C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 32

a day in which nothing went right

I had a day in which nothing went right. Nothing went catastrophically WRONG, exactly, it was just nothing went…*right*, and it was very frustrating.

I went to buy a couple new earrings for my stupid ears, because I keep losing the ball ends of the ones I’ve got (although more memorably I lost the actual earring recently, which, rrgh), and only somewhat after the fact did I discover I’d had a miscommunication with the dude and had accidentally gotten a much longer post than I wanted. I’d been...

two weeks of #100DaysOfWriting

Okay, okay, it was two weeks until yesterday, but it’s close enough. Today’s day 15 (assuming I can count, which I couldn’t last week when I gave us two Day Eights…), and I’ve managed to write every day, which is pretty unusual for me.

I’ve done about…mmm. 7000 words, which isn’t really very many (particularly after last month’s, what, 65K+ and November’s …65K…?) but, you know, possibly the 120K in the past two months is taking its toll. Although really it’s more that I’ve…

So my projects thi...

Marvel Movie Marathon: Iron Man

Marvel Movie Marathon: Iron Man: omg I had somehow managed to forget the sheer level of asshole Tony was in the first part of Iron Man.

Back in 2006 or whatever when Marvel said they were floating an Iron Man movie, I, an X-Men fan who never cared much about the Avengers, was like “why would anybody make a movie about a 2nd tier character like Iron Man that nobody cares about anyway.” Ted, who is much more of an Avengers fan, objected strenuously to “2nd tier” and argued in favor of an Iron M...

100 Days Of Writing: A Project

Late last year, near the end of Nanowrimo, a friend said she thought maybe she would do a 100 days of writing challenge instead of NNWM, because she thought that would work better for her.

“Oh!” I said immediately, “I’ll do that with you!”

“AUGH,” she said, “but, but, you’ll actually DO it!”

We started yesterday. :)

As a matter of fact, about…30 of us started, I’d say, between Facebook and Twitter. The minimum goal is 100 words of writing every day for 100 days. People can do more than that,...

2017: a retrospective / 2018: some goals

2017 wasn’t as personally awful as 2016, but it was still a trash fire. I’m ending it on a high note, though, after a Herculean effort that saw me write 25K in 3 days, 13.2 of that in *one* day (a personal best), to get a project in on time. I succeeded. I’m very tired, but I succeeded.

I wrote two books, neither of which were planned, and a novella (which was planned) this year, and some short stories. I published three books in 2018 (SEAMASTER (a middle grade epic fantasy), BEWITCHING BENED...

progress on the book front

The good news is I hit 90K on the book I’m working on! I was aiming for 90K by Friday, hit it on Saturday, so, y’know, that’s pretty good.

The less good news is this morning I decided I needed to replace two chapters with about five paragaphs, kill somebody, and split the party. (Actually, the party is already split, but I need to split it differently. Better-ly.)

I am *currently* enjoying the delusion that I can haul the whole thing around with a big wrenching effort and not actually go back...

Picoreview: The Last Jedi

Picoreview: The Last Jedi: Eh.

The thing is, someday I’ll stop expecting to love Star Wars movies. They are not for me. I’ve never cared much. I didn’t see the originals until I was more or less an adult, and lack the rose-colored glasses most of my (and subsequent) generations view them with. Rogue One is the only one that’s ever managed to disappoint me because it’s the only one I thought was going to be different, but it was just a Star Wars film, albeit one in which rocks fell and everybo...

in which empirical evidence is on their side

To the vast amusement of the friends in the previous post, I have written…I don’t know. Something in the region of 30,000 words in the past week. #Nanowriweek, another friend said. It was actually intended to be *much* closer to an actual Nanowriweek, except something went Horribly Wrong with SEAMASTER and I spent literally all day yesterday dealing with that and got nothing written at all.

Anyway, I was aiming for 90K & Done by today, but I’m at 82K & Not Done as of this morning. Nor is the...

struggling with a book

I hoped to get this stupid book all written in November, but with one thing and another (those things being 1. lack of a concentrated plot & 2. a 3 week head cold), I didn’t, and I’ve been despairing over finishing in time, although as Friend #2 below said, “Girl, you can fart 3000 words.” Yesterday, a Thursday, I was despairing to somebody who’s known me for some 20-odd (very odd) years, and the following conversation ensued:

Me: I struck 3K+ from this stupid book and have to get another 35K...

Launch Day: Seamaster!

As always, I’ll start with the links, just in case that’s what you’re really here for. :)

iTunes || Kindle || Kobo || Nook

Once upon a time my oldest nephew asked when I was going to write books for little kids. He’s no longer a little kid, and I’ve been working on the Guildmaster Saga for years, handing early drafts over to him and getting the rest ready for the world. I’m SO EXCITED to release this book, which is the kind of thing I’d have been reading from about age eight, and would still...