radio be different if there were superheroes in the world? I’ve been wondering that for a while, so I brought it up to several talented friends in the podcast world, and they’ve taken up the challenge.

Subscribe to Stories of the Third Wave and get original radio shows from:

• Casey Shultz from SciFi Surplus
• Matthew Wayne Selznick from Brave Men Run
• Christopher Lester from The Metamor City Podcast
• Christiana Ellis from Space Casey
• and more!

You will get popular podcasts dedicated to the trials that Seventh City citizens face, like:

• Manic Mondays
• Geek Survival Guide

AND you will get original stories, canon tales of Seventh City from podcast literary masters:

• JC Hutchins, award winning author of 7th Son
• Matt Wallace, award winning author of Failed Cities Monologues and Variant Frequencies

Closer to book launch, the feed will feature the Ultra Mega Mega PDF of Playing For Keeps, including an original, exclusive Playing For Keeps story by myself, intended to bridge the first and second books in the Keepsie universe. (“Second book? Did she say ‘second?’” - well, as long as the first sells well, yes. That is up to you.)

Not to mention the video contest… (you are helping out with the video, right?)

And on the day OF the book launch this feed will feature video updates of me, top podcasters, and the reports of what you guys are doing to help out the Amazon ranking.

It all starts today, folks, so be sure to resubscribe if you aren’t still there! (Oh, and by the way, all of this content will go out on the Murverse feed, cause I love you all.)

Well, see, I want to see you dance.

In November, when I launched Playing For Keeps, Beatnik Turtle also released the song Playing For Keeps as a theme song. It’s a fantastic song and I was thrilled to have it associated with my book. And now that the book is coming out (AUGUST 25), I thought, “How many other books have a kick ass custom theme song? I should use this for something…”

So I talked to Randy and Jason, my friends with Beatnik Turtle, and I asked them if they would be OK if the fans made a video for their awesome song to promote the book. And they said they were behind me (I love those guys). So we thought it would be cool to coax the fans to make videos, and we could offer them incentives. SWARM books. Beatnik Turtle CDs.

A Flip camera.

But I want people to be able to do this in the time we have, and we don’t have a lot of time! So here’s the deal:

1. You are going to email me saying you want to help with the video. (And you are a talented and wonderful person, thank you!)
2. I am going to email you back and give you 20-30 seconds of the song “Playing For Keeps.”
3. You are going to record. Record a 20-30 second skit or record yourself dancing to the song, or lip syncing. Make it awesome. Make it from your video camera, or your digital camera, or your webcam. I don’t care. Just record it. By August 15.
4. Send it to mightymur AT gmail.com. By August 15.
5. From here I will gather up all the entries and Beatnik Turtle and I will choose the best. We’ll cut together the video and release it as my book promo. (Book promotion. Remember? I need everyone’s help on this!)
6. But wait, there’s more! Every person who gets a clip in the final video will win a prize; prizes include Swarm books and Beatnik Turtle CDs! But the BEST ONE will win a Flip camera!

Then you will all sleep a little better knowing you’ve helped me promote the book, and you’ll be a STAR.

Oh, and about seeing me dance? If I can get 40 entries to this contest, the final video will also feature me, the geek who doesn’t dance, dancing.

If you wanna see it, you gotta show me yours, first. (And 39 of your friends.)

Help me make the book promo to end all book promos. Blog this. Tweet this. Let’s make it happen.

Maybe just two links.

• Yeah, I went on and on about being part of 7th Son OBSIDIAN (heck, it was cool, what can I say?) and in the early days, back when I knew I was writing a story but no one else did, JC made a call for listeners to record videos during the blackout too, and I had a fun idea about a woman up in my home town area and her many many cats. That video just went live on the Obsidian feed. It’s fun.
• When I went to Viable Paradise, one of my favorite people I bonded with over comics and a long walk into town for alcohol was Evan Goer. He has a pretty active blog, and he interviewed me on it recently.

Hiya folks-

In preparation for the print release of Playing For Keeps, I have removed the PDF versions from the website. Now calm down- wait a second, don’t get upset. I have a present for you. I would not leave you out to dry. I am removing the PDFs to make way for the Ultra Mega Mega (dare I say… Super?) PDF to drop on August 22, the Friday before the book release on August 25. This one document will contain all of the awesome art created by my first wave volunteers, as well as the full novel and… maybe something special that you can’t find anywhere else.

Not to discount the awesome work my volunteers have done, I’ve created a gallery of all of the comic book covers (and the old cover of the book) right here.

Be patient, and you will be rewarded.

Someday I’ll do a book tour. For now, I’m on websites and podcasts. Less travel and sleep dep and bad food, also less chances to interact with listeners/readers. Ah well.

• I was interviewed on SF Signal, discussing the best superhero movies and TV shows.
• Last year at DragonCon, Paul S. Jenkins from The Rev Up Review interviewed me on the last night after a large sushi dinner, and that podcast is live.
• Did I mention my interview on Adventures in SciFi Publishing? I can’t remember… But here it is!
• There’s a PFK review on Static Multimedia here along with a fantastic feature about me and my podcasts.

I think that’s all for now! I’ll post more as I hear about them!

Feedback Sez Buy Playing For Keeps

Here is the cover of the Swarm Press version of Playing For Keeps! I did love the hard work that JR Blackwell, Jared Axelrod and JC Hutchins put into the podcast cover, but the publisher wanted a new look, and I’m completely mad about this one. I love the hero metaphor, I love the female take on the classic pose, and as most of you probably can guess, I’m thrilled with the fact that it’s a realistic woman with no cleavage bustin’ out. We all know if Keepsie did wear a hero suit, it would cover the ladies.

August 25. We’re getting closer.

I received word recently that Playing For Keeps will be out from Swarm Press on August 25! This is the week before DragonCon, where I’ll be with BELLS on. BELLS, people.

I’m going to be asking you for a favor. If you want this book, if you want to support me for giving away years of free content, PLEASE go to amazon.com (or amazon.co.uk – I don’t know where else in the world it’ll be available, sorry) *on* August 25 to purchase this book. If everyone goes to Amazon on the same day, the book will break into the higher level charts, getting more exposure. This has been proven to be quite effective for other small press podcast authors, and I hope it is so for me.

So mark your calendars! And keep an eye on the blog for a lot more exciting announcements coming up regarding the PFK universe.

Did I mention it was August 25?

Sick of these announcements yet?

I am thrilled to announce that I have signed a contract to release Playing For Keeps with Swarm Press! Swarm is an imprint of Permuted, the small horror press, and is launching this summer with three superhero titles, PFK being one. (For podcast fans, Matthew Wayne Selznick’s Brave Men Run is another title coming out from Swarm.)

The book will be out late August, just in time for DragonCon. Everyone who has watched the lifespan of this title will know how thrilled I am about this- especially since I had pretty much decided the title was done.

Details: You can still get the PDFs and the audio files from the website and feed, but the POD version of the book has been retired (for obvious reasons.) But if you were an early supporter of my work and purchased PFK in the POD form, and you continue to support with a purchase of the Swarm title, my publisher and I have something cool for you. Stay tuned. We’ll be building the marketing machine back up this summer, things should get interesting.

It’s been a hell of a week. Truly. I’m going to have some gin now.

You thought we’d forgotten, didn’t you? Not at all, the ultimate issue is here, the story ending with a grand battle and some heroic actions by many. Including some mindblowing cover art from Natalie Metzger and JC Hutchins, and a little special something from a Hugo and Nebula winning author. (You know to look for the Easter Eggs in the PDF by now, right? Cause I don’t want you to miss this one. Seriously. Download. Go hunting. It’s a thing of beauty.

Link for Facebook/Myspace/LJ Crosspostings

New superpower (could be Third Wave, could be in another universe, whatever you like): Your character’s day is one hour longer than everyone else’s – essentially the rest of the world stops for an hour while they live on. While the potential for fun, good, mayhem, and crime is huge, the dangers are huge as well. If they are sick or injured, they would be alone for an hour with no one to help them. What would your character do with this power? Would the time of day matter (for example, would the extra hour come between 8 and 9 AM? What if it changed daily? How about any worries that your character is aging subtly faster than everyone else – every 24 days they’re one day older than the rest of the world?

[Note - this is very likely the first NfP that I will be using myself, provided I continue the Playing For Keeps universe. This changes nothing regarding the rules of you using the idea, just letting you know. :) ]