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evin
ndrew
urphy
ello, all. I'm Kevin Andrew Murphy. The writer. Not to be confused with
the other two writer Kevin Murphys listed in Books in Print,
the Kevin Murphy who's one of my local judges, Kevin Murphy from
Mystery Science Theater 3000, Kevin Murphy the Best Boy
from the
Friday: The
Thirteenth
TV series, or Kevin Murphy
the cover artist from New York, who not only works in the same
field as I do, but for the same publisher.
y
current claim to fame is that I write for
White Wolf, creators of
the
World of Darkness, (source of
Kindred: the
Embraced),
with a whole slew of short fiction in their various
anthologies,
as well as one novel,
House of Secrets, with
James A. Moore, my co-author.
To quote the back cover:
"Ilse Decameron, a vampire clan Tremere, is on a mission to procure a mortal mage. On her trail is Kurt Westphal, a member of the rival Ventrue clan who is seeking to uncover the Tremere's newest threat. He and Ilse uncover a web of betrayal, demonic pacts and a scheme which, if it succeeds, will spell the end of the vampire clans and forever change the face of the World of Darkness."
If you'd like to take a peek at Chapter
2, and Ilse's first appearance,
just click on the beating heart....
esides being a White Wolf
book,
House of Secrets is also a tie-in to
Vampire:
The Eternal Struggle, aka. the card game formerly known as
Jyhad from
Wizards of the
Coast.
If you want to order it from your local bookstore, it's ISBN
1-56504-843-1, $5.99 US/$7.99 CAN, or, if you want to order it online, you
can get it for only $4.81 (20% off cover) from
Amazon Books
(which has a lovely kickback scheme which gives us authors get a commission
for pushing our own works--which of course we already do to begin with).
It is with a sad and heavy heart that I
relate the latest news in my carreer: After a two-year battle with cancer, Jo Clayton has died.
Besides being a wonderful lady and a wonderful author, not to mention a person who I wish I'd had a chance to know better, Jo was also someone who always thought of her friends, even at the very end. Katharine Kerr told me how much Jo admired my work (Jo edited my stories for Kit's Enchanted Forests and The Shimmering Door when Kit was too bogged down with personal life to concentrate on the anthologies) and that Jo wanted to do something to help me in my carreer. When she got better, of course, but nothing ever can go quite as you plan it in this sad world. As such, Kit, as Jo's literary executor, has asked me to finish the final book of Jo's Drums of Chaos trilogy. Jo has left about two hundred pages of manuscript, as well as extensive notes, and I will be working to complete the book over this summer, doing my best to finish the story the way Jo would have wanted.
Thank you, Jo. I hardly knew ye, but you are too soon gone from this earth, and will be sorely missed.
If anyone wishes to read more about Jo and her work, please visit Javanne's
Jo Clayton web page.
have just turned in my second novel for
White Wolf, this one
titled Penny Dreadful, following the further of adventures
of Penny from
"Silver
Nutmeg, Golden Pear"
in
Truth Until Paradox.
Penny's a Goth girl with a
lunchbox full of magick tricks and a talking black cat named
Mister Mistoffelees. Penny and Mister M- have also appeared in
City of Darkness: Unseen
and Jim Moore's
Outcasts
game book, where their portrait is taken from. I'll be putting a sample chapter
up once things are set, but in the time being, here's the back-cover copy as
I see it:
Penelope Anne Drizkowski-Penny
Dreadful to her friends-leads an interesting
life, but it's starting to get just a bit too interesting.
First off, a young lady has enough
trouble fending off unwanted advances, but
what is one to do when they're from vampires? What about werewolves?
Then again, most girls aren't witches.
With the help of a silver luckpiece,
a mummified hand and a talking black cat, any number of things are possible.
For example, protecting two helpless
orphans. Well, not completely
helpless-and their father's a vampire, so they're not precisely orphaned
either-but Melanie and Malory Gorian still need her help, and she intends to
give it.
Of course, mixing Jewish folklore with
Catholic heresy isn't the best idea,
especially when you add magick. And looking for helpful hints in an evil
sorceress's
Books of
Shadows
doesn't exactly help matters, especially when
our heroine is forced to use an ancient and obscene rite, too dreadful to be
mentioned here, except to relate that it will shock, horrify and amaze!
Black magick, windswept mansions,
ghostly visitations, sinister housekeepers
and any number of locked chests-as well as butter knives, Number Two pencils,
fountain pens and Hello Kitty. After all, this is '90s, and Goth is in.
o
far as my shorter vampire fiction goes,
"Mind the Skeeters,"
one of my Southern Tales, is currently being featured-in its entirety-in
Horrornet's original fiction section. First time in print, and
my first electronic sale-Viv la Web! For those who prefer the
more traditional paper format,
"The Red Elixir," an alchemical tale is just out in the
Dark Tyrants
anthology, set in the world of
Vampire: Dark Ages.
Another historical vampire story, "The Nightwatch is a Lonely Vigil," has just
appeared in Brothers of the Night, the sequel to Sons of Darkness,
just out from Circlet Press-and while it isn't a vampire story, Circlet
will also be publishing the third tale of my San Francisco Goth cycle, "Stereopticon,"
to be appearing in Noirotica II.
Plus, for those who like their horror stories short and sweet, two tales,
"Death for Death" and "Special Interests" (coauthored with
Lillian Csernica) will be appearing this summer in Barnes & Noble
365 Scary Stories.
And back to the subject of vampires, I'm glad to announce that the files for
"Masquerade,"
my White Wolf vampire novella, and
"The
Croquet Mallet Murders,"
my Calafian vampire story, suddenly came to light, and I've been able to put
samples of them online--and soon the second will be appearing, in its entirety,
at
Alexandria
Digital Literature,
along with a great number of my other stories.
The start date hasn't been set yet, but Alexandria currently has as their
search engine running, which will allow you to find "your
favorite stories you've never read" (and in the case of my stories, read
them, at least once version 2.0 comes online). In any case, it's a great
deal of fun for a bibliophile, and useful besides--imagine a dating service
for books--and if you go there now, your entries will help them build the
library.
ack to the
subject of alchemists,
I'm now proud to offer my readers a story regarding
alchemy, voodoo, shopping, dimensional gateways, and a haunted mansion run
by Betsy the Necromancer. Yes, it's my Gothic black comedy version of the
light fantasy novel and the spiritual precursor to Penny Dreadful. What's
the title, you ask? Well, it's
A
Formula For Chaos,
first book of the Alchemy trilogy. Here's what my fellow authors
have to say:
A Formula For Chaos had the formula for a good read-a strong, page-turning plot with lots of action, unusual and unexpected magical lore, and sympathetic characters with interesting problems....Diana Paxson
Author of The Serpent's Tooth, The
White Raven and theWestria cycle.
I thoroughly enjoyed A Formula For Chaos. Not only do we get solid characters moving within a well-realized world, but unlike most humorous fantasies, the writing displays real wit-a civilized quality and an unfortunately rare one these days.Katharine Kerr
Author of the Deverry series,
Freezeframes and Palace
has
won me academic honors, but unfortunately as yet, no printed book contract.
However,
if you would like to read first three chapters, and possibly purchase an
electronic copy of the rest, just click on the
Agent of Chaos
charter membership card. Yes, those who've bought an electronic copy
have become card-carrying Agents of Chaos, with the right to put the nifty
membership card on their Web Pages (with a reciprocal link from the
Agents of Chaos membership list) or even carry it in their wallets if they
have access to a color printer.
ow that I
have a moment of breathing space, I've taken up the popular new passtime and
handicraft
of web design, making use of my training in book arts, journalistic paste-up
and classic funerary arts (particularly tombstone aesthetics, masoleum
ornamentation and the more morbid bits of medieval manuscript illumination.)
Like everyone else on the web, I'm also happily selling my services as
a site designer. You want
a Goth website? I can spin one that will "Kick Ass"-and I have the award to
prove it! Currently, I'm designing the websites for
Painted
Ladies
and
The
Larsen-Pomada Literary Agency.
In my free time, I've also started
putting together "Penny
Dreadful's Mystical Emporium," where I'll be putting the rotes from
Penny Dreadful in order of appearance, as well as a few other
bits and pieces I think gamers and Goths both should enjoy. The Emporium
hasn't been coded yet, but in the time being, here's one of the preliminary
offerings:
expanded rules and clarifications for Talismans for Mage.
Also, for those who've sent me letters asking me how I "made it" as a
writer (also known as The Tale of Kevin, and how he achieved moderate fame--or at least
notoriety--as well as major debt), I've now posted my
Author Profile
from the most recent issue of
Tangent.
eople have also been
asking me for more stories about faeries and changelings. Apart from
"Sealskin,"
my surfer selkie story, I'm now proud to present
"The Fox Queen,"
a screenplay I wrote a few years back and have been tinkering with in odd moments since. It's the
story of Harvey, a detective, and Ping, an apprentice sorceress, and what happens when the
Queen of the Fox Spirits gets into 1906 San Francisco. Yes, martial arts, Chinese sorcery,
crotchety Taoist magicians, shapeshifting, sexual vampirism and all the other reasons we love fox
spirits so much-along with the Great Quake and Fire and the Grand Masonic Convocation, just to
make life interesting. It's done minor rounds through Hollywood, but the general consensus is
that it's a great story, but the studios only do one or two blockbusters a year and everyone already
has their pet projects.
Plus aside from a scene in Kurosawa's Dreams, no one's
seen fox spirits so they don't want to bet on them as opposed to proven quantities like vampires,
aliens and serial killers. Ah well. It's also been suggested that I turn it into a comic miniseries
followed by a graphic novel, and to that end, I've gotten together with
comics
artist Lea Hernandez
and we're going to be making a joint pitch at the San Diego Comicon.
If that takes, then
"The Fox Queen,"
will be going offline for a while, but in
the meantime, I might as well let folks read it here, since while the
screenplay is an
artform, it, like the stageplay, is not considered to be a publication
until it is actually produced.
And if you're a comic-book publisher or radio play producer or animation
studio director-or, for
that matter,
someone in Hollywood who's looking for next summer's blockbuster and actually thinks fox
spirits are cool-here's a complete grade-A (from USC)
polished script
from a professional author
with contact numbers and everything. Go for it. Read it. We'll do lunch.nd, if you'd
like to see some of my other works-including a few complete articles and short stories-here's
everything else, roughly divided
into categories so your web browser can load them faster, with more pretty
graphics and fiction samples as virtual bon-bons, or whatever the
appropriate net-jargon is for that sort of thing.
My other fiction for White Wolf's World of Darkness.
Original fiction in various other anthologies.
My roleplaying game work for White Wolf.
RPG adventures for other companies.
Magazine articles, poetry & more short fiction.
s
for what I do when I'm not writing, on alternate Fridays I engage in tax-deductible
fun by journeying up to San Francisco and playing Leo, the Gangrel Primogen
and Seneschal,
in the SF vampire
live-action game, and on the alternate-alternate Fridays,
when I get the chance, I take part in the
the
Santa Cruz game. I also visit friends and have taken up home-brewing
mead,
which ties in a bit with my interest in
cooking.
I also snow ski, water ski, and windsurf.
f you want to meet me in person, I'll be attending
Silicon at the Milbrae Clarion over Thanksgiving weekend,
with other SF and gaming conventions as possibilities--and if you want to
see me on TV, I was just featured on A&E's Ancient Mysteries,
specifically the episodes for "The Arabian Nights" and "The Magic of Alchemy", the second of
which I also worked as a historical consultant for. And in other late-breaking news, I've also just
been contacted by a theatre in Glendale which would like to stage a production
of my story
"The
Mercury of the Wise"
from
Weird
Tales from Shakespeare--and consequently I am now writing the play.
If all goes well, production will be within the next year.
f you'd
like to see my first offering specifically for the online world, check out
"Murphy's Gazetteer of the Weird & Supernatural,"
my guidebook to the sites and sights of the universe of horror and dark
fantasy. Keep it for a checklist when you watch
the X-Files. Chuckle over it at parties. Suggest new additions.
Being continually expanded, embellished and ornamented, with more to come.
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