To any writers who may be reading this; Have you ever entered a period of time in which you felt unable or unwilling to write? At this time, I know I need to write, but seem to be motivationally constipated. Ideas are churning in my mind and I have thought of ways to continue the storyline of the sequel to Gulf of the Plains that I've been working on, but just can't bring myself to figuratively, put pen to paper. The idea of actually sinking myself into the story and getting on with the action is abhorrent to me just now and I don't understand why that should be. Composing has always been a friend to me and the periods in which I have been able to lose myself have been among the most enjoyable of my life. Perhaps that's the problem. Maybe I subconsciously know that losing myself now is not the best idea. There are many things preying on my mind that I can find no solution for and feel that I am just spinning my wheels. It's not that my works aren't selling; Gulf of the Plains has been in the Top 100 Kindle Genre Novels at least one day every week since it was published nearly a year ago, and was recently in the Top 100 in the UK as well. Still, there is something preventing me from writing. I decided to enter a post on this blog as a way to 'prime the pump', so to speak, and let the words flow. I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, for those writers who are reading this; keep writing. For the readers; until next time.
Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, It Happens Every Day and others.
Available on Kindle
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Influences
That's right, the title is "Influences". Not because my writing or stories are influenced by any particular writer, but because I would like to tell you, my reader, what influenced my latest book.
It is a book of short stories and the first story was prompted by something that happened to me many years ago. I still find it puzzling and have been unable to come up with any explanation other than the supposition I posited in the story.
The second story came to me one night as I lay thinking about the 'lucky' coin I had carried since my Senior year in high school. I thought to myself, "At least when I die, I will have a real silver coin to pay the Boatman with." And thus, a story was born.
The third story was a throwback to the stories I enjoyed so much as a teenager. Many of them were written by Howard and while his stories were heavier on the 'heroic' action than this one, I feel that mine exceeds his in giving the main character a life beyond the action.
The fourth story was a flight of bawdy, almost vulgar, fancy that came to me as I thought of something that my wife sometimes says. I've never heard of a 'Banshee Chicken' from anyone but her and the incongruity of the two words together gave me an idea for the storyline.
In the fifth story, I was feeling down and blue and the memory of a place I enjoyed as a boy came to me. I have included the place in a couple of other stories I have written and still feel as though I could walk to that place, sit down on streamside and waggle my toes in the water, startling the tadpoles and minnows that live therein.
The sixth story is a companion-piece to my novel, Gulf of the Plains, and was included simply because I thought that readers of that novel should be treated to the realization that other people than my characters in the novel had a hard time in that apocalyptic world.
The seventh story is my attempt to deal with the loss of a dream I held dear for many years and was loathe to relinquish. I have come to believe that karma plays a strong part in our lives and wondered if a vow could live after the deaths of the people who uttered it.
With the eighth story, I felt some guilt for behaving shabbily toward another person as a teenager and while she is gone forever from my life, I believed that this story could play the part of an apology for that behavior.
The ninth story was strictly an urban adventure that I have played around with for years. Thoughts of the story have lived many incarnations in my mind for at least thirty years and I felt that the story's time had come. Simply put, I wondered what would happen if a famous person, verging on sinking back into the anonymity we all live in, encountered a common man who was able to improve her life by simply doing what was right.
The tenth story is part of my musings on whether or not an inanimate object can carry a resonance of evil instilled within it many years earlier. I still don't know if that is possible or not, but the story exists for others to peruse and pose the same question to themselves.
With all that said, perhaps others will realize that inspiration lives within us all and that the most mundane things can stir it to a life outside ourselves.
Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of The Empty Heart: A Collection, Gulf of the Plains, Congruencies and others.
Available on Kindle
It is a book of short stories and the first story was prompted by something that happened to me many years ago. I still find it puzzling and have been unable to come up with any explanation other than the supposition I posited in the story.
The second story came to me one night as I lay thinking about the 'lucky' coin I had carried since my Senior year in high school. I thought to myself, "At least when I die, I will have a real silver coin to pay the Boatman with." And thus, a story was born.
The third story was a throwback to the stories I enjoyed so much as a teenager. Many of them were written by Howard and while his stories were heavier on the 'heroic' action than this one, I feel that mine exceeds his in giving the main character a life beyond the action.
The fourth story was a flight of bawdy, almost vulgar, fancy that came to me as I thought of something that my wife sometimes says. I've never heard of a 'Banshee Chicken' from anyone but her and the incongruity of the two words together gave me an idea for the storyline.
In the fifth story, I was feeling down and blue and the memory of a place I enjoyed as a boy came to me. I have included the place in a couple of other stories I have written and still feel as though I could walk to that place, sit down on streamside and waggle my toes in the water, startling the tadpoles and minnows that live therein.
The sixth story is a companion-piece to my novel, Gulf of the Plains, and was included simply because I thought that readers of that novel should be treated to the realization that other people than my characters in the novel had a hard time in that apocalyptic world.
The seventh story is my attempt to deal with the loss of a dream I held dear for many years and was loathe to relinquish. I have come to believe that karma plays a strong part in our lives and wondered if a vow could live after the deaths of the people who uttered it.
With the eighth story, I felt some guilt for behaving shabbily toward another person as a teenager and while she is gone forever from my life, I believed that this story could play the part of an apology for that behavior.
The ninth story was strictly an urban adventure that I have played around with for years. Thoughts of the story have lived many incarnations in my mind for at least thirty years and I felt that the story's time had come. Simply put, I wondered what would happen if a famous person, verging on sinking back into the anonymity we all live in, encountered a common man who was able to improve her life by simply doing what was right.
The tenth story is part of my musings on whether or not an inanimate object can carry a resonance of evil instilled within it many years earlier. I still don't know if that is possible or not, but the story exists for others to peruse and pose the same question to themselves.
With all that said, perhaps others will realize that inspiration lives within us all and that the most mundane things can stir it to a life outside ourselves.
Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of The Empty Heart: A Collection, Gulf of the Plains, Congruencies and others.
Available on Kindle
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
A well-considered thought
I've waited for several days before voicing my opinion of the operation leading to Bin Laden's death and I'm finally ready to speak.
As Christians, we are told that we should not rejoice at the death of anyone; even an enemy. I must admit that I am not a 'good' Christian. My faith in God is stronger than ever, but my attachments to the artificial construct of organized religion are more tenuous than ever. Putting that aside for the remainder of this post; I must say that I have never been more glad to hear of the death of anyone than this one. I wish it had happened years ago as he waged war against the Russians in Afghanistan, he couldn't have been the driving force behind the attacks against us over the past fifteen or so years. A bullet was too good for him but it's good that there was no trial for the Arab world to claim was a product of a 'kangaroo court'. As it is, they have already claimed that he is still alive, refusing to believe that he was brought to justice, no matter how rough.
I have deviated from the express purpose of this blog for this one instance and will not repeat the action unless some other world-shaking occurrence comes to rattle us out of our beds.
Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of The Empty Heart: A Collection, Gulf of the Plains and others.
Available on Kindle
As Christians, we are told that we should not rejoice at the death of anyone; even an enemy. I must admit that I am not a 'good' Christian. My faith in God is stronger than ever, but my attachments to the artificial construct of organized religion are more tenuous than ever. Putting that aside for the remainder of this post; I must say that I have never been more glad to hear of the death of anyone than this one. I wish it had happened years ago as he waged war against the Russians in Afghanistan, he couldn't have been the driving force behind the attacks against us over the past fifteen or so years. A bullet was too good for him but it's good that there was no trial for the Arab world to claim was a product of a 'kangaroo court'. As it is, they have already claimed that he is still alive, refusing to believe that he was brought to justice, no matter how rough.
I have deviated from the express purpose of this blog for this one instance and will not repeat the action unless some other world-shaking occurrence comes to rattle us out of our beds.
Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of The Empty Heart: A Collection, Gulf of the Plains and others.
Available on Kindle
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Inspiration and the "muse"
First, I would like to say that I very rarely use the word muse when referring to where I get my inspiration for stories. I am driven by a need to create storylines, and ideas for stories seem to pop into my mind at odd times of the day and night. I have awakened from a sound sleep with an idea and I try to 'bookmark' the idea in my mind but I think I need to keep a notebook next to the bed. The ideas refuse to stay bookmarked.
Then there are the songs that I grew up with as a teen and young man. They awaken emotions within me that won't let me forget them and I take those emotions and create storylines from them. I don't mean that I take a song and dissect it; creating occurrences in my stories from the lines of a song. I mean that if a song makes me feel sad, angry, bitter, lonely or lost, you get the picture; I write from those emotions.
Sometimes I think about what my life would have been like if I had done something pivotal in my life differently, and I write about a character who has done what I think I should have done and project the lines of his or her life from there. It's no more complicated than that. I try to write with realism and the simplest, most effective way I know of doing that is to put myself in the place of the character and imagine what I would do, or what I should do, taking a different tack in each situation than I did in life. Perhaps that makes each of my stories somewhat autobiographical, but that's the way I do it. I think a lot of people do the same thing. Besides, many writers write about the unthinkable and suddenly, it isn't so unthinkable.
That's enough for today. Gotta go write about apocalyptic stuff.
Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, The Empty Heart: A Collection and others
Available on Kindle
Then there are the songs that I grew up with as a teen and young man. They awaken emotions within me that won't let me forget them and I take those emotions and create storylines from them. I don't mean that I take a song and dissect it; creating occurrences in my stories from the lines of a song. I mean that if a song makes me feel sad, angry, bitter, lonely or lost, you get the picture; I write from those emotions.
Sometimes I think about what my life would have been like if I had done something pivotal in my life differently, and I write about a character who has done what I think I should have done and project the lines of his or her life from there. It's no more complicated than that. I try to write with realism and the simplest, most effective way I know of doing that is to put myself in the place of the character and imagine what I would do, or what I should do, taking a different tack in each situation than I did in life. Perhaps that makes each of my stories somewhat autobiographical, but that's the way I do it. I think a lot of people do the same thing. Besides, many writers write about the unthinkable and suddenly, it isn't so unthinkable.
That's enough for today. Gotta go write about apocalyptic stuff.
Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, The Empty Heart: A Collection and others
Available on Kindle
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Better late than never
Yes, it is better late than never. I have found returning to the crushed land of my novel, Gulf of the Plains a little difficult. The sequel has been pretty tough sledding because of that difficulty. Nevertheless, the story continues to move along, though slowly, and I believe the sequel will be ready to publish in a month or so. For those who are familiar with my post-apocalyptic Gulf of the Plains, Paget continues to take centerstage and this time she has a new romantic interest. Readers will find that she has distanced herself even further from her former pop-star persona and is becoming a true post-apocalyptic warrior.
On another note, my book of short stories, The Empty Heart: A Collection, has been published and enjoyed a short run of sales that have been heartening. It has been featured on the bookslovecompany.com website and I hope that exposure will drive more sales. I enjoyed writing the shorts even more than I did writing the novels I have published. The cast of characters for the stories has been challenging and I believe they could almost live lives of their own.
That's enough for today. I have a ruined world to get back to and Paget is in a tough spot.
Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, Congruencies and others
Available on Kindle
On another note, my book of short stories, The Empty Heart: A Collection, has been published and enjoyed a short run of sales that have been heartening. It has been featured on the bookslovecompany.com website and I hope that exposure will drive more sales. I enjoyed writing the shorts even more than I did writing the novels I have published. The cast of characters for the stories has been challenging and I believe they could almost live lives of their own.
That's enough for today. I have a ruined world to get back to and Paget is in a tough spot.
Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, Congruencies and others
Available on Kindle
Friday, April 15, 2011
Yes, it's been a long time.
Very sorry, Everybody. It's been a long time since I posted on this blog and I apologize. Or, maybe I'm just apologizing to myself because I really don't know if anybody is reading any of this. In any event, I have published a new book on Amazon's Kindle and I think it is good. It is a book of short stories and I found while writing them that I seem to enjoy writing shorts more than I do writing novels. I'm not sure why that is, but the shorts seemed to have an energy to them that I missed in writing novels. maybe it was that I was able to address and utilize ideas that I had more quickly. Perhaps I'm not a patient writer. I really don't know. What I do know is that these shorts gave me more enjoyment while writing them than I experienced while writing novels. I like for the action to move fast and leave me feeling as though the story I just read was gone too soon. Whatever it is, I think the readers will like them.
Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of The Empty Heart: A Collection
Available on Kindle
Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of The Empty Heart: A Collection
Available on Kindle
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Everybody wants a piece of the action
Hello! It's been quite some time since I posted on this blog and I have to say that I'm ashamed of myself for letting it slide.
Back to the title of this post: Yes, everybody wants a piece of the action because everybody is scraping along, trying to find ways of generating an income. Agents want a bite, Publishers want their not inconsequential piece of the pie and if you go the self-publishing route, everywhere you turn, someone has their hand out. If you aren't careful, you can wind up owing more than you realize from your work, and that is no way to get ahead. It is very important to approach your writing career as though it is a business. Especially when it comes to cash outlays. And, many of the companies you will have to do business with do not lay out your projected expenditures until you have committed to doing business with them. It is all too easy to sign on the dotted line, (figuratively), and learn at a later date that you owe much more than you can realize from your work in a short enough time to pay your new creditor. So far, I have avoided those pitfalls and must say that when I consider the manner in which I have conducted my business of writing/publishing, I am satisfied that I have not bitten off more than I can chew.
The rate at which I am working toward becoming a well-known author makes a snail look positively speedy, but at least I know that my writing will not put me in the poorhouse. The economy, after all, is doing that very handily.
To those prospective authors who may read this, I say, "Keep working and keep an eye on the finances."
Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, Congruencies and others.
Back to the title of this post: Yes, everybody wants a piece of the action because everybody is scraping along, trying to find ways of generating an income. Agents want a bite, Publishers want their not inconsequential piece of the pie and if you go the self-publishing route, everywhere you turn, someone has their hand out. If you aren't careful, you can wind up owing more than you realize from your work, and that is no way to get ahead. It is very important to approach your writing career as though it is a business. Especially when it comes to cash outlays. And, many of the companies you will have to do business with do not lay out your projected expenditures until you have committed to doing business with them. It is all too easy to sign on the dotted line, (figuratively), and learn at a later date that you owe much more than you can realize from your work in a short enough time to pay your new creditor. So far, I have avoided those pitfalls and must say that when I consider the manner in which I have conducted my business of writing/publishing, I am satisfied that I have not bitten off more than I can chew.
The rate at which I am working toward becoming a well-known author makes a snail look positively speedy, but at least I know that my writing will not put me in the poorhouse. The economy, after all, is doing that very handily.
To those prospective authors who may read this, I say, "Keep working and keep an eye on the finances."
Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, Congruencies and others.
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