Isabel Murray's Blog

I sent the first newsletter of the year out yesterday, and at least 25% of it was me getting overexcited about the picturesque wintry weather we’re having. Welp. We're not having it anymore! As I write this (at 08:33) it’s dark and gloomy, and rain is clattering against my window.

Boo.

Anyway, Happy New Year! 🥂

I’m working away on my very large WIP, which is rapidly shrinking as I cut away all the waffling bits and yet is still—and this just dawned on me—practically two books in terms of length. One and a half? I don’t know. It’s long!

It’s also darker/more serious than I usually write, so when I decide I need a break, I’ll switch to editing the romcom novella I’ve got in the queue. When I need a break from that, I’ll finish writing the new Adam and Ray short I’ve got on the go.

And when I need a break from all the editing and writing, obviously I’ll turn to reading.

This year, I want to chill out a bit and be more intentional when it comes to choosing books. I read 202 books in 2025 and most of them bounced right off me, emotionally speaking. I want to care. I want to feeeeel!

I also want to toss a few non-fiction titles in there.

By which I mean I want to actually finish one of the non-fiction titles I keep picking up whenever I spot a deal. I tend to read one or two chapters, and then wander off.

I started The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters last week. Let’s see if I can get through it, or if I’ll abandon it in favour of a kissing book before the end of January. 😆

I sent December's newsletter out last week with a roundup of what I'd done and published in 2025, and today I'm sharing a similar review here on Goodreads as well as over on my blog!

My big release of the year was Not That Ridiculous. I published this at the very end of February, along with a companion bonus short for newsletter subscribers, Just Charlie. I had such a good time with Kevin and Charlie that I went ahead and immediately wrote another subscriber short, Just Kevin, which I sent out in June.

In July, I published The Naiad's Lover. This novella release was a quiet one, which I'd expected going in, as my Immortal Bonds series is much more of a niche read. 😆 

I then surprised myself into writing another story for Dave and Joe, and published Catch of a Lifetime, also a novella, in October.

As well as writing books and shorts, I sent out my usual rambling monthly newsletters, continued to blog on Goodreads every now and then, and started blogging on my website, too. I still really like the idea of having somewhere I can update any readers who aren't into newsletters—and social media, I have learned, is not that place. I gave Bluesky a go this year and came to the conclusion that I'm far too self-conscious for it. Also, as a human being, I'm phenomenally boring. Happy to be! But…yeah. Not exactly social media material. 😂

To finish up the year, Not That Ridiculous was nominated in the Best Humorous and Best Blue Collar categories in the Goodreads M/M Romance Group Members’ Choice Awards 2025!

And that's my 2025!

Right now I'm working on a book that has me completely sucked in and yet at the same time makes me kinda nervous. Is that a good sign, or…? We'll see!

However it turns out, I'm looking forward to editing and publishing the Kevin and Charlie novella I wrote over the summer, and I'm already playing around with another Not That bonus short, so you'll definitely be seeing more of Chipping Fairford.

Other than that, who knows what 2026 will bring? Good things, I hope, for all of us.

See you in January,

Isabel 😁

🧜🏻‍♂️🥳 The new Dave and Joe novella, Catch of a Lifetime, is available now on Amazon!

Here's the blurb:

Every spring, Joe McKenzie’s merman lover, Dave, comes back to him.

Every autumn, Dave returns to the sea.

This is how it goes. This is how it’s gone for a while now. Six months of the year together and six months apart is not ideal, but Joe will take it. He’d wait a lifetime for Dave, after all.

Only this year, it becomes clear that a lifetime spent watching the waves for a lover who will never return could very well be in Joe’s future. Because even though Dave wants to come back…there are things out there in the mysterious deep which might have other plans.

This year, instead of his usual blissful six months of living and loving, Joe’s got a wounded merman to keep safe from further harm, and just when things are finally starting to get back to normal, it all goes sideways.

Now Joe’s left wondering—is Dave the catch of a lifetime after all?

Or is it time for him to cut the line?


Catch of a Lifetime is book two in the Ebb and Flow series, and is a novella-length sequel to Catch and Release.

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Buy on Amazon.com
Books2Read Universal Link

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I loved writing this novella and catching up with Dave and Joe a couple of years into their happily ever after. If you decide to give it a go, I hope you enjoy reading it!

Isabel 😁

Last time I mentioned the Catch and Release novella sequel was back in July (I think?), when it was a recently completed first draft.

It's been through quite a few more drafts since then. 😆

I've got a title. I've got a cover. I've (almost) got a blurb. I've also got two options for the series name, and I'm pretty sure I know which one I'm going with. I'm saving the decision on that for some time closer to publication day.

...which is coming very soon!

I'll pop a release blog up once it's live, along with the blurb and links.

Until then, Catch of a Lifetime is 35 000 words of Dave and Joe (and Jerry), and you can expect some hurt/comfort, some helpless yearning, a pinch of drama, an octopus, a lot of fish, and a love that was meant to be.

Isabel 😁

It's a month since I posted a blog here on Goodreads, but I've been doing it a lot more regularly over on my website!

I'm still having fun trying things out over there. While I'd intended to be a lot more casual with it, so far I seem to have fallen into a weekly roundup-style post on a Friday. 🤷🏻‍♀️😆

For anyone interested, here's a roundup of the roundups!

A chat about Catch and Release, and the challenge of designing a cover for a merman romance

An update on finishing the Kevin and Charlie short

Running away from the sun, an introvert's dream come true, and editing the Catch and Release novella

More editing talk, including a trick to stay focused, and why I look like I fought a cat

I'll pop in and post one of these every month or so.

Have a great weekend,

Isabel 😁

Over on my website today:

Most of this week's writing sessions ended up being more of the new Kevin and Charlie (from  Not That Ridiculous) short, which was a delight, especially when Jasper showed up to make it awkward:

“I didn’t see anything!” Jasper yelled from outside the garage.
Oh, god. He'd have seen everything if he’d arrived even a few seconds later.
“Ignore me!” Jasper yelled again.
“Kind of hard to do with him shouting like that,” Kevin muttered in my ear, making me shiver.
“Just carry on and finish! I’m going to stay out here and play with Phil! Take your time!”
“All right, then,” Kevin said, and kissed me.

It's running at about 9000 words now. I've vaguely pondered putting it on Amazon if it ends up close to or over 10k once it's written and edited, buuuut I'm not taking it seriously enough to worry about where it'll end up just yet. If anywhere!

For now, it's a low-stakes happy place for Writer-Me to play around in while Author-Me attempts to focus on some business decisions.

In other words: what next?

😬

I've only got three more publishing months left in the year--I tend to rule out November and December, as they're too close to Christmas and the shopping season. Considering how long something as short as my just-released  The Naiad's Lover  takes to edit and proofread (I am sooooo slow), somehow I don't think I'll be able to turn around one of the full-length books I've got in my editing queue.

Luckily, I have a first draft of the  Catch and Release  novella sequel finished, and it's a petite 35 000 words. So…maybe?

While I have lots of reflecting to do on the last few months (how did the latest release go, do I need to adjust any plans, where do I want to go from here?) I'm not in any rush to make those big decisions.

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There's a sale going on over at Smashwords for the month of July, which I'm sure a lot of MM readers already know about. I had a poke around last week, and picked up a couple of Josh Lanyon books. As I've been on a massive re-reading kick this year, I was really pleased to snag some new books I haven't read yet.

I think I'll start with  Ghosted, which has been on my TBR since it was published.

Another new book I'm excited to get my eyeballs on is C.S. Poe's Hudson River Homicides although I'll have to wait until the end of the month for that.

❉ ❉ ❉

On a random life note, when I sat out on the back step at seven a.m. to drink coffee and write my morning pages, the lawn was glittering with strands of gossamer and I spotted a couple of blackberries over by the cypress hedge. The air was hazy and cool, and some geese flew over.

It's still July, still summer...but I cannot wait for autumn!

Have a great weekend!

Isabel 😁

(Cross-posted from today's blog over on my website.)

The first day or two after a release is just…weird. 

It’s weird. 

After hyper-focusing on one project above all else, you hit publish, get the buy link, send the newsletter, post the blog, add links to various book pages in various places, and….

Nothing.

You’re done. It’s over. Back to the bottom of the rollercoaster, ready to start clanking your way up to the top with another book. 

Which is exciting, yes. But it’s also weird.

So I'm distracting myself by writing another Kevin and Charlie* short! 😆

Here's an (unedited) snippet:

*** *** ***

“Kevin,” I said, and immediately second-guessed myself.

He was dozing in the sun, and for a moment I thought that maybe I’d got away with it and he hadn’t heard me.

We were on the lawn, sprawled out in the waning afternoon light of a Sunday in early September. I’d had the vague intention of seducing him right there on the plaid wool blanket, but it hadn’t come to much. 

One: I’d been at work until three, and the moment I got horizontal, my tired body had other priorities. And two: the moment I got horizontal, and Kevin got horizontal, Phil had bustled over to get horizontal with us.

Phil and I had a brief shoving match, Phil won and clambered on top of Kevin, and I had to content myself with lying next to him, my head resting on his shoulder.

"Hmm?" Kevin said, eyes still closed.

*** *** ***

A picnic blanket on the lawn sounds like a pretty good plan for the rest of my afternoon, actually. Once I've finished work, anyway. The sun will be behind the yew tree by then, and I’ve got a post-release celebration cake that needs eating. 

Have a great weekend!

Isabel 😁


(*A little context for those who don’t know who these people are: Kevin and Charlie (and Phil the dog) are the MCs from Not That Ridiculous.)

It's release day, and The Naiad's Lover is available now on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited! 🥳


Goodreads

Amazon.com

Books2Read


This is the fourth Erik and Sayan story I've written (three are on Amazon and one is a newsletter short) so clearly there's something about these two that keeps drawing me back for another peek into their lives.

I remember writing The Naiad's Gift back in 2023 (😱). Like the majority of my stories, it started out as a writing practice piece.

Writing practice is something I do every morning and have done for years now. I'll talk about it more in a blog some time, but basically it's the first creative writing session of the day, in which I free-write to a prompt as a warm-up.

Want to know the prompt that became The Naiad's Gift ?

It was this:

REFLECTION

Yeah, no. I have no idea how that ended up as a fantasy romance about an immortal naiad and a sad, middle-aged widower, either.

Looking back at my story spreadsheet (another thing I'll talk about another time!*) I can see that The Naiad's Wish came from this prompt:

YEARNING

Okay, this one tracks--the story begins with Erik leaving for the city and Sayan absolutely pining for him, in his own special, dramatic way. (He sulks.)

As for The Love Gift (the newsletter short) and The Naiad's Lover , these are both stories that I just started writing because I felt like it, no prompts.

I wonder if I'll ever write another one for these guys? 🤔

Maybe, maybe not. I think I like where I left them at the end of this book.

If you read it, I hope you like where I left them, too.

Isabel
xxx


*Guaranteed way to clear a room: "Let me tell you about my spreadsheets!"

I'm posting updates over on my website now, as well as here on Goodreads!

(...okay, I've done it once so far 😆)

Anyway, here's what I posted today:

**THE NAIAD'S LOVER**

My new release is due out very soon, and I'm pretty excited about it, even though it's a quiet one. The Immortal Bonds series won't appeal to readers who are looking for a laugh, but working on it was a great change of pace after writing a big romcom ( Not That Ridiculous ), and I have a soft spot for the world-weary Erik and his drama queen immortal beloved, Sayan.

Which isn't saying much, really, because I have a soft spot for all of my characters. 😆

I'll post the cover and blurb etc once it's up on Amazon. Until then, here's one of those trope thingys:

❤️ mortal/immortal
❤️ age gap (thousands of years)
❤️ size difference (👀)
❤️ hurt/comfort
❤️ possessiveness


And here's a little snippet:


“You’re not angry at me for it?” Sayan said.

I pulled him in and kissed his uncertain pout. “No.”

“Even though I wanted to take the boy out to the middle of my lake and leave him there?”

“You wanted to but you didn’t.” Thank the gods.

He snorted. “I wanted to very much, Erik.”

“Why? Because he touched me? That doesn’t mean anything to me. No one’s touch means anything to me. No one’s but yours.”

Anyone in the US or Canada interested in reading about overly dramatic men turning forty and absolutely losing their cool over it?

You're in luck! First Dates and Birthday Cakes is a Kindle Monthly Deal for June, and you can pick up a copy for only $1.49! 🎂 🥳

Amazon US
Amazon CA

This is a standalone romcom novella, and it's set in the (fictional) Cotswolds town of Chipping Fairford—the same location as my Not That series.

Fun fact: it's the only book I've written in that setting that does not have a random dead body in it.

In case that tips your book-buying scales one way or the other. 🤷🏻‍♀️😂


Isabel 😁