C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 83

URBAN ALLIES announcement!

Oh oh I get to shout it from the rooftops!

I’m going to be writing a “Greywalker Papers” crossover story with Kat Richardson (omg omg omg omg) as part of the upcoming URBAN ALLIES anthology, conceived of and edited by Joseph Nassise.

Last week’s Publishers Marketplace announcement read URBAN ALLIES, an anthology of collaborative tales featuring the favorite characters of twenty top urban fantasy writers, including stories by Charlaine Harris, Kelley Armstrong, Seanan McGuire, Christopher Golden...

Recent Reads: The Continuing Time

A few years ago Daniel Keys Moran published the fourth book of the Continuing Time, after a nearly 20 year hiatus. I went and bought an e-reader so I could read THE BIG BOOST, and bought the other three books in e-copy so I could read them all one after another. I enjoyed the experience quite a lot, honestly, which was lovely.

Anyway, in early September, during my media blackout month, I wanted something to read, and one of the things about me when I’m writing is that I can’t easily read new f...

writing, fudge, conventions

It has now been 24 hours since I submitted my epic fantasy proposal to my agent and nobody has bought it yet. I’m very disappointed. :)

Last week I brought fudge to the arts & business centre where my son’s preschool is. *This* week I’ve had people who have never spoken to me before kind of falling over at me and saying “OMG that fudge!” and often “Do you sell this?!” :)

A writer whom I would very much like to meet, and who does not go to conventions, just announced that he would be going to Wo...

end media blackout

At least, a theoretical end to the media blackout. I should probably carry on with it to a fair degree, because it was pretty successful.

I think I got around 40K written in September, maybe as much as 50, including all the synopsizing and stuff I did for the epic proposal. It made a dent, anyway, in my to-do list, and I’m considerably less freaked out than I was at the beginning of September.

The epic proposal isn’t quite done, although that had been my hope. The bulk of the work is done, but...

all in a day’s work

So bright and early this morning I went downtown to run some errands, figuring the shops I needed probably wouldn’t be open until 10 but thinking I’d go to the library to work until they opened.

Turned out the library didn’t open until 10 either. @.@

Anyway, I rented a spot at a cafe and got working and after a while thought well, I don’t have to pick Young Indy up until noon, I’ll just work until 11 and then do errands.

Moments later my phone rang and the guys delivering our new printer needed...

time travel

The way I think about time travel scenarios you’d think I was likely to be caught up in one AT ANY MOMENT. My current mental scenario obsession: I awaken on Jan 1 of the year I turn 13, with as much knowledge about the future as I can, y’know, remember. What do I do?

(Answer: the 1st fucking thing I do is find a way to stop the Challenger launch. Call in a bomb threat to NASA, I don’t know, but *something*.

2nd thing I do: start acquiring fake IDs. Dunno how you do that in Kenai. “Excuse me, si...

wordcount triumph

I set myself a small, realistic wordcount goal this year, because last year was so phenomenally bad. 200K, that was my goal.

I had over 100K by the end of March, so it was something of a letdown to take until yesterday to reach the 200K mark, but I have triumphed and heck, there are still 3 months left in the year! (And I, uh, want to finish at least 2 more books in that time. And write 3 or more short stories…) Still, I reached goal, so that’s nice.

I’m also at 25K on the epic proposal, and ha...

Roadhouse

So I just got done working and went downstairs and glanced into the living room as I walked by, and a shirtless Patrick Swayze was on TV, and I said to Ted, “Roadhouse?”

And then I thought, and said to Ted, “Why have I seen Roadhouse often enough that I can identify it by those particular two seconds of half-naked Patrick Swayze?” and concluded (also aloud) that the answer was probably “Well, Patrick Swayze.”

A few minutes later there’s a sex scene and it’s up against a rough stone wall and Ted...

committing epic

I’m working on my epic fantasy proposal. The other day I was whining to Michelle Sagara that epic was hard and I was rambling and meandering and babbling and boring all the readers to tears, I could just tell…

…and she said, “So: in other words, you’re writing.”

*laughs* Yeah, well. I’m writing. And I’m used to writing urban fantasy, which is quite fast-paced, so I went into this kinda thinking “yeah okay first major beat will probably be around 5K words” and now I’m 16.3K in and, er, still sev...

“I’ve always wanted to write a book!”

At the cafe this morning, people were talking w/site manager about market space. I was listening in & they noticed. Manager says “She’s writing a book!”

One immediately says “I have a great first line for a book: ‘I’ve a terrible secret.’ Isn’t that great? You could get a whole book deal off that!”

I thought, “Uh, no you couldn’t,” and I *said* “So what’s the secret?”

She said “You don’t find out at the end! Keep them for the second book!”

…right then.

Then they asked for my name in case I made it...