lynnemurray

I’m happy to be the featured author at Books2Heart, thanks to Tallulah Grace for promoting indie authors and publishers!

http://www.books2heart.com/lynne-murray/

Suspense, action, laughter and some chills combine in The Falstaff Vampire Files. Award-winning author Lynne Murray introduces Sir John Falstaff, undead and misbehaving in San Francisco. The heroine, skeptic Kris Marlowe, doesn’t believe in vampires, but when she’s attacked by a horde of murderous monsters, she must seek help from Sir John Falstaff, the most famous rogue in history, who once drank ale and now drinks only blood

Yay! A new review of The Falstaff Vampire Files at The Vampire Librarian!
Jan 22, 2011
New Vampire Books: The Falstaff Vampire Files
Title: The Falstaff Vampire Files
Author: Lynne Murray
Release: September 2011
Pages: 282
Genre: Urban Vampire

It starts with The Thing in the Shed – and the files we get to read in the package. Kristen Marlow is a therapist, she views herself as someone who is “sane for a living”, but things have been revealed to her that leaves her with that identity in question.

And so we begin to follow the clues left behind, the digital tape recorders, handwritten notes and typed case files. They are the remnants that reveal the chaos left behind when Kristen encounters something that in the end changes not only her own life, but the lives of those around her irrevocably.

It all centers around Hal, a somewhat mysterious but in the end selfish man whose need for power sends him and those around him into places they should never have ventured. Then there is Mina, innocent and just looking to find love. Unfortunately she finds something far darker, and far more dangerous. The twists and turns of the plot take us to unforeseen places, to organizations in the shadow and to knowledge of beings that have dwelt amongst us for centuries, unseen and unknown.

Lynne Murray does a fine job of leading us down a somewhat familiar path, the concept of the “found diary” by in the end showing us more than just notes on paper. The journey is enticing, mostly because the main characters have enough depth to them that you truly want to know what happens. Sir John Falstaff, the charming vampire that is the catalyst for the action in the story, is brought in well into the story and brings a new take on an old tale. His is the story I am most interested in, and I am hoping Murray will consider telling us more of the charming rogue. His story of how he met Shakespeare alone makes the story worth reading!

To tell too much of the story would take away from some of the charm of discovery that makes this story work so well. Suffice to say, if you are someone who likes urban vampire tales with a humorist twist, you will enjoy The Falstaff Vampire Files.

~~~
Sometimes it seems like reviews come in by slow, suspenseful drip, but for me each one is cause for celebration!~~~Lynne

Pearlsong Press has now reissued Large Target, the second Josephine Fuller mystery. The plot features a slain defense contractor, a kidnapped admiral and a world-class dysfunctional family that may not want him back.

Large Target is starting the year as a Kindle Lending Library selection available for borrowing by those in that program, or for sale as a Kindle book or paperback. This experiment reminds me, as the book itself does, of my father's approach to life. He was a research psychologist who worked with the military, but experimenting and storytelling were his preferred modes of interaction. It was a "right stuff" kind of approach like the pilots "trying A, trying B, trying C"...even when going down in flames. Not that I'm planning to go down in... never mind.

Preparing the book for reissue I remembered that it was also the last book of mine that my father read (in manuscript) and the subject matter owed a lot to his military and Defense Department lore.

I can only ever borrow that attitude, but I had fun doing it. It was also great while writing it to have an excuse to call him up and ask about fun things like radio tracking devices, Red Eye and Stinger missiles, radar jamming and all kinds of military culture stuff. I still have some pages from paperback thrillers he sent me on authentic descriptions of explosive devices in action.

Like the internet, my father didn't seem to ever sleep (I think he catnapped) so any time was an okay time to call. He died just before Larger Than Death came out, but he got to see the Advance Reader copy and knew it was dedicated to him.

In a way Sir John Falstaff was an early pioneer of fat activism, although one thing that gets lost in all the laughter is that Shakespeare painted him as a disillusioned veteran soldier reduced to crashing in taverns and mooching off whomever was handy. I think this career description has more to do with vampires than it appears on the surface. I've discussed why briefly on the Body Impolitic blog--link below--and I am so happy to see the cover of my new book, The Falstaff Vampire Files, right over there on the right-hand column of Body Impolitic!

Part of the inspiration for the book was a Bay Area activist for fat men, who liked my mysteries featuring, Josephine Fuller, sleuth of size, but who wanted to see more fat men as well as fat women in fiction. Somehow that idea and the desire to write a vampire book inspired the thought that Sir John Falstaff, perhaps the most famous fat rogue and con man in literature would make an excellent vampire. After all vampires live outside the mainstream of normal human life, and have to reinvent themselves constantly to survive. Who better to do that than a confirmed con man?
More at The Falstaff Vampire Files on Body Impolitic

I posted some thoughts about disclaimers on the Body Impolitic Blog, why we need them, how infrequently we read them, and how it would help to heed them.,

Life in the Disclaimer Lane.

Today a 5-minute interview at Quills and Zebras! Here's how it starts:
5 Minute Monday: Lynne Murray

Posted on October 3, 2011 by A.M. Harte

Lynne Murray writes fast-moving books with fun and funny adventures featuring life-sized heroines. She admits to have a slightly rebellious streak when it comes to storytelling, and has written romantic comedies, vampire romps, and mysteries, offering an antidote to modern society’s view that heroines only come in size zero packages.

Describe yourself in one tweet (140 characters).

LM: I’ve loved books since before I could read, and I aim to empower and entertain with large as life characters, fun and funny stories.

Tell us about The Falstaff Vampire Files. What’s it about, and where did the idea come from?

LM: The book is about Sir John Falstaff–undead and misbehaving in San Francisco–mainly told from the viewpoint of Kristin Marlowe, a psychologist who starts out being skeptical about the very existence of vampires.

When I started to think about writing a vampire book I wondered what a real life psychologist would think if one of her clients talked about vampires.
.... more at
http://quillsandzebras.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/lynne-murray-interview/

I was recently discussing with a friend I’ve known for 40 years what it is that makes life worth living. In my case, I listed few of the usual things that people rely on at my time of life. I could say with absolute certainty that knowing what I want to do, doing what I want to do makes me happy. Joining in with people I admire to help people learn to respect and accept themselves and their bodies as they are makes me happy.
more at We happy few...

Some thoughts on new tools to fight persistent enemies at Body Impolitic
http://laurietobyedison.com/discuss/?p=5717

I posted over on Body Impolitic about an interactive site for sharing pictures, sizes, weights of actual, non-professional model women. The stories that accompany the images provided an illuminating snapshot of the sadness women of all sizes feel about our own bodies.
What Does Size [Fill in the Blank] Look Like?

I've been a fan of Andrew Fox since Fat White Vampire Blues came out, so I was glad to hear that he had returned to the web here: http://www.fantasticalandrewfox.com/ after a Hurricane-Katrina-induced hiatus.

Today, I checked in on his blog and found he's been posting on a wealth of topics as diverse as: mom & pop stores in Manassas, Virginia; his vintage laptop collection mania; the implications of Borders Bookstores closing; Civil War reenactments; George Alec Effinger’s short fiction; Jewish vampires; the end of NASA manned flights; the origin of his Jules Duchon vampire character; and etc., and etc.

The fun thing about Andrew Fox's writing is the depth of thought combined with the wildness of his flights of fantasy and humor. It will take time to explore all this, but I'm looking forward to it.