Residing in San Francisco gives Lynne Murray the perfect venue to keep a full time "day job" as an editor while working work full time on her writing career. Her love of writing started when her parents first read to her from the Little Golden Books. Lynne has been a working writer for over twenty years. The Bride of the Living Dead (about "Big, beautiful & rebellious, indie film critic Daria MacClellan") is her seventh novel and next year she will be releasing The Falstaff Vampire Files. This plus size novelist makes a point of giving her main characters some junk in their trunk which has pleased more than a few fans. Like almost every writer I know, she has feline friendlys to help keep her lap, keyboard, and heart warm. I hope you enjoy getting to know a little about Lynne Murray and her writing.
Moe: What inspires you to write about plus size women?
Lynne Murray: Real life is full of big beautiful heroines, but so often in books and movies the big girl is the sidekick, or worse yet every story about a large woman has to revolve around her weight. I want to shine the spotlight on some life-sized women and show that we can have adventures, fall in love, take charge of the story and have the happy endings.Moe: How long does it take for you to complete one of your books?
Lynne Murray: The actual writing of the first draft can take anywhere from several months to over a year. During that time I do some revisions but mainly in order to imagine the scenes more clearly and "sink deeper into the story." Rewriting and polishing take additional time, but I love to tighten up the action and tell the story in the most effective way, and that part happens for me during revisions after the shape of the story has totally emerged.
Moe: What kind of research do you do before and during a new book?
Lynne Murray: Research is a challenge because for some reason I seem to pick subjects that I know nothing about, but would love to learn about. Fortunately I don't need to master the subject. It's great if I can visit the location, but sometimes it's not possible. I focus my research on the quest for details that will pull the reader into the story and make it believable. I remember a gentleman I corresponded with online who was a train buff and he told me he never watched movies with trains in them because, "they always get it wrong." What I learned from that is never to write for the experts, you won't be able to please them unless you become an expert too! My goal is to do research targeted at telling the story and entertaining the reader.
Moe: How much of your main characters, Daria MacClellan and Josephine Fuller, are in you and the people you have met?
Lynne Murray: I originally started writing mysteries because I kept running into people in the business world whom I dearly wanted to murder. So I did it on paper, using thin disguises of course! That is amazingly therapeutic. I even took requests when a group of co-workers asked me to fictionally murder a manager who laid us all off in a particularly callous way. After I fictionally killed the guy my ex-co-workers asked me to "kill him again." But I had to say no, because I had worked through my issues with the first murder.
My favorite part about creating heroines like Daria MacClellan and Josephine Fuller is that they can use all those snappy remarks that I think of days, months or even years after the critical moment for a witty come-back line has passed. There is a bit of me in all of my characters, the bad ones as well as the heroines, but it's intensified and speeded up for dramatic purposes.
Moe: What has writing about plus size women brought into your life; besides the craziness of the publishing world?
Lynne Murray: In the years since the first Josephine Fuller book, Larger Than Death, came out I have had many touching emails and conversations at events with women who found the books inspiring and encouraging. That is part of the reason for writing these books and I have been most honored to hear about when people enjoy the books and find them in some small way empowering!
Moe: If you had to describe Bride of the Living Dead in one word, what would it be?
Lynne Murray: Can I use a hyphenated word?
"Laugh-out-loud!"
That's the reaction I hope to inspire with Bride of the Living Dead.
Bride of the Living Dead is available from Amazon.com.
