Archive for April, 2009

Release Day: THE PRETENDER’S CROWN

Today, my good people, is Release Day! THE PRETENDER’S CROWN, Book Two of the Inheritors’ Cycle, is on the shelves! I’ve written a bit about it here, at Suvudu.com (Random House’s sf/f website, where I’ll be posting weekly in the future), and now I come to do the dance of joy at my own website. :)

This is 8th C.E. Murphy book since June 2005 (10th if you count the anthologies), and my 13th published work in that same time frame. It puts me very, *very* close to the absolute culmination of what I set out to do four years ago in terms of shelf space, and I am *utterly* delighted by that. (Also relieved!)

I’m also pretty pleased with the book. Get your sex, politics, murder and betrayal right here, on a silver platter….and then buy a copy for your friends, so I can keep writing in this world. :)

Read an excerpt
Order it now!

Happy Monday!

Perhaps Mondays are not typically to be celebrated, but today I got three big boxes of mass-market re-releases of THE WALKER PAPERS. Now that I am (temporarily) finished dancing around the house shrieking like an idiot, I thought I would share the joy with you!

Here’s what you’ve been waiting for: the teaser chapter for WALKING DEAD, Book Four of the Walker Papers, due out in September 2009!

Enjoy!

Take A Chance #4 hits the shelves!

A few teaser pages for you:

No teaser icons, I’m afraid, as I’m working at break-neck speed on DEMON HUNTS, book five of the Walker Papers, and have done more or less nothing else with my life for the past three weeks….

A FANTASY MEDLEY winner

You guys came up with some fantastic casting choices for the Negotiator trilogy. I wish I had about fifteen copies of the anthology to send out, because you did *not* make this an easy choice! I’m going to have to do something cool for the people who participated but didn’t win, because you did such a good job. Maybe I’ll write an Old Races short story just for you guys and not try to publish it anywhere for six months or something.

Overall the best cast, I think, came from Liz McClafferty, who suggested the following:

Margrit Knight – Jasika Nicole
Alban Korund – Josh Holloway
Tony Pulcella- Kirk Acevedo
Eliseo Daisani – Robert Downey Jr.
Vanessa Gray – Winona Ryder
Janx – Johnny Depp
Chelsea Huo – Michelle Yeoh
Grace O’Malley – Katie Sackoff
Malik – Skeet Ulrich
Tariq – Gary Dourdan
Kaimana – Pomaika’i Brown
Cara – Dakota Fanning
Biali – Micky Rourke
Hajnal – Faune Chambers
Ausra – Rashida Jones
Russel Lomax – Gary Sinise
Cameron – Jennifer Garner
Cole – Matt Damon
Sarah – Charlize Theron
Ursula – Kristen Stewart
Kate – Emma Watson

Whew. That was *hard*! I gotta make the next contest easier on *me*!

TPC winner/A FANTASY MEDLEY contest

Only three people entered the TPC give-away contest, but they did a bloody fantastic job. In the end, I’ve chosen the one with my favorite suggestion for Belinda, although some of the other casting ideas were inspired. The winner is Thao Nguyen from Facebook, who gave the following cast for THE QUEEN’S BASTARD:

Belinda – Michelle Trachtenberg
Javier – Kyle Schmid
Lorraine Walter – Tilda Swinton
Eliza Beaulieu – Natalie Portman
Lord Drake – Eric Braeden
Marius Poulin – Henry Cavill
Sacha Asselin – Paul Walker
Sandalia – Orla Brady
Irina – Cate Blanchett
Akilina – Shirley Henderson
Rodrigo – Javier Bardem
Dmitri – Clive Owen
Gondola Boy – Jim Sturgess

The most interesting thing about this contest, for me, is that not one of the actors is somebody I’d thought of when I ‘cast’ this book in my mind–and TQB is about the only book I’ve ever cast anybody for. I *love* the choices people made, but it’s fascinating to see the different ideas!

Also:
I have received in the mail a small box of A FANTASY MEDLEY.

Many people said “Gosh, I could cast the Old Races or the Walker Papers”, and so, because there will be no more Negotiator books, I will give you the opportunity to win a copy of A FANTASY MEDLEY, which has a Janx & Daisani story in it, by casting the Negotiator trilogy. My favorite cast list gets a copy of the anthology. Major characters: Margrit Knight, Alban Korund, Grace O’Malley, Janx, Daisani, Kaimana, Cole, Cameron, Tony. Bonus points for casting any of the following: Margrit’s parents, Chelsea, Russell, Cara, Tariq, Biali, Malik, Ausra, Kate, Ursula, Sarah, Hajnal.

It isn’t necessary to cast all of them. It’s not even necessary to cast most of them. Just have fun with it. :) I’ll close the contest a week from now, at about noon Eastern time on Tuesday April 14th.