C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 54

cowls & scarfs

I cast off on Indy’s scarf-not-a-scarf-way-too-short-totally-a-cowl-that’s-what-i-meant-it-to-be last week and today nerved myself up to try stitching it together to see if it would make a cowl or if I in fact had to tear the whole thing out and do it again. So I stopped halfway up the seam to see if it would fit over Indy’s head, and he loved it that way:

So I’ve declared it done. O.O :)

I started a scarf for me. (This will actually be a scarf, I have enough yarn.) The point of pride with t...

Writing Wednesday: Price Points

I’ve released two books back to back so far this year, MAGIC & MANNERS in March, followed by ATLANTIS FALLEN in April.

As an experiment, I priced ATLANTIS FALLEN $2 cheaper than M&M, to see if the number of sales at the lower price point made up for or (hopefully) outstripped the profit I make off the higher purchase price of MAGIC & MANNERS.

It did. Just barely. It took about 28 of its first 30 days to catch up to MAGIC & MANNERS’ first month, and in the last couple days it inched into maki...

Man & Cyberman

“You don’t point very well, do you, Grandpa?” said one of my father’s grandsons, critically, when that child was about aged five.

It’s true, though. Grandpa didn’t point very well, because 15+ years ago my Dad developed what’s called an essential tremor, which is, as I understand it, basically a short in the electrical wiring of the brain that causes (usually) the sufferer’s dominant hand to shake uncontrollably, but which can also affect the other hand, the head, and the gait.

Dad, never one...

Kitsnaps: Rimfrost

More from the photo archives; a glorious winter day in 2003, where I lay in the snow and took pictures of rimfrosted trees, and of my puppy snoofling me.

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aesthetic: 21st century gibson girl

I dream of a world in which I have a Look. A Vibe. A Fashion. A Thing of some goddamn kind, anyway. As I’m a fan of the whole multiverse concept, I believe that that world probably exists, but sadly, it’s not this world.

Once in a while, though, I have a day of Aesthetic. Today is 21st Century Gibson Girl, courtesy of twisting my hair up into a bun (which I haven’t done in forever) and my ankle-length, kickpleated-to-the-hip, poofed-shoulder, princess-seamed black velvet-collared coat.

Peopl...

all the presidents (men)

I was–well, really–trying to bore myself to sleep the other night by seeing how many of the US presidents I could remember. Fewer than 20, reliably, as it turned out. The whole thing went like this:

Obama, Bush Jr, Clinton, Bush Sr, Reagan, Carter…wait, uh. Spiro Agnew wasn’t ever actually president, who was it in there…well. nevermind, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, then, uh, Eisenhower probably, Truman, FDR for sure…H…Hoover? No, he was the FBI guy… WILSON DEFINITELY WE GOT WILSON YEAH uh…Teddy R...

Picoreview: The Losers

Picoreview: The Losers: Good fun.

I kept seeing screenshots from The Losers on Tumblr, and commented on some funny bits and got into a discussion with one of my followers there and anyway it ended up with me having a copy of the movie and I finally got a chance to watch it last night.

It’s appallingly dude-heavy (there are, off the top of my head, only 3 speaking roles for females, one of whom is a little girl) but the dudes are very appealing: Idris Elba, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chris Evans, an...

Kitsnaps: Eklutna Lake

Sadly, no, I have not been home lately to take these pictures; they’re from 2003, when several of us went out kayaking on Eklutna Lake, outside of Anchorage, on a ridiculously glorious day.

I’m going through my digital photo archives, trying to clean them up and get rid of all the terrible pictures, which is something I’ve been meaning to do for, uh, ever. Mostly it’s not very hard, but these Alaska photos do make me homesick.

The post Kitsnaps: Eklutna Lake appeared first on The Essential...

Kitsnacks: Homemade Pop Tarts

Many years ago, presumably before Pop Tarts began to be a thing that occasionally showed up on Irish grocery store shelves, I got the idea into my head that one could, y’know, probably MAKE them. I looked for recipes, but never got around to making them.

A couple weekends ago I was making pot pie anyway and thought I should make up an extra batch of pie crust and try ’em.

oh my flippin’ stars.

I used my basic pie crust recipe and added about a quarter cup of sugar to it, which I had never i...

these are a few of my favourite…words…!

I had the opportunity to use my favourite word this morning, and then I thought: favourite words are a thing, right? they’re totally a thing! people have favourite words! RIGHT?!

A brief enquiry on Twitter incidated that yes, other people also have favourite words. “Defenestration” is remarkably popular. I had an “acquiesce” (“Love that triphthong.”) and a “semester” (Swedish for ‘vacation’) and an ‘obstensibly’, which I can also really get behind, because what a great word to say. It’s delic...