- Mur Lafferty
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Mur Lafferty 
Mur LaffertyBorn July 25, 1973 Occupation Author Nationality American Genres Science Fiction/Fantasy Literary movement The Podiobook (Podcast Novel)
murverse.comMur Lafferty (born July 25, 1973) is an American podcaster and writer based in Durham, North Carolina.[1] She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated with a degree in English. She is the editor and host of Escape Pod since 2010, when she took over from Steve Eley. She is also the host and creator of the podcasts Geek Fu Action Grip (on hiatus) and I Should Be Writing. She was, until July 2007, the host and co-editor of Pseudopod.
Contents
Podcasting
Geek Fu Action Grip
Lafferty was first introduced to podcasting in October 2004 by a friend, and she immediately seized on it as an opportunity for publishing her essays on geekdom. This led to her first podcast, Geek Fu Action Grip, which launched in December 2004. It consisted of her thoughts for the week and then a reading of one of her essays. Early topics included her obsession with Alton Brown and her uncomfortable crushes on the hosts of her child's TV shows like Steve Burns, and expanded to discussions of games, movies and television shows. In later episodes she began podcasting her fiction, in particular her serialized novels Heaven and Heaven Part 2: Hell. The show has been put on indefinite hold as of episode 103.
These essays also led to her becoming an early contributor to Michael and Evo's Wingin' It, a sci-fi variety show podcast hosted by Michael R. Mennenga and Evo Terra. While she is no longer a regular, she did step in to produce an essay during their 2006 Dragon*Con show that is considered one of her best.
I Should Be Writing
Lafferty's second podcast was formed from her desire to share her experiences as a struggling fiction writer. I Should Be Writing is self-described as "a podcast for wanna-be fiction writers, by a wanna-be fiction writer." Each show covers a specific topic about working your way through the publishing market, from producing queries, cover letters and seeking out agents. This is interspersed with interviews with published professionals, often covering topics from previous shows.
I Should Be Writing won the 2007 Parsec Award for Best Writing Podcast.
Pseudopod
Lafferty's third podcast is a spin-off of the weekly podcast magazine Escape Pod. While Escape Pod focuses on science fiction, Pseudopod is a horror podcast. Together with co-editor Ben Phillips and publisher Steve Eley, she presents "the best in audio horror." As of July 2007 Lafferty has stepped down as co-editor.
Geek Fu Morning Show
Lafferty returned to the Geek Fu world on August 24, 2007, with long-time friend and fellow pod caster Jason Adams by pod casting the Geek Fu morning show on the Geek Fu Action Grip feed. The new podcast is heralded as a morning show for geeks that can be recorded at any time of the day and listened to at any time of the day. The show regularly features updates on the host's lives, commentary on issues of interest and suggestions taken from listeners via twitter.
Voices: New Media Fiction
In early 2006, Lafferty edited and published Voices: New Media Fiction through podiobooks.com.[2] This is an anthology of short fiction, podcasted by the authors, and featuring such contributors as James Patrick Kelly and Cory Doctorow.
Escape Pod
In the Escape Pod Metacast 5, published May 6, 2010, Steve Eley announced that Lafferty would be taking over as the producer and general director of Escape Pod, and of Escape Artists, Inc., starting after the May 12, 2010 Fifth Anniversary podcast, which would also be the last one from Steve Eley.
The Parsec Awards
In September 2006, Lafferty, along with Michael R. Mennenga and Tracy Hickman, founded the Parsec Awards, an awards show for the best in science fiction podcasting.
Awards and honors
- Member of the Podcast Pickle Hall of Fame
- One of the Top Ten Savvy Women in Podcasting, 2006[3]
- Tricks of the Podcasting Masters was named one of the top reference books for 2006 by Amazon.com.[4]
- 2007 Parsec Award for Best Writing Podcast
Writing
Lafferty has also worked as a freelance writer. Her early career began with her writing for White Wolf and other role playing game companies, and she has expanded to writing about games for such publications as Scrye, Knights of the Dinner Table, Anime Insider, Games Quarterly, and The Escapist. Her popular podcast novel Playing For Keeps was published by Swarm Press on August 25, 2008.
She has also written essays for the online magazine Grumble, many of which have ended up on Geek Fu Action Grip.
She has had fiction published in Hub.
Books
- D20 Fright Night Haunted School, Hogshead Publishing 2004 ASIN B000RI8HFA
- Tricks of the Podcasting Masters (with Robert Walch) Que 2006 ISBN 0789735741
- Lessons From a Geek Fu Master, Lulu 2006
- Heaven - Season One, Podiobooks.com 2006 [1]
- Heaven - Season Two: Hell, Podiobooks.com 2007 [2]
- Heaven - Season Three: Earth, Podiobooks.com 2007 [3]
- Heaven - Season Four: Wasteland, Podiobooks.com 2007 [4]
- Heaven - Season Five: War, Podiobooks.com 2009 [5]
- Playing for Keeps, Podiobooks.com 2007 [6]
- Playing for Keeps, Swarm Press 2008
References
- ^ G.D. Gearino (March 22, 2005). "Podcasting takes off". The News & Observer: p. E1.
- ^ "Voices: New Media Fiction". http://www.podiobooks.com/voices/.
- ^ "Top Ten Savvy Women in Podcasting for 2006 Final List". Archived from the original on November 11, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071111175330/http://podonomics.com/top-10-savvy-women-in-podcasting-for-2006-final-list/.
- ^ Elise Ackerman (November 23, 2006). "Podcasts beginning to reach non-geeks". San Jose Mercury News: p. BU1.
External links
- Murverse.com
- RPG writing credits
- Audio interview on the Comic Geek Speak podcast
- Interview on Books and Ideas Podcast (2008)
- Mur Lafferty at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Categories:- American podcasters
- American women writers
- Writers from North Carolina
- American science fiction writers
- Living people
- 1973 births
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