Susan Murray's Blog

A week after the event and the buzz from FantasyCon still hasn’t worn off. Scarborough turned out to be a fab venue, with an energising combination of faded Victorian grandeur and sea air. I’m determined to go back and explore the area properly when there aren’t as many distractions.

Alex Davis and his team of volunteers set up a wide-ranging programme of events, and huge thanks are due to them for organising a great weekend. It was refreshing to have plenty of space in the various function r...

2015 has been a year of upheaval here, with a house move in between the releases of The Waterborne Blade in May and Waterborne Exile in August. I’m a bit taken aback to realise I’ve been living surrounded by boxes for six months now, between permanent homes. Most recently I’ve been making notes on a new fantasy project – codenamed Fury – and work on that will begin in earnest in January. If all goes to plan I could have a first draft in place before we begin work on out next renovation projec...

FantasyCon begins tomorrow! The organisers have set up a great programme of events for the weekend, but hopefully there’ll still be some time to hang around in the bar.

I’ll be taking part in a panel on the Sunday morning:

Room: Suite 1

Sun 25 Oct 10.00am

By the Gods! Religion & Beliefs in Fantasy

How can we portray plausible belief systems in genre writing without doing a disservice to characters or becoming overly didactic?

Moderator: Juliet E McKenna. Panellists: John Connolly, Adam Dalton...

Autumn is setting in and writing work begins in earnest, but first a quick reminder that this Saturday, 19th September, I’ll be signing books at The New Hedgehog Bookshop, 19 Little Dockray, Penrith, from noon onwards. Do drop in and say hello if you’re passing by.

In other news, I’m delighted to say Adrian Magson has kindly featured me in the New Author profile in the October issue of Writing Magazine.

Now it’s nose to the grindstone until Fantasycon. I’ve been working on the outline of my t...

I’ll be out and about over the next couple of months.

August: Angry Robot will be invading Forbidden Planet in Birmingham (tomorrow evening!) and London (next Thursday evening).

September: On Saturday 19th I’ll be signing books at The New Hedgehog Bookshop, 19 Little Dockray, Penrith, from noon onwards.

October: I’ll be at Fantasycon in Nottingham all weekend and doing a panel, pencilled in for the Sunday morning, on religion in fantasy.

Do stop by to say hello if you get the chance!

Release week for The Waterborne Blade is upon us! Im still struggling to get my head round the fact the book is really out there at last, but heres a brief roundup of reactions so far:

This is a well-paced, enjoyable read with characters that feel rounded and real, changing and evolving as the book goes on. [] its in the scheming of courts and cousins, childhood spats and splintering marriages that the writing shines.
Rhian Drinkwater, SFX Magazine

I have to hand it to Murray, she certainly k...

Release date for The Waterborne Blade is edging closer, and this week the first copies were sighted in the wild or, more precisely, in a backroom at a top secret location. The first reviews are trickling through, and this whole thing is starting to look real.

Super-quick blog post here. Lots going on behind the scenes and I’m deep in the first draft of the sequel ��� Waterborne Exile, due out August 2015 ��� but I had to surface to share this cover art, revealed yesterday.

It’s by Paul Young at Artist Partners. It’s gorgeous.

It’s as if art director Marc Gascoigne scooped out the contents of my cranium and distilled it down to produce this. Which is clearly impossible as I would have noticed. Unless the rumours about the robotic implants are true …

T...

Except, of course, not much has changed after all.

After starting with the buzz of a 2-book deal the year’s been a strange never-quite-stepping-across-that-threshold affair as my publishers were put up for sale by their holding group. They’ve risen phoenix-like from the ashes ready to resume publication in 2015 with The Waterborne Blade rescheduled for release in May.

On the writing front, I’ve discovered the massive dose of validation from a publishing deal doesn’t do much to counter the self-...

Short and sweet, this one. In case anyone missed the news earlier this week: I have a 2-book deal with Angry Robot Books who’ll be publishing my debut fantasy novel The Waterborne Blade in October this year.

The York Effect? I met both editor and agent through one-to-one pitch sessions at the Writers’ Workshop Festival of Writing in York. The event offers a wide selection of workshops and the opportunity for feedback on your work. Well worth attending if you have the opportunity.

Short. Sweet. Scary (in a good way).