TRUTHSEEKER excerpt!

There’s something screwy with the font sizes on my websites. I’m vaguely assuming this has to do with the need to upgrade to WP 3.0, which I haven’t done yet. I am, though, aware of the problem and I’ll try to get it fixed this week.

In the meantime, have an excerpt from TRUTHSEEKER, out in September 2010!

 

“–once upon a time, not so long ago, it was driven by a little old lady I know personally. She drove it to the store weekly, that’s it, so its four thousand miles are gentle ones, ladies. It’s just two years old and has all the extras. You won’t find a better deal than this here or anywhere else. Now, I know the sticker price is eighteen five and you’re not looking to spend quite that much.” The salesman leaned out from beneath his umbrella to get a better look at the V of Kelly Richards’ T-shirt, and smiled. “It’s cutting my own throat, but I think I can knock it down to seventeen flat. It’s a bargain, ladies, a real bargain.”

“Lara?” Kelly folded her arms beneath her breasts.

For a moment Lara found herself studying her friend’s cleavage, though less avidly than the salesman had. Kelly had a lifetime’s experience in using her assets to distract and command, whereas Lara’s own figure had been described as more of a pirate’s treasure: a sunken chest. Clinical curiosity made her wonder what it would be like to take control of a situation just by inhaling deeply.

“Earth to Lara, hello?” Kelly snapped her fingers under Lara’s nose. “Are you in there?”

“Of course I am.” Lara turned her attention back to the yellow Mazda Miata the salesman hawked. Or, rather, to the patter he’d shared, the quick flow of words meant to distract and impress in the same way Kelly’s T-shirt was. Lara thought Kelly had taken the upper hand in dedication to distraction, though. It was too cold, with too much promise of serious rain, to be out without a coat, and the salesman’s gaze kept wandering to Kelly’s chest instead of the vehicle lot. “And he’s lying.”

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Breaking radio silence

Just a quick note to assure passers-by that I’m still here, but without significant publishing news to report at the moment. :)

Currently halfway through writing SPIRIT DANCES, Book 6 of the Walker Papers, with great hopes of finishing it by mid-April. Beyond that, not much is going on.

Cheers!

New Amazon Feed

I’m making a cautious foray into the cross-posting abilities from this website to my CE Murphy author page on Amazon.com. This is mostly exciting in terms of eventually streamlining cemurphy.net, most of which will be relatively transparent to those of you who come to visit me here.

I have now, however, run up against my “you may not procrastinate on revisions past 12:30″ deadline, and so any other fascinating news will have to wait until later.

Shameless Self-Promotion

I’ve created a Facebook fan page! I’ll do something interesting like give away a book or answer one question about one of the series, when I reach 100 fans, and another when I reach 250.

I have also joined twitter, as ce_murphy. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with it, but I’m there!

I also might suggest everyone sign up for my announcements-only mailing list, which is low volume (2 emails a month max, and that’s only if I forget something or something very exciting happens after the first time around).

Minor website tweaks

I have at long last added purchase links to the writing page for all available U.S. and French editions of my books. (HOUSE OF CARDS is just out in France this month, and I love its title: LA NUIT DU DRAGON, “Night of the Dragon”.)

I must say, for a website tweak that only takes thirty seconds to blog about, it certainly took a lot of time to accomplish….

Online short stories added

The following short stories have been added under the Writing page;

A new Tale from Gryphon Beach, my collection of short stories for children

Glasslands, a prequel to an unwritten science fiction saga

A Compendium of Kitlings, a very silly story written for an anthology that never happened, in which, in turn-of-the-century Chicago, Mrs. O’Leary discovered that aliens (the sort from outer space) tended to pay their boarding fees more promptly than human boarders, and also in gold. This, then, is the story of one of her boarders….

Previously, on Take A Chance…, a prequel to my comic book TAKE A CHANCE, and also an audition script for any artist who’d like to try their hand at Chance

New York Hold ‘em, a story of the Old Races, and

Rabbit Tricks, a Walker Papers short story to tide you over until the release of book four, WALKING DEAD in September 2009.

My short story Ill Met by Moonlight–the story of a Hollywood starlet trapped on the wrong side of a mirror–is also once more being featured at eharlequin.com. I don’t know how long this one will be available, so if the URL isn’t working, sorry.

As it is (with apologies to Jane Austen) a truth universally acknowledged that a mid-list author in possession of good reviews must be in want of an income, if you enjoy the stories and have it to spare, I would be delighted if you wanted to send a few quid (as they say here) my way. You can use the button below, or if for some reason it doesn’t work, use the email address open AT mizkit DOT com. Thanks!

dood heavens

Dood heavens, there are zillions of you out there! Many of whom seem to hope I will post here regularly!

Therefore, I’m gonna put it to y’all: what would you like to hear about? I have, if you are not aware, a general blog in which I go on about daily life and writing and whatnot at mizkit.com, but because I do want to get content up here regularly, and this is obviously the Writerly Aspect of my life, I’m of course inclined to focus on that.

So: ask questions! Suggest topics! I’ll do my best to respond!

-Catie

just dashing by!

Wow, I’m really delighted people’ve been stopping by and leaving comments. Yay! Thank you! Sorry for the delay in getting them posted, sometimes–I’ve got moderation turned on in order to help catch spam, so I have to okay the first posting from people, but after that you should be able to post without a problem.

Not a heck of a lot to say here, really. Two of the, er, five, computers in the house have blown up in the last three weeks, though fortunately none of them were my writing computer, and we haven’t lost the hard drives, just power supplies and motherboards, which is annoying enough. But I’m feeling rather paranoid about making backups now, yes I am. O.O

I’m busy working on THE PRETENDER’S CROWN, having today reached 20% of its total (slightly over 100 pages, so far), and frantically trying to get everything organized for the comic book. Very very busy, and a little overwhelming, but apparently I’ve got a hard time understanding “stop” or “slow down”, so I expect I’ll chug along through it all and come out the other end blinking with surprise. :)

FAQ from the comments (and I must add this to the FAQ, I guess!): yes, there will be more Walker Papers! The fourth book is scheduled for May or June 2009, and I’ll be writing it as soon as I’m done with THE PRETENDER’S CROWN. :) I’m really looking forward to getting back to Jo–it’s been five books and one rewrite so massive it might as well have been a new book since I’ve written her!

All right, I’ve got another few hundred words to get written tonight, so I’m off to work again. Keep those comments coming! I love ‘em! :)

-Catie

Announcements Galore

Happy New Year!

It has been a very, *very* eventful year so far, here at the CEMurphy.net household (and you must keep reading until the end, because I’m saving the best bit for last!).

First, if not precisely foremost, I’ve switched CEMurphy.net over to blogging software, so it’s now actually possible to leave comments there to chat with me. (I’ve also just noticed that the comments are unreadable. Will fix that in a minute here…there. Fixed.)

Second, I’ve posted a teaser for HOUSE OF CARDS, second in the Negotiator Trilogy, which is due out in March 2008. That teaser is available here.

Third, I was interviewed by the League of Reluctant Adults a few weeks ago. The League is discussing HEART OF STONE as their January Book Club book. If you’d like to participate, go hang out there over the next few weeks. :)

Fourth (it never ends!): I’ve received the cover for THE QUEEN’S BASTARD, which is due out in May 2008. I luff it! Check it out!

Fifth, and finally!

I am *utterly* delighted to announce that I have sold my pet project, “TAKE A CHANCE”, the comic book I’ve been working on over the last three years. TAKE A CHANCE is the story of a woman who loses her son to gang violence and turns vigilante to save other children, and will be produced by Ernst Dabel and Les Dabel of the Dabel Brothers (dabelbrothers.com — for those who are also Jim Butcher fans, these are the guys producing the Dresden Files comic!)

The first issue ought to be on the shelves in May, we hope, and I am just *beside* myself with excitement over this whole thing. This is the culmination of years worth of work and hope, and I hope you’ll all find yourselves rushing out to the comic shop to buy copies. *grin*

So again, happy new year to all! I hope 2008 treats you well!

Welcome back (did you notice I was gone?)

In an effort to keep cemurphy.net more regularly updated, I’ve installed WordPress blogging software, and am going to post writing-life posts here as regularly as possible. The site’s more or less functional right now, with some emphasis on the “less”; I gave myself 2 hours to do this in and I’ve got a lot of pages to convert, so I’m going to spend another 40 minutes trying to get ‘em converted and then I’m done WordPressing for the day. :) And there are still look & feel things I want to get fixed, too.

But! A win! There are now comments available here at the blog, so if people want to chat or ask questions, they’re absolutely welcome to. I hope to hear from you now and again!

In the meantime, Happy New Year!

-Catie