June 30th, 2009
Book Four of the Walker Papers, WALKING DEAD, is due out September 1, 2009.
Seattle’s a great place to live…if it weren’t for the undead.
For once, Joanne Walker’s not out to save the world. She’s come to terms with the host of shamanic powers she’s been given, her job as a police detective has been relatively calm, and she’s got a love life for the first time in memory. Not bad for a woman who started out the year mostly dead.
But it’s Halloween, and the undead have just crashed Joanne’s party. Now she has to figure out how to break the spell that lets ghosts, zombies and even the Wild Hunt come back. Unfortunately, there’s no shamanic handbook explaining how to deal with the walking dead.
And if they have anything to say about it–which they do–
No one’s getting out of there alive.
Read the first chapter here!
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June 15th, 2009
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).
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June 12th, 2009
She was too young, even for a man with no age, but she caught his eye. Slim, dark-haired, with long fingers caught in the skirt of a shapeless dress, she was clearly not a child of wealth. She no doubt belonged to the riverboat upon which she stood, a shabby thing that had seen better days. Even so, in the fire’s light they both bent toward beauty.
It was her gaze, fixed on the sky, which arrested him. Others watched the fire, drawn in by its glow and movement, but she looked upward as though she could see what soared above the smoke. That was quite impossible: even knowing who danced there, Daisani could barely see them himself, but the girl watched as if she knew. Such seeing eyes were enough that he might have gone to her then, despite her youth, but tonight; tonight Chicago was burning.
Want more? This short story is up for commission through fundable.com. Fundable is a site which takes pledges for financing a project. If the project reaches its financing goal–in this case a base of $750 with paypal fees included, so a total of $826–then fundable accepts the pledges and the project goes forward. If the goal isn’t reached within 25 days of the first donation, then the project is canceled and no one pays anything. There’s a $10 minimum donation fee, which is fundable.com’s idea, not mine; I’d have probably set it at $5. Sorry about that.
“Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight” will be a 7500 word Janx and Daisani story. Contributors will have exclusive access to the story for at least three months before it’s produced anywhere else.
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June 9th, 2009
I have to say this was a great deal of fun for me. Some of the story suggestions were perfectly wonderful, things I wouldn’t have thought of myself but which were terribly obvious as soon as they were suggested. Obviously not everybody can win the anthology, but *many* of these ideas will, I think, end up as the root idea for stories. Thank you all!
The winner is /blythe025, who said I would love to see a story told from the point of view of a priest.
For some reason this idea really caught me. Possibly because I like the priest in the Negotiator trilogy so much, but somehow there’s just a real romanticism to that idea for me. I actually feel like I could build a book around the idea of a priest dealing with the Old Races, though I’m already terribly torn on *when* I would set that story. Or whether it would have to be a longer story, a series of its own, just trying to deal with the religious and spiritual connotations of the Old Races’ existence, from a Western theology’s point of view. I’m just utterly enamored of this idea!
Other ideas, including exceedingly moderate spoilers, are behind the cut.
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June 2nd, 2009
The final tally for my two auction items was $375, not enough for me to write a new Walker Papers or Old Races short story, but *more* than enough to prompt a FANTASY MEDLEY give-away. I’ve got one last ARC (advanced reader’s copy, as opposed to the finished version) I can send to someone, so this is your chance.
THE CONTEST: tell me (in no more than 50 words) what Old Races story you would like to see told. It doesn’t have to be something that comes organically from the books; you can just randomly want “a story about the djinn” or something.
THE CAVEAT: I may make off with one or more idea and turn it into a story at some point. :)
THE OTHER CAVEAT: This contest is also running at my main blog at mizkit.com/mizkit.livejournal.com, so it’s possible the winning entry won’t actually show up in *this* comment thread. I will, however, post the winner’s entry at both locations, so everybody’ll know who won and for what story idea.
THE WARNING: I expect there will be spoilers for the Negotiator trilogy in this thread. If you don’t want to be spoiled, stay out of the comments.
THE WINNER: will be the person whose story idea I like best!
THE DEADLINE: the contest will end on June 9th. :)
THE OTHER CONTEST: My agent, the incomparable Jennifer Jackson (who apparently started agenting at the tender age of nine), is celebrating her 16th year of being an agent by running a contest for ARCs and books written by her clients. Go read her instructions carefully and participate! :)
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May 28th, 2009
I’ve been informed by my editor that THE QUEEN’S BASTARD has gone back to print for a fifth time. Presumably this is in response to a sales jump accompanying THE PRETENDER’S CROWN release, so I’m utterly delighted. Thank you all so much!
Someone asked recently if there would be more books in the Inheritors’ Cycle. I have plans for 2 or 3 more books in that series, but I haven’t yet sold them to Del Rey, the publisher for that series. I’ll be writing up a proposal toward the end of the summer, so hopefully I’ll have more information about whether the series will continue by the end of 2009.
In the meantime, DEMON HUNTS, book five of the Walker Papers, has been completed and delivered. There is, however, still time to bid to become a character in that book, and if bidding on both my auction items combined (the Irish gift basket is here) goes over $450 by the close of the auction on Sunday, I’ll write a new Walker Papers or Old Races short story for my internet audience. :)
And speaking of the Walker Papers, the mass market editions of books 1-3 should be available now! I’m ridiculously excited about these, as they’re my first mass market releases under the CE Murphy byline. May they be the first of many!
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May 25th, 2009
The Take A Chance graphic novel is up at Amazon for pre-order. The GN will include the original 5 issue story arc, plus the Free Comic Book Day issue, and audition art from various artists I’ve talked with over the past few years, as well as at least one essay about the road to publication. I’m interested to hear what other people might like to see as extras, so consider this your sound-off board!
For those interested in the individual issues, the Dabel Brothers Store has issues 1-3 available.
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May 18th, 2009
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….
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May 1st, 2009
Tomorrow, the first Saturday of May, is Free Comic Book Day!
The Dabel Brothers bring you three original, never-before-seen tales for FCBD09, including the Dresden Files “Restoration of Faith”; “The Calm Before,” the prelude story to adaptation of the classic film, The Warriors; and “Previously, on Take A Chance,” which steps back in time to the day a gene-altering virus was released into the world. All this, plus a sneak preview of Del Rey’s forthcoming novel, Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi - Outcast by Aaron Allston, a bold new adventure for Luke, Han, and your favorite Star Wars characters!
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May 1st, 2009
I am exceeding, exceedingly pleased to participate in this year in Brenda Novak’s annual charity auction fundraiser for diabetes research. Last year she raised over a quarter of a million dollars, and is aiming for $300,000 this year.
I have two items in the auction: one is a Tuckerization–ie, your name in my book–in the fifth Walker Papers novel, DEMON HUNTS (yes, the one I’m working on right now), which is due out in June 2010. Bidding starts at $2. The auction runs until the end of May, and you can find the details here.
The second is an Irish gift basket which will include mass market paperbacks of the first three Walker Papers, and my recent night shot of Ha’penny Bridge in Dublin. Bidding starta at $2, and the auction runs until the end of May. You can find the details here.
My agent, Jennifer Jackson, has a proposal critique in the auction, and all the items up for auction from her client list here. Bid early, bid often! :)
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