C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 98

being watched :)

Yesterday I was trying to get the compost bin back in the garden, and was having a bit of a hard time getting it going. Finally, exasperated, I made a cross-eyed sticky-outty-tongue face and rolled my entire head as I bodily lifted it and changed its direction so I could get it to move. Then I looked up and a guy across the street, waiting at the red light in his car, had been watching and was now laughing and laughing and laughing.

So that was okay. :)

(I admit I often do that kind of thing (a...

catching up

1. Chapter seven of MAGIC & MANNERS is live for Patreon patrons!

2. It is *painfully* obvious that the whole weekly post for the GGK Book Club is not working for me as the, er, team leader. I’m terribly sorry, but I just do not, apparently, have the spoons to do a weekly post. From TIGANA (which is April’s book) onward I’m going to do a monthly post immediately after I finish reading the books, which will probably have no rhyme or reason to it as far as dates are concerned but which is vastly...

funny boy

Young Indiana has taken up saying, “Hey Mommy, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

I invariably respond with, “Yeah, Brain, but…(where are we going to get elephants to skate on the pond?)”

He invariably stares at me with big blue eyes and says, “Huh?” :)

The post funny boy appeared first on The Essential Kit.

girls’ night out

There is very little more entertaining in this world than having Sarah Rees Brennan relate the plot of one of her favourite books to you. It is, I’m fairly convinced, *much* better than actually reading the books, which I think cannot possibly match up to the dramatic and detailed retellings Sarah performs.

Last night during a post-dinner drink at a local pub, Sarah related the story of Flambards, to which, I assure you, the Wiki entry does no justice. Flambards is, by Sarah’s retelling, a Got...

mailing list drive

With Facebook’s reach growing ever-smaller, I’ve thought to remind folks that I’ve actually got a mailing list and that it’s the most reliable way to keep up on my projects. No sifting through social media, just a once-a-month (or often less frequent) delivery to your email box to let you know what’s coming up and going on! Easy peasy!

Sign up here! :)

The post mailing list drive appeared first on The Essential Kit.

Magic & Manners!

Are you a MAGIC & MANNERS Patron patron? Chapter 6 just went live for you!

I’ll begin posting chapters on the mizkit website in about six weeks, so Patreon supporters will get to read the story before anyone else, as well as getting a complete copy of the e-book when it’s done! Head on over, pledge a dollar or a dime, get notified by email when a new chapter is posted! :)

The post Magic & Manners! appeared first on The Essential Kit.

Reader Question Round-Up

I got a bunch of short-answer (not essay!) questions from readers recently, so I’m going to do a hit-and-run with some of them!

Pamela asks Will we get more Negotiator series books?

There’s a faint possibility that in the looooong term the answer to this is yes, but for all intents and purposes, no. :)

Deborah asks Of all your books, do you have a favorite character?

Yes. :)

Kathy asks: Now that Walker Papers is wrapped up, what’s next? Will you continue in the same genre or branch out into someth...

things that fall down

1. Me.

Admittedly, this was several days ago, but I was walking briskly home from the bus stop after a movie the other night and caught the toes of my right foot on an inch-high uplifted edge of sidewalk. The fall knocked me out of my shoe and hat, and I was saved from some generous scrapes by having decided it was cold enough to wear my leather gloves, which protected the heels of my hands. Thank goodness.

Even so, my shoulder and arm were badly sore from the impact for about three days, and...

good morning, world

Busy weekend!

Look, I know it was busy, why is it so hard to remember what I did?

Well, among other things I went to see The Grand Budapest Hotel with Mom and Dad, which was fun. I hardly ever get to do things like that with them. :)

I actually spent most of the rest of Sunday at the cinema cafe, writing, and I got a heartening 4700 words written–an entire chapter in this new project–over the course of the day. The book is at just under 21K, I’ve got all the major characters and most of the mino...

patreon development

So I’ve been reading Conan! What is best for Patreon? and Ursula’s blog post & ensuing comments about Patreon, and talking to friends about my Patreon project and thinking about long games and all kinds of things.

I’ve been thinking of Patreon too much like Kickstarter, really. Too short-term large-goal oriented, whereas I think the Conan link above probably nails it in terms of it being a slow burn and a long term process, and the comments in Ursula’s post drive home the no-content-produced,...