Ask the Author: C.E. Murphy
Answered Questions (44)
C.E. Murphy
The three short story collections (BABA YAGA'S DAUGHTER, YEAR OF MIRACLES and KISS OF ANGELS) leave me at a point to write a new trilogy, which someday I will carve out the time to do...! :)
C.E. Murphy
Y'know, that's a good question. I'll see what I can do. There's a modest chance if I manage to sell 'em as audio books that I'll remember to let my newsletter know, so you might sign up for that for updates! :)
C.E. Murphy
I'm disappointed too. :( I wish they'd done the whole series, but it's my publisher's decision, not mine. :(
C.E. Murphy
Unfortunately there are not. I've never known why, because apparently they sold pretty well, but they only did URBAN SHAMAN, WINTER MOON, THUNDERBIRD FALLS and COYOTE DREAMS.
C.E. Murphy
...well, gosh, Scott, if it makes you feel any better, it appears that the book itself, TRUTHSEEKER, has been stolen from me, because as far as I know I've never sold any Croatian rights. I'll contact my publisher, as, indeed, you are 100% correct and I'm quite upset if someone has taken my book and published it at no profit to myself.
C.E. Murphy
No. I can't.
:)
:)
C.E. Murphy
I did a huge whacking amount of research about shamanism, then tried to take the commonalities and build a magic system/world from them. :) Similiarly with the Lower and Upper Worlds, both Irish and Native American; I read a lot and based the ideas of what these spaces looked like off the legends, folklore and traditions of the peoples whose heritage I was borrowing for these books. :)
C.E. Murphy
Well, it is a tie-in with the main books, but it's in a separate volume because my publisher asked me to write a novella for the anthology WINTER MOON, to be paired with well-known writers Mercedes Lackey and Tanith Lee, as a method of helping to raise my profile as a debut novelist, so I wrote "Banshee Cries" for the anthology. :)
C.E. Murphy
good gawd. jeez. um. THERE ARE TOO MANY WONDERFUL ONES TO CHOOSE FROM! I've just re-read THE HERO AND THE CROWN, though, and that's pretty wonderful, so maybe Damar to learn to ride horses and sword fight!
C.E. Murphy
Oh, thank you so much! I went to see Wonder Woman with a bunch of girlfriends, which was great fun! <3
C.E. Murphy
Unfortunately, no. That's entirely out of my control, I'm afraid. My publishers prefer the trade paperback format because it's got a larger profit margin for them and because with the arrival of e-books a lot of the floor fell out of the mass market audience, so they're even less profitable than they once were. And for the books I publish myself, mass market isn't even an option--the profit margin is so low they don't even offer the choice to do a mass market edition instead of a trade edition. I'm really sorry. :(
C.E. Murphy
You make that sound so organized...
I just started Bradley Beaulieu's Lays of Anuskaya Trilogy. I've got a couple of my own books (BABA YAGA'S DAUGHTER & YEAR OF MIRACLES) to read. I'm reading a handful of nonfiction books right now, including AMERICAN NATIONS, which is research for an upcoming book proposal. I'm looking forward to reading the second of Lawrence Watt-Evans' A YOUNG MAN WITHOUT MAGIC books and I've got Aliette de Bodard's HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS on the docket and I'm waiting for Zen Cho's second Sorcerer book... :)
I just started Bradley Beaulieu's Lays of Anuskaya Trilogy. I've got a couple of my own books (BABA YAGA'S DAUGHTER & YEAR OF MIRACLES) to read. I'm reading a handful of nonfiction books right now, including AMERICAN NATIONS, which is research for an upcoming book proposal. I'm looking forward to reading the second of Lawrence Watt-Evans' A YOUNG MAN WITHOUT MAGIC books and I've got Aliette de Bodard's HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS on the docket and I'm waiting for Zen Cho's second Sorcerer book... :)
C.E. Murphy
My great-grandmother's life!
She left Ireland for American when she was really quite young, fourteen or sixteen, travelling with a younger cousin or sibling. She returned to Ireland in her rather lateish thirties, having been a maid--a cook, really, probably--in some rich American's home. She insisted, in fact, on getting an American-style stove, the first of its kind, in the tiny northern Irish village she returned to, because damned if she was going to go back to cooking over a fire after using modern appliances. She got married and banged out four kids in what amounted to the time she had left to do so, but...we have no idea what her life was for the 20 years she was in America. There's some belief she might have been married, but...we don't really know! We don't know why she came back to Ireland, not really! All sorts of stuff like that.
I've often thought of doing a YA historical fiction book about her, in fact, set in New York in the 1880s...
She left Ireland for American when she was really quite young, fourteen or sixteen, travelling with a younger cousin or sibling. She returned to Ireland in her rather lateish thirties, having been a maid--a cook, really, probably--in some rich American's home. She insisted, in fact, on getting an American-style stove, the first of its kind, in the tiny northern Irish village she returned to, because damned if she was going to go back to cooking over a fire after using modern appliances. She got married and banged out four kids in what amounted to the time she had left to do so, but...we have no idea what her life was for the 20 years she was in America. There's some belief she might have been married, but...we don't really know! We don't know why she came back to Ireland, not really! All sorts of stuff like that.
I've often thought of doing a YA historical fiction book about her, in fact, set in New York in the 1880s...
C.E. Murphy
or
or go to your local bookstore & ask them to order a copy! B&N will be able to get it for sure, and anybody who uses Ingram as a source (these are words that will make sense to a bookseller :)) can get it. ISBN 978-1613171363 because sometimes that's helpful. :)
or
or go to your local bookstore & ask them to order a copy! B&N will be able to get it for sure, and anybody who uses Ingram as a source (these are words that will make sense to a bookseller :)) can get it. ISBN 978-1613171363 because sometimes that's helpful. :)
C.E. Murphy
Oh, well, I'd probably suggest the Old Races books next, because they're the next things I wrote. :) The Negotiator Trilogy should be read first (Heart of Stone being the first book), then the short story collections BABA YAGA'S DAUGHTER and then YEAR OF MIRACLES. If you read slow enough and I write fast enough, a third collection might be available by then, but maybe not. :)
The most wildly different thing I've written are the Queen's Bastard books, which are historical fantasy and full of sex, politics, murder and betrayal (more or less in that order), and they came as a real shock to a lot of my urban fantasy readers, just so you know. :)
The most wildly different thing I've written are the Queen's Bastard books, which are historical fantasy and full of sex, politics, murder and betrayal (more or less in that order), and they came as a real shock to a lot of my urban fantasy readers, just so you know. :)
C.E. Murphy
no, but it's a cool world/idea, isn't it? it'd be fun to do something with it. and arguably it could fit into my MAGIC & MANNERS world... :)
C.E. Murphy
Faith and I are planning to write another crossover novella this year, but beyond that I don't know right now. :) That was a lot of fun, though, and I loved those FBI agents wandering in... O.O :)
C.E. Murphy
Because one of the things they don't tell you about becoming a professional writer is that it *really* cuts into your reading time.
I think 2 books a week is about the minimum I should be reading, but after a nadir of 15 books one year I've learned that I can probably manage a book a week, and sometimes almost half again that. And I'd rather set the goal at what I can pretty well manage, and exceed it, than feel miserable about utterly failing. :)
I think 2 books a week is about the minimum I should be reading, but after a nadir of 15 books one year I've learned that I can probably manage a book a week, and sometimes almost half again that. And I'd rather set the goal at what I can pretty well manage, and exceed it, than feel miserable about utterly failing. :)
C.E. Murphy
*laughs* If we go back to it, we'll do a story set in Seattle, so I doubt we'll see Lazarus and Serena again. We sure had fun doing that, though, and it was certainly a success from a bringing-in-readers point of view!
C.E. Murphy
Yoooooooooooou know how to ask the hard questions!
Um, let's see. Writing good blurbs (by which I think we mean back cover copy?) is hard. Furthermore, it's not usually the authors who write them--usually editors or marketing or some combination of all three take a stab at them.
I like to open with a strong declarative sentence, if I can. I prefer not to have anything in the blurb that spoils more than about the first three chapters. If it's an ongoing series I try really hard not to spoil the LAST book, but that can be really difficult.
The Walker Papers all have some degree of description about Joanne: they all refer to her as a shaman, at the least and generally refer to at least one other major character, usually Gary or Morrison, I think. (I'm not looking at the blurbs right now, which doesn't help answering the question...!)
I tried to focus them on the major plot hook and mention some element of the emotional plot. I try to keep them under 200 words. Um. I like to end with a "dun dun dah dun" kind of trailing-off thingy to attempt to draw people in.
This is a VERY HARD QUESTION!
Um, let's see. Writing good blurbs (by which I think we mean back cover copy?) is hard. Furthermore, it's not usually the authors who write them--usually editors or marketing or some combination of all three take a stab at them.
I like to open with a strong declarative sentence, if I can. I prefer not to have anything in the blurb that spoils more than about the first three chapters. If it's an ongoing series I try really hard not to spoil the LAST book, but that can be really difficult.
The Walker Papers all have some degree of description about Joanne: they all refer to her as a shaman, at the least and generally refer to at least one other major character, usually Gary or Morrison, I think. (I'm not looking at the blurbs right now, which doesn't help answering the question...!)
I tried to focus them on the major plot hook and mention some element of the emotional plot. I try to keep them under 200 words. Um. I like to end with a "dun dun dah dun" kind of trailing-off thingy to attempt to draw people in.
This is a VERY HARD QUESTION!
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Jan 05, 2025 12:52PM · flag