C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 13

Stalking the Dead Storybundle!!!

I have been remiss in telling you about this Storybundle I’m in!!!

URBAN SHAMAN is one of eleven releases (Two of which are box sets with multiple titles! A third of which has an additional novella! SO MANY BOOKS!!!) in this Storybundle, all supernatural detective stories of one kind or another!

The first four books – Olympia Investigations by Sherry D. Ramsey, Death Coach by Sandra Wickham, Blood Kissed by Keri Arthur, and Dying on Second by E.C. Bell – are only $5 (or more if you feel like it...

art blog: fat lady with ax

Arright, from my last Saturday evening art zoom, and I did the thing I was talking about, working from a reference piece, doing a freehand sketch, then a quick trace, then trying the freehand again.

I like the energy of the first one best but the third one actually…turned out pretty well, even if it’s only blue lines. I didn’t think it was turning out well while I was working on it, but…it might not be bad, actually?

The model is Lauren Ashley, working with Adorka Stock Pose Reference for Artist...

genuinely insanely busy

Hello, mes amis. I have been genuinely, insanely busy for the past two months, and my “no really I’m going to get back into blogging” has suffered badly for it. I have Eastercon to write up, STILL, most of two months after the fact, but I kept putting it off because I was finishing the 6th Dublin Driver book, which I did, and delivered, on April…21, I think.

And then I accidentally banged out two novellas.

Yeah, no, that’s not normal, is it? I literally finished DEATH OF AN IRISH DRUID and the n...

art blog: rogue and dancer

I did an art zoom last weekend.

I haven’t drawn anything in ages, partly, largely, from decision paralysis, but I had to draw SOMETHING for the zoom, so this is what I did. I feel very nervous and uncomfortable showing people. It’s about as good as I can do without trying digital shading or colouring, which I’m really bad at. I know the leg’s fucked up, but see above. :p

A couple days later, Stephen Blackmoore, who posts these ridiculous horoscope things, posted “Gemini: Today you will be posse...

not dead! busy month, tho

Iiiiiii…have been meaning to post, and just not doing it because I’ve been working, and don’t want to distract myself from work. But! I got an extension on the book so I’m going to take a minute to do a short blog.

I went to Eastercon the last weekend of March, and it was WONDERFUL, but I haven’t had enough time to blog about it. Hopefully next week when I’m done with this book, which…

I’m ALMOST done with the 6th Dublin Driver book. There I was, 60K into a 70K book, the end in sight, but…it was...

ICFA: the last two days

Let’s see. Friday I had a 10:30am thing, which I know because I couldn’t have breakfast with the family. Oh, yes, it turned out to be what Geoffrey Landis said might have been the most fun he’d ever had at an ICFA panel! laughs

It was a panel with myself and Kate JohnsTon, moderated by Novella, and Kate read an incredibly funny piece from the point of view of a genetically engineered modern T-Rex who was very, very horny, followed by two more very funny pieces, after which I read from my Pride &...

ICFA: the first two days

Ok, I’m going to try an actual con writeup here, before I forget everything.

We got into Florida on Tuesday evening, collapsed into bed around 11pm, got up at 8am, and as I kept telling people all week, “I’m doing really well right now, but as of about 6pm, I make no promises for the rest of the evening!” Which was pretty prophetic: I hit a wall hard around 6pm every night, but also usually had a dinner or other activity planned, and since I can keep going forever as long as I have an audience, ...

ICFA 2024 Overview

I’m back from the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA) where I was a guest of honor over the past week, and I am ridiculously tired but had a wonderful time. I am, in fact, too tired to type coherently, so if this is fully of typos, I… will assume you can read through them bc omg. so tired. :)

I’d never been to ICFA and was, tbh, very very nervous and feeling quite imposter-syndromey, which is not my general modus operandi, but my god, guys, the previous guests of honor ...

Recent Reads: At First Spite

Recent Reads: AT FIRST SPITE: a complete delight

This is a romance I preordered because how could you resist that title, even if you DON’T know the main character ends up living in a spite house (a tiny, tiny house built between other properties, practically unlivable but built out of, you know, spite) between her ex’s house, and, as it turns out, her ex’s horrible older brother’s house? Which you do know, because the back of the book tells you so, so I’m not spoiling anything. :)

The heroine, A...

old, and not hip

I’ve developed the bad habit of watching stupid little “styling” reels on FB, very few of which are any good at all.

This last one was “what I thrifted vs how I styled it” – literally a shot each of the dress, jewelry, handbag & boots, which she then…put on. There was no ‘styling’.

Why do I do this.

I mean, in this particular case, it was actually a good look. She’d made good choices. But I think ‘styling’ is a wild overstatement for what she was doing. I was expecting a revamped dress, at least...