Guest Author Nicole Murphy Posts on "The Challenge"—Plus Giveaway!

Last Saturday I guest posted as part of  fellow Supernatural Underground author Nicole Murphy's guest series on Dreams and Fulfilment—a fabulous series by the way, which I do recommend that you check out, here with today's guest author, the amazing Kerrelyn Sparks.

The Dreams and Fulfilment Guest Series celebrates completion of Nicole's "Dreams of Asarlai" trilogy with the release of the third and final novel, Rogue Gadda. Today I am delighted to have Nicole here as my guest to talk about the challenge of completing a series—and beginning something new.

And Nicole also has a copy of Rogue Gadda to give away to one lucky commenter—so read on and do take the challenge.:)

—

.

Guest Post: The Challenge by Nicole Murphy

And so, my third book in my trilogy is published.

A momentous occasion, not least of which for my sense of myself as author. After all, I've published three books now. Three books that have been well received by readers. I know I can write a good story, keep them hooked for page after page.

I've made it. I'm awesome.

At this point, it seems to me that I've got two choices. One is to believe that what I've just said is the end. The other is to believe that it's just the beginning.

If it's the end, then I'll just keep churning out the same books. I write well enough now to get away with the voice I have. Different characters, alter the plots a little… Yeah, that will work.

But if I believe it's the beginning, then I can't stop with what I've already accomplished. Yes, it's good. Yes, I'm good.

But I can be BETTER.

When I started writing, I had the dream of having a book, with my name on it. Having people love what I'd written. Well, I've done that. Three times.

So now, I have a new dream – to become a better writer. To ensure that each book I write is better than the one before.

I'm doing that by challenging myself. Making myself deal with characters, or plots, or ideas that are different from what I've done before.

For example, in Dream of Asarlai I've got one main antagonist, with a very clear goal. We even see her point of view from time to time, so the reader absolutely knows what Asarlai is up to.

But in the new trilogy, my antagonist is a group of people. Their goals are clear, but their actions are less so. And we don't ever directly see their point of view, so I have to work hard to ensure the reader understands it, even if the point of view characters don't.

See? Challenge.

Some of the challenges I'm setting myself may not seem that far removed from what I've done. Another example – I've just finished writing my first contemporary romance. My trilogy is full of romance, so it might seem that it's not that hard to write another genre of romance.

But it is. It's a much slower paced book, and doesn't have all the fun stuff like monsters, magic, explosions and so on. It's a simpler style, and it's also much more focussed on the internals of the characters. In every scene, I found myself wondering if I'm attacking it the right way, making the right choices, not going deep enough or too deep. Thinking a great deal about what makes story and character work.

More of a challenge than I ever anticipated.

And then there's the joy that is short stories. The great thing about shorts is that you can experiment wildly and because they don't take a lot of time to write, it's not too much of a problem if they fail spectacularly. And of course, succeed or fail, you learn from them.

I'm glad that people have loved the Dream of Asarlai books. I'm proud of them. But I hope that in future years, people will be saying "Yeah, they were good, but these new ones are GREAT!".

Giveaway question – enter the draw to win a copy of Rogue Gadda by telling me what challenges you think you should set yourself.
Plus:

Rogue Gadda Cookie:

As she got on the bus, Asarlai felt her soul shrink. Star, but she hated to commute with humans. She hated the stupidity in their gaze, that they looked at her and didn't realise what she could do to them. She hated the smug comfort they had in a world that wasn't what they thought it was. She hated the sheer, overwhelming numbers of them – they threatened to overtake everything.

That she had to do this was an abomination to her, and just made it all the more clear that she must succeed in her task, to save other gadda from this trauma.

…

—

Nicole Murphy; photo by Cat Sparks

About Nicole Murphy:

Nicole Murphy has been a primary school teacher, bookstore owner, journalist and checkout chick. She grew up reading Tolkien, Lewis and Le Guin; spent her twenties discovering Quick, Lindsay and Deveraux, and lives her love of science fiction and fantasy through her involvement with the Conflux science fiction conventions. Her urban fantasy trilogy Dream of Asarlai is published in Australia/NZ by HarperVoyager. She lives with her husband in Queanbeyan, NSW. Visit her website http://nicolermurphy.com

To read another guest post by Nicole on "Loving Humanity – Why Speculative Fiction Rocks!", click here.

—

And don't forget: Go in the draw to win a copy of Rogue Gadda by commenting here to tell Nicole what challenges you think you should set yourself.