• Did I mention I sold my novel? Yeah. I sold my novel.
• I got solicited for a story!
• We fear Nathan Lowell.
• Promo: Archangel
• I interview Tim Pratt (aka TA Pratt) about pen names, geography, and urban fantasy. Tim’s blog, Tropism.
• Promo: The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd Summer Reading Program.
• Not Now Sweetie, Daddy’s Worldbuilding
• I think the K7 line is dead. I am sad.
• Theme music: Traveling by Beatnik Turtle

 

 ISBW #92 - Tim Pratt Interview [55:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (8279)

• We have new theme music! Travelling by Beatnik Turtle
• I sold a novel! Playing For Keeps will be released via Swarm Press this August!
• Promos: Parsec Awards (ISBW was 2007’s Best Writing Podcast!), The Takeover
• Feedback episode! (follow me on Twitter)
• Promo: 7th Son OBSIDIAN
• Murder Your Darlings

 

 ISBW 2.0 #91 - Announcement and Feedback Episode: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (879)

Now, I recorded this last week. If you’ve been paying attention, you know I have an announcement. I will be making the announcement via the podcast very shortly.

• Promo: Mur and PG Holyfield speak at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh this Saturday, May 17.
• I discuss how I’m getting back into the novel I put aside.
• Promo: Manic Mondays
• My equipment info

 

 ISBW #90: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (516)

One of my favorite guests from I Should Be Writing, Cory Doctorow, has a new book out! A YA book focusing on kids, online rights and Homeland Security, Little Brother is available in hardcover and audiobook. Cory’s strongly against DRM - digital rights management - and refuses to release his book through Audible or iTunes until they give artists a DRM-free option. You can get the audiobook off his site, or at eMusic through their audiobook program (but sign up or upgrade to the two-credit-a-month option).

And Cory was kind enough to let me put Chapter 1 in my feed so that you’ll be able to sample the book. Thanks Cory, and I hope you all like this treat!

 

 Little Brother by Cory Doctorow: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (408)

I welcome back podcast author JC Hutchins to follow up on his Solidarity campaign from last fall and to see what he’s up to now. (Hint - look at the logo over there on the left.)

• First, we discuss my new blog series, The News From Poughkeepsie.
• Promo from Work In Progress
• JCHutchins.net
• Obsidian YouTube videos

 

 ISBW Special #31: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (448)

We talk about why you’d want a name other than your own. And I get over the plague.

• Promos: Eyewitness, Max Quick 2.
• I get an agent rejection during the podcast!
• New Pages - good place to find literary contests
• Novel in 100 Days

 

 ISBW #89: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (457)

I was thrilled to interview Christopher Moore, author of You Suck!, A Dirty Job, Lamb, and many other books. He was a lot of fun and very enlightening in the world of writing humor. Because of illness, there is little other content in this podcast. Hope to record more soon.

• Christopher Moore’s site
• Moore’s myspace page

 

 ISBW #88: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (432)

I got to talk to prolific podcaster, writer, illustrator, costume designer, and cheese enthusiast Jared Axelrod!

• Voice of Free Planet X
• ISBW Neil Gaiman Interview
• Overheard in Purgatory

 

 ISBW Special #30: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (416)

Last week I was on top of the world and down in the dumps. I need some balance…

• Nathan Lowell informed me of my Podcast Peer Award!
• Last week I launched Wasteland.
• Promos: Nobilis Erotica, Scott Sigler’s Infected
• Feedback: you can find writing prompts at Wordtrip and an interview with Tim Pratt by Charles Tan

 

 ISBW #87 - Humility and Hubris: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (401)

Been trying to get my days more structured, which includes reading RSS first thing in the morning and writing blog posts. So rest assured that I do have an ISBW waiting for editing and posting, and it will go up today, but for now I am posting some interesting things I’ve found on the web.

Our guardian angel at Writer Beware, Victoria Strauss, investigated the US Copyright Registry email scam:

A few minutes on hold, and then he returned to tell me the good news–US Copyright Registry could indeed register copyright on my website! If I signed up today, I’d receive my certificate of registration from the Library of Congress within 6 to 8 weeks.

“Wait a sec,” I said. “Library of Congress? Your email said the US Patent and Trademark Office.”

“Oh,” he said, flustered, “well, you know, it’s both of them.”

“Both of them? You mean they both issue a certificate?”

“Uh, no, it’s just one certificate. But it comes from both offices.”

I decided not to torture him further. “So how much will registration cost me?”

“Based on your website’s size”–which he had no way of assessing, considering that all he’d done was access my Whois information–”it’ll be a total of $350.”

Read the full report at the Writer Beware blog.

#

Locus Online reports that Minister Faust, a favorite interview here at ISBW, received a “special citation”  for his book FROM THE NOTEBOOKS OF DR. BRAIN for the Philip K. Dick award. Congrats Minister!

#

And our other guardian angel at Writer Beware, AC Crispin, writes a curmudgeonly (her word, not mine) opinion on query letters and how you shouldn’t seek considerable help to make you punch up your query letter, since if you can’t write a good query letter, you probably can’t write a good novel. Because if your query letter shines but your novel sucks, you’re still not going to get published. I don’t think  it’s a curmudgeonly look at all, I think it’s logical and a good point.

When I see a query letter written by someone who obviously never researched how to write one, rife with typos and grammatical errors, full of inappropriate personal ramblings, warnings that the work has been “copywrited,” (so don’t even think about stealing it, Mr/Ms Agent!), one that’s 2 or even 3 single spaced pages long, what’s the point of fixing it for the writer? The overwhelming odds are that the book the query letter is touting is every bit as depressingly bad.

Exit saint, enter curmudgeon. And I’m not going to apologize for it.

With all the information out there on the internet and in various writing guides, every writer who has the skills to write a publishable book should be able to produce a decent query letter. I can understand workshopping it with your writing workshop, or critique group. Or your beta readers. But to post the thing on a board full of strangers, some of whom are kind enough to just rewrite the thing in order to be helpful…well, it’s not doing the writer any favors.