C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 87

office reclamation

Some months ago we rearranged all the bedrooms so that our son wasn’t in one next to the road. What was his bedroom became the office, which has been…problematic…ever since.

I have, to some degree, reclaimed it now. There’s almost enough room to set up my captain’s chair, anyway, and since I am once more hopelessly, murderously behind on where I want to be with writing, it would be nice to get that set up again. We will not talk about the cost of reclaiming the office to other rooms in the hou...

phone, jam, life

I have a new long-term-temporary phone. If you believe I should or did have your number, please text me your name so I can re-add you to my address book. Sank oo.

Last night? Yes, last night. Last night I made some unusually nice applesauce and jarred up several jars of it (and ate the rest). I’m thinking of doing little homemade jars of stuff for Christmas presents and I’m considering strawberry jam, lemon curd, applesauce and (if I can nerve myself up to trying it) marmalade. That would be a...

stolen phone

My phone was just stolen. And it turns out that although I had it insured, I did not, apparently, have it insured against theft or loss. I could have sworn I did, but it’s not in the policy I’ve got, so…fuck.

So, guys! Support my crowdfund! You get fudge and I get a new phone… :}

It had been such a nice day up until then, too. The worst part is I don’t have the photos on the phone set to automatically upload to the cloud and I’d been thinking literally yesterday that I needed to upload them and...

DB Jackson returns! Again!

I’m delighted to once more have my friend and fellow writer DB Jackson on the blog for a series of not-terribly-serious interview questions!

1. Let’s start with the obvious. Give me the ten-cent shake-down on A PLUNDER OF SOULS.

The Thieftaker Chronicles are historical urban fantasy, and the books tell the story of Ethan Kaille, a conjurer and thieftaker (the eighteenth century equivalent of a private detective) living in pre-Revolutionary Boston. Each book is a stand-alone mystery set against...

I love you guys.

I really, really do. You’re crazy-wonderful. Crunderful. No, that doesn’t sound nice. Anyway, I love you.

The Fantasy Fudge project funded in about five hours. I have since received several emails from readers and friends laughing at me for being surprised, but honestly, it was a lark, it IS a lark, I figured I should give myself FORTY-FIVE DAYS to make it work, when, jeez, I don’t know, maybe a week would have been enough. So I love you guys.

At this moment, there are (technically) 7 kinds of...

CE Murphy’s Fantasy Fudge

You guys are a bad influence. :) Enough people said “tryyyyy it” that I went ahead and launched a Fantasy Fudge Project page, which amuses me, at the least. (And, er, it’s actually already gotten more funding than I would have expected, honestly. You’re not only a bad influence but you’re wonderful. And funny. *laughs*)

Ted and I actually sat down and costed everything out last night (there are advantages to being married to a professionally trained chef!) and while the early backer fudge is e...

kickstarter: doin’ it wrong

It’s become clear to me I’m doing this Kickstarter thing wrong. For example, take this guy, who is running a Kickstarter to make potato salad. From a modest $10 goal, he has now reached over $7500.

For my next Kickstarter, I will be making fudge. The challenges will be that I will get fancy chocolate molds and put the fudge into those instead of just a glass pan and cutting it up. I may even get cute little paper wrappers for the fancy shaped fudge. Low-end backers will know that there is more...

potato harvest!

Potato harvest!

Our potato plants have been looking a little sad and yellowing and some were starting to die, (no idea why: too much water, not enough water, not enough room, too many slugs…?), so we thought we’d dig up the most pathetic of them and this is what we got! Young Indiana and I are very pleased. :)

They’re Maris Piper variety, which are as close to Yukon Gold as I’ve found here. V. tasty. We were very excited at finding the biggest one in there, and this was from our small growing...

oh, how exciting!

So I sent the edited script to Leah yesterday to have a look over, and she said “Good job, if you can find an artist who can handle the period artwork you’ll be golden” so I sent her the character sketches and she was like OH YOU’LL BE FIIIIIIIIINE, which was wonderful.

I also sent the script to Val, who said, within minutes, “Okay, I read the script. You’ve got me. I loved it. Still lots to explain, but I want to know what happens next!” So that’s terrific and he’s already working on page lay...

script complete!

A minor accomplishment: I have finished the little 8-page script for Genesis, the first of my Chance-universe tie-in stories. It has been edited by the illustrious Leah Moore, and has been sent off to artist Noval Hernawan, who did a rather splendid character sketch for our main character, Gemma Fade, in her 1950s war-time nurse’s uniform:

I’m really looking forward to getting this project put together. The character is (in broad terms) a kind of Captain America/Wonder Woman mashup, and I have...