C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 11

Somebunny is FREE today!

Because there’s a huge amount of stress going on this week, I’ve decided to set my very funny paranormal romance, SOMEBUNNY TO LOVE, free on Amazon Kindle through November 6th (affiliate link). Hop-fully it’ll give you something to read while you stand in line to vote, or if you just need to unplug and find yourself stuck into a guaranteed hoppily-ever-after for a while.

I hope you enjoy it. I had a great time writing it and people keep quoting bits of it at me, so I think I’ve done a pretty goo...

art class: lesson one

I’ve been drawing just enough now to remember that I think I could be pretty good at this if I practiced a great deal more. It’s inspired me to, well. About a hundred thousand years ago I bought a basic drawing course on Udemy, and I’ve been moved to start it. Do I think I’ll do the whole thing? No, not really. But the first assignment is a 2-part project to do your best at drawing a realistic eye, which you follow along with the course teacher to do. Here’s day one’s effort:

Part two was “fini...

developing a book proposal

Earlier this year, before acquiring an agent, I wrote a very short, like back-of-book-blurb, romantasy proposal that I sent to an editor I had access to. She asked for a full proposal (a full synopsis, 3 chapters), and that’s been on a back burner while I’ve been doing a thousand thousand other things. But yesterday I got to get started on it, and…

I’ve talked often about how I tend to get to the 1/3rd mark in any book, no matter how long, and hit a wall that I have to go back and fix stuff to g...

committing art

It struck me recently that I could do sketching during gaming and other zoom calls that weren’t Art Zoom (which i haven’t been to in ages, mea culpa), so this is a little art dump of stuff I’ve done…pretty recently.

The face/head was very difficult on this one, but overall I’m kind of pleased with it. Adorka stock photography model for both this and the next one.

I’m…less pleased with this one, but the hair and shoulders are pretty good, I think.

This one the model kindly complimented me on do...

september was so busy, omg.

I spent a lot of September going “Jesus I’m completely overwhelmed how am I going to get everything done I can’t this is horrible” kinds of day, and I just wanted to crawl in a hole and cry.

Then I looked at my Thinks To Do list for the month, which…was completely insane. I did So Goddamn Much in September. This is not actually quite everything, I’d forgotten to put things on and I’d not expanded a couple of the dropdowns. No wonder I was freaking out.

So that, folks, is how the sausage gets ma...

CAULDRON BORNE preorders!

I have been remiss in mentioning that CAULDRON BORNE, Book 5 of the Walker Papers* is available for preorder and will be out in a few days!

*formerly WALKING DEAD, Book 4 of the Walker Papers! this whole renumbering thing is confusing enough without changing a book name, but I did anyway!

I actually had to re-read this one to write the back cover copy, because while I remembered the graveyard scene and the name of one of the characters who was murdered, that was almost literally everything I rem...

trying to change my habits

I am, as the subject line suggests, trying to change some habits. It isn’t going well, of course, but I’m trying.

I started taking a yoga class for newbs, and I’ve Not Wanted to go to every class since then, but I’ve gone and enjoyed all of them and indeed, have left every one going “if I did that 3 or 4 times a week I’d probably feel a lot better,” but I’m trying to change habits in a SUSTAINABLE manner, not “DO ALL THE THINGS / NEVER MIND I’D RATHER DIE”.

I’m trying to spend less time on the c...

Picoreview: Bumblebee

Picoreview: Bumblebee – this is a great Girl And Her Horse movie.

I loved Bumblebee when I first saw it in the theatre, except the night we went, so did about 15 incredibly obnoxious teenagers who obviously didn’t really want to be there and who were unbelievably loud and rude and giggly and stupid through the first half of the film, after which they either left or were kicked out, I can’t remember. So mostly I didn’t hear any of the first half and really liked the second half, and I’ve been mea...

Recent Reads: The Scarlet Revolution, Genevieve Cogman

…but only books one and two, because three isn’t out until next year, :sobs: :)

These are by Invisible Library author Genevieve Cogman, who thought “What if Scarlet Pimpernel, but with vampires?”

What results is a rampage through revolutionary-era France with our lead character, Eleanor, a maid in a vampire’s estate, being swept into the Pimpernel’s cadre due to Reasons, and her gradual emotional and intellectual journey from the unquestioning “of course the world is ordered as it should be” to ...

art vs industry

Elsewhere a friend posted an image of all the upcoming/in development Marvel projects, of which there were…many…like, over 20…and made a comment about whether it was art or industry.

It turned out I had some feelings on that. :)

I think Marvel walks an interesting line between art and industry. A lot of it’s industry, which is fine because it IS an industry. And since I find, IDK, probably 80% of that industry’s product to be entertaining, I’m pretty happy with that. My problems with the industr...