Competition?

Good morning!

It's been a while. I've been torn between living and writing and this blog suffered in consequence because of the struggle. I won't bore you with what has been going on, it can only matter to the people involved and has nothing to do with writing except that it prevented me from indulging myself. I will say that in the past week I had two fairly productive days and that I wish I could be more productive.

The reason is that I've decided to enter one of my novels in a competition and I need to prepare the submission materials. Writing a synopsis, blurbs, an excerpt and etc.; you know, the usual thing. And speaking of usual; I usually don't even think of entering my work in any sort of competition. Having it published and placed where people can purchase it is competition enough for me. But it's time to take the next step in my evolution as a writer and get my work into the hands of people who can make a (hopefully) objective evaluation of it and learn if it is worthy of wider distribution.

You see, networking and getting your work where influential people can see it is part of the game, and I've not taken the steps necessary to do those things. I am not an especially social person and find myself standing on the edges of any group, looking in. I know this about myself and while I worked at altering my personality to help further my career before I was retired, I gratefully relapsed when I began writing.

I don't expect to set the world on fire with my work and never did. I don't believe that anything will come of my entry into this competition and while I will do my best to present my work in the best light, it is unlikely that I will be making any trips to the venue of the awards ceremony. Some people may see that as defeatism and self-fulfilling prophecy of failure, but I am being realistic. Aside from the things I learned in school, I am a self-taught writer and couple that with my lack of networking skills and you can see that there is little chance that I will succeed in winning anything in this competition. I will do the best that I can and hope for the best. If anything comes of it, then that will be good. If not, then I've lost nothing.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, Congruencies, Questionable Interests and others.
Available on Kindle

What!?

Good Afternoon!

The title of this post pretty much says it all for me today. I've watched one of my novels climb into the Top 100 Kindle Genre Novels nearly every day this past week and I wonder why I've not received as much attention from critics, producers and even Big Publishing, if it sells so well.

Let's put the rankings into perspective. Out of the hundreds of thousands of books that Amazon sells in its Kindle Store, they are all broken up into genres; sub-groups. While my novels may work themselves into the Top 100, or even Top 10 in their genres, they may only rank several hundred out of the Top 100 overall. Or, even several thousand out of the rankings overall. There. That explains it. While my novels receive attention from readers, those people have the time and inclination to browse the Kindle Store looking for something worth their while to read. The critics, producers and publishers aren't looking for something worthwhile to read. They are looking for something worthwhile to review, convert into a movie or TV show, or to publish. They're looking for something that will make them some money. Something that they believe has a ready-made audience who will pay a few bucks to read or watch. With my limited efforts at promoting myself and my work, they just aren't ever going to see my stuff.

But, I am still writing and still feeding my addiction to producing stories that people might like to read and find entertaining. If I ever get the breaks needed to reach a wider audience, then that will be great. I'm not going to hold my breath.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, Congruencies, A Taste For Blood and others.
Available on Kindle

Explanations in the "Afterwords"

Good evening!

Well, it's been a couple of days since I posted on this blog and I thought that today might be a good time to let people know that I was still alive.

Ah! The title of the post. I read recently that some authors consider an explanation after the story has wrapped up to be 'bad art'. I agree that an afterword isn't an idea that I can get behind, but I take exception to the reference to art. I'm not an artist. I write. Maybe poorly, maybe okay. I can't exactly be objective regarding my own work, so I only have an idea that I write well. But it isn't art. I don't think that my work sends anyone into rapturous admiration of the way my phrases turn and trip lightly off the tongue. Nor do I believe that my work makes people sit and think about the enormity of any inferences I may have made in my work. I write stories for people to read and, hopefully, enjoy.

Why do I think an afterword is a bad idea? Because if you have to explain what you have just spent 75,000 to 100,000 words laying out for them, then you didn't get your idea across. If you want to write an afterword to explain why you wrote what you wrote, then you are only craving attention and the writing isn't filling some need that you have. Maybe some writers dislike the anonymity of sitting at a pc and cranking out word after word with no cheerleaders to spur them on. I don't know. I write, I proofread, I edit, I copyright, I publish, I get paid for my work. Sometimes. What more is there? Oh, I admit that awards and recognition would be nice, but if I write well enough, then the recognition will come in time. I might be dead by that time, but who really cares? I have met my need to write and that is what really matters to me. I've never had cheerleaders, so I don't miss them.

These are my thoughts on the matter and they don't really matter to anyone but me. Take from them what you will.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, Congruencies and others.
Available on Kindle

Inspiration

Good morning!

What is inspiration, how do you get it and what can you do with it?

It can be something as simple as hearing a song and feeling an emotion well up in you that you never considered before. Maybe you did consider it, but it never really stuck with you. Write about it. Write about how it makes you feel, how it moves you to take some action in your life or, how it has affected your life. Transfer those feelings and experiences to a fictitious character and you've got the makings of a story.

Many people experience inspiration but don't know what to do with it. Or, they shunt it aside as having nothing to do with what they are involved in at the time. I file mine away for later use. Cue the file to open with the advent of a song, a scent, a sensation, and you will have it available at will.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Behind the Stone, Eggs of Empire and others.
Available on Kindle

Working with stereotypes

Good morning!

Do we work with stereotypes? Yes...we...do! We avoid using real people in our stories so that we won't be sued; but what does that leave us? We can either build a character from 'whole cloth', or we can use stereotypes.

Stereotypes are wonderful things to work with; think of a ready-made template that you can shuffle the parts around here and there and you've got a character. I keep a variety of templates (stereotypes) on hand that I can remove from the box and alter in any number of ways. There's the 'self-absorbed celebrity' that I can make do almost anything. I mean, you take him or her out of the box, dust it off, and I can change its sex, make it a rock-star, a movie star, dress it up in pretty clothes and a not so pretty personality, or put it into a dire situation and show the growth in its personality as it slowly turns into someone who is handy to have around.

Then there's the good-ol'-boy redneck that can only think of getting drunk, laid, or both, in no particular order. I can show him as a stand-up kind of guy, or he can be the lowest of the low and become a not so bright villain. I can change his sex and make him the dirtiest kind of slattern, or a diamond in the rough.

Look around you. There are any number of people that you encounter every day that could be classified as stereotypes, if you don't look too close, and with a little imagination, they can be dressed up, dressed down, or left as they are. Keep in mind the level of their importance to the story. It's possible to invest too much effort into their personalities and wind up with a major character when you intended them to be simply a spear-carrier.

There is an interesting story about an author who became much better known after his death than he was in life, and his best known character became the subject of a couple of movies. The author intended the character to be no more than a secondary character, but he invested so much time and energy in him that he became not just a major character, but the main character of the story he was writing. It was a fortunate happenstance, but could prove to be a cautionary tale. What if the character didn't strike a chord with the readers? All that effort wasted.

So, as a writer, I keep my stereotyped characters close at all times. They provide versatile templates that I can use however I want. It's even possible to use the same template in a story in several different ways and arrive at not just one character, but an entire cast.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, Questionable Interests and others.
Available on Kindle

That pesky thing called continuity

Good morning!

When writing a novel, there is no way to sit and write the entire thing from start to finish without a break. At least, not unless you are superhuman. People need to do things periodically, like eat, sleep, work, shop for necessities, those kinds of things. So, what happens if it has been several days since you worked on your novel? Well, you sit down, open the file, read where you left off and begin composing. And, let's say that you have forgotten a small part of what you wrote a week, or even a month earlier. If you go ahead with the piece and find later that you have written something rather important to the story that isn't consistent with an earlier passage; what are your remedies?

Well, you may feel that the earlier passage was particularly well-written and hate the idea of scrapping it. Besides which, it may be so deeply woven into the fabric of the story that there is no way to totally expunge it without adversely affecting the story. If that happens, there is no remedy except to rewrite a significant portion of the story. So, what is the best way to avoid experiencing such a catastrophe?

Stop what you are doing and actually read your work. Sure, you can skim over it quickly. Sometimes there is no other choice, especially if the work has gotten long and unwieldy. But you must be familiar at all times with the circumstances and occurrences in the story. So, you must read your work several times while you are writing. By the time you are finished with the piece, you will be heartily sick of it and ready to pitch it into the nearest oubliette, but you will know your work forward, backward and be able to drop into it at any page and know what is going to happen next as well as what has happened up to that point.

Other writers may have other ways of achieving continuity, but this is the method I use and it works very well for me. Whatever method you arrive at, use it well and it will not disappoint you.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of A Taste For Blood, Questionable Interests and others.
Available on Kindle

Stumbling block

Good morning!

Let's return to yesterday's topic, shall we? I spoke about learning the things necessary to produce a published novel and one of those things was copyrighting. Before I copyrighted my first novel, I had delayed the process, finding one reason or another to put it off just one more day because I was intimidated by it. I knew nothing about copyrighting and was afraid that being so close to achieving my goal, I would find that the cost was too high, or there would be a variety of hoops to jump through, each one more difficult than the last. Can you imagine my surprise when I bit the bullet and found the website?

The government office responsible for the website has a tutorial that is easily downloaded and points the way toward copyrighting your work. Once in the process, you must be careful and deliberate so that you don't make any costly mistakes, but the process itself is fairly simple. And, inexpensive. The cost can be as small as $35.00, or as high as a thousand or more. Unless you are a big-time publisher or author, you DON'T want to use the option with the higher cost. You may be tempted to do so if you are paranoid and believe that a multitude of publishers, authors or illicit business interests are just waiting for you to upload your work so they can steal it, but don't give in to those feelings. Just go the inexpensive route and trust that Bigtime Publishing isn't out to steal your idea. They move so slowly anyway that your work will be out and selling before they would be able to bring it to market. And if they do, well, you have a copyright, which means that you can sue them for copyright infringement.

This is just an example of the many things that may be holding you back from publishing your work. There are many other things that can frighten and intimidate you, and I say, "Get on with it!" Stand up to your fears and go right ahead. You will make mistakes, of course. Everybody does, but they aren't insurmountable. Consider it a learning process and keep each of them in mind.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Eggs of Empire, Taken Apart, It Happens Every Day and others.
Available on Kindle

Fear of failure

Good morning!

It's time to talk about that thing that no one ever wants to talk about. Are you afraid of failure? Do you think that if you put your work out in the world for others to have a look at, they won't like it and you'll get negative feedback? Of course you are. Many people are. That makes you like everybody else.

Okay, you say, "If everybody else is afraid of failure, then how do so many people succeed?"

The answer is simple. They choke back their fear and take the steps necessary to get things done. I've had to do that, and while I am not a raging success, I can at least hold my head up, look the world in the eye and spit. I've put my work out into the world and while a few people have turned away, many more have purchased my novels and come back for more.

My biggest failing is that I've had to learn how to write, proofread, edit, copyright, publish, produce acceptable cover art and market my work. With so many things to learn, there is always going to be something that has been overlooked. I accept responsibility for that failing and plug on ahead. As the saying goes, "Winners never quit and quitters never win."

With all that said, I will leave you today and hope that you manage to reach the amount of success that you would like to have.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, Congruencies, It Happens Every Day and others.
Available on Kindle

Frame of mind to write

Good morning!

Yes, sometimes I'm not in the right frame of mind to write. It happens to everybody, and if there are any writers out there who say it has never happened to them, then I say, "Wait a while; it'll happen."

As I've said before, during blank periods and such, I just sit down and write almost anything until I've passed the line between writing and not writing, and then edit when I am in the proper frame of mind. Sometimes heavily. Entire passages, paragraphs or chapters may be deleted, but what I can use then or at a later date gets saved.

Perhaps it is outside influences that prevent a person from writing; in that case, work your way through the barrens and try again. If it is worry that interferes with you, address the problem you are dealing with until you can once again sit down and write. I see the problem as a matter or ordering priorities. I do what I can about whatever is bothering me and then sit down to decompress by writing.

At such times, I may seem distracted and bland of personality, but that's because I'm living a life inside my head. It's not my life, but that of a character. The show goes on within my mind and I am sitting back and watching it as I go about my life. When I have the time to sit and write, then the story has worked itself out in my head. For those who regiment their writing day by working on an outline and 'coloring between the lines', I can simply shrug and say that this is what works for me.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Eggs of Empire, It Happens Every Day, Questionable Interests and others.
Available on Kindle

Current Events, or not?

Good morning!

How many of us are prompted to write a story based on current events? A show of hands, please? Okay, a few, but not as many as I thought there would be.

It seems that the 'ripped from the headlines' school of thought isn't as prevalent as I thought it was. I know the news stories I've read for the past few years seem incomplete; the new breed of reporter seems to have forgotten the 'who, what, where, when and why' precepts of yesteryear, opting instead for the shrillest, most irritating way of reporting possible. Now, people are sent scurrying off to other news media for more information, making the reporter no more than the little boy standing at the city wall yelling, "Hey, look at that!"

And, that method of reporting gives us pause. We're left to fill in the blanks and that can lead to a lot of supposition, which in turn, spurs those creative writers among us to immediately follow the possible storylines that crop up in our heads. We think we can make it more interesting, more challenging, more gripping, more...well, you get the idea.

But, if we go in the wrong direction, we are not doing justice to what really happened. Maybe a minor character in the story was, in fact, the hero of the piece and was simply being modest. Or, the reporter didn't perform due diligence when writing the story and neglected to ferret out the facts. We can stir up a great deal of animosity if we don't get the facts of the story right. We can even create a false hero. I may be old-fashioned, but I believe in truth in all things. Sure, we're writing a piece of fiction, and we have some leeway in what we write, but let's get the facts straight. If we don't, we may as well have created the story from within our own minds in the first place. So, I steer clear of true stories, preferring to use my imagination to create what happened and who was there.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, Congruencies, It Happens Every Day and others.
Avalaible on Kindle

Getting words on 'paper'

Good morning!

Why is it so difficult to get words on paper? Of course, this is a phrase dating back to the days before people used computers to write. Some people still use typewriters, but the great majority of writers use computers. Still, the phrase lingers on. Which brings us back to the title of the post.

Sometimes, I sit down to work on a piece and my mind is a blank. I may have left a character in a tight spot and need to find a resolution for the problem facing him or her, but be unable to think of anything. In those situations, I simply write. Anything, everything. I let the words warp themselves in my mind and on the 'page' and after a while, I have a glimmering of which way the story should go. Then I examine what I have written to discover if any of it is salvageable, and if so, work it into the story. If not, it is deleted and I continue on with the thought that has wormed its way into my brain.

Other times, I will sit down with an idea of what I want to write, but be undecided as to what form it should take. The first line, the first paragraph, the first page or two, or three, should grab the reader so that he or she will keep reading. I like to have some action, either active or passive to keep the reader's interest, but there are times when it seems important to me to get some character development going immediately. Of course, this can go hand in hand with the action, and I like to do that, but I also like to show the character's thought processes. What better way for the reader to identify with the character than to show him or her to be an average, run-of-the-mill person?

So, when you sit down to write, and the words just won't come; remember that a lot of the time, it doesn't matter what you write in the short term, so long as you craft it into something that someone wants to read before you publish it. Which brings me to a thought that crossed my mind while I was writing this.

Is what we do art? Or, is it simply a craft project? My poor abilities to weave words into a spell that makes people want to keep reading and reading though the clock has already struck two, is limited. I don't think of myself as an artist. I don't use high-falutin' words to describe what I do, or look into space with a dreamy expression on my face. (People would probably just think I was 'slow', or constipated.) No. I simply write. I tell stories. I take random thoughts from my mind and put them together in a (hopefully) coherent pattern that people might want to read.

Others can be artists if they want. I'll just settle for trying to be a good writer. I've had some small success at that and hope to build on that success so that more people will want to read what I write. I know that I will never win any awards or achieve any critical acclaim, but if my readers close my books wanting to find another of my works, I'll be satisfied.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, Stitch in Thyme, Congruencies and others.
Available on Kindle

Character development

Good morning!

How do you work on character development? It's not hard to do, but it is time-consuming and a lazy writer will skimp on the important stuff. First of all, you show the character reacting to things that happen to him or her in the course of the story. It's also possible to reveal what he or she is thinking and show that his or her outlook and opinion on the subject is not that far from the norm. Or, if you want the character to be truly memorable, reveal an unconventional attitude. If he or she is a 'bad guy', show a bad attitude. Show how despicable the character can be. Reveal that he or she doesn't give a damn about conventions, morals or even the concept of good and bad. You can even put the character in a situation where he or she is confronted with something that would evoke a sympathetic response from a normal person and show that the character just doesn't care. Skew that personality so far off the norm that it is plain that he or she is a 'bad-un'.

But, you ask, won't that make him or her appear one-dimensional? Of course, it will. You can also mitigate things a little by showing him or her to react normally about something that he or she does care about. After all, even villains have families. They like to pet cats and dogs. They move through our lives like anybody else and are often indistinguishable from those around you. How many times in our lives have we been betrayed by a supposed friend because doing so was advantageous for them?

What I have posted here isn't all a writer can do to show character development, but like I said a few posts back; I'm not teaching a course in creative writing.

Have a good day and whatever you do, put your best into it.
Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Eggs of Empire, Questionable Interests and others.
Available on Kindle

Ludicrous

Good morning!

Did you ever stop to consider the matter of cover letters when submitting a work to a publisher or an agent? When I still did that kind of thing, I came across an agent who had a questionaire for the author to complete and enclose with the cover letter and novel submission. As I read it, I discovered that it was very similar to a job application and one of the things he wanted prospective clients to do was to tell him why they were exclusively qualified to write the story that they were submitting.

The story I was submitting was one that I had sweated and agonized over because the primary impetus for my writing it was to achieve a cathartic release. I tapped the negative and painful emotions generated by my own situation to create the characters, give them depth and advance the story. How was I supposed to tell him that? How was I supposed to tell him that I used my personal connection to the very emotions the characters were feeling to write the story?

If I had been writing a fantasy, how would I have told him why I was qualified to write such a story? Or, any story? For example: "I have read fantasies all my life." Or, I suppose someone could have written something like: "My Journalism Professor in college made us write a fantasy as an exercise."

Maybe the guy planned on judging the writer's ability to generate some inventive story about why they were 'exclusively qualified' to write the story they had written. I don't know. I guess it was a way to weed through the submissions he received. But, why couldn't he approach it in the way the writer was forced to? The agent is selling a service and the writer needs that service. The agent would get paid for his work and the writer hoped to get paid for his or her work. If the agent did his job creditably, both parties would be satisfied. Why did the agent feel the need to play games with the writer?

Perhaps the agent was indulging a need to exercise his own negligible power. Oh, I'm sure the agent would say something like his time was valuable and a lot of the submissions he received were a load of 'crap'. What about the submissions he would have received if the author hadn't been repulsed by the game the agent played? Some of those may have been worth his while. Maybe the business model for agents and publishers needs to be changed. I believe it is changing at this very moment and the agents and publishers are too slow to take advantage of the current situation because they are locked into the frame of mind fostered by their past experience.

Digital publishing is the way of not just the future, but the present. Big publishing as we know it is taking a big hit. While it will not die, it will be horribly wounded if publishers and agents don't find a way to market their services to authors without having everything their own way. The business has been heavily weighted in the interests of the publishers and agents for so long that they don't want to give that up and in their denial, they hope to ignore their problem in the hope it will go away. That isn't working and will not work in the future. Everybody is too busy looking for the next blockbuster that they are overlooking steady work.

Okay. Time to get off my soapbox.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, Taken Apart, Questionable Interests and others.
Available on Kindle

Dedications

Good morning!

Things to do and people to meet today! Not the least of whom is my new grandson! Which brings the subject of today's post front and center.

I've always skipped over the dedications page found in some novels because they smack of arrogance. How does the writer know that the particular work will be anything special before he or she even sells a single book? Is he or she taking the publisher's word for it? How would they know? The answer is that they can't know. They can guess and so you sometimes find a forgotten novel on a bookshelf somewhere with a grandiose dedication within its pages and wonder whatever happened to 'what's his name'.

Therefore, I have never dedicated anything I've written to anyone. I've always had to prove to people, family included, that my work is good, that I can accomplish a special task, that I am worth having around. Without striving to 'show' them my worth, I am ignored. Though I have accomplished quite a lot in my life, I am usually ignored anyway, but that's beside the point. I've done things to be proud of, I've notified the people in my life that I have done them and they can congratulate me or not. I've grown old enough and been ignored enough that I simply don't care whether they pat me on the back or not anymore.

And, that brings me back to the dedications pages in books. My daughter's extended family has pretty much all positioned themselves to take center-stage in my grandson's life and as usual, there will be little room for me. Retiring soul that I am, I will not push myself forward. I will be there for him to talk to, listen to, and spend time with. If he finds me interesting, then good. If not, then he will be another family member to ignore me.

I plan on breaking my rule about dedications and his name will be on the dedication page in my next novel. It is an adventure and has all the things in it that I want to read of in a book. Hopefully, he will find it a flight of fancy and be able to escape the bonds of this world for just a little while. Maybe that is why people dedicate novels to others. Maybe they hope to be understood by family members and wish to leave something for them in posterity.

You will have to find your own reason for the dedications you find in books. I think I've found mine.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, Taken Apart, Congruencies and others.
Available on Kindle

The plight of the picky reader

Good morning!

Ah! I see you've had your breakfast and are working on your coffee now. Good. It's time to discuss the subject I've chosen for today's post.

Everyone has a definite taste in reading matter, and I am no different. Given a choice, I will opt for adventure stories with a sci-fi, horror or fantasy theme in which the hero/heroine, or combination of both, is pitted against an overwhelming antagonist. The situation must be dire and the pitfalls fraught with danger. I've even been known to read such a novel when the printed copy is filled with typos, incorrect word usage and awkward phrasing. I just mentally edit the copy and go from there.

That brings me to the meat of today's subject. How many people will pick up the latest, highly acclaimed thriller and open its pages only to find that the work seems to have received only a cursory edit? Do they toss the book to the side, vowing never to open it again? Or, do they muddle on through it because the publishing establishment has decreed this author's latest work to be the best that they have done to date? You see, this is why I rarely let critics sway me in the choice of my reading material. A great many of them seem to be shills for the big publishers. They have a vested interest in a work doing well because if it does and their review is seen to have moved readers to purchase the novel, they can count on more work from publishers and agents. To put it baldly, I see this as prostitution of their talents. I agree that everybody owes themselves the effort to make a living before all things, but let's at least be honest in our efforts.

Now, I know what you're going to say. "Indie writers and publishers are much worse about not editing their work." You're right, for the most part. Many of them don't know how to edit and many more can't be objective about their own work. But look at your choices. A poorly edited work by a writer with a fresh outlook on an old theme, or a poorly edited work by a writer who has become little more than a publisher's hack, milking a cash cow at your expense? That is a question only you, the reader can answer. It's your money you're spending, and your time you are investing on the work.

Having stirred the pot of dissension, I will end this post now.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Behind the Stone, Questionable Interests and others.
Available on Kindle

Thought for a novel

Good morning, Self!

I had a thought for a novel the other day and if I wasn't already immersed in the sequel to Gulf of the Plains, I would be working on it now. I'm not one of those guys that can easily switch from one work to another, so I'll have to muddle along as best I can.

The idea centers around the wierd things that have happened in my own life. You know, ghost story type things. Without giving away too much of the story, here's what part of it includes.

When my Grandfather was in the hospital for the last time before he died, I was about 4 years old, and my uncles and aunts were home to spend time with Grandad. He and my oldest uncle were somewhat estranged at the time and my uncle went night-fishing the night before Grandad's surgery. What he saw on the river sent him home in the middle of the night and without even cleaning up, he went to the hospital, outside of visiting hours to talk to Grandad. When he had told him what he saw, Grandad said it meant that he was going to die. Not my uncle, but my Grandad. And, he did die during surgery.

Another premonitory occurrence in my family dealt with a horse that wandered through the yard of one of my gr-gr-grandmothers one night when she was a little girl. It woke the entire household with its neighing and clumping up onto the porch before it left, and they thought that the gate had been left open. They had seen it in the moonlight and it was emaciated, sway-backed and looked as though it had cataracts on its eyes. Being so ill-looking, they knew it couldn't have jumped the fence, but when they went outside, the fence was secured and they couldn't find hoof prints anywhere in the yard. With a house full of kids, the yard had little grass in it; it was mostly bare earth. Since it was a dry summer, that meant that it was mostly dust and should have taken prints easily. There were prints in the dirt of the children's bare feet from the day before. Before dinnertime the next day, they received word that a grandparent had died in the night.

There are many more stories like that in my family, as well as a collection of songs that my Grandad used to sing for his kids when they were small. I can barely remember him singing them when I was small, but I have to say that they were bloody, violent fairytale type songs. Songs of giants, predatory deer, wolves, foxes and vicious rabbits. The most complex of them; a very long song, has been passed through my family in its entirety and since my daughters forget parts of it, I have it written down. It is worthy of a novel in and of itself.

I'm not sure where the songs come from, but my Grandad's family is mixed Cherokee and Border Scots. I believe the song I mentioned comes from the Border because it mentions London at least twice. The city is mentioned as though it is a long way off, and we all know that compared to the Great Plains, England is barely larger than some counties. My parents were watching a documentary once, starring one of our American folksingers who was also a musical historian, and he played and sang the song. They couldn't remember what part of England he said it was from, but that gives me a sort of provenance.

Then there was a story that was half-told and half-sang, concerning a rabbit, a wolf, a deer and a bear. Since the rabbit was the only one to coume out at the end alive, having killed the villain and several others, it was a kind of bloodthirsty song to be singing to children. But, such were the songs of our forbears.

Well, I've spent enough time on this today. I think you can see that having been raised on violent songs and stories dealing with the metaphysical, there is good reason why my novels contain so much violence.

Remember this:
When I was a little boy, to London I did go.
I climbed up on a steeple high, my beauty for to show.
Try-da-la-ringle-doodle-day
Try-da-la-ringle-doodle-dum!
I laid my head in sister's lap and let my feet hang low,
And jumped clear over main-street and never stopped to blow!
(Chorus)
And there I met a mighty giant, his head almost reached the sun.
He bantered me to wrestle him, both fight and run!
I beat him out of all of his tricks and killed him when it was done!
(Chorus)

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Stitch in Thyme, A Quart of Djinn and others.
Available on Kindle

Research

Good morning, Self!

How much research do you put into your work? Well, the answer varies with each story. Since the story is a product of my imagination, I put only as much research into it as is needful to make the story as believable as possible. For the fantasies, that doesn't really need to be very much. For the sci-fi, it can be a pretty time-intensive activity. I generally go for 'soft' sci-fi because a fiction novel shouldn't read like a science textbook; it detracts from the story unless the writer has a background in the subject. Oh, some writers immerse themselves in the science and can make the story more interesting, but they are the exception. See my earlier post about info-dumps.

My stories are about regular people who have no reason to know about an esoteric subject in science. How can the reader expect an itinerant drifter or a shopgirl to know anything about lasers, electro-magnetic pulses or nano-technology, much less think about it enough to add several pages of descriptive thought about any of them to a story? The character is thinking about how he or she is going to get out a tight spot, not about what makes a laser work. Such a thing is out of context.

However, if I'm writing about an historical character, I have to know as much about them as I can. I need to know how they might have reacted to a certain situation in order to make them live for the reader. Of course, that reaction will be subjective, according to whatever opinion I form about the character when I research them. For instance, I wrote a novel in which the Empress Theodora was cloned and I had to have some idea what she may have been like in life. In my research, I stuck with the factual accounts in The History, and The Secret History, biased as they were, because the author, Procopius, was on the scene and knew her firsthand. Now, of course, I know that The History was written as a propaganda piece to glorify the reign of Justinian and Theodora, and that The Secret History was written as a derogatory piece, published after Procopius' death. I even know that there is doubt that Procopius wrote The Secret History. Whoever wrote it seemed to be more interested in relating vicious gossip and demonizing Theodora than he was in telling strict truth. If he was telling the truth and the piece wasn't what it appears to be, then she must have been a truly capricious woman. To give balance to my own work, I wrote her as a mix of the two women I found in both of them. The noble woman who rose above her upbringing and early life, and the conniving, consummate palace intriguer. In the end, I came away from the work wishing that I could know the truth about her. That she was devoted to the Christian sect that had literally saved her life, there is no doubt. They revered her long after her death. That she was hated so thoroughly by people on the fringe of her sphere of influence is evident by the story told of the opening of her tomb centuries after her death. In case no one has ever heard it, the story goes that when the tomb was opened, there was nothing inside but an old snake's nest and a quantity of broken snake's eggs. Hence the title of my work; Eggs of Empire.

Well, enough of this. I hope it has given readers the information I intended they have.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Taken Apart, Congruencies and others.
Available on Kindle 

Apologies

Good afternoon.

I feel that I must apologize to my readers. I am feeling a bit brain-fried just now and can think of nothing to write in this blog. Nothing, that is, that holds any worth relating to my writing process or writing, in any meaningful way. For that, I say, I'm sorry. I will try to do better.

With this short note, I end today's post and hope you all have a good evening.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Questionable Interests, Taken Apart and others.
Available on Kindle

The unabashed writer

Good morning, Self!

What is an unabashed writer? He or she is the person who is tireless in getting their name and the title of their work in front of as many people as possible. Some of them may be no better than mediocre writers, (like me), but have a knack for using all the avenues possible to get publicity of one sort or another. Despite their shortcomings as writers, they may end up successful after a fashion because of their own efforts.

Then there are the writers who have no idea how to publicize their work, but be very good at networking. With that, they can find, and use every means at their disposal to persuade an agent to take them on and work on publicizing their work; getting them publishing contracts, selling movie rights and etc. There is a sub-group of this sort who feel that they must be insulated from working on the 'details' because they "must be left alone to work on their art". It takes all kinds.

But there are also the poor guys and girls out there who are simply driven to write and have very little idea how to market their work. They may be shy, (like me), and back away from the "Hey! Look at me!" attitude. It doesn't mean they disdain the methods other people use to get attention brought to bear on their work; they just don't know how to do that and have been raised to be modest and respectful. Many times, such people are seen as not having 'social skills', but that isn't completely true.

I don't have any answers for the folks that can't or won't take those extra steps to get their work noticed. I'm in their shoes, too. What I am telling them is that they aren't alone. Like them, I may never amount to anything as a writer and may never see one of my titles on the New York Times Bestseller List, but I'll still write. Who knows? Maybe someone with power in the publishing or broadcast media industries will pick up one of my titles and find something good in it. If they contact me, I'll be tickled to death. Can you see me holding my breath?

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Taken Apart, Congruencies and others.
Available on Kindle

The unasked question

Good afternoon, Self!

Ah, the unasked question. Though my novels are selling pretty well, and have been for some time; no one has ever asked me where I got the ideas for them. I addressed the things that inspire me in an earlier post, but it's probably time to get specific. Let's take the novel that has performed best for me: Gulf of the Plains.

As I said before, the bare-bones idea for this story came to me nearly forty years ago, but the story is a combination of ideas, daydreams and what-if suppositions. All these things were spurred on by some of the alarmist claims that pervaded our society over the past ten years or so.

I read about why the Earth precesses on its axis and how it is tied up with the over-burden of oceans and continental masses around the Earth. Thus, it is out of balance. This is only a very simplistic explanation, so please don't go quoting me on it. I'm not about to try to teach a science course. Throw in the fact that the Earth's gravity fluctuates from place to place and that there are lines of electro-magnetic energy criss-crossing the world and I think you can see what gave me the idea for a polar shift. Oh, and don't forget global warming. With less of the Earth's moisture bound in ice at the poles, there is naturally more water around its middle.

I saw a documentary about how mountains were formed and how some inland volcanoes possess traces of sea water. As it turns out, faults in the sea-floor allow water to travel under the Earth's crust until it hits a pocket of magma and causes an eruption. Again, I don't teach a science class and never will, so don't quote me. Of course, there have been a number of barely noticeable earthquakes here in Oklahoma this past year or so, and that helped to inspire me. But with all this in place in my mind, it seemed to me that if global warming is the demon that people believe will destroy our civilization, the over-burden of water released from the polar ice could conceivably cause a polar shift. Insert the late-December timetable that the doomsayers have predicted and the stage was pretty well set for the story.

With all that said, I'll leave the creation of the characters; Paget Redpath, Bailey Lovell, John Sheaves and company, for later. Let me just say that two of those three were daydreams and a Ouija Board was involved in the creation of the other long ago.

Well, Self, that's the end of this trip through Derek's mind.

Thanks for checking in.
Derek A. Murphy
Author of It Happens Every Day, Taken Apart and others.
Available on Kindle

What makes a good story?

Good morning, Self!

Okay, let's address the question I used for the title of this post. What does make a good story? You need to start with an acceptable premise. Some that could be considered unacceptable can be made so with a judicious application of thought and inspiration. Does the premise violate social taboos? Use the development of your characters to move the reader toward an acceptance of that violation. Force your characters into an action that if avoided will result in dire consequences. Make sure that if the character doesn't commit that action, the consequences will fall on an innocent victim. That way you show the character as a person who acts for the good of someone else, despite his actions being either illegal or immoral.

I know, Self. You're saying that such a thing doesn't happen. I say that you are wrong. Check out the personal stories of the people in your local court's docket; Justice is blind and falls equally upon criminals no matter how they are able to rationalize their actions. Much like what happened to Jean Valjean. He was imprisoned for stealing food to feed his starving family. Make the unintended victim of the consequences pitiable enough and the readers will applaud the character who is forced into those illegal or immoral actions.

Next in line to do is: Make your characters human and sympathetic. Unless you're writing a sci-fi novel, in which case you should anthropomorphize your inhuman characters. Show them to be worth the readers' time and make them someone that the reader can care about. Show their virtues, by all means, but balance those virtues with human failings. No one wants to read about someone who never makes a mistake or error in judgement. Unless you're writing a fairy tale for very small children. Such simplistic writing is the kind of thing that they thrive on. It's only later that they learn the world isn't done up in jewel-tone colors, with friendly dragons, talking stuffed animals and parents who never spank their children.

And last; throw unexpected things into your story. It can be that beloved plot twist you've been thinking about for years, or simply a capricious lover who rejects the hero or heroine of the story after he or she has endured a journey through Hell for their sake. Make your story interesting, but keep it believable. It's your job as the writer to make it believable. If you work it right, you can suspend the reader's sense of disbelief and make it even more interesting.

All of this is only a simple guide. I am not a trained journalist, nor am I qualified to teach writing. I am, after all, learning every day, just like everyone else.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Taken Apart, Behind the Stone and others.
Available on Kindle

Correct word usage?

Good morning, Self!

Hello, Self. And, how are you today? Well, I hope. Fine. Me, too!

Now that the nonsense is out of the way; have you ever picked up a book and begun reading only to find that this worldwide bestseller is full of instances in which words are used incorrectly, or the wrong words are used in sentences that may be changed completely by the usage of those words? Malapropisms have been attributed to Presidents and presidential hopefuls, illustrating that even the powerful are prone to ill word usage. It has been increasingly common and has come almost to be the rule, rather than the exception.

But what if you find it in a book published by one of the big publishing houses? It has supposedly been proofread and edited multiple times and has been the #1 worldwide bestseller. And, if it has sold 40 million copies? Wouldn't you believe when you picked it up at the bookstore that it should be almost perfect?

What if you got no further than the second paragraph and found an instance of word usage that you were cautioned against as far back as grade school? The instance I am thinking of concerned an inanimate object that was written of as, presumably having made a voluntary sound. Such things do not happen. Let's say a bookcase thunders. Why did it thunder? If the writer doesn't include that bit of information, the sentence makes no sense. Rather; the bookcase made a thundering noise as it crashed to the floor. Or, the thundering sound of the bookcase echoed as it fell face down on the floor. An inanimate object doesn't make a voluntary sound unless some outside influence has caused it to make said noise.

I know, I know, it sounds picky, persnickety and petty, but shouldn't we, the reading public expect our entertainment to be good? As a reader, I am offended. As a writer, I am outraged. The story may be good, the premise may be plausible, and the characters may be memorable, but if I know that I can do a better job with the small things; the question I ask myself is, "How did this guy get a contract to write and publish this thing?" Of course, the publishing game has boiled down to marketable ideas and "who you know" business contacts. In that, I am handicapped, and can't hope to compete. I'll have to labor more or less anonymously and hope that my work will be well-received. I believe a lot of writers better than I have been relegated to that fate because their networking capabilities are no better than mine.

Of course, no prominent reviewer called the writer of the instance I thought of to task for his error because he was and is, one of the media darlings and we all know how the news media fawns on their heroes of the hour. I and others like me will just have be the small voices on the edge of hearing that call out, "Not good enough!"

I'm afraid this post devolved into an impromptu rant, and I didn't intend that. It was only intended to make people think. I will not belabor the point.

Thank you,
Derek A. (Wings) Murphy
Author of Congruencies, Taken Apart and others.
Available on Kindle

Reader demographic?

Good morning!

When I started writing, I believed that my readers would consist of a few teenaged boys and some frustrated middle-aged men. I've found this fall that the greater part of my sales occur on the weekend afternoons and evenings when those groups would normally be occupied with football games. That leads me to think that the sales are coming from women; football widows. Don't get me wrong, I like women. I just didn't think that what I wrote would appeal to them. I write for the man that I was from age 13 to the present, and I like for the stuff I read to have lots of action and to be sexually tittilating without being explicit. So, why do women find my stuff appealing?

I've asked this question before and not received an answer from anyone. Due to the lack of a response to my question, I can only surmise that women are more like men than I supposed. I tried to learn what caused them to respond so well to my novels by reading a couple of modern romance stores and am at a non-plus. Some of the most popular modern romance stories available on Kindle have little to differentiate them from some of the porn I read back in the 70's. Not as much dirty language, but the content, and the description of the 'action' is right on a par with old-style porn.

I'm not a prude, but I grew up reading sci-fi written by people like Robert A. Heinlein, Harlan Ellison, Roger Zelazny, A. E. Van Vogt, Isaac Asimov and others like them. In their novels, sex wasn't even a closed door item. If it existed in their stories at all, it was so far off-stage that it could never even be referred to, though Heinlein included it in his later stories. I admit that the sex in my stories is of the closed door variety, with teasing glimpses of something more, but still not explicit. As a result of my queries, I must conclude that I am still puzzled concerning the success of Gulf of the Plains with women.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of It Happens Every Day, Questionable Interests and others.
Available on Kindle

Real people, real situations.

Good morning, Self!

I know you have wondered sometimes about the advisability of putting real people in your stories, or having them present during real situations that caused a worldwide or nationwide stir. See one of my posts from several days ago. I avoid the possibility of a suit by framing my characters on stereotypes and adding personality traits. Something like assembling a Mr. Potatohead. If someone wants to identify with a character I have created, that's their business.

The problem I see with including a real person in a story is this: They may not care for the characterization you have given them and may take exception to it. You may have them doing something totally out of character and your work may serve to demonize, or idolize the person. Both may be completely wrong and give offense. The bad publicity of a suit may drive book sales, but if you lose, there is the possibility that you may end up paying them more than you gained from the sales. I will not include a real person in my works for that reason. It simply is not economically sound.

The second thing; real situations. If you put a fictitious or real person in a dire situation and have them react heroically, you run the chance of cheapening the factual actions of people who were in fact present. I believe in giving people their due honors and credit for meritorious behavior under incredibly difficult circumstances. To insert a character into that situation who was not there and have him or her doing things that did not happen only serves to take notice away from someone who deserves the honor of being recognized for his or her actions. Too many writers, both of the print media and in film have taken liberties with just that situation.

If a heroic action was taken by someone who is totally anonymous, despite efforts to learn his or her identity, then of course, give the person a name and display their heroics to the world. In some small way, that can honor him or her. But, in the interest of being certain that the readers or audience knows what you are doing, explain what you have done and give that anonymous person recognition for what they have done. The person may have died nameless and faceless, but we can at least shroud them with the honor they deserve.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Stitch in Thyme, Congruencies and others.
Available on Kindle

Things I try to remember when writing.

Good morning!

As the title of this piece says, today's post is about the things I try to remember when I'm working on a novel, novella, novelette or short story. (I don't normally write short stories or novelettes, but it has been known to happen.)

Actually, there are three things I keep in mind when writing. Clarity, context and continuity. If a sentence, paragraph or even an entire sequence of events is not clearly written, I re-work it until I have it the way I want it. If it is unrecoverable, I cut it and start over. And you have to keep the action, dialogue and character development in context. I mean, really. What does it say about you as a writer if you pause a bit of action to delve into a memory flashback of one of the characters? That also goes to the continuity aspect.

I suppose I could go into more detail with these things, but for some reason, I just don't feel the need. These are all things that anyone should have learned about the time they told their first lie as a child. And creative writing is just that; telling lies. Imagine a small child who goes into a long, involved story about something that didn't happen. I can vaguely remember doing that as a toddler and definitely remember the times my children exercised their creativity, beginning at age two or so.

This blog isn't intended as a learning tool for prospective writers, but rather, to give insight into my own writing process. Not that anyone is especially interested in that. It's just my way of reaching out to people in an attempt to be understood. Isn't that what most blogs are? What a rare conceit I and others must have to want other people to understand us, and to use a blog as a forum for just that.

In closing, remember those three things. Clarity, context and continuity. Use them not just when you self-edit, but when you are composing.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, A Quart of Djinn and others.
Available on Kindle

Name brand recognition

Good morning!

Well, it's that time. You know, the time you run into when you wonder if your name is holding you back when people browse the digital bookstore. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like my name. It conveys a sense of intelligence, breeding and good taste. Say it and close your eyes. Derek. Makes you think of some English fellow who can order from a French menu without being forced to ask what something is. Add Murphy to it and you get a vision of a football hooligan, spilling Guinness on your shoes. Or, is he urinating on them while standing in line at the betting parlor?

See what I mean? We all have preconceived conceptions of people because of their names. Someone sees my name on the cover of a book and while the concept may be intriguing, they may be turned off by the name. I considered using my childhood nickname. It's a masculine nickname that goes well with Murphy and conjures up an image of a tough, but cultured man whom people might like to know. Duke. Duke Murphy. I've lived with it among my family members my entire life and happen to like it better than my proper name.

Then there's the name 'The Guys' gave me when I was about twelve years old. Wings. Wings Murphy. It has a rough and tumble kind of ring to it. The kind of name you might expect from someone who writes action novels. In retrospect, I think I should have used Wings as a nom de plume. but when it came time to decide what name to write under, I opted for my proper name. I am who I am and there is no changing it. I believe in truth in advertising and while Wings or Duke may have gone over better with the readers, Derek will always be the name by which I am known.

Although, maybe I could add Wings in parentheses to my covers from now on.

Have a good day, Readers.

Thank you,
Derek A. (Wings) Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, It Happens Every Day and others.
Available on Kindle

Slip of the mind

Good afternoon!

Well, Self; you had a really good idea last night what to write about in the blog this morning, but you didn't write it down. So, here you are, it's afternoon already and you still haven't retrieved that thought.

I guess the thing to write about today is that when a writer has a great idea, he or she should write it down somewhere. A notebook would be good. (I have several, along with notepads, but forget to keep one by me.) There are some things that are just annoying, and one of them is to have had a great idea and be unable to wring it out of the cheesecloth that inhabits our brains sometimes.

A pocket notebook is a good choice, but sometimes you are driving or doing something else just too important to neglect to make the effort to write something down. For the more technologically minded, there is the ever-present cell-phone and its capability to dictate a reminder to yourself. But, keep in mind that I don't advocate distracting yourself from driving a car in order to fiddle with a cell-phone or electronic planner.

I will say that if it is important enough, you should pull over to the side of the road and write it down, or however you plan to keep your thoughts recorded. Of course, pull over carefully, don't want to cause an accident by driving erratically.

That is all for today. Maybe in the future I will have the presence of mind to write things down and be more prepared.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Eggs of Empire, Behind the Stone and others.
Available on Kindle

How much sex is too much?

I've asked myself this question for a while now. And I think that depends on the reader. Some people don't want it to impose on the story, others think it adds to the story. Personally, I think that some sex can add to a story if it is used to demonstrate character development, or if it is a primary moving force behind the story. Say a girl or woman experiences a distasteful episode and is shown to grow or evolve because of, or in spite of, that episode. Or, a man becomes obsessed with a woman and never quite gets the hang of a relationship until he is able to come to grips with her. Now, he can either be changed or validated by that experience, but very little more.

I've read some books; some of them quite successful, that used an involved storyline but had several gratuitous sex scenes in them that weren't necessary. By the end of the book, the authors tried to make the reader believe that the sex had caused a profound change in the character, but to my eye, the character was changed very little. Just because the author says the character has changed, unless the author shows the character behaving differently, there isn't any change at all. In the instances I am thinking of, the author seemed so locked into the character as originally created, that they had no success, or even inclination to show the character changing.

So, to make this simple; if the character development or story isn't advanced by the sex, either leave it out or make it a closed door scene. Unless you're writing the new style of romance novel; then it seems that anything goes.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Taken Apart, Questionable Interests, It Happens Every Day and others.
Available on Kindle

What to cut?

Good morning, Self!

Something that people may have thought about but lumped under the general heading of 'editing', is 'What to cut?'. Since I like to keep the action moving, without loss of character development, I usually try to cut anything that doesn't generally contribute to the story. As I mentioned earlier, I insert a few things that demonstrate that a character has a life outside the story, and I think that lends verisimilitude to the character. After all, how believable is a character who only exists to service the storyline? Isn't it likely that a man or woman who is put into a tight spot and has to get out of it, has a family somewhere? A brother or sister who has kids and invites Uncle Harvey or Aunt Matilda to a birthday party? Or maybe a wedding. Any kind of celebration that may or may not include extended family members.

Okay, those are instances of something that you keep in the story; what about things that you cut? For example, say you are describing a culture that you have created just for the story. Do you put in pages of description of how the culture works? That's called an 'info-dump' and personally, I'm not crazy about them. Sure, it explains why a certain thing has to be done, and why it is important, but does it detract from the story? I can think of very little as tedious as being forced to read several pages of information just when the hero or heroine has to escape from an unfriendly troll or dragon, or merely a murderous human.

What a writer can do to lighten that particular load is weave the information into the story. That's usually a job for 'spear-carriers', but reading a long exposition on the part of a primary or secondary figure is as bad as an info-dump. Instead, a writer can have various characters make off-hand remarks in which they refer to certain points of interest in the culture. Just make sure it's something the character would say under those circumstances. You've got to lead into the remark so that it comes naturally and easily. It may take a few pages of generally pertinent action and remarks for you to lay the groundwork for having a character remark on something important to the story's background that isn't important to the action. If done clumsily, it detracts from the story as much as an info-dump, but if done well, the reader will come away with an understanding of the culture, and the action and story do not suffer harm.

Self, you may wonder why I am spending so much time speaking to you about this, but I have to tell you that it is something that I struggled with. A story-teller has to know that the listener knows all there is to know about a culture or his story is incomprehensible. Making sure the reader knows about the culture is the story-teller's responsibility.

Very well. That will be all for today. I am not an authority on writing, just a writer with a little hard-won knowledge.

Thank you and good day.
Derek A. Murphy

Real people?

A couple of the people I know have made jokes around me about me putting them in my novels. While I do not do that, even with permission, I do something else entirely. Whatever a character needs to be like, the traits and personality quirks they need to have, I first envision them as a stereotype. After I have the 'base' model built, I begin adding and subtracting things from their personality. The heroes are flawed, only appearing heroic in their application of whatever it is they need to do to resolve their problems. The villains, while appropriately villainous, are people, with the problems that people have. Maybe a villain was treated unfairly as a child, without actually being abused, but he or she felt the need later in life to inflict harm on others to make up for whatever it was that they felt was unfair in their lives. The villain may have a wife or husband, and children, that they treat as well as non-villains treat their families. However, he or she has this other life they lead in which their family would not recognize them.

To tell the truth; there really is very little difference to be found between the heroes and villains that I create. People I know may see themselves in the characters I use because the characters are so much like run-of-the-mill people. If they think that I used them as a template for a character, that simply is not true. They are only seeing their own ordinariness in the characters.

There is something that I read once that gives me pause, though. I read that all fiction writing is basically autobiographical. I understand that. The writer brings to the table his experiences and the ways in which he would respond to the problems shown in the story. The characters in a sense are the writer. He or she dictates the action and the responses the characters make. A lot of writers may write how they would like to respond to something, bringing to light an ingrained need to kick off the shackles of his life and really do something that may be frowned upon. How else can a writer write about serial killers, rapists and other criminals without getting inside their heads. He or she has to envision how they would do something utterly despicable. It can be troubling, to say the least. There have been a few times when I've thought for days about whether or not I should let a certain sequence of events in a story stand as-is, or to alter it in some way that I am comfortable with. Sadly, some of my best work has been cut from a manuscript because I just couldn't let people know that such thoughts could even cross my mind. That those cuts meant there was less blood in the story was a comfort to me. Perhaps I'll never be a crime-thriller writer. Maybe not even a writer of true horror stories. I'll have to live with that.

Logjam cleared

Good morning, Self!

As I told you yesterday, I had a problem with knowing what to write, both in this blog and in my novel. The negligible exercise of writing what I felt in the blog yesterday worked for me and I was able to re-enter the world I have created in the novel and interact with the characters, memorializing their actions and emotions.

It's possible that my choice of music to listen to while I wrote had something to do with it. Incongruously, soft, emotional, soft-rock puts me in the mood to write violent action; which was the setting I was dealing with yesterday. When I started writing, I listened to music that inspired me while I wrote, but I have found that certain songs engender moods and emotions in me that spur me on to write a certain type of sequence. I don't listen to slow, sappy, emotional stuff when I write about a character's emotions. Instead, I listen to a few of the raunchier songs that have passed in and out of the public's consciousness over the past forty or so years. I'm not sure what that says about my own emotional state. Do I relate certain emotions to that type of song? I don't know. I only know that when I listen to them, I can write of the betrayal, loss and redemption that certain characters feel.

I'm not saying that I am averse to listening to music that sets the atmosphere for what I am writing. It's just that other music allows me to reach into myself and tap the reserves that feed the creative process. If the music seems jarringly inappropriate to other ears; I can't help that. It's what I need and since there is no one here but you and I, and I know that you won't object, then I'll listen to what works for me.

That will be all, Self. You can return to whatever you were doing and I will get on with the rest of the day. Many things to do and many fictitious characters to rend, maim and lead into temptation.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Eggs of Empire, A Quart of Djinn and others.
Available on Kindle

Frustration

Good morning, Self.

Have you ever experienced a moment in time in which you have absolutely no idea what to write? Not just a blank moment writing a blog, but when you are trying to work on a manuscript? It doesn't happen to me often, but this morning seems to be one of those times. There is so much that I need to do concerning my newest novel and this blog isn't helping very much. I am distracted by both and need to break the impasse.

With this blog, I am writing what I am feeling at the moment in an effort to break the logjam. Maybe that way, I will be able to get back to work on the novel. I am torn between building character development for an important character and stepping up the action. I think I can manage both, but I need to get into the right frame of mind for it. I know better than to try to force it; that way leads to extensive re-writes. I can deal with tweaking the story and the plot, but trashing a lot of work and starting over isn't something that I like to do.

Well, I feel now that I can move on. There is much to do.

Thank you, and I hope you have a very good morning.
Derek A. Murphy

Genre Writing

Good morning, Self!

How does anyone know what genre to classify their writing as? Each of my novels started out as something else and through a twist or two in the plot, became something different. For instance, Taken Apart began as an exploration of a human being's mind during a demonic possession, but in order to let the two entities interact, I had to turn it into a dark romance of sorts. When I felt constrained by having two minds in one body, I had to engineer a way to separate them; then it turned into an action/adventure with horrific overtones.

Perhaps a more experienced writer or a college professor would say that I lacked discipline. I really don't know, but I like to let a story flow; like water finds and settles at the lowest point of a container. I think that by finding the lowest common denominator, my work may reach a wider audience. Of course, I also have to consider that this stems from a lack of talent. I hope not. I'm not sure that I believe that; my sales have increased every month since I first began writing and publishing on Amazon's DTP.

Congruencies began as a nostalgia piece with a heartbreakingly sad premise. Once I got started on it and had shown the quiet joy of the couple's reunion, I then had to show the difficulties they encountered in deciding what to change about their lives. But they needed complications in their new lives and I had to present them with dangers and challenges. Thus, the story left the realm of the 'soft' sci-fi field and became an action/adventure/thriller with soft romance underlying the action.

I could go on and on, dissecting the motivations behind each of my stories, but I think I've made my point; my work begins as one thing and becomes another. I would be interested to know if any other writers have encountered this in their work. If anyone cares to, please leave a comment.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, Behind the Stone and others.
Available on Kindle

Where do I get my ideas

Good afternoon, Self!

I've been asked more times than I can count; where do I get my ideas for novels?

The answer is: many places. A few times, I've been half-awake, lying in bed early in the morning and will have just left rem-sleep and an idea comes to me. So, yeah, sometimes I dream them up. Other times, I think up a catchy title and build a story around it. I listen to a variety of music when I write, and once, I reached a minor impasse on a story and leaned back for a short break. The song that was playing at that time was an old, old rock song that I had listened to for over forty years. As I veg-ed out, I actually listened to the lyrics and realized that in all those years, I had never really known what the song was about. As it turned out, the song dealt with a funeral and the emotions that the lyricist was dealing with concerning it. One line in the song spurred a thought, and that thought bumped into another thought and before I knew it; I had an actual train of thought going. The thought led to my alternate world novel, It Happens Every Day. Another novel inspired by a line in a song was Taken Apart. Demonic possession was never something that I ever thought about, but this song made me think about what it would be like to have another consciousness crawling around inside my mind, controlling every function of my body. It was creepy but gave me the idea for the novel.

Another time, many years ago, I was car-pooling with another guy and it was his turn to drive, so I sat back and stared at the countryside as we rode along. My employer was based in a town 18 miles from my home and if you know Oklahoma, you know that there is a lot of country between towns. Not exactly wide-open spaces like you find in the Dakotas or one of the other Northern Plains states, but enough that you see farmhouses, barns, gullies, creeks, stands of trees and etc. With my eyes on the landscape, I started picking out places that would provide breastworks and other cover in the event of a battle. From that came the kernel of the idea for my novel, Gulf of the Plains.

At work, either waiting for a job to finish, or while loading DTs into an optical reader/sorter; real mindless stuff that everybody had to contend with, I used to daydream and if my co-workers knew that from those few minutes of robot-like-activity came the ideas for at least half of my novels, they would be astounded.

Well, those are just a few instances, and there are others. A really great series of novels that I wrote was somewhat derivative of several other novels that I read. The idea came from the similarities between the pantheons of gods worshipped by a variety of different cultures that had little or no contact with each other. Were the attributes of those gods universal, or was there a race of humanoid creatures that paid a visit to those cultures over a period of thousands of years? I don't profess to know the answer to that question, but it gave me the idea for the series. It's too bad that I will probably never publish those novels. The reason for that is that I am not comfortable with some of the subject matter. Perhaps I should publish them anyway and take a chance on them becoming extremely popular. But I really don't want to answer a lot of questions in the news media about whether or not I believe what I wrote, or why I chose to have my characters break so many of our culture's taboos.

With that, I will leave you today. May you all find something to read that you enjoy and may it stay with you all the days of your lives.

Derek A. Murphy
Author of Behind the Stone, Congruencies and others.
Available on Kindle

Names of characters

Good morning, Self!

If you are like me, and I know you are since you are me, then you sometimes have trouble finding names for your characters. I was advised to get myself a book of baby names and use that. However, picking a name for a character is as difficult as picking a name for a baby. You want just the right name that will hopefully project the qualities and flaws you want to inject into your characterization. I imagine what I want the character to be like, then find a name, male or female, that rings true. But then I've got the problem of selecting a surname to go with this perfect given name for my character. I have bookcases ranged around my office with the names of the authors prominently displayed, and if I need a name quickly for a minor, throwaway character, I select from them. A phonebook also comes in handy, but you have to keep in mind the locale you are using for the book's action. Does this place have a strong German community? Or, maybe you are putting your action in the Southwest. You need to use the surnames that are most likely to be found in the area, no matter where the action takes place.

Maybe this is an attention to detail that is unnecessary, but for me, it gives the story flavor, a sense of authenticity that, I hope, lends credibility to my efforts as a writer. If I accomplish this, then the reader closes my book at the end and immediately goes in search for another of my works. Isn't that what any writer hopes will happen?

So, to sum up: Envision your character, select a given name that strikes the emotional chord you want to play, find a surname that is in concert with both the given name and the locale. These are my simple steps to finding just the right names for my characters. I'm sure I'm not the first to use them, just as I will not be the last.

Oh, and one last thought; I have found that burying myself in the minutiae of writing helps take my mind off the fact that writers also sometimes suffer from a form of stage-fright. It's just not as immediate. Then when I am finished, and am sure that there is nothing else I can do to make it a better story, I set about copyrighting, formatting and publishing.

Goodbye, Self. Have a nice day.
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Taken Apart, Eggs of Empire and others.
Available on Kindle

Perceptions

Good morning, Self!
This morning I would like to address the public's perceptions of Indie authors. As a culture, we have grown demanding in the quality of the things we consume in our lives, and our reading material is no exception. We have become accustomed to the publishing industry's control over everything that falls under our eyes and while that could be a good thing, it's not. The Bigtime Publishers have so molded the minds of America that unless something we read has that stamp of approval from a publishing house, we aren't interested.

I admit that it's nice to know that what we pick up to read will be relatively free of typos, and that it will follow the path of the novels we have read in the past. But that can be stifling for a writer. How many times can a writer receive a folder from his publisher, demanding changes in a manuscript, before the story he wrote no longer resembles the story that formed in his mind. After some bored, overworked worker-bee in a cubicle has finished with the writer's work, it comes to look, smell and taste like every other book that sits on the shelves of innumerable bookstores across the country.

The publishing houses are interested in books that can turn a profit for them right away. I admit that if they don't show a profit, they can't continue to exist, but how many times have you picked up a book and begun to read it, only to find that the premise, the characters, the storyline and the situations are exactly like the book you read last week by another author? Publishers produce what sells at the time. If a book about a mentally crippled detective sells this week, another in the same vein will sell next week. That's the way they look at publishing.

The award winning authors who break the mold and are publicly promoted by big publishing houses have mostly spent their time in the hellish limbo of writing what the publisher wants for several years until they have become popular enough to demand and receive a free hand in what they write. Only then do they become the authors that the public recognizes as innovators who can, and do, deliver stories that the public finds intriguing.

Enter the Indie author. He, or she, doesn't have the constraints of the publishing houses hanging over his head and he writes what he wants. The work produced by Indie authors may not be as polished, though we try very hard, as that produced by a publishing house, but in it, you will find all the ideas, characters and storylines that big publishers won't take a chance on.

Having said all that, I will only add that I urge you all to take a chance on an Indie author. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains and others.
Available on Kindle

New blog linked to Author Page

This is the inaugural post for this blog on my Amazon Author Page. Once I figured out what I needed to do, it was easy. One of those things that makes you slap your forehead. That's something I've found happens all too often when I try new things.

For those who have joined us late, please read the previous posts and feel free to post a comment.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains and others.

Why so coy?

Good morning, Self.

'Tis the second day of this blog and no comments from readers as yet, though the blog has had a ton of hits.

Progress on my Gulf of the Plains sequel: Paget Redpath and several of the Gulf Rangers are in a tight spot and while I am not having trouble deciding what I want to happen to them, I have struck the dreaded 'Chapter Five Doldrums'. The words and sentences come slowly and drag themselves out like a sleepy cat, gliding slowly across the floor. I think it's because I have some things to do today and I am having trouble motivating myself to do them.

I will repeat my question of yesterday and ask my readers; why do women find my post-apocalyptic novel, Gulf of the Plains, so interesting? Is it the cast of characters and their various back-stories? Is it the emotional interplay amongst them? Is it the gentle romance that occurs between the people who make up the two couples comprising the four main characters?

Enough of that for today. Until next time, Readers.

Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, It Happens Every Day, Questionable Interests, Taken Apart, Behind the Stone, Stitch in Thyme, Eggs of Empire,
Congruencies, A Quart of Djinn, A Taste For Blood
Available on Kindle

Question that has been bothering me.

I had a thought and decided to ask the people who read my work. What is it about my novel 'Gulf of the Plains' that is so interesting? It is my best seller and I can always depend on sales from it when sales for my other work are flat. For those who like the novel, I am currently writing a sequel to it titled, 'Gulf of the Plains II: Fog and Bog'.

A beginning

This is the beginning of a new direction for me. I was raised to be averse to putting myself forward, and that fit in nicely with my shy personality. But since I have embarked on a new career in writing, I have been forced to realize that I must put that behind me and embrace the modern methods of self-promotion. Hence, this blog. I'm not sure if anyone will ever read any of this, so I will write as though I am speaking to myself.

Good afternoon, Self. If you have read any of my work, (and I know you have, since you are me) then you are familiar with the themes and subject matter that I usually include in my work. I worried for quite a while that the sex would be too graphic, then I got an eye-opener by sampling some of the stuff that today's women call 'romance novels'. If anything, my work doesn't go far enough for today's women;some of them have passed on my works as being too tame for them. I'm not sure I will ever be able to write the stuff that they like. Maybe I'll take a crack at it, but then again, maybe not.

For those who have read my work; feel free to ask questions about my novels. They are currently available only in Amazon's Kindle Store. Simply use their search engine to find my work and my Author Page there.

This has taxed my peabrain long enough. Thank you, Reader, for taking the time to check out my blog.