C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 14

february progress report

Well, I came into February by finishing my last book (WEAR WOLF, available now!) a week early, so I took the next week off from formal book work and wrote a synopsis for something, sent that in to an editor, and did some further work on a different proposal.

Halfway through the month, as noted before, I was struck by inspiration in the middle of the night, and now have about a thousand disconnected words on that project, which I am supposed to get 10 pages to 3 chapters written of Soon, accordin...

2024 Hugos Eligibility

The Hugo nomination window ends on, I believe March 9th.

I am eligible in the following categories for 2024’s awards:

~Best Novel~
Witchmaster (The Guildmaster Saga #5) by C.E. Murphy

~Best Novella~
Somebunny to Love (The Virtue Shifter series) by C.E. Murphy writing as Zoe Chant

~Best Series~
The Guildmaster Saga by C.E. Murphy
The Virtue Shifter series by C.E. Murphy writing as Zoe Chant

~Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book (Not a Hugo)~
Witchmaster (The Guildmaster Saga #5) by C.E. Murph...

heartwrenched

On Wednesday, I looked at FB earlier than usual while waiting for the cat to have her morning drink of shower water, so I woke up to the utterly joyous news that a dear friend has gotten engaged to a woman who adores her and was filled with happy tears for them.

And the next post carried the devastating news that novelist Steve Miller, co-author of the long-running Liaden series, died Tuesday afternoon.

I spent yesterday more than a little emotionally rattled.

I didn’t know Steve well, but I lik...

Release Day: WEAR WOLF!

WEAR WOLF is available now!

I have to tell you that I am already–like, this is cool. Before the book even came out, I had a couple of people comment about the fact that my hero in this book is face-blind (has prosopagnosia), because they’d never seen a character with that disability before. I’ve had a couple more people comment since, and I’m really pleased to have brought a kind of representation to peoples’ attention with this book. I’m aphantasic (I don’t see pictures in my head), which is no...

inspiration has terrible timing

I was very tired last night, and had a HUGE amount to do today, so went to bed at a very sensible hour, ~10:30pm.

I then utterly failed to sleep for 90+ minutes.

Shortly after midnight, having tossed and turned and gotten up to pee and to make sure my son had done his Pokemon for the day so he wouldn’t lose the 20 day streak he was aiming for for a task, I finally thought I was comfortable and worn out enough to sleep.

And the first line of a new book, a project I’ve been developing the synopsis...

Preorder: Wear Wolf

My next Zoe Chant paranormal romance, WEAR WOLF, will be out this weekend! Preorders are now available!

Guys, I’m not gonna lie, I love writing the Virtue Shifters. They make my heart happy. Numerous readers have said they’re like reading a warm, comforting hug. I don’t know what else I could ask for, in this era of strife and stress. And I have so many ideas and plans for the world, I swear I just need a Tardis for a few months… (Well, I mean, I guess I only need one for a minute, given how the...

living ‘on the road system’

In one of the chat rooms I frequent, Snowqueen, a fellow chatter, experienced a small earthquake in a not-very-usual earthquake zone, and found it very disquieting. She does live in a Cold Place, so as she said, “I don’t know how people live in earthquake zones but I guess I live in a place where the cold could freeze your eyeballs so apparently you just get used to things.”

Well. I mean. I grew up in an earthquake zone where the cold froze your eyeballs! All at the same time! But, indeed, it ne...

Guest of Honor in Orlando, March 2024!

Guess who’s going to be in Orlando next month?

I’m one of the guests of honor at the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts conference in Orlando from March 13-16, 2024! It looks fun and exciting, and I’m really looking forward to it!

I’m sorry I haven’t made this news public earlier, but last year was so difficult that I wasn’t sure until quite recently that I’d actually be able to participate in the conference, so I’d been keeping quiet until I was sure I wouldn’t be disappoin...

Picoreview: The Mitchells vs the Machines

Picoreview: Mitchells vs the Machines: did not finish

This was one of those I’d been meaning to get around to seeing because the reviews were so great, so I finally started it, and…half an hour in, I paused it, read the Wiki, and decided that yeah, no, it was not going to redeem itself and I didn’t need to finish watching it.

I 100% believe all the good reviews, honestly. The art style is fun, the animation is engaging, the characters are plausible, etc. It was subtly clear from what I watched t...

Aeon Timeline & Scrivener: a how-to for syncing

Okay, background:

I have spent years fiddling with Aeon Timeline. I love the visuals on it, I like having a timeline for my books, and I know it’s way more useful than I’ve been using it for, but I have not, for the life of me, been able to make it sync with Scrivener, which it’s Supposed To Do.

My HOPE was it should probably let you put all the information into Scrivener, which would then magically populate the information into Aeon Timeline in some way, but…well, I’ve spent ages looking for tu...