C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 58

Kitsnaps: Oxford

I had a brief visit to Oxford last month and although I didn’t have a decent camera with me, got a handful of pictures that I was very happy with, with my phone. I haven’t “matted” them, but I’ve concluded if I wait to do that I’ll never post another Photo Friday again, because I’ve just got too many other things going on right now. (I need a Beautiful Assistant to do that kind of work for me. Plus a lot of other stuff. If only I was rich. :))

The University Church, taken from the top of a bu...

many edits. such revision.

I’m trying to keep my nose to the grindstone while also being caught in this frustrating window of hurry up and wait.

I put in an order for a proof for MAGIC & MANNERS on the 6th and it still hasn’t arrived, so I went and looked up why and the damned thing says it’s still ‘pending’. I don’t understand why, unless I’m supposed to tell the system that it’s print-approved, except as far as I can tell that will propagate it into the publication system and I don’t want to do that until I’m sure t...

Recent Reads: The Alchemist of Souls

Skraylings! I don’t think I’ve read a book with skraylings, or anything much like them, since Elizabeth Boyer’s books that I haven’t read in a Very Long Time Indeed but still have on my shelf because fond memory tells me they were pretty darn good.

Anne Lyle’s THE ALCHEMIST OF SOULS is nothing like those books, though. I’d say it’s more grown-up, but that’s kind of a disservice to the Boyer books, which were of their time, just as Lyle’s novel is. I just really, really *enjoyed* ALCHEMIST bei...

Picoreview: Pride & Prejudice & Zombies

Picoreview: Pride & Prejudice & Zombies: startlingly enjoyable!

Look, I won’t kid you. When P&P&Z came out as a book I thought, “*God* I wish I’d thought of that.” It didn’t matter if it was going to be a one-hit wonder (and it apparently was; SENSE & SENSIBILITY & SEAMONSTERS apparently didn’t do nearly as well), it was just such a great idea that yeah. I wish I’d thought of that. I didn’t read the book, but I wished I’d thought of it.

I *didn’t* read the book, so I have no idea how well the...

late night dublin wander

I went to my sister’s musical last night, and having foolishly failed to check the train times, discovered at 10 o’clock, on my way to the train station, that there was not a half ten train, only a 10pm one and a half eleven one. So I ended up wandering around city centre, getting some extra steps in and taking crappy late night phone camera pictures, which I will now share with you. :)

The General Post Office, commonly referred to as the GPO, on O’Connell Street. This was the headquarters fo...

Kitsnaps: Reflections

Yes, yes, I know that the way to actually have my Photo Friday/Kitsnaps post regularly is to prepare them weeks in advance and get them set to auto-post. It’s the weeks in advance part where I’m falling down, especially because I’d *like* to post the pictures false-framed the way I’ve done the last ten or so.

Possibly this is a terrible choice and I should reconsider it forever, especially as I’m reasonably certain the only one who actually cares about it is me. I just feel like the images lo...

new! shiny! website!

Thanks to the efforts of the magnificent Thirzah Brown, I have a beautiful new website! Equally excitingly, I have, through the good graces of a reader, acquired a comments moderator, which means the comments have been turned back on for the site! COME ONE! COME ALL! SPEAK TO ME! :)

This has all been in the works for quite a long time now, and I’m really delighted to see it go live. My needs for a website have changed over the years, with me gradually wanting a greater focus on the CE Murphy...

Recent Reads: The Art of Elfquest

Several months ago I discovered a Kickstarter for three deluxe Wendy Pini books, two on Elfquest and one on her other work.

Reader, I agonized. I do not, by any stretch of the imagination, require more Elfquest stuff. The completionist in me shrieks otherwise, but the truth is I got rid of most of my Elfquest originals before we moved, and I never did get several of the later Father Tree Press graphic novels (which I regret, actually, but I really still don’t like the coloring in them), but...

sunday summary

I made scones this morning and opened the maple apple butter to try it on them.

oh my GOD that stuff is good

Holy crap. Completely different delivery of flavour than the caramel, which is all tart apple and then slow roll of caramel. This is rich sweet maple with a low apple base, much, MUCH more maple-y than I expected from the taste I had when it was still warm. Oh my *god*.

Ted’s all like: you need to start a fudge and apple butter cottage industry and sell it for millions in five years’ t...

Meet Baloo

Meet Baloo, the newest member of our family:

Baloo is a year-old rescue dog who came to live with us a couple of weeks ago. He is, according to the rescue people, part collie (likely: he shows a tendency to herd, anyway), perhaps part lab or retriever, or, in the opinion of the woman running the place, part flat-haired terrier.

He’s *definitely* very large. He’s definitely very furry. He’s also very patient, which is good, because Young Indiana cannot. stop. flinging. himself. at. the. dog....