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Catie
Murphy has published 10 novels since 2005. Writing as C.E.
Murphy she has since published The Walker Papers – now
available in mass market paperback and The Negotiator
Trilogy through Luna Books and The Inheritor's Cycle (The
Queens Bastard and the new The Pretender’s Crown) through
Del Rey. Writing as Cate McDermody she released a spy
adventure series called The Strongbox Chronicles (The
Cardinal Rule, The Firebird Deception, The Phoenix Law)
through Silhouette Bombshell.
Catie was nice enough to take the time out of her busy
schedule to answer a few questions for me.
website:
www.cemurphy.net
blog:
mizkit.livejournal.com
Who
are your favorite authors and books now and when you were
growing up? Who has influenced you in your writing?
Susan Cooper is...probably my favorite author, full stop.
Her "The Dark is Rising" sequence is still one of the best
things I've ever read, and I'd give my eye teeth to write
one book as lasting and effective as those stories are.
Other
childhood influences: Lloyd Alexander, Laura Ingalls Wilder,
L.M. Montgomery, Robert Heinlein, C.S. Lewis. Innumerable
others, as well, though I did notice a while ago that the
fantasy I read as a child was almost always about the magic
going away. Even in the Dark is Rising sequence, I hated
that, and I won't read the end of the Prydain Chronicles. I
stop before the last chapter, because I hate the ending so
much.
I suspect
it is not a coincidence that I write stories that are
effectively about the magic coming *back*. Some of my
current favorite authors are, oh, jeez. Anne Perry. Barbara
Hambly. Guy Gavriel Kay (my husband says, probably
correctly, that TIGANA is my favorite book). C.S. Friedman.
I mean, the list can go on forever, can't it? Heinlein,
still. Kim Stanley Robinson. Judith Tarr. I'm going to stop,
because otherwise I never will.
 Did
you always want to write? Or did you stumble into it? How
did you get where you are now?
Oh, I always wanted to write. I started my first novel when
I was about eight, although it took me another eleven years
to actually write a whole one.
Honestly,
I got where I am now through a combination of sheer raving
Insanity and incredible good fortune, and, perhaps, a bit of
talent in my chosen field. THE QUEEN'S BASTARD is my tenth
published novel; my first came out in June 2005. I have been extremely, extremely busy
writing very very hard over the last three years. I've sold
an unusually high number of books in the early years of my
career, and my editors and agent have been actively trying
to develop a CE Murphy brand, which is a tremendous gift.
Each of your characters have distinct backgrounds and show a
high level of research in their fields. Is this purely a
research aspect on your time (time you otherwise could have
spent playing Solitaire) or are these backgrounds based in
part on people you know?
*laughs*
It's mostly research. Some of it is--for example, my husband
went to the police academy in Alaska, so I periodically ask
him things for Joanne in the Walker Papers, and I've been
known to ask questions on Mustang-focus forums online to get
details right for Petite, that kind of thing. For Margrit in
the Negotiator books, I went and read a bunch of New York
Legal Aid case summaries and when I had questions, threw
them out to the LiveJournal Hive Mind, where it turned out I
had a reader who actually *works* in NYLA...
Queen's Bastard is a nice divergent look on aspects of
history. Was it intended as alternative history that
diverged further, or a fantasy setting that took strong
influences from history?
I suspect
you could look at it either way, but my perspective was
always alternate history. I'd thought it would actually
follow history a little more closely than it has, but I've
really enjoyed how it's diverged.
What research did you specifically have to do for Queen's
Bastard?
Well,
Elizabethan history has been something I've loved since I
was about eight, so in a lot of ways I've been researching
for these books most of my life. I did do specific reading
on the era when I started working on the books (did you, for
example, know that Italy didn't have a monarchy of its own
that ruled the whole country until about 1870? I thought,
"Fascinating!" and then made up my own monarchy. :)), but a
lot of its shaping came from a lifetime of reading about
that era.
Belinda Primrose is an interesting character but she isn't a
heroic aspect like the main characters of your previous
novels. What is it like creating a character that is not
intended to be fully likeable?
It's a
blast. :) Belinda's sole redeeming quality, in so far as she
has one, is her loyalty, so developing a character around
that, trying to create someone who *isn't* likeable but who
is perhaps understandable, someone who's compelling even if
she's not heroic, was just a great thing to be able to do as
a writer. I love Belinda. I'm not sure I *like* her, but I
love what she is and how she works.
Since I've heard about a certain Chocolate Chip story with
your first sale. Any foods make a memorable circumstance
with the sale of Queen's Bastard?
*laughs*
No, although--here, this is the story of how I met Betsy
Mitchell, my editor for TQB:
She was
one of the editors invited to the Colorado Gold Writers'
Conference in 2005. I'd been to the conference before (it's
*brilliant*), and I wanted to go again partly because it
/is/ a great conference, and partly for the chance to meet
Betsy. This was about 3 months after URBAN SHAMAN had come
out, and it was sort of, you know, in my wildest dreams
Betsy Mitchell would have heard of my first book.
As it
happened, a friend of mine had already met her, so we ended
up having dinner together the first night of the conference.
I was wearing a little yellow tag on my name badge that said
I was a writer, so Betsy asked what I wrote. I said mostly
science fiction & fantasy, and that my first book had just
come out a few months earlier. "Oh," said she, "what is
it?"
I said,
"It's called URBAN SHAMAN," and Betsy said, "Oh! *You're*
the one who wrote URBAN SHAMAN!"
I very
nearly fell out of my chair. :) It turned out she'd heard of
the book just a couple weeks earlier at another convention,
and it had come recommended, so she actually bought a copy
at the signing that night and had me sign it for her. So
that was really pretty fantastic, and a couple months later
I sold THE QUEEN'S BASTARD to her. :)
Since
"romance" or at least romantic interest played a part in
making your previous series somewhat popular. (There
obviously had to be some draw to keep Harlequin
interested.) Is there extra pressure to work something
equally suitable in the The Inheritors' Cycle?
Not a bit
of it. Of course, the first book is already full of sex,
politics, murder and betrayal, so there wasn't much else I
could stuff in there. :)
How difficult was it balance things so the overall tapestry
of world spanning events didn't overshadow your close action
when following Belinda?
Actually,
y'know, it was insanely difficult at first. I knew I needed
the larger, world-spanning events, but I'd begun by writing
Belinda and I got some 50,000 words into it (about a third
of the book) before I really reached a place where I
absolutely *had* to get other points-of-view in...and my
brain was so tightly wound into Belinda's story that I
literally couldn't get out. I stopped writing the book and
didn't go back to it for about three years.
When I
did--after I'd sold it--it still took a lot of mental
wrangling, but I sort of stopped and went and wrote *tons*
of material--the whole prologue, and everything from
Sandalia and Rodrigo and Lorraine's points-of-view up to the
point where the story started converging with Belinda's, and
from there on out I had it under control. Once I figured out
how to do it, I really, really enjoyed writing the two sides
of the story.
I've heard that people that enjoy Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel
are being recommended Queen's Bastard as a similar writing
style. Have you read any of the Kushiel series, and do you
believe your books would be a good match?
I've been
told the same thing and I think it's fantastic. I haven't
read any of Carey's books, but I've read a lot *about* them,
and yeah, it does seem like if you like one you'll like the
other. Someday I'll have time to read her books... :)
What minor footnotes in history have appealed to you so much
that they may have a cameo in the series?
Pink was
a masculine color in the Elizabethan era, considered much
too strong for women to wear, and apparently Elizabeth I's
brother Edward was so ravaged by disease when he died that
they more or less threw him into the middens and killed a
much prettier blonde boy to lie in his place during his
funeral. The Tudors were not a family to mess with. O.O
Each of your series seem to be from different publishers or
imprints. Clearly an incredible number of sales in such a
short time. How did you manage it?
Sleep is
for the weak. :)
*laughs*
Well, no, actually, I don't give up my sleep. I do write
fast--about 5 pages an hour when things are going well, so I
can in theory write a Walker Papers chapter in about 3 or 4
hours. That obviously helps.
But also
(and this helps more), I had URBAN SHAMAN and most of
THUNDERBIRD FALLS written when I first sold that series
(which is my first). I had HEART OF STONE written (although
it underwent huge, huge revisions before it saw
publication). I had a third of THE QUEEN'S BASTARD written.
So by the time I sold my first books I had a backlog ready
to sell. I highly recommend this as a business strategy!
What differences are there in writing for Luna as opposed to
Del Rey? And did you see difference between the two
imprints of Harlequin?
Hrm.
They're different, a'course, because I'm writing very
different stuff, but in most aspects it's similiar work.
Different editors but the same job, you know?
The major
difference between the two Harlequin imprints I've written
for (Luna, and the short-lived Bombshell line, for which I
wrote three books under the author name Cate Dermody, for
those who don't know the Dermody stuff) is length. The
Bombshell books were short, about 80,000 words, which is
some 30,000 words shorter than the Walker Papers (and about
half the length of the Inheritors' Cycle books). There's
really no time to waste in storytelling when you've only got
80K to get everything in!
 Has
there been any change in your writing style since you
shifted from Urban Fantasy?
Well, the
Inheritors' books have a deliberately lusher and more
complex language and style to the urban fantasy. They're
slower-paced, so yeah, there was a definite shift with that.
The Walker Papers are retaining their quick-paced
wise-cracking, though, so the style shifts stay within the
individual series, I think.
Some people would call you a storyteller now that you also
have added comic writing to your pool of talent. Was there
any difference in the writing styles required for that
medium? And are you looking to start attaining the
versitility that other storytellers like Neil Gaiman have?
It is in
fact my goal to grow up to be Neil Gaiman, at least as far
as versitility is concerned. (I fear I'm doomed in the
aspect of not having that wonderful *voice*, but I'm giving
it a shot. :))
I had to
learn an entirely new structure for the comics. Writing
novels does not translate naturally to being able to write
comics, so there was actual study involved (I bought Nat
Gertler's PANEL ONE, which I recommend to people looking to
learn how to write comics). I've taken screenwriting
classes, which helped a little, but you get to dictate a
whole lot more on a comic page than a screenplay page, so
it's really a different kind of work.
What is your schedule of projects like for 2009 and beyond?
Slowing
down, thank goodness. I've got too many books on my plate
this year (one down, two to go), but right now I've only got
one to write next year (yay!). As for what's hitting the
shelves this year, it's madness:
March: A FANTASY MEDLEY (anthology featuring a story of
the Old Races)
May:
THE PRETENDER’S CROWN (book two of the Inheritors’
Cycle)
September: WALKING DEAD (book four of the Walker Papers)
October: THE PHANTOM QUEEN AWAKES, a mass market
anthology with an original short story about the
Morrigan
November: TAKE A CHANCE graphic novel, compiling issues
1-5 of TAKE A CHANCE, my new superhero comic currently
being released as monthly issues
Frankly,
I'm exhausted. :)
Next year
there'll be another Walker Papers novel and two paranormal
romances from Del Rey, TRUTHSEEKER and WAYFINDER, which are
about a woman who always knows if she's being lied to...and
who is therefore very surprised when the man of her dreams
claims, truthfully, to be a prince of Faerie.
Do you have any stand-alone titles or novellas coming in the
future?
My
editors aren't letting me do stand-alones. :) Stand-alones
get lost easily in the mass of books coming out, and I
haven't really reached break-out numbers as far as sales are
concerned, so we're still focused on series and on-going
stories. I have a pile of ideas, but I need the numbers
before I can go there.
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