Bryan Murphy's Blog, page 7
April 14, 2014
Smashwords author interviews
To my fellow authors: Smashwords will host an interview with you, if you sell through them. You can tailor it as you like. Here's a link to mine.
https://www.smashwords.com/interview/...
I've kept it short, but you don't need to.
https://www.smashwords.com/interview/...
I've kept it short, but you don't need to.
March 24, 2014
Plot v. character
I guess I’m not the only person here working on their first novel. In terms of the target I set for completing a first draft, I’m well ahead of schedule. Now, here’s the strange thing. Because I have a background in psychology and linguistics, I imagined my characters would be deep and my language scintillating, even if I sometimes lost the plot. Yet the opposite is happening. My inner critic tells me that the characters are shallow and the language ordinary, though the plot skips along nicely. It turns out I am primarily a storyteller. Should I be happy or distraught?
February 9, 2014
The Writing Process Blog Hop Tour comes to Turin, Italy
The author Marta Merajver-Kurlat (http://www.martamerajver.com.ar/marta...), author of Just Toss the Ashes and Why Can't I Make Money? among other works, kindly invited me to participate in this blog hop tour and answer four questions about my writing process.
1) What am I working on?
I’m working on a novel, set in Portugal in the 1970s. It’s my first novel – usually I write short stories or poems. And usually I write about the future, in order to write about the present.
2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Well, in the novel, I’m using the past, for once, to write about both the present and the future. I don’t read enough historical fiction to know how different that makes it. Most of my work, though, is speculative fiction. It’s really too low-tech to be true science fiction, though it tends to be set in the future, the near future. Perhaps a better descriptor is social science fiction. Wherever and whenever it is set, I aim to write literature first and genre fiction second.
3) Why do I write what I do?
I like to set my stories in places where I have lived and worked, like England, Italy, Portugal and China, but to move away from the present in order to get a clearer perspective on them.
4) How does my writing process work?
Writing a novel has changed this. Before, I would write the story or poem on paper. Then I would type it on to the computer, print it out and revise it (several times) using pen on paper, before keying in the changes to leave a final version on the computer. Now, the first version of each chapter goes straight on to the computer. It saves time and speeds me towards the goal of a completed first draft. I’m hoping to reach that particular target by the end of this year, after which I’m prepared to spend another year turning it from a finished novel into a good novel, if I can.
Three fine authors will be taking up the baton next week and explaining their writing process: Jacob Singer, Leigh M. Lane and David Whippman.
Here are their bios and links.
LEIGH M. LANE
Leigh M. Lane has been writing for over twenty years. She has ten published novels and twelve published short stories divided among different genre-specific pseudonyms. She is married to editor Thomas B. Lane, Jr. and has recently returned to the hustle and bustle of Las Vegas after a three-year stay in the beautiful but desolate mountains of western Montana.
Her traditional Gothic horror novel, Finding Poe, was a 2013 EPIC Awards finalist in horror. Her other novels include the supernatural thriller, The Hidden Valley Horror, inspired by Barker, Bradbury, and King; World-Mart, a tribute to Orwell, Serling, and Vonnegut; and the dark allegorical tale, Myths of Gods.
http://www.cerebralwriter.com
http://www.cerebralwriter.com/blog.html
DAVID WHIPPMAN
David Whippman was born and raised in Bristol, then lived in Devon and is currently based in Lancashire, England. He spent most of his working life in healthcare. Now retired, David is a poet, storyteller and essayist. He also devotes time to art, chess and music. His blog on his writing process will appear at http://on.fb.me/1fOYs3Z
JACOB SINGER
Jacob Singer was born in Potchefstroom South Africa. After he matriculated, he studied Pharmacy at the Chelsea Polytechnic in London, England. Five years later he returned to South Africa, met and married Evelyn Jackson, and opened a pharmacy in Potchefstroom.
In 1985 he retired and in December 1992, with his family, he emigrated to Canada. His family had been threatened by the South African Security Police because of his work against the apartheid Government.
In 1995 he started writing his first book, BRAKENSTROOM, self-publishing it in 1999. In 2006 he started writing his second book, The VASE with the MANY COLOURED MARBLES, a story about a mother and daughter he knew when he was a boy, a story that explains in detail the horror of being classified a second class citizen in apartheid South Africa.
He is presently working on a third book, a true story about three friends.
You may visit his website at www.jacobashersinger.com
You can find his blog here: http://patroosp.blogspot.ca/
Join them next Sunday!
1) What am I working on?
I’m working on a novel, set in Portugal in the 1970s. It’s my first novel – usually I write short stories or poems. And usually I write about the future, in order to write about the present.
2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Well, in the novel, I’m using the past, for once, to write about both the present and the future. I don’t read enough historical fiction to know how different that makes it. Most of my work, though, is speculative fiction. It’s really too low-tech to be true science fiction, though it tends to be set in the future, the near future. Perhaps a better descriptor is social science fiction. Wherever and whenever it is set, I aim to write literature first and genre fiction second.
3) Why do I write what I do?
I like to set my stories in places where I have lived and worked, like England, Italy, Portugal and China, but to move away from the present in order to get a clearer perspective on them.
4) How does my writing process work?
Writing a novel has changed this. Before, I would write the story or poem on paper. Then I would type it on to the computer, print it out and revise it (several times) using pen on paper, before keying in the changes to leave a final version on the computer. Now, the first version of each chapter goes straight on to the computer. It saves time and speeds me towards the goal of a completed first draft. I’m hoping to reach that particular target by the end of this year, after which I’m prepared to spend another year turning it from a finished novel into a good novel, if I can.
Three fine authors will be taking up the baton next week and explaining their writing process: Jacob Singer, Leigh M. Lane and David Whippman.
Here are their bios and links.
LEIGH M. LANE
Leigh M. Lane has been writing for over twenty years. She has ten published novels and twelve published short stories divided among different genre-specific pseudonyms. She is married to editor Thomas B. Lane, Jr. and has recently returned to the hustle and bustle of Las Vegas after a three-year stay in the beautiful but desolate mountains of western Montana.
Her traditional Gothic horror novel, Finding Poe, was a 2013 EPIC Awards finalist in horror. Her other novels include the supernatural thriller, The Hidden Valley Horror, inspired by Barker, Bradbury, and King; World-Mart, a tribute to Orwell, Serling, and Vonnegut; and the dark allegorical tale, Myths of Gods.
http://www.cerebralwriter.com
http://www.cerebralwriter.com/blog.html
DAVID WHIPPMAN
David Whippman was born and raised in Bristol, then lived in Devon and is currently based in Lancashire, England. He spent most of his working life in healthcare. Now retired, David is a poet, storyteller and essayist. He also devotes time to art, chess and music. His blog on his writing process will appear at http://on.fb.me/1fOYs3Z
JACOB SINGER
Jacob Singer was born in Potchefstroom South Africa. After he matriculated, he studied Pharmacy at the Chelsea Polytechnic in London, England. Five years later he returned to South Africa, met and married Evelyn Jackson, and opened a pharmacy in Potchefstroom.
In 1985 he retired and in December 1992, with his family, he emigrated to Canada. His family had been threatened by the South African Security Police because of his work against the apartheid Government.
In 1995 he started writing his first book, BRAKENSTROOM, self-publishing it in 1999. In 2006 he started writing his second book, The VASE with the MANY COLOURED MARBLES, a story about a mother and daughter he knew when he was a boy, a story that explains in detail the horror of being classified a second class citizen in apartheid South Africa.
He is presently working on a third book, a true story about three friends.
You may visit his website at www.jacobashersinger.com
You can find his blog here: http://patroosp.blogspot.ca/
Join them next Sunday!
January 25, 2014
The Great Anglo-Portuguese Novel
Writing a novel is, literally, a challenge for someone who is used to writing short stories and poems. A sizeable challenge. Size matters. Instead of a story of three to five thousand words, you are looking to write about eighty thousand words. That is, naturally, a rough figure, but it gives you a quantitative target to aim for. It is a back-up motivation that can kick in when you begin to doubt the quality of your words, or even wonder whether the whole endeavour is in vain.
It was hard getting started on my novel. It had been a project in my head for years. Once I’d actually begun, early in November, completing the first chapter was not difficult. What proved really hard was starting chapter two and getting into the swing of it. After I’d managed that, it started to flow. By mid-December I had drafted the first quarter. Following a holiday break, I again found second-rate reasons not to get back to it. Yet once I put fingertips to keyboard, the momentum returned. I have now completed more than one third, and nothing will stop me finishing it.
It was hard getting started on my novel. It had been a project in my head for years. Once I’d actually begun, early in November, completing the first chapter was not difficult. What proved really hard was starting chapter two and getting into the swing of it. After I’d managed that, it started to flow. By mid-December I had drafted the first quarter. Following a holiday break, I again found second-rate reasons not to get back to it. Yet once I put fingertips to keyboard, the momentum returned. I have now completed more than one third, and nothing will stop me finishing it.
January 19, 2014
Progress report
Since I started publishing e-books in July 2012, I have notched up over 4,500 sales or downloads. Unfortunately, the (free) downloads vastly outnumber the sales. However, that does not hobble my strategy, which is to build up a following by the time I publish my novel. My e-books so far have been novellas, short stories or collections of stories and poems. My target for 2014 is to double that number of sales and downloads, and to complete a first draft of the novel. Most of all, to enjoy doing it!
January 15, 2014
Snack bar for bookworms: expanding
My content-driven website has now welcomed over 14,000 visitors. One thousand in the last month. Drop by and find out why: http://www.bryanmurphy.eu/
December 12, 2013
Snack bar for bookworms
My content-driven website has now welcomed over 13,000 visitors. Drop by and find out why: http://www.bryanmurphy.eu/
November 18, 2013
Houlihan's Wake free at Smashwords
Houlihan's Wake is now free at Smashwords: http://bit.ly/181pc0r
In Houlihan's Wake, a young Irishman goes to Playa Chisme, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, determined to die, and determined to do so in a beautiful setting. But can Houlihan’s death-wish do its worst in such a life-affirming place, where the lifeguards are adamant that nobody shall turn their massive party to celebrate a whole year without anyone drowning in Playa Chisme's lethal rip-tides into someone else’s pitiful wake?
Number One on the Books Set in Mexico Listopia.
In Houlihan's Wake, a young Irishman goes to Playa Chisme, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, determined to die, and determined to do so in a beautiful setting. But can Houlihan’s death-wish do its worst in such a life-affirming place, where the lifeguards are adamant that nobody shall turn their massive party to celebrate a whole year without anyone drowning in Playa Chisme's lethal rip-tides into someone else’s pitiful wake?
Number One on the Books Set in Mexico Listopia.
November 13, 2013
80 books in free raffle!
Last few days to enter the great Write Room free raffle!!!
Details here: http://www.thewriteroomblog.com/?page...
Details here: http://www.thewriteroomblog.com/?page...
October 22, 2013
"Water" by Dan O' Brien
Today, I welcome my friend and ace author, Dan O'Brien, who will introduce his brand new novella, "Water". It'll have you thirsting for more!
I want to thank you for having me on your blog to promote the release of my latest publication.
Water is a novella in the B-Sides universe, which follows people in a post-apocalyptic world. While each story is a standalone adventure, together they form a deeply intricate web of action, drama, and hope. Here is a brief summary of the novella:
The next installment in the B-Sides series follows a father and son living out a quiet life in northern Arizona. A strange occurrence at the border, and a series of events that turns the world upside down, plunges society into a spiral from which it might not be able to recover. Having to flee from their home with a band of unlikely friends in tow, the open road beckons.
Can they survive?
And here be an excerpt for your enjoyment:
Tuesday
His phone vibrated as it slowly ventured toward the edge of his nightstand. Shaking and spinning, it was a ballet of electronic futility. James had left it behind; it wasn’t even an afterthought as he neared the valley of sand and heat that he had passed through only the night before. There were two reasons to live in the desert: sunsets and sunrises.
This particular morning was no exception.
I want to thank you for having me on your blog to promote the release of my latest publication.
Water is a novella in the B-Sides universe, which follows people in a post-apocalyptic world. While each story is a standalone adventure, together they form a deeply intricate web of action, drama, and hope. Here is a brief summary of the novella:
The next installment in the B-Sides series follows a father and son living out a quiet life in northern Arizona. A strange occurrence at the border, and a series of events that turns the world upside down, plunges society into a spiral from which it might not be able to recover. Having to flee from their home with a band of unlikely friends in tow, the open road beckons.
Can they survive?
And here be an excerpt for your enjoyment:
Tuesday
His phone vibrated as it slowly ventured toward the edge of his nightstand. Shaking and spinning, it was a ballet of electronic futility. James had left it behind; it wasn’t even an afterthought as he neared the valley of sand and heat that he had passed through only the night before. There were two reasons to live in the desert: sunsets and sunrises.
This particular morning was no exception.
