Isabel Murray's Blog

October 9, 2025

Catch of a Lifetime is out now!

🧜🏻‍♂️🥳 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.

***
Buy on Amazon.com
Books2Read Universal Link

***

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 😁
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Published on October 09, 2025 03:18 Tags: ebb-and-flow-series, merman-romance, new-release

September 29, 2025

A quick autumn update, and a novella coming soon...

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 😁
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Published on September 29, 2025 06:36 Tags: catch-and-release, coming-soon, writing-update

August 22, 2025

A roundup of August's blog posts

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 😁
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Published on August 22, 2025 08:16 Tags: author-life, blogging

July 25, 2025

A Friday catch-up

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.

❉ ❉ ❉

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 😁
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Published on July 25, 2025 07:39 Tags: author-life, not-that-series, snippet, writing

July 18, 2025

Post-release author life, and a new short to distract myself

(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.)
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Published on July 18, 2025 07:09 Tags: author-life, snippet, writing

July 16, 2025

My new fantasy romance novella is out!

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!"
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Published on July 16, 2025 06:15 Tags: fantasy-romance, immortal-bonds-series, new-release

July 5, 2025

A July update

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.”
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Published on July 05, 2025 07:17 Tags: coming-soon, immortal-bonds-series, writing-update

June 6, 2025

A Sale!

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 😁
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Published on June 06, 2025 05:55 Tags: kindle-monthly-deal, sale

April 11, 2025

A spring update and a new paperback

It's almost the middle of April, which means it's about time for a quick update blog post!

Available now
I released the paperback edition of Not That Ridiculous earlier this week. If you like a physical keeper copy of your books, you can find it on Amazon here:

Amazon US
Amazon CA
Amazon DE
Amazon UK

Or search ASIN: B0F42NWYF3


What I'm working on
I'm currently in the middle of editing a novella from my Immortal Bonds series. It's very character-driven and about as low-angst as you can get, just a tender (and hot) little story set during Erik and Sayan's first spring together, with Sayan teaching Erik to swim and Erik teaching Sayan how to trust. I'm not sure yet when I'll release it, but I'm thinking it'll be some time this spring/early summer.

(If you want to follow me somewhere other than Goodreads to get notified when I do publish it, check out some options on my fancy new links page: https://isabelmurray.carrd.co)

What I'm writing
As for what I'm writing, I'm at that exciting place where I have a handful of stories all jumping up and down for my attention. I'm adding a little bit here and a little bit there, waiting for one story to get loud, at which point I'll go for it. It's not the most strategic way to choose my projects as an author but, eh. 🤷🏻‍♀️ It's the way it goes for me.

Wrapping up
I'm still over on Bluesky, testing out the social media waters. I even made a little video for Kevin and Charlie, which was both a lot of fun and an excellent way to avoid doing all the other (more important) things on my todo list. 😆 I feel like I really levelled up my procrastination skills with that one.

I hope that you're enjoying the season, wherever you are in the world! Happy reading,

Isabel 😁
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Published on April 11, 2025 05:48 Tags: immortal-bonds-series, not-that-series, paperback, writing-update

February 25, 2025

Not That Ridiculous is live!

My latest release, Not That Ridiculous, is live on Amazon now! 😆

This is book three in my Not That contemporary romcom series, and I loved writing it. I can't wait for people to read it!

Here's the blurb:
Charlie Galloway is handling it, okay?

Yes, he’s been left to run the family coffee shop all on his own, he’s up to his eyeballs in mortgages and loans, and his fixer-upper dream house is falling down around his ears. Big deal. He can handle it.

Just like he can handle being secretly in love with Kevin Wallis, Chipping Fairford’s favourite handyman, best known for once finding a dead body in a storage tub under a client’s bedroom floor.

Only it turns out that while Kevin might come across as a total cinnamon roll with his gentle brown eyes and his sweet, calm nature, he really is…not.

He’s not straight—not when it comes to Charlie, anyway—the things he keeps doing to Charlie are definitely not sweet, and he’s not holding back from letting Charlie know what he wants.

Not a problem. Charlie can handle that, too.

Charlie can handle anything.

Right up until Kevin decides to bust out his sledgehammer, work his handyman magic on Charlie’s dream house, and…well.

There’s a reason the local newspaper called him the Chipping Fairford Corpse Finder.

Not That Ridiculous is a 98k-word romantic comedy about a grumpy and overworked coffee shop owner and the sunshine handyman who wants to fix everything. Yes, there are some random dead guys in the mix, but that’s background noise. Who even cares? It’s incidental at best. There’s kissing and first times and way more interesting stuff going on. This is a romance!



If you're in the mood for something a little bit sexy and a lot little bit ridiculous right now, it's available to buy on Amazon, or to read in Kindle Unlimited.

Here are some links:

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
Amazon DE

Alternatively, pop the ASIN in Amazon's search bar.
ASIN: B0DY9JSJ11

Hope you enjoy reading!
Isabel 😁
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Published on February 25, 2025 06:01 Tags: new-release