C.E. Murphy's Blog

Those of you who follow me on Bluesky may have seen that I recently discovered Russian (which is to say, Crimean but it was a Russian territory at the time) painter Ivan Aivazovsky.

I may never recover. I don’t think I’ve ever seen water done like he does it. I don’t think I’ve ever felt an artist loved water as much as I feel he must have. It’s so incredible I could vomit.

This particular piece is held privately, which is a shame, but there’s a museum in Feodosiya, Ukraine – a museum which in ...

Recent Reads: A HONEYMOON OF GRAVE CONSEQUENCE by Stephanie Burgis – this is absolutely charming.

I read an advance copy of this second in a series of novellas about Lord Riven, Vampire, and Lady Riven, Scholar, whose situationship we’re introduced to in A MARRIAGE OF UNDEAD CONVENIENCE and continues on now (and hopefully for quite some time after this!). I liked MARRIAGE very much, and HONEYMOON is better: it’s nearly twice as long, and the length helps the story to feel more complete within it...

I know this will come as a surprise to many of you, but I am somewhat competitive by nature.

To wit:

I’ve been moaning for years about needing to get back to swimming. Parenting made it hard, and as that’s eased up some, I suffered a shoulder injury which has now been largely dealt with, but have still been faced with the fundamental difficulty of getting to the pool. We don’t own a car, which means walking or biking to the gym and it’s an hour+ walk from home which is frankly asking a lot befor...

WELL.

In my absence 2 weeks ago, the crew went out to the Evil Overlord’s plantation, where things were going well until they very suddenly weren’t (apparently there was a massive Disguise failure, among other things), and they ended the session with the Evil Overlord ritually killing himself so he could rise again at a time of his own convienence, while also cursing Caliope (whose name, it turns out, is spelled that way, and not how I’ve been spelling it all along) to die within a month if we l...

I was basically just doing this for somebody and decided that it would be fun to actually do it. :D

As those of you who are reading them have presumably figured out by now, all of my shifter romances are in the same universe, so if for some reason you were moved to read the entire universe in order, this is how it currently stands (all links are Amazon affiliate!). :)

RAVEN HEART (Alaska Totem Shifters)

POLAR HEART (Alaska Totem Shifters)

GLADIATOR BEAR (Gladiator Shifters)

GLADIATOR CHEETAH (Gl...

We are in the Ceremony Room of Doom. Calliope and Evelyn, being unavailable this week, have mysteriously disappeared (although they’re technically there). Summerset, being available this week, has appeared in their places (and technically always was). :)

Alice: Is there anything in this room that draws me to it? Any images of my queen?

Summerset: WHEN DID ALICE BEGIN TO REFER TO HER AS ‘MY’ QUEEN?

Me: In the past session or so?

Summerset: THIS SEEMS VERY BAD.

DM: There is something that draws yo...

I’ve finished the first 7 lessons in this YOU CAN DRAW IN 30 DAYS book, which has taken me through basic shapes and basic shading, and I’ve done some of the line work exercises from my Udemy drawing course. The next section in the “Learn to Draw in 100 Hours” project is basically… “practice that,” followed by some basic perspective stuff.

According to my very rough breakdown of the project, hours 10-20 on this thing are shading & basic perspective, so I’m going to kind of aim for a combination o...

I’m having a lot of thoughts about this art project thing, thoughts which are currently full of enthusiasm, vim, and vigor, because I’ve only done two days of it and am not yet bored with having to work on my fucking perspective again, which is an attitude I expect to smash up against Quite Soon.

But. Like. It occurred to me to ask myself, last night, “What is it I want to get out of this project?” which you have to admit is probably a pretty good question. And the answer is a sort of vague ball...

Recent Reads: Fluke by Brian Klaas – an interesting nonfiction book about the power of chance in our lives which does itself a considerable disservice in the final (pre-conclusion) chapter.

The basic premise of this book isn’t one the author had to sell me on: that the entire world functions on more sheer chance than most of us want to admit. He makes a good case for this, then discusses the flaws of the social sciences in how they dismiss it, though with thoughtful and non-accusatory commentary...

When last we saw our heroes, they were returning from a side trip to Memphis. In our absence, Teddy, Freddy, Evelyn and Calliope had a side adventure and then went out and got properly smashed at a drag king club, the name of which is escaping me, somewhere in Cairo. This all went as well as you could possibly imagine, and they returned incredibly hung over.

Teddy and Dr Willie Preston met for the first time. It was most excellent. Tragically, they then parted ways, Teddy to nurse a headache and...