Derryl Murphy interview

April 1st 2007 at 6:36 am

Derryl Murphy is running for SFWA vice president, but a year ago, he was one of a handful of authors I interviewed and never got their interviews up. Here is Derryl answering the infamous five questions:

My collection Wasps at the Speed of Sound was released in 2005 to very favorable critical notice. I’ve had stories in RoF, On Spec (where I’m a former fiction editor and currently the Art Director, which I think explains why we have the coolest covers in the biz), Northern Suns, Fantastic Companions, and a whole batch of other mags and anthos. “Mayfly,” co-written with Peter Watts for last year’s Tesseracts 9, will be in Gardner Dozois’ Year’s Best Science Fiction. I blog at http://derrylmurphy.blogspot.com/

Who -is- Derryl Murphy, really?

The funny thing is, who I really am is different to different people. I’m a wise-ass, I’m an athlete, I’m a bookish geek, I’m an easy-going dad; hell, I’m even a blue collar worker. I guess mostly what I am is devoted, as a spouse and as a friend.

-Why write? Videogames and TV are much more fun, aren’t they?

Well, me and videogames, we don’t connect all that well. I knew my days were numbered when my 7-year-old thumped me in Crash Bandicoot on the third try. As for TV, my wife and I do have several favorite shows, and I also have certain sporting events I love to watch. But with sports, I can also write.

My writing is an imperative, something I have to do. I know that sounds trite and cliched, but it’s true. But I also write because I want to make money at this game. I’m not so foolish to be convinced that I’ll be able to do this for a living, seeing how most writers I know have other jobs. Sure, lightning can strike, and with hard work, craftsmanship, and a whole lotta luck, maybe I’ll get to that point. But in the meantime, there’s a load of stuff careening around inside my skull, all of it insisting it come out.

Why genre?

It’s what I fell in love with as a youngster, and it’s a great way to take thoughts and ideas about the world today and place them up against a different backdrop, give them a juxtaposition that places them in relief for the reader. It’s not like I’m a Soviet-era writer, hiding criticisms of my government behind metaphor and fable, but much of what I do write is very much aimed at our world today.

If you had to do it all over again, what would you do?

If I wasn’t allowed my family, I probably would have kept my job as a photojournalist, and eventually bit the bullet and headed overseas to some disaster or war zone and attempted to make my name there. And then a random grenade would have snuffed me out a decade ago, so that point is moot, isn’t it?

What warps your writing the most?

What SF poet Sandra Kasturi has called my “sense of loss,” I would guess. And Donna McMahon, in a review of my collection, wondered why I wasn’t swinging from the rafters. And she didn’t mean that she wondered why I wasn’t acting like a monkey. And yet I’m a happy guy.

Do you have a favorite place to write?

My butt. I can write almost anywhere. Let me plug in my headphones and set the iTunes for Shuffle, and I’m rolling.

What’s the most challenging aspect of writing?

For me, it’s working around real life. Noisy, wonderful, demanding boys, a (sometimes) physically taxing job, and a dog that doesn’t like it when I write. She sits and growls at me until I boot her outside, and then when I let her back in she leaves me alone for a while, and then it starts all over again.

What’s the most whacked out thing said in a review of your work?

Oops, I jumped the gun. I would guess it would be the “swinging from the rafters” thing I quoted above. Although Booklist recently called me a “rising sf star,” which amuses me since I was first published in ‘92.

Okay, you’re going to get marooned on an island by a bunch of angry
editors, what one book do you take and why?

Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson, because then I’ll be able to laugh, time and time again.

Is there a book or story you wish you could go back in time and kill
the author of so you could submit their manuscript as your own?

Nope. There are some authors I want to kneecap for other reasons, but never kill. And anyone who wrote something I really admire, I’m indebted to them forever and would not want to take that away.

When I interview you again in 10 years, what will you hope to be
talking to us about?

My son Aidan being picked up by Liverpool FC as their new goalkeeper.

What are your current plans for literary world domination?

I could start my own bogus religion and have my brainwashed lackeys buy up loads of copies of my new books, but that’s just silly; no one would ever be able to do something like that. So instead I think I’ll just write quality work that appeals to lots of people. Maybe even with happy endings sometimes.

Last, but not least, if zombies were spreading throughout the land
by infectious bite what would be your 5 point response?

Vote Democratic. But since I’m not a US citizen, I’m thinking find a home in the countryside, probably nearer the mountains, up high, with a good view of the surrounding land, and be sure to get some pig brains in jars to toss to any zombies who come by, and then blow their heads off while they’re busy engorging themselves.

TB: Derryl, thanks for answering the questions, and please accept my apologies for waiting a whole year before posting your interview!!!

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