Written by <a href="/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=784:nyssa&catid=167:staff&Itemid=318"><span class="small">Nyssa</span></a>
Nicole Murphy is one of the first names I knew when I first started working with the industry some years ago, and her love for spec fic is clear with all the work she's done.
She's been an editor for various publications, worked with CSFG, Conflux, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and AussieCon 4. She's a member of the Fantasy Writer's on Retreat, with Trudi Canavan, Russell Kirkpatrick, Matthew Farrer, Cat Sparks, Donna Hanson and Kylie Seluka.
This year sees her debut novel with HarperCollins, an urban fantasy trilogy called Dreams of Asarlai, starting with Secret Ones.
Check her out on her website, and look out for Secret Ones in stores today!
(Photo by Cat Sparks)
Having been watching your blog for a few years, I’ve seen just a small tidbit of how your work, then titled Love in Control, was written and critiqued, taken up by HarperCollins and is on sale in just a few short days! How has your work and how you work progressed throughout the entire length of plotting for the first draft up till now with getting it published?
I wrote the first draft of Love in Control in 2003. Back then, I didn’t really do anything past writing the first draft of a novel – I had major issues with revising. However, that year I decided I needed to learn. I read some books, made up a method for revising and then applied it to Love in Control and the other two books. They were much shorter then – just 60,000 words each. I wrote the first draft of each, taking a month each, then spent a month on each for first round revisions, then another month for second. So in nine months, I wrote and revised twice three 60k novels.
I think I might have sent out Love in Control once or twice, but my priorities were starting to shift. I’d started working as a journalist at the local newspaper, and then I got interested in editing and so I put my own writing on the backburner. As it turned out, that was a good thing – both the editing and the journalism really helped to hone my knowledge and skills as a writer, so when I decided to pick up Love in Control and start working on it again at the end of 2006, I had a much more concrete idea of what was required to make a story really work.
I’ve done more work on learning to revise – particularly plot-wise, because that’s not a natural strength for me. I’ve now come to love revising more than drafting – drafting has become a slow, laborious process that I want finished and I want finished NOW, so I can start to pull it apart and find the jewel hidden within. When my journalism career ended in early 2008 and I decided to really focus my time and attention on my novel writing, I was finally ready to write well and create a great story.
After all that, the fact I went from searching for a publisher to having my book on the shelf in less than twelve months is still mind-boggling. It’s also given me a lot of confidence in my writing, and I think that’s resulted better writing – I’m sure that Power Unbound and Rogue Gadda are better books than Secret Ones. We’ll have to wait to see if the readers agree.
A few times on your blog you have mentioned Anita Blake and Sookie Stackhouse and the different ideas of feminism – looking at the characters, their sexuality and even language. how does being a reader and fan of the genre affect your writing of it?
I think if it weren’t for the existence of writers like Laurell K Hamilton and Charlaine Harris, I would never have written Secret Ones, because it probably would never have occurred to me to combine my two favourite genres – fantasy and romance.
I did a whole post on the Supernatural Underground blog (a blog being written by lots of HarperCollins paranormal and urban fantasy writers http://supernaturalunderground.blogspot.com/) about the importance of urban fantasy and paranormal romance for me. For women of my generation who grew up loving fantasy, there wasn’t a lot in terms of strong female roles. I never really encountered a book where women were allowed to be at least partners in the storyline (if not the dominant character) until I found the romance genre. So I think it’s wonderful that there are are now hundreds of thousands of women out there reading UF or PR and it’s quite normal for them to read stories where women take centre stage.
It’s been quite important for me that the women in this series are very real, and very strong, particularly in terms of their sexuality. There’s still an underlying thing in a lot of romance where women still have to be portrayed as virginal in some way, at the very least inexperienced, and it bugs me. I think it’s really important that women can see others who are comfortable with their sexuality and don’t have to apologise for it. That’s one of the great things about some of the UF/PR heroines and I hope I’ve done it with my heroines too.
There are a few very obsessive characters in this book, with different motives. How did you find writing their characters?
Hard. I’m not in the least bit obsessive – I’m a very laid-back character and there are few things that get me really fired up, so writing about people with such black and white points-of-view was a real challenge. On the other hand, that’s one of the great things about writing – you get to step into these character’s minds and it can help give you some perspective on real people and their motivations.
One of the best things I loved about this book is that it is the female who has the supernatural power and knowledge of it, where normally in the genre it’s the male who is in this superior position. Did you deliberately set out to do this or did it just happen?
From the very beginning, it was the girl with the power. The initial impetus of the book was a dream about a girl who was a witch, having a relationship with an uber-hot guy and having to hide who she really was from him. As the story developed over the years, it became something fabulous to have happen, and it ended up affecting some of the decisions I made. For example, later in the book (I’ll try not to be too spoilery for those who haven’t read it yet) I had something happen to Lucas that he had to be saved from. Originally it was Maggie that happened too, but having built up this fabulous thing of her having the power I decided to take that right to the end and so I switched it up and it was the guy who had to be saved. That was fun.
Having read your question, I’ve now realised that this isn’t the case in the other two books – it’s the guy with the supernatural power. On the other hand, I think in both cases the girl is smarter, and ultimately stronger so hopefully the balance isn’t thrown out.
Although sex isn’t unknown in the genre, there are very few books in which I literally have to fan myself because of the hot action, and this was one of them! What’s the hardest thing about writing sex scenes?
Glad you liked them. I work really hard on my sex scenes, to make them both real and sexy. The first thing I consider is the actuality of it. There’s nothing worse than reading a scene where you know what they are doing is physically impossible – the human body just can’t move that way (or maybe only if they’re both Olympic-class gymnasts…) So it has to be realistic.
The descriptions can’t just be about touch – the more you can bring all the senses in, the better because when you make love for real, it’s not just about the physical contact. There’s taste, and smell, and sight, and sometimes sound as well.
Those two things in themselves will make a good sex scene, but for me it has to be about more than the physical – it has to be emotional as well. It’s a romance – not erotica. This isn’t just about two people having a wonderful physical encounter, it’s about two people falling in love and so that has to be part of the sex scene as well.
Bring all that together and then add a bit of spice – in this case, the way that the lovers’ power interacts so you can feel whether your partner is enjoying themselves or not. And there you have it – hot sex scene.
What impact has your own life and experiences had upon your writing, and did you draw any inspiration from your past for Secret Ones?
Hmm, should I be worried this question is coming directly after the sex one? :)
Secret Ones hasn’t drawn any inspiration from my past, or present – it’s probably the most made up of all three of the books (the other two books both contain aspects that I know about or are interested in). However, if I hadn’t had the life I’ve had, I wouldn’t have written this book, so I guess my past is directly responsible for Secret Ones.
Having written a lot of short stories as well as your Dream of Asarlai series, does both long and short fiction require the same sort of tools or are they very different?
Oh boy, the long and short fiction thing. You know, I’m still trying to figure it all out myself. I’ve been stuck in this headspace where I’ve considered short stories easier simply because they take less time, and so I’ve not put the effort into them that I have into novels. However, it took me a long time to get good at the novel writing thing, so maybe I just have to keep working at the short story. On the other hand, I do believe that some people are better than one at the other, and I’m inclined to think because I’m more naturally attuned to characterisation and worldbuilding and less to the power and rightness of words, that I’m always going to be better at novel length than at shorts.
I won’t give up on shorts, however. There’s a beauty to finding exactly the right words, the right details, the right plot direction to tell a story. I think I have it in me to be a good short story writer, and I don’t doubt the confidence I’ve gained over the past couple of years will help with that.
You have also been an editor, working with the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild and Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. Did this work help you in your writing as well?
Editing is one of the best things you can do for your own writing – at least, it was for me. Editing requires a different sort of thought process to writing, and when you’re revising it’s a thought process you need to get into.
Editing helped me see what works in a story and what doesn’t. It showed me how there’s a million styles of writing, very different voices and you don’t have to write this way or that to create a good story. It also helped me realise just how subjective the editorial process is, and so rejection isn’t something to be feared. I rejected some good stories from some fabulous writers, particularly for The Outcast for CSFG, because they weren’t what I needed for the anthology. So get out there, submit, and when rejected work out whether it’s because there’s still something wrong with the story, or it just wasn’t right for that market. If something wrong, fix it. If not, send it out again.
What’s your method for writing? Do you have to have a shower and get dressed and work at it like your day job, or can you snuggle up in pajamas till late a night, glass of wine in hand and write?
My preferred method is to shower, dress and go at it like a day job. I try to start between nine and ten in the morning and will work until between twelve to one, when I’ll break for lunch. Now, I’m really lucky in that I write really, really quickly. I can easily do 3000 to 5000 words in that time. Afternoons I can choose – write if I want to, or do other things such as housework, promotional stuff, read, have a nap…
Writing at night is something that I can do but I try not to. Night is my time to spend with my husband, friends and family.
Of course, all this depends upon whether I’ve got a job or not, or whether I’m on deadline, or what other things I have to do…
You have also mentioned you’ve been writing another series, Battle for Odana – any hints you can give us on that story?
Battle for Odana is a very different beast. It’s more a traditional fantasy (although there’s still a very strong romance). It’s set in a land called Andabar, where all the magic is feminine. Women are reverred and supported as the main antagonists of civilisation. However, there’s been some external influences coming into the society and people (both men and women) are revolting against the reverence for odana, the feminine magic. I’ve got a draft of a novel of it done, but I’m looking at turning it into a duology and working some of the details more fully.
However, I’m not sure that’s going to be what I do next. You see, Dream of Asarlai contains the romances of three of the guardians of the gadda. There’s actually six guardians. That’s another three who could very well have romances of their own…
I’m not sure what I’ll do next, but whatever it is, I hope I have fun doing it so you guys will have fun reading it.
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