C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 108

I have in the past mentioned that one of the perks of my job is getting to read early manuscripts for upcoming books. Last year my friend and fellow Magical Words blogger DB Jackson asked if I might read his novel THIEFTAKER, which turned out to be a Revolutionary War era urban fantasy novel.

I don’t *normally* send people emails while I’m reading their books, but I sent David at least two or three during the course of reading THIEFTAKER, saying things like “ACK YOU DID WHAT HOLY *CRAP* DUDE!” and “OMG I did NOT see that coming ALGHGLH!!!” David said he’d never had anybody emailing him while reading, either, so the whole thing was an amusing and novel (er, so to speak) experience for both of us. Anyway, I loved what David had done, so I am now delighted to offer up a little five-question interview I did with him in celebration of THIEFTAKER’s release!

Before the interview, let me give you a couple quick links: Sample chapters for THIEFTAKER, and David’s site, where all pertinent social network links can also be found. THIEFTAKER is available now!

And now, interviewy goodness!

1. I was lucky enough to get to read an advance copy of THIEFTAKER, which I utterly enjoyed. But you’ve gone out on something of a limb with it–it’s Revolutionary War urban fantasy. What made you decide to tackle urban fantasy set in a different era?

This is a far more complicated question than you know — several forces conspired to lead me to this book and series. The original idea for THIEFTAKER came from, of all things, a footnote in a book about Australian history. The footnote discussed the vagaries of 18th century law enforcement in England, including the rise of thieftakers, who retrieved stolen items for a fee. In particular, it discussed London’s most famous thieftaker, Jonathan Wild, who used to have his henchmen steal goods which he would either sell for a profit or return for that finder’s fee. He built an empire for himself on this business model. Reading about him, I thought “What a great idea for a book!” I would have an honest thieftaker, who could conjure, but who had to deal with a Wild-like corrupt nemesis. So from the start this was going to be an urban fantasy, although not a contemporary one.

In my first draft, THIEFTAKER was set in an alternate fantasy world. But when I talked to my editor about it, he suggested turning it into a historical fantasy and setting it in London. Now I should mention here that I have a Ph.D. in history — U.S. History. And my response to his suggestion was that I could see turning it into a historical, but not in London — everyone sets books in London. What if we set this in pre-Revolutionary War America? I had always been fascinated by the late colonial era, when the British Empire in the New World was coming apart at the seams. And given the lack of an established constabulary in the colonies, particularly in Boston, where the books take place, it made sense that thieftakers could have thrived in the colonies.

So there it is — somewhat circuitous, and probably more than you wanted to know. But that’s how I got here.

2. I happen to know you’re an avid photographer as well as a talented writer. How do you make time for both? Is doing a photography gallery showing as exciting as getting a new book on the shelves? (Yeah, yeah, that’s two questions, suck it up!)

I am an avid photographer — an interest you and I share, if I’m not mistaken. And like you I would probably answer the question by saying that as a parent and a spouse, finding time for my photography is probably the least of my concerns! In all seriousness, though, I find that in order to be successful with my writing, and in order to keep myself sane, I have to find time to do other things. Each morning before I sit down to write I take time to do something active, something that forces me out of my chair, and away from my computer screen. Most days that involves going to the gym. But we live in a beautiful spot on the Cumberland Plateau, and so several times during the year I will go out to take photos. I’m particularly eager to get out with my camera in the spring when wildflowers are blooming, in the fall when the leaves are changing, and in the winter after a good snow. But the larger point is that making for time for such things is more than a matter of recreation. It keeps me healthy, and I think that ultimately it helps my art, not only by giving me a break, but by engaging a different part of my brain. I find creating an effective image satisfying in a way that is totally different from the satisfaction I get from writing a good scene in a story or book.

On the other hand, the rush I have gotten from seeing my photos exhibited, or from making a photography sale, is quite similar to the thrill of selling a new book or seeing my novels on a bookstore shelf. That moment of seeing an act of creativity realized — consummated if you will — is pretty magical.

3. Describe your writing process a bit. Do you plot each and every arc? Do you use music to help set the mood? How do you get through any rough patches? Is your focus limited to 1 manuscript or do you multi-task? (That’ll teach you to complain about 2 questions up above!)

I am what writers generally call a plotter (as opposed to a pantser — a person who writes by the seat of his or her pants). I tend to outline my books ahead of time, and almost always know as I begin a book how the story is going to end. But I don’t plot every plot-point — far from it. My outlines tend to be vague. I’ll write maybe a sentence or two for each fifteen page chapter. “Ethan goes to speak with Samuel Adams. They agree that Summer Ale is far superior to Boston Lager.” That’s it. The rest I let happen as I write. So I suppose I’m actually a plotter who has a bit of the pantser in him. I often compare my creative process to drinking a bottle of soda. When I drink a Coke, I don’t open the bottle more often than I have to, because I don’t want the Coke to lose its fizz. In the same way, I can’t write about, or talk about my story too much — and that includes outlining in too much detail. Because the more I do those things, the more fizz I let out. And eventually the story will go flat on me before I’ve had a chance to write it.

I do listen to music when I write, but I’m very particular about what I listen to. I will only listen to instrumental music, and generally only bluegrass and jazz. I find that lyrics distract me. On the other hand, I find that the improvisational quality of bluegrass and jazz feeds my creative energy and keeps me moving through my narrative.

Rough patches, as you know, have so many possible causes that it’s hard to generalize about how I handle them. I do find that when my narrative stalls on me, it’s usually because of something I’ve done earlier in the manuscript. Sometimes, I’ve allowed one plot thread to overwhelm the rest of the story. Or I’ve had a character do something that he or she would never do. Or I’ve used a plot twist that really doesn’t work. The point is that my own mistake has led me to a dead end. And so I will go back and read through what I’ve written thus far to identify the point where things started to go wrong. Generally, when I find that moment and correct the mistake, the book starts to flow more smoothly.

As for my focus, that’s changed over the years. Used to be, I could only work on one project at any given time. Having my mind in two stories or worlds at once was more than I could handle — and all the works in question suffered. I’ve gotten over that and currently am working on not only the Thieftaker project, but three other novel length projects that are in vary stages of revision and/or re-conception. I actually have come to like working this way; I find that the more projects I have underway, the less likely I am to grow bored with any of them.

4. If you had to choose a theme song for Ethan, what would it be? Why? (At least so far as you can explain ‘why’ without spoilers. :))

A theme song for Ethan? Wow. Good question. I think I would go with “Gimme Shelter,” by the Rolling Stones. This is fairly dark book. Violence looms in every scene. War — in the form of the Revolution — is drawing closer. “War, children, it’s just a shot away…” There is literally fire in the streets. “Fire is sweeping our very street today…” And yet he also manages to find love in this climate, as the song does at its end. “Love, sister, it’s just a kiss away…” Yeah. I think “Gimme Shelter” works pretty well.

5. What’s your secret superpower, the one weird thing you can do that nobody else can? And if you got to have a *real* superpower, what would it be?

I’m not sure that I have a superpower. I mean, I make a mean vegetarian fajita. And I’m really good with a grilled pork loin, too. I skip stones on water very, very well. Oh, wait. I know, but I’m reluctant to reveal this because it will tell people just exactly how much of a nerd I am. I’m a birdwatcher, and I am incredibly good at identifying birds by their songs, particularly the birds here in the Southeastern U.S. where I live. I can basically pick out a song and know exactly what bird it is. Let the abuse begin . . .

As for the *real* superpower, do you mean which would would I be most likely to have, or which one would I really like to have? I would really like to be able to make myself invisible and go wherever I want whenever I want. I think that would be very cool. Although I have to admit that as I get older I often think that the best superpower would be to be able to eat anything I want without consequences. But if you were talking about which superpower I would be most likely to have if such things were dispensed at birth as a matter of course, it would probably be something totally prosaic and useless. Like, perhaps, being able to identify any bird by its song . . .

Now, Alethea Kontis is this person I met at WFC in Austin several years back. She and Ed Schubert and some others for some reason took pity on me as I was sitting there, pathetic and alone, on the bus to the convention hotel, or maybe at breakfast, or something. I don’t really remember the details, mostly because later that weekend I had just for the first time in real life met my friend Tammy Jones, and moments after I met her another friend of mine, Randomness, bellowed, “KIT!!!!” from across the hotel lobby, which was an arboretum and carried sound *remarkably* well, and once Ness and I had connected someone else came up to say hi, which caused Tammy to exclaim, “EVERYBODY knows Catie!” I was protesting that indeed, I knew almost no one at the convention and this was all just some kind of funny fluke, when Ed Schubert threw himself through a shrubbery* to greet me, then hauled me back through the shrubbery to be welcomed into the arms of Ed, Alethea and the others.

It sort of obliterated any hope I had of convincing Tammy that I was not on intimate terms with everybody at the convention. And it kind of cemented my affections for Ed and Alethea particularly, and we’ve been friends ever since. In fact, Alethea sent me the manuscript for ENCHANTED several years ago, because we’d been talking about the film “Ever After” and she’d said she’d liked it but her own version of a retold Cinderella was so much better. And I said “Ooh I’d love to read it someday!” and she emailed it and then because I did not yet have an e-reader I didn’t read it.

Having just finished the book, man, I wish I’d read it years ago when Alethea sent it to me. :)

It’s really splendid. She takes ALL the fairy tales and remixes them in an absolutely wonderful way. There are moments in the book where I, because I know Alethea, could see her life and influences very clearly, and because I know her and because one of the joys of knowing writers is recognizing those moments, they made me smile.

Mostly, though, the wonderful charming skill with which she deconstructed everything and put them back together again in a way that makes you go “Oh OF COURSE that’s how it all works!” made me smile. Really an absolutely enjoyable book, and I highly recommend it.

*This is not a euphanism. Ed literally threw himself through a shrubbery.

Revisit the world of the Old Races and discover the pieces that set the Negotiator Trilogy into play…

Four hundred years ago, master vampire Eliseo Daisani and dragonlord Janx both fell in love with Sarah Hopkins, an extraordinary beauty born in London’s slaughterfields. Caught in their ancient and complex bond, Sarah glimpses the world as it might be…

…and her choices will ravage a city. This is the story of London burning in 1666–the Year of Miracles.

Buy the novella:

at Amazon

at Barnes & Noble

at Smashwords

Or here at CE Murphy.Net (PDF only):

Why PDF only at cemurphy.net, you ask? After all, don’t I get basically ALL the money if you buy it direct? Well, yes, I do. But if you buy it through any of the other retailers, it raises the collection’s profile, making it more likely for *other* people to find it and buy it. I think probably in the long run that’s worth more than the extra dollar I get through a direct sale.

YEAR OF MIRACLE patrons: this is a GREAT TIME for you to go write a review and star it heavily! You’ve already read this story! Go make it look good! *big hopeful eyes* :)

I knew there was something I was forgetting!

I’m participating in a world record attempt with the Irish Writers Centre TODAY! They’ve got 111 authors lined up to read consecutively from their own works, starting at 10am Irish time and going until 2pm tomorrow!

So at 5pm Irish time (noon Eastern, 9am Pacific) I’ll be reading a short excerpt (part of chapter 4) from URBAN SHAMAN! You can watch it LIVE at the IWC website!

ORIGINS give-away: My friend Mikaela is doing an Old Races: ORIGINS give-away over on her blog! Go check it out!

Disneyland for Deon: Years ago Ted and I said to our friend Emily, “Get a teaching job and move to Alaska!” What we really meant was “Get a teaching job and move to Anchorage!” except Emily took it more broadly and got a teaching job in Kotlik, which is on the west coast of Alaska and is approximately 500 miles from Anchorage. We told ourselves to be more careful about our phrasing in the future, and then we left Alaska for Ireland, leaving Emily behind.

She’s still there, and is at the moment running a crowdfunding project for her adopted Yup’ik brother, Deon. Deon was born with glass bones, and this October will have outlived his doctors’ estimations of his life expectation by ten years. He very much wants to go to Disneyland to celebrate his birthday. It’s an expensive proposition, so the only way to make it happen is, essentially, through the kindness of strangers. And Emily doesn’t know this, but I will eventually be writing a story for the people who help send Deon to Disneyland, so g’wan, donate a bit, make a kid happy, get a story! And boost the signal, please!

Recent reads: 2013: I’ve finished Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312, which in some ways I liked a lot and in others found a little frustrating. Mostly I didn’t feel Swan’s voice was much differentiated from previous KSR protagonists, though the other two major POV characters were reasonably different. I liked the development of the romance and the world, I liked many of the choices the characters made, I just sort of felt like I could switch Frank out for Swan and it wouldn’t be significantly different.

The other problem I had with it is sort of…philosophical. It’s sort of “he didn’t write the book I wanted him to!”, though that’s not exactly accurate either, because I like what and how KSR does. But like the Science in the Capitol trilogy, which is some of my favorite writing ever, 2312 isn’t an enormously accessible book. I mean, I’m okay with that because I like hard SF and I’m willing to put the time in, but … I think the climate change theme that’s so central to these books is hugely, hugely important, and I think he realizes it brilliantly, and I want everyone to read it and understand what he’s seeing in our world that develops into his fiction, but…this is SF for SF lovers, not for casual readers. I still desperately want that gap bridged, and KSR writes so beautifully I want him to be able to do it, but he doesn’t. And I don’t think it’s even his goal, so I recognize that my frustrations are ill placed here, but…damn. I do so want that accessible, world-changing climate change SF story to be *out there*.

My head is going to explode of squee. :)

Revisit the world of the Negotiator Trilogy and learn how it all began…

Four hundred years ago, the master vampire Eliseo Daisani and the dragonlord Janx fell in love with a human woman during the Year of Miracles–the year London burned.

This is her story.

Available in fine e-stores everywhere on July 1!

*mutter* I love that cover copy, but it needs more to it. *mutter*

Tara O’Shea has done herself (and me and my collections!) proud with these covers, I think. I’m completely thrilled with all of them and really feel like I’ve gotten a beautiful, cohesive set for my collections. If you need ebook covers, holy beans do I ever recommend working with Tara. O.O

The whole trifecta is behind the cut as one image so you can see them together. I am so happy with how they look, *dances squeefully*!

Seriously, this year is really great for Old Races stuff! Between BABA YAGA’S DAUGHTER and the three short story/novella collections, that’s 21 new Old Races stories (at least 9 of which are new even if you’ve been a patron for all my Old Races crowdfunding projects!). And this from a writer who thought she’d never write in that world again. :)

I just gotta figure out how to boost the signal on ORIGINS so it rises in visibility on Amazon (particularly amazon, who are we kidding)’s ranks. It’s not doing badly, but it’s not getting nearly the traction EASY PICKINGS managed in its first week of release. (OTOH, EASY PICKINGS’s sales have picked up visibly this month, very nearly matching the ORIGINS sales, and I don’t think that’s coincidence.) I mean, EP has a lot of things going for it–novella length, two authors, two popular series–that ORIGINS doesn’t (though the wordcount on ORIGINS is at least as long as EP’s), but I’d still like to figure out how to boost that…

Anyway! Happy days. :)

THE OLD RACES: ORIGINS

Before the Negotiator, there were the long-held covenants of the Old Races: Do not mate with humans. Never tell them of our existence. And never kill one of our own. For time immemorial, these laws were adhered to…

…except when they were not. Delve into the secret history of the Old Races and discover the truth behind Saint George and the dragons, the origins of the mysterious selkie race, and the djinn betrayals that shape the world of the Negotiator Trilogy.

These stories and more are revealed in this collection of five Old Races short stories, available now!

Buy at:

Amazon: Old Races ORIGINS

(link will be edited to be live ASAP)

Smashwords: Old Races ORIGINS

Or here at CE Murphy.Net (PDF only):

Why PDF only at cemurphy.net, you ask? After all, don’t I get basically ALL the money if you buy it direct? Well, yes, I do. But if you buy it through any of the other retailers, it raises the collection’s profile, making it more likely for *other* people to find it and buy it. I think probably in the long run that’s worth more than the extra dollar I get through a direct sale.

So: if you have an e-reader and really want to give me a birthday present, go ahead and go buy the collection. Write a review of it and give it four or five stars if you like it.

ORSSP patrons: this is a GREAT TIME for you to go write a review and star it heavily! You’ve already read all these stories! Go make it look good! *big hopeful eyes* :)

THE OLD RACES: ORIGINS

Before the Negotiator, there were the long-held covenants of the Old Races: Do not mate with humans. Never tell them of our existence. And never kill one of our own. For time immemorial, these laws were adhered to…

…except when they were not. Delve into the secret history of the Old Races and discover the truth behind Saint George and the dragons, the origins of the mysterious selkie race, and the djinn betrayals that shape the world of the Negotiator Trilogy.

These stories and more are revealed in this collection of five Old Races short stories, coming June 1 to an e-store near you!

(This collection contains 5 of the 6 Old Races Short Story Project stories, so if you were a patron of that crowdfunded project, you don’t need to buy this one. I mean, IF YOU WANT TO it’s fine with me, y’know? But there’s no new content. Except the cover. :))

Cover art by Tara O’Shea. My head is just going to explode of excitement when I get to see ALL THREE short story collection covers together. :)

I’ve certainly been following the Mandy De Geit Saga, though I don’t know if you have been. Short version: a sorry excuse for a publishing house rewrote the story they’d accepted for an anthology, without telling her about it, then got snitty when she objected. But that doesn’t really do the horrors of it justice, so you should go read the link.

It caused a friend to email me and ask what I thought of the substantive part of the issue, which I take to mean “what do I think of editors rewriting stories,” and my answer got so long I thought I’d make a blog post of it:

I’ve never met anybody published with a major publisher who’s claimed this has happened to them. Editors don’t do that.

Editors say “I think there’s a problem with this book in that it falls too perfectly between romance and fantasy. Would you consider removing the 30,000 words that are the hero’s point of view and revising it to keep the same story only without his POV?”, causing you to cut 30K and rewrite the other 70K and substantially improving the book by doing so. They will also say “If you don’t want to do that, I will give this book to our romance department and see if they think it would work for them instead of in our fantasy line.” (TRUTHSEEKER)

Or they say “I think X Y and Z need some looking at,” causing you to finally grimly accept that the book actually has no plot (which, frankly, you suspected all along and were hoping your editor would not notice) and that XY&Z can be fixed by ripping out 2/3rds of the book and rewriting what’s left (HOUSE OF CARDS).

Or they say “This book is wonderful except I don’t understand why the main character is doing anything. Can you add motivation?” (URBAN SHAMAN. THE CARDINAL RULE. THUNDERBIRD FALLS. HEART OF STONE. I’d started to get the hang of it by COYOTE DREAMS.)

Or they say “I’m concerned that the cruelty of this scene will lose readers for good. Can you make it more clear that it’s the magic pushing this?” (THE QUEEN’S BASTARD, and if you’ve read it you can guess the scene, and it’s the one change I’ve ever made in a book that I understood and agreed with the editor’s reasons, but don’t necessarily feel it was the right thing to do for the story.)

Once in a great, great while, they say “You know what, I think this one hits all the notes we need, no revision letter this time!”, causing you to be paranoid and suspect that really in fact time got too short and the book probably desperately does need revising but it’s going to print anyway and you’ve never been quite brave enough to reread it to see whether it stands up (THE FIREBIRD DECEPTION).

A legitimate editor/publisher would not do what was done to Mandy DeGeit. Vast numbers of people who are unpublished seem to have a hardcore belief that this kind of thing happens all the time. That sex scenes are added to books, that storylines are revised, rewritten, removed, all without the author’s permission or notification.

This does not happen. Not in real publishing. Editors don’t have time to rewrite your book for you. Indeed, if editors wanted to write your book for you, they would be writers, not editors.

The most ungodly rewrites I’ve gotten from editors have been from copyeditors who apparently dislike my style and feel they should improve it. And believe me, if I ever have that happen again I will send the manuscript back as it was originally, with a big fat note on it that says “Don’t waste my time.” (I was too new to the game to do that when it did happen, which is a goddamned shame, because there are paragraphs in HANDS OF FLAME which are nearly incomprehensible because not everything I fixed back got transferred smoothly to the print files. And yes, I’m still pissed.) That is not a CE’s job any more than it’s an editor’s job, and although almost everyone in traditional, legitimate publishing does seem to have a CE horror story, nobody I’ve ever talked to has said an editor rewrote their book.

As for Ms. DeGreit, I hope she’s a terrific writer and is able to parlay this entire fiasco into a relevant and useful career launch.

I have just gotten four* advanced reader’s copies for BABA YAGA’S DAUGHTER to give away. They’re softcover, uncorrected proofs, and actually if the book itself looked like this I would be quite delighted, but it’s going to be even more gorgeous and splendid, so don’t forget to pre-order your copy. :)

But at $40, it’s also going to be expensive. So here’s how this give-away is going to go:

Everybody reading this post, at whatever site you’re coming from (Facebook, Goodreads, Livejournal, mizkit.com, cemurphy.net (please comment on Facebook or Livejournal if you’re reading this on cemurphy.net, as I’ve got comments turned off there), G+, Twitter) can put in their name once for a random draw. I’ll give two of the books away that way.

The other two I want to give to people who can genuinely not afford the $40 price tag on the book. Obviously this is on the honor system, but generally I find my readers to be extremely good people, so I’m going to trust you on this. Leave a comment or, if you prefer to keep the request private, send an email to [email protected], saying you’d like to be in for the Budget Giveaway. You don’t have to offer up details; it’s not going to be a Saddest Story Wins scenario, but rather another random draw from the second pool of names.

All I request–and this is of all four winners–is that you write a review of the book and either post it on your own blog & give me a link for it, or provide it to me so I can post it for you. I’ve never had a short story collection before, so I’d like to see it get some traction, and this is how you guys can help give it some.

So. That’s how this works. The contest ends sometime Monday, May 21st, so comment before then. Ready set go!

*technically five but I’M KEEPING ONE because i almost never ever ever get ARCs! also so i can do proofs on it. :)