Conversations with Authors

Those of you living along the northern Front Range of Colorado may be interested in Conversations with Authors, a program being put on by the Loveland branch of the AAUW on November 13. I, along with Mark Obmascik and Teresa Funke, will be speaking. The program and luncheon will be from 9:30 am to 2 pm at the Embassy Suites. Tickets cost $50 and can be obtained by calling Doris Wear at 970-663-7710 or emailing her at ethomerson@msn.com. Additional information can be obtained by clicking on this article in the Coloradoan.

Library Time

Thank goodness that most libraries are such comfortable places because I am going to be spending a lot of time in libraries over the next few days. I have two book club discussions on Friday and Monday, and I will be a guest reader at a library opening on Saturday. In case you live in the Denver area, the schedule is:

- Friday, 2/5, 12:30 pm - Mamie Dowd Eisenhower Public Library, 3 Community Park Road, Broomfield, CO.

- Saturday, 2/6, 2:30-4:30 pm - A Celebration of Light, the opening ceremonies for the new Anythink Huron Street Library, 9417 Huron Street, Thornton, CO.

- Monday, 2/8, 6:45 pm - Lafayette Public Library, 775 W Baseline Drive, Lafayette, CO.

If you are able to come to any of those events, please come up and say hello.

Speaking of libraries, the High Plains Library District has done a "Meet the Author" article about me. I am really impressed how Anythink and the HPLD, like so many other libraries, are making a real effort to reach out to their patrons via their webpages, social networking and creative events.

Let Yourself Be Enticed

What does it take to win a reader's heart? An interesting, well-written book? But, of course! Stimulating discussion about the book? It really helps.

Many of you have heard about A Thousand Veils. Are you curious to learn more? What if you could read the first few chapters to get a flavor for the book without having to beg, buy or borrow it? What if you could discuss the book in depth with the author and other readers?

All of this is readily obtainable. The Prologue and first nine chapters of A Thousand Veils are available online on Google Books. I can promise you a lively discussion on Goodreads and Facebook plus some fun contests to add even more spice.

Is this enough to entice you? If so, now is the time to move A Thousand Veils from your to-read list to your currently-reading list.

D J Murphy Discusses His Novel "A Thousand Veils"

Please join me for my New Year's video in which I have an important announcement about "A Thousand Veils."

Book Clubs - An Author's Perspective

Mariana Pointe Book Club -

Loveland, CO

One of the most enjoyable rewards for having written my novel A Thousand Veils comes in the form of book club presentations. What's surprising are the pointed, and at times even impassioned, comments that club members address to me at these meetings. As a writer, I'm obviously pleased by the positive comments. But, with the thickened carapace of a former lawyer and business-school professor, I'm reasonably nonplussed by the negative comments, though I take each one of them to heart. I do relish these exchanges, and I even try to provoke them. In my mind, that's what a book club meeting is all about.

For a writer like me, it’s exhilarating to spend an evening in the company of a dozen or more smart, well-read, and articulate women intent on finding out why I chose a particular plot twist or story line, especially if it concerns a central character, one whom they've grown to admire, trust, and truly care about. Why, they ask, didn’t the novel’s two main characters pursue a more intense physical relationship? How truly “representative” is Fatima of her own religion and culture? What are you really trying to say, they ask pertinently, about Islam and the West? I learn a great deal from these discussions--not the least of which is humility.

I normally begin club meetings by asking each member to express, in a few minutes, her reaction to the book, howsoever unformed, tentative or visceral. In this way, even the quieter members of the club (who often offer the most perceptive comments) get the chance to be heard, and, I, as the ersatz moderator, get the chance to hear these comments, to come back to them, to weave them into the fabric of the meeting, and, by all means, to give them their proper due. In almost every member's comments, there's at least the kernel of a fresh idea that bears teasing out. And so, as the meeting unfolds, we cover the essential elements of the book. It’s a most enjoyable process, for club members and for me.

A few book club meetings ago, an especially amusing moment occurred as I was responding to the perennial question of why, in a work of popular fiction in modern-day America, the two central characters in the novel, deep in a significant emotional relationship, didn't have sex. In fact, I told the club, in the early drafts of the novel (there were 21 in all) there had been no sex scene. A serious oversight, several sage reviewers of the manuscript advised me. An essential part of any piece of contemporary fiction, one informed me. Positively a given, practically formulaic, another added. So, after all that, I did write a few, what I considered, appropriately steamy pages. Rather quite good, I thought. On further reflection, though, and for what I considered very valid reasons, I ultimately decided not to include the scenes in the published version of the book. After I related all this to the attentive book club members (all women, by the way), a hand slowly went up from the back of the room, and the member asked, "Those pages with the sex scenes you didn't put in your book? Well, would you mind emailing them to me?"

As you can gather, women are fearless in these meetings. There is no predicting what they will say, and they will speak their minds. I love it, of course. But if any book club member should be lacking for material for a good question (I frankly can’t imagine it), I’ve developed a list of book club discussion points that I’d be happy to send to anyone emailing me at Veils1000@aol.com. I will also be happy to participate in your book club discussion - in person, if you are in north central Colorado, or by phone or Skype.

Colorado Authors League's 2009 Award for Mainstream Fiction

I am honored that my novel A Thousand Veils has been selected by the Colorado Authors' League, the association of authors and professional writers in Colorado, for its 2009 award in mainstream fiction.