C.E. Murphy
C.E. Murphy's novels are filled with energy-physical energy, emotional energy, psychic energy.She is currently writing four different series:
--- The Walker Papers: Joanne Walker, a cop and a mechanic in modern Seattle, discovers to her dismay that she has shaman powers and is expected to use them.
--- The Strongbox Chronicles (written as Cate Dermody): A spy adventure series for the Bombshell line. Alisha McAleer is a CIA agent who records her adventures for future posterity.
--- Old Races Trilogy: A contemporary urban fantasy about a lawyer, Margrit Knight, who meets a gargoyle and several other legendary creatures. She finds herself amidst the brewings of a racial war.
--- Queen's Bastard: A historical series about the illegitimate daughter of a queen who works as a spy and an assassin.
The latest in the Walker Paper books, Thunderbird Falls, is being released May, 2006. Her web site states "Though C.E. Murphy lives in Alaska, she has never watched a single episode of Northern Exposure or helped a film crew simulate terrorist attacks on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. She has, though, been forced to convince people that she neither lives in an igloo, rides a polar bear, nor has a penguin for a pet."
Murphy took time recently to talk with us:
Book Help Web: You're a native of Alaska and now you live in Ireland, what made you settle your Walker Paper stories in Seattle?
C.E. Murphy: Alaskans are a little possessive of Seattle. It's the closest major U.S. city to us, and we tend to regard it as kind of being home territory (lotta Seahawks and Mariners fans there!). That's part of it. I also specifically didn't want to set it in Alaska because it seemed very ... gimmicky. There are series that sell because they're set in Alaska, and Alaska has the whole sort of fascinating Last Frontier thing going for it, and I actually actively didn't want to deal with that for this particular series. I have a mystery series I want to write someday that /is/ set in Alaska...
There was also the fact that the urban fantasies that were out at the time I wrote Shaman were set in Chicago and St. Louis, so I thought I'd stay well away from those territories.
BHW: Do you share Joanne's cynicism? Or would you consider yourself more of a dreamer than she is? If you were suddenly granted Shaman abilities, how would your response be different from hers?
Murphy: Oh, I'm much more of a dreamer than Jo is. She wanted to grow up to be a mechanic. I wanted to grow up to tell people stories about worlds where magic really does exist. Her cynicism is in many ways my own (they say a cynic is just a frustrated idealist), but she's got all kinds of issues and hangups that I don't share.
Boy. If somebody handed me shamanic gifts, I think I'd handle it a lot better than Jo did/has. Among other things, I've studied it a lot more than she has! (laughs) I want these things to be real. I want there to be magic in the world. I would love to be able to do the things Jo does and what she'll be able to do later, too! Jo doesn't want the whole magic thing to be real, as it makes no logical sense in her world, so being hit over the head with it makes her cranky. Me, I'd be thrilled. I don't think I'd be eager to get on the 6 o'clock news and broadcast it, but I'd like to think I'd embrace the whole shebang.
BHW: Joanne's heart and soul is her car Petit. If you were a car, what sort of car would you be?
Murphy: A 1969 Boss 302 Mustang...in purple...with a license plate that says
PETITE.
*looks guilty*
Seriously, I love that car. My other favorite car in the whole world, and it would be hard to choose between them, is a 1963 Corvette Stingray. Now that is one sexy car. Raar. But Mustangs are the working man's muscle car, and I've always loved 'em.
BHW: What has been your most surprising response from a reader about your work?
Murphy: One of the things that I was prepared to do when I got Urban Shaman published was protest to people that the magic was a system I'd created myself after reading a lot of books on shamanism. I wasn't trying to say "This is what shamanic magic looks like" or "This is precisely what people experience in shamanic trances" or anything of that nature. I kind of figured I was asking for trouble by addressing a magic that is practiced, or has been practiced, in virtually every culture across the globe.
Oddly, what I've gotten in response are a number of people complimenting me on how right I got the magic. I'm still blown away by that. It was just not at all what I expected.
BHW: Can you give us any sneak previews into the life of Joanne Walker?
Murphy: Yeah. There's a whole chapter in Thunderbird Falls full of sneak previews. Go read it. Oh. You want more than that, do you?
Well, gosh. You'll see some movement on the relationship with Morrison, I said vaguely, and some stuff with Gary that I think is just wonderful (I said modestly, but hey, I get goopy when I read it! Over the next two books, and I think Jo does a lot of growing up in those two books. At the moment, I'm not contracted for any more Walker Papers, but once book three, Coyote Dreams, is put to bed we'll be discussing more. I have a total of nine books planned in the series, and we'll see Jo start really delving into her powers and finding out what she can do. We'll see more from Sheila MacNamarra, and Jo'll have to go back to North Carolina to deal with all the demons she's left there and I won't tell you if that's literal or metaphorical! And I have the last chapter of book six already written and it makes me cackle with delight. Muahah.
BHW: You recently moved to Ireland. Your stories already contained a heavy flavoring of Irish lore. Has living there changed anything about your writing or your stories?
Murphy: Not so far. I don't really anticipate it doing so, either, partly because I promised a friend of mine that moving to Ireland would not mean all my books suddenly took a huge inexplicable dip toward the Celtic though she did say, "...not that they don't already have that...", but mostly because most of the stories I want to write already have enough backbone to them that I don't see them being enormously influenced by where I'm living. I do expect my Irish accent in dialog will get better, but I'm pretty good at that already.
BHW: In an interview with Luna last June, you said you were looking forward to working on an Elizabethan-era epic fantasy with science fiction elements. Is that something you were able to start? If yes, can you tell us a little more about how it is shaping up?
Murphy: Yes! In fact, when I mentioned that, I had fifty thousand words written on the novel, so it's off to a good start. I haven't written any more since then, but I *have* sold it to Betsy Mitchell at Del Rey. That book, which is titled The Queen's Bastard, will be out in the fall of 2007. It's due this November.
I love this book. I like all of them, but this one's a little different. I began writing it as a challenge to myself: it's a much lusher, more sensory book than what I normally write, and I wanted to push my own boundaries as a writer and do something I wasn't as comfortable with. I wanted to try something more erotic, more luxurious, and more lengthy, and hoo boy, let me tell you, getting into that was really strange. I tend to think of my writing as being efficient: get in, tell the story, get out. I'm letting myself (or making myself; it's hard to tell which!) roll around in it a bit more with this book, and it's genuinely this whole new exciting way to tell a story for me. There's also the fact that I'm writing three contemporary series for Luna (The Walker Papers, The Old Races, and my Cate Dermody books, The Strongbox Chronicles), and so writing something in a different era is just a blessing. It's *totally* different, which is *wonderful*.
The story itself is about Belinda Primrose, illegitimate daughter of a queen, who has been raised as her mother's spy and assassin by her father, the queen's spymaster. Belinda carries, unbeknownst to herself, the seed of an alien heritage, a gift from the father who isn't quite what he seems to be. Belinda's led a clandestine life, but that heritage will force her into the highest political positions of her world, clashing love and loyalty against one another until not even Belinda is certain she's the heroine of her own story.
BHW: You've started the Old Races trilogy. Does that mean you'll be writing three books a year now? Two for Luna and one as Catie Dermody?
Murhpy: It's even more out of hand than that, I'm afraid.
The Cate Dermody books are coming out at about a rate of two a year. I think there's going to be a slightly longer than 6-month break between three and four, which is okay, because four introduces a new heroine, but I believe four through six will be out every six months from the time the first one hits the shelves. (#2, The Firebird Deception, is out in June, and then #3, The Phoenix Law, is out in December.)
Book two of the Walker Papers, Thunderbird Falls, is out in May. The third book will be out in early-ish, like the first half of 2007. There will be a break between 3 and 4, with 4 *probably* coming out in 2009 (assuming that all goes to contract, which has not yet happened, so heck, who knows what'll happen!. This is as much because I just can't write fast enough to get another one out in 2008 as because of the other books I have coming out that year.
The Old Races Trilogy will be put out back to back at the end of 2007 and in early 2008, in mass market paperback.
The Queen's Bastard, which is the start of a trilogy as well, is out in fall 2007. The second book in that series is out in fall 2008, and the plan is for those to be trade paperbacks as well.
At this point you're probably looking slightly terrified and wondering how you're going to keep track of all that. Don't worry. Just keep an eye on my website and I'll keep it updated. Trust me. I think I'm the only one who can keep all of this straight.
BHW: How are your audiences for the Strongbox Chronicle books different from your Walker Paper books? Do you have different audiences in mind when you write?
Murphy: Well, the Strongbox Chronicles are series romance, so they are, in their way, targeted at a more traditional romance-reading audience than the Walker Papers, which are pure fantasy novels. Buuuuut...well, I think I'm writing spy novels, with the Strongbox Chronicles. The Bombshell line, which they're a part of, are action-adventure romances, with the romance as the secondary storyline. In my books, at least, that's absolutely true. Certainly the romance is an integral part of the story (but come on, how many fantasy novels have you read where there isn't a romance? Love drives the world!), but I've had a number of people tell me they're the least romancey romances they've ever read. I honestly think anybody who enjoys either series would like the other one.
BHW: So, from one X-Man fan to another: Phoenix or Storm? Wolverine or Cyclops? If you could have any mutant power, what would it be?
Murphy: (laughs) Ok, this is the best interview question I've gotten so far. And dude. Wolvie ALL THE WAY, man. What are you, crazy?
Ok, the truth is, in real life, I tend to go for the highly responsible Cyclops type, but I never could stand the character. It's all about Wolverine and Gambit for me. Raar! And...jeez. Truth is, I don't like Storm or Phoenix. I've apparently got this thing against redheads in comic books. They're too perfect, or something. Jean Grey, Mary Jane, Leetah...bleah. And Storm lectures too much. I'm a Rogue kinda girl, but if I've got to choose between the two you offered...probably Jean, because if I got to have mutant powers, I'd want her power set. Telekinesis and telepathy. *Especially* the teke. And yes, of course, I would also want them at Phenomenal Cosmic Power level, please!
My other mutant power of choice would be to turn into Kitlings. Kitlings are miniature versions of me. Very miniature. They range from 6 to 18 inches in height, are nearly indestructible, and are incredibly destructive. They're as strong as ants, by size ratio, are extremely fond of bright shiny objects and chocolate, and there are approximately seven thousand of them. If you can get Kitlings all focused on the same thing, the world will tremble in fear. However, it's really hard to do that, so the world is mostly safe. This is not a very *useful* mutant power, but the special effect of me dissolving into 7000 Kitlings would be so awesome I don't care if it's useful or not. There is a "bloop" sound effect that goes along with the dissolution.
This was the result of great silliness amongst me and some friends years ago, and I have been unconscionably fond of the Kitlings ever since.
If I had to choose an utterly useless mutant power, the sort that you could not conceivably take over the world or save the world with, I would like the mutant ability to change my hair at whim. Why, yes, this is the sort of topic that comes up around my house, so I have answers for these questions. How did you guess?
BHW: You're sure you've never had a penguin for a pet or lived in an igloo?
Murphy: Positive! Isn't that disappointing?
