TOC:
JoCo Cruise
Ditch Diggers resurrection
A new/old agent is taking submissions!
This week on ISBW
I Should Be Writing S20 Ep11: TODAY, I'll be interviewing Scott Alexander Howard, author of The Other Valley live on Twitch at 3pm EDT. It will go in the feeds next week.
My plan was to start releasing these on Monday. This was a failed plan.
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I am back from the JoCo cruise, where I spent the ides of March and was involved with a lot of things that superstitious sailors were convinced would kill us all. (We could not get Mari Naomi to stop saying "pig" or whistling. Both of which are bad luck, apparently.)
It was amazing, I had a blast, and it made me think a lot about imposter syndrome and how our emotions do not always reflect reality.
There were a lot of aspects of the cruise that I didn't anticipate--almost all were happy surprises. My usual worry about cruises was that they are bad for the environment, but JoCo addresses that in their carbon report. I was also happy to see the ship had water in recycled aluminum bottles to keep plastic out of the ocean. We also had a whale watching trip with scientists giving us lots of info and explaining how they study the whales to figure out when they're unhappy about boats in their area. They made sure to collect all trash on the boat (even stuff they didn't give us) to keep plastic out of the ocean. It's a nice touch.
Then there's the fear of infection. Several of us masked, and as of March 20, I am covid-free. There was hearsay that a few people got sick, but I believe they were quarantined immediately. Interestingly, the performers had to take a test before boarding, but the passengers didn't.
I had a lot of feelings of imposter syndrome, and I'll be honest- part of it was because my +1 is a bigger author than I am. I wanted a good friend with me since my family couldn't come, but to everyone else she was a (half)-Hugo winning, bestselling author. But she never makes me feel like that, so I got over myself pretty quickly. I did a reading, (an hour long!) and ran some Brindlewood Bay games. I got to be in a D&D one-shot where Jasmine Bhullar was the DM. Also in that game were Ty Franck, Ally Beardsley, Jasper William Cartwright, and Mark Gagliardi. And now I am bonded to those folks forever as terrible knights (except for Ty, who is now a potato farmer. But we are still bonded through our trials.)
It was a thrill to meet John Hodgman, Vico Ortiz, Rachel Bloom, Vance Gilbert, Oscar Nunez, and OMG the f'n force of nature who is Nadine Smith (the firebrand who is fighting for LGBTQ+ rights in Florida.) I had fun with my new best friends MariNaomi and their husband Gary, my new best friends Ty and Jayne Franck, my new best friend Jasmine, my old best friend Krissy Scalzi, and person who would have been my new best friend, Tochi Onyebuchi but we just didn't get a chance to spend a lot of time together. Janet Varney will be my new best podcast friend once I appear on her show. Got tired of linking, so you can see everyone's bios here.
There was a celebrity karaoke, which I totally cuckoo'd my way into, because I'm neither a singer, nor a celebrity. But I got to walk down the hall with MariNaomi, Gary, and John Hodgman and we pretended we were Spinal Tap.
It's blurry, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Photo: tiny bit of Mur's head beside John Hodgman, behind us are Gary and MariNaomi. We are ready to rock. And rock we do.
Hodgman sang "Rainbow Connection" like Tom Waits.
Post Karaoke selfie. I couldn't get everyone into every shot, alas.
Foreground, MariNaomi, Vico Ortiz, Mur, sliver of Paul's head. Second row: Tochi Onyebuchi. Third row, Daphne Always, James Sheppard, and Josh Gondelman. in the back Jasper William Cartwright makes an impressive leap.
Out of frame: Storm, Hodgman, Mark Gags, Vance Gilbert.
You know, if I had looked up how impressive these people were before I met them, I would have been totally awkward and shy around them. If you don't tell me someone has major accomplishments and awards, then I'm just awkward, not shy. It's probably better that way.
My mom asked how my trip was, and I said it felt more like a 7 day convention, since the boat was not my main goal. But the cruise was nice, once I got used to being on the ocean.
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This trip was my first cruise experience. I enjoyed it more than I expected, but I resented the boat's flagrant attempt to keep what I was spending out of sight so I don't realize it until the end. I talk about this more on the upcoming podcast, but here are my financial take-aways:
WORTH IT
Drink package: (Probably. I haven't done the math yet.) You get 15 drinks per day, so long as they're $11 or cheaper. Which meant I could have my sparkling water AND mojitos. But 15 is a LOT and you're not supposed to share. (WE TOTALLY SHARED HAHAH SCREW YOU CAPITALIST WORMS.) But I admit it was nice knowing I didn't have to wonder how much each drink was when I ordered it.
Spa pass: I think access to the fitness room was free, but the sauna, dry sauna, the room with the hot rocks you can lie on like lizards, and the mineral whirlpool (no chlorine and no kids) all required a pass, and that was sure as hell worth it. We had many relaxing hours in one or more of those rooms every day.
WORTH IT (maybe)
Internet: Marine internet technology has improved a lot in the last few years, and you can get fairly good service if you buy it. Most people wanted to unplug from life, but I purchased it because I missed my family and wanted to check in on them. I was also hoping for a few emails I didn't want to spend the week obsessing about. I actually wished more people had gotten it because it was hard to find people sometimes, like it was the dark ages early 90s and you had to just hope you could find someone at an event. Ursula and I both were plugged in, so we were able to communicate.
Excursions: Ursula treated me to go whale watching on our first stop in Grand Turk, which was amazing (even though two guys got sick in the choppy ocean).
Photo: baby humpback whale was constantly flapping her tail on the water. It was adorable.
But I heard some other excursions were either canceled or had people from our cruise and a few others all jammed into one. If I had paid for one of those, I would have been pissed.
NOT WORTH IT:
Fancy restaurants: Included in the price of the cruise was a nightly dining room experience, and the only extra cost was drinks. We found the food here consistently good. But if you wanted to go to the other restaurants, which we figured we'd try, since vacation, adventure, you know the deal, you had to pay a single price for the honor. Which didn't seem that bad, but if you wanted to get sushi at Morimoto's restaurant, you paid for the sushi on top of the price of the restaurant. And the food at neither place was that amazing. Don't waste your money; the dining room is pretty nice on its own. (I had a pavlova for the first time!)
Spa treatments: Usually I love a good spa treatment, and started the cruise with a prepaid manicure appt. I ended up getting the mani-pedi, facial, and full body massage over the week. Unfortunately, the manicure started to chip the day after I got it before I even stepped on stage to do a reading. The massage was terrible. It was too hard (I have bruises this week) and she did everything I asked her not to do. And yes, I was vocal with what I wanted. She actually said, "Sorry, I didn't know" at one point after she triggered my nerve pain in my foot, despite me telling her about it minutes before. With the pain of the foot, the unpleasant hand massage, and the unpleasant scalp massage, I ended up more tense than when I started. If you get a person who communicates with you and listens to you, the massage might be great, but in looking at my bill at the end of the trip, I was angry that I had spent that much for a shitty massage.
If I ever do it again, it'll be the drinks package, the spa pass, maybe the internet. and that's it.
Ditch Diggers gets a new cohost!!
Matt Wallace, my former co-host, had to step back from Ditch Diggers this year because of his other obligations. He's still one of my best friends so don't think there's going to be a VH1 Behind the Podcast to air out our dirty laundry.
Ditch Diggers is a different animal than I Should Be Writing, in that it's a conversation and can get silly at times. I didn't want to carry that load solo. So I found a new co-host. Over the cruise, I asked New York Times Bestseller Ursula Vernon (T Kingfisher) if she would take Matt's place, and she said sure.
We haven't set a time to stream yet, and we don't have updated art of theme song, but at least we know we're moving forward! It's planning time.
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Jennifer Udden Hangs a Shingle
Jennifer Udden, the agent who was instrumental in making my career what it is today, is back! She had to step back from agenting in 2020, and while I understood her reasons, I was very sad to lose her. We kept in touch, and I was thrilled to hear she's back in the business. On March 18 she announced she's coming back, and I promised I'd spread the word. She's looking for adult genre, so horror, SF, litfic, etc. No kid, middle grade, or YA books. Find out more about here here!
I highly recommend Jen to anyone who's looking for a new agent who will be a kick ass representative for you. I can say from experience that she thinks fast on her feet, and is a lot tougher than I've ever been. She's also very kind, which fragile people like me often need.
If you're on an agent hunt, I recommend checking her out!
This Week on I Should Be Writing!
I'm catching up on the stuff I've already recorded (no links yet but they're in production now):
S20 Ep8: Creative stuff and the high diving board S20 Ep9: Evil Mur Takes Over S20 Ep10: My Imposter Syndrome Leveled Up on the JoCo Cruise
Upcoming:
S20 Ep11: TODAY, I'll be interviewing Scott Alexander Howard, author of The Other Valley live on Twitch at 3pm EDT. It will go in the feeds next week.
Stay safe, stay kind,
Mur
Podcast incoming soon!