About
Lynne Murray knew she wanted to write a novel featuring a fat heroine with a take-no-prisoners attitude when the book hit the wall. She threw the novel she was reading when she reached a page where the book's heroine sneers at a fat character. It was one fat joke too many. She had to do something.
She wasn't sure how to create a fat fictional character who refused to be ignored or disrespected. It turned out that what she had to do was become a self-accepting woman of size in the process of writing about one.
Larger Than Death, the first book in the mystery series featuring Josephine Fuller, a sleuth of size who doesn't apologize, won the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) Distinguished Achievement Award.
In Bride of the Living Dead, she set out to write a romantic comedy about love and marriage. She conjured up a rebellious, plus-sized heroine whose idea of dressing up is wearing a monster movie T-shirt and jeans to go to the movies. Yet Bride of the Living Dead finds heroine Daria MacClellan trapped into a formal wedding with her anorexic, perfectionist older sister planning the whole thing.
Murray's humorous short pieces have appeared in magazines and newspapers. Many of these articles, including an interview with Darlene Cates, star of What's Eating Gilbert Grape, are available on her website at www.lmurray.com. She is also a regular contributor to the Body Impolitic blog.
Murray went to San Francisco to go to college and ended up staying. She received a B.A. in psychology from San Francisco State University. The city is the setting for Bride of the Living Dead and has been the setting for most her her fiction since her first book, Termination Interview, was published in 1988.
Murray shares an apartment with a small group of extremely mellow cats, who are all either rescued or formerly feral.
Description
<p><strong><em>Have you ever awoken from a vivid dream and wondered which side of waking was real?</em></strong></p><p>Burt Higgins' retirement is not going well. His children have grown, and his wife has gone off to earn a late-life degree, leaving him alone in his sprawling suburban home. With too much time on his hands, he broods on the state of the world, obsessively following the worst of cable news and the Internet. Increasingly angry at the state of affairs, he nurtures a fantasy that a dark lord from another realm has foisted these problems on humankind. If only he could transport to that world, he'd confront the demon and use the magic found there to defeat the beast and end despair forever.</p><p>On a particularly bad news day, while housebound in the midst of a snowstorm, he retreats to his study to shut out the world and immerse himself in his books. When, on a whim, he lights a candle purchased in an obscure Prague curiosity shop, a magical guide appears and offers to take him on whatever quest he chooses. When he asks to become a hero in a fantasy realm, he discovers a more complex world than he expected, and battling evil with magic turns out to be far from his greatest challenge.</p><p><strong>EVOLVED PUBLISHING PRESENTS</strong> a specualtive fantasy adventure sure not just to entertain you, but to make you consider your life, your dreams, your goals. [DRM-Free]</p><h2><strong>Books by David Litwack:</strong></h2><ul><li><em>Along the Watchtower</em></li><li><em>The Daughter of the Sea and the Sky</em></li><li><em>The Time That's Given</em></li><li><em>The Children of Darkness</em> (The Seekers - Book 1)</li><li><em>The Stuff of Stars</em> (The Seekers - Book 2)</li><li><em>The Light of Reason</em> (The Seekers - Book 3)</li></ul><h2><strong>More Great Fantasy Fiction from Evolved Publishing:</strong></h2><ul><li><em>The Awakening of David Rose</em> (David Rose #1) by Daryl Rothman</li><li><em>Shadow Swarm</em> by D. Robert Pease</li><li><em>Kingdom in Chains</em> by J.W. Zulauf</li><li>The "Grims' Truth" Series by Isu Yin & Fae Yang</li></ul><p> </p>
Story Behind The Book
Lynne knew she wanted to write a novel featuring a fat heroine with a take-no-prisoners attitude when the book she was reading hit the wall. She threw the novel when she reached a page where the book's heroine sneers at a fat character. It was one fat joke too many. She had to do something.
Larger Than Death, the first book in Murray's mystery series featuring Josephine Fuller, a sleuth of size who doesn't apologize, won the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) Distinguished Achievement Award. Three other Josephine Fuller novels followed before the publisher (St. Martin's Minotaur) decide not to continue the series.
Murray wonders if her books who sell better if they had a lower fat content. But she can't write books in which all the characters are thin. She doesn't live in a world like that, and the idea of such a narrow range of humanity saddens her. It doesn't exist in any reality outside of television, movies, and possibly concentration camps.
"My friends and neighbors and the people I love and hate come in all sizes," Murray says. "In my fictional world, at least some of the fat characters have to stand up and face the issues that real fat people deal with every day of our lives."
And that's what the heroine of her new romantic comedy novel, Bride of the Living Dead, does.
When Murray set out to write a romantic comedy about love and marriage, she conjured up a rebellious, plus-sized heroine whose idea of dressing up is wearing a monster movie T-shirt and jeans to go to the movies. Yet when indie film critic Daria MacClellan meets her match, her wedding is hijacked by family drama and she finds herself heading for a formal wedding planned by Sky, her perfectionist, anorexic older sister. Dara adores her fiance and loves horror films, but her wedding seems to be spiraling out of control. Will the spectre of a picture-perfect pink -- or periwinkle -- wedding turn her into the Bride of the Living Dead?
Murray is thrilled to be working with Pearlsong Press, a niche publisher featuring body positive fiction and nonfiction with a particular emphasis on Health At Every Size. Bride of the Living Dead is being published in original trade paperback and ebook format in June 2010.
Reviews
"Jane Austen meets the Marx Brothers. Lynne Murray has written a delightful comedy of manners with impeccable politics."<br /><br /><strong>Laurie Toby Edison</strong><br />Photographer, <em>Women En Large: Images of Fat Nudes<br /><br /></em>"Anyone needing a laugh-out-loud romance full of lovable and real people need look no further."<br /><br /><strong>Margaret Vickers<br /></strong>BookWomanUnbound.blogspot.com<br /><br />"From the start you will find yourself cheering for Daria as she overcomes hurdles such as a control-freak sister, his and her stalkers, and her own nagging self doubt, to marry her beloved Oscar. <em>Bride of the Living Dead</em> is a fun read about love, friendship, and being true to yourself."<br /><br /><strong>Sue Ann Jaffarian</strong><br />Author of the Odelia Grey mysteries & The Ghost of Granny Apples mystery series<br /><br />"<em>Bride of the Living Dead</em> is an irresistible comedy that's got it all: a big, beautiful, witty heroine, true love, scary stalkers, reluctant in-laws and monster movie magic. Buy it, read it, laugh out loud and enjoy the heartfelt love story."<br /><br /><strong>Jaqueline Girdner<br /></strong>author of the Kate Jasper & Cally Lazar mystery series<br /><br />"In Lynne Murray's fabulous version of romance, lovers find true pleasure in all body sizes and shapers, wedding dresses are altered to fit the happy bride's body (not bride made to fit brocade) and readers feast on smart detail and smarter dialogue."<br /><br /><strong>Marilyn Wann</strong><br />Author of <em>FAT!SO? Because You Don't Have to Apologize for Your Size</em>
