Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Author of Dairy Queen)

Catherine Gilbert Murdock鈥檚 Followers (815)

Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Born

The United States

Website

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Young Adult

Influences

Elizabeth Gilbert ...more

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I grew up in small-town Connecticut, on a tiny farm with honeybees, two adventurous goats, and a mess of Christmas trees. My sister claims we didn鈥檛 have a television, but we did, sometimes 鈥� only it was ancient, received exactly two channels, and had to be turned off after 45 minutes to cool down or else the screen would go all fuzzy. Watching (or rather, 鈥渨atching鈥�) Alfred Hitchcock鈥檚 The Birds was quite the experience, because it鈥檚 hard to tell a flock of vicious crows from a field of very active static; this might be why I still can鈥檛 stand horror movies, to this day.

My sister Liz, who is now a Very Famous Writer with a large stack of books, was my primary companion, even though she was extremely cautious 鈥� she wouldn鈥檛 even try to jump I grew up in small-town Connecticut, on a tiny farm with honeybees, two adventurous goats, and a mess of Christmas trees. My sister claims we didn鈥檛 have a television, but we did, sometimes 鈥� only it was ancient, received exactly two channels, and had to be turned off after 45 minutes to cool down or else the screen would go all fuzzy. Watching (or rather, 鈥渨atching鈥�) Alfred Hitchcock鈥檚 The Birds was quite the experience, because it鈥檚 hard to tell a flock of vicious crows from a field of very active static; this might be why I still can鈥檛 stand horror movies, to this day.

My sister Liz, who is now a Very Famous Writer with a large stack of books, was my primary companion, even though she was extremely cautious 鈥� she wouldn鈥檛 even try to jump off the garage roof, which involved crouching right at the edge for ten minutes working up your nerve, and then checking each time you landed to see if you鈥檇 broken anything 鈥� and she learned early on that losing at games was easier in the long run than putting up with me losing. Now, of course, she travels all over the world collecting stories and diseases, while I stay at home scowling over paint chips, and losing on purpose to my kids. So the cycle continues. (Read an New York Times article by Catherine and Liz.)

People sometimes ask if I played football in high school: no. I ran cross country and track, badly, but I have absolutely no skill whatsoever with ball or team sports. Plus my high school didn鈥檛 even have a football team. Instead, I was part of the art clique 鈥� taking extra art classes, spending my study halls and lunch periods working on my latest still life. (Please tell me this was not a unique experience.) I didn鈥檛 do much writing 鈥� my sister was the anointed writer 鈥� but I read my little eyeballs out. I was the queen of our library鈥檚 YA section.

In college I studied architectural history. The formal name was 鈥淕rowth and Structure of Cities Program,鈥� but for me, it was all about buildings. I鈥檝e always been fascinated with the built environment 鈥� how spaces fit together, how streets work, how they read. And curiously (Warning: Life Lesson approaching), it鈥檚 paid off in the oddest ways. For example, several of us in our neighborhood recently got quite upset about a enormous building going in across the street, and while everyone agreed that they didn鈥檛 like the way it looked, I was the one who stood up at public meetings and used words like entablature and cornice line and fenestration 鈥� all this architectural jargon I鈥檇 learned back at Bryn Mawr 鈥� and sounded like I knew what I was talking about. And because of that, the building ended up getting redesigned, and 鈥� in my humble opinion 鈥� now will look much more attractive and appropriate, which is nice because I鈥檒l be looking at it for the rest of my life. So don鈥檛 be afraid to study what you love, because you do not know now, and you may not know for twenty years, how amazingly it will pay off. But it will.

Dairy Queen was my first stab at creative writing since high school, not counting several years as a struggling screenwriter (which followed several years as a struggling scholar). I unabashedly recommend screenwriting for mastering the art of storytelling; just don鈥檛 pin any hopes on seeing your work on the big screen. But you鈥檒l learn so much in the process that this won鈥檛 matter. I also recommend, you know, living. I've been passionate about food pretty much my whole life 鈥� first eating it, now preparing and then eating it. And so it plays a pretty big role in my writing, and adds so much flavor . . . not literally, of course, but the more you can add that's true, whether it's emotion or geography or gardening (that鈥檚 me in the picture above), then the stronger that story is. ...more

Combine Editions
Catherine Gilbert Murdock鈥檚 books

Average rating: 3.79 · 73,634 ratings · 7,493 reviews · 13 distinct works 鈥� Similar authors

	Dairy Queen (Dairy Queen, #1) 3.75 avg rating — 28,297 ratings — published 2006 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Princess Ben 3.75 avg rating — 18,080 ratings — published 2008 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Off Season (Dairy Queen, #2) 3.94 avg rating — 11,345 ratings — published 2007 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Front and Center (Dairy Queen, #3) 3.95 avg rating — 8,450 ratings — published 2009 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Book of Boy 3.83 avg rating — 4,012 ratings — published 2018 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Wisdom's Kiss 3.10 avg rating — 1,605 ratings — published 2011 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Heaven Is Paved with Oreos (Dairy Queen, #4) 3.48 avg rating — 1,043 ratings — published 2013 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Da Vinci's Cat 3.79 avg rating — 765 ratings — published 2021 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Domesticating Drink: Women, Men, and Alcohol in America, 1870-1940 3.53 avg rating — 40 ratings — published 1998 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Storia di Boy (TAG Ragazzi) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Catherine Gilbert Murdock…

Series by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Dairy Queen (4 books)
by

Catherine Gilbert Murdock

3.82 avg rating — 49,133 ratings

Quotes by Catherine Gilbert Murdock (?)

“When you don't talk, there's a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said.”
― Catherine Gilbert Murdock, Dairy Queen

tags: relationships, talking

1789 likes

“Every fairy tale, it seems, concludes with the bland phrase "happily ever after." Yet every couple I have ever known would agree that nothing about marriage is forever happy. There are moments of bliss, to be sure, and lengthy spans of satisfied companionship. Yet these come at no small effort, and the girl who reads such fiction dreaming her troubles will end ere she departs the altar is well advised to seek at once a rational women to set her straight.”
― Catherine Gilbert Murdock, Princess Ben

tags: advice, happily-ever-after, humor, marriage

102 likes

“She says you're not truly human until you've had your heart broken and you've broken someone's heart.”
― Catherine Gilbert Murdock, Front and Center

tags: heart, human, love

65 likes

See all Catherine Gilbert Murdock's quotes »

Polls

What randomly selected book would you like to read in June?

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

47 votes, 39.8%

StarCrossed by Elizabeth C. Bunce

15 votes, 12.7%

Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs

12 votes, 10.2%

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

11 votes, 9.3%

Madapple by Christina Meldrum

9 votes, 7.6%

Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith Cynthia Leitich Smith

8 votes, 6.8%

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

8 votes, 6.8%

No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman

3 votes, 2.5%

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

3 votes, 2.5%

Fire from the Rock by Sharon M. Draper

2 votes, 1.7%

118 total votes

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The Seasonal Read...: 30.5 (PJ Reads' Task - As Suggested By Tanja - Six Degrees of Separation)	348	421	May 26, 2010 07:44AM
The Seasonal Read...: Summer Challenge 2010 Completed Tasks (do NOT delete any posts in this thread)	3022	3280	Aug 31, 2010 10:39PM

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Catherine Gilbert Murdock鈥檚 Followers (815)

Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Combine EditionsCatherine Gilbert Murdock鈥檚 books

Series by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

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Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Catherine Gilbert Murdock鈥檚 books