All this stuff is copyrighted only because I remember writing it. The debate's still going on about the internet and "first rights". I've shrugged my shoulders and wondered and worried too much about creating this site and now decided it's a moot point. In the meantime, get cozy and enjoy the reads. If anything strikes my career dead before they're published at least I'll have had an audience. Like all writers I'm daily looking for an agent or publisher who'll make me an author. Some pieces of my work have already been read and turned down by the most prestigious agents and publishers alive. I'm not afraid. I suspect Hemingway and Steinbeck went through the same dilemma. I'll wait. Meanwhile, print them out, put your feet up, get cozy.
Enjoy.
SALAMANDERS was 3/15/2005 Martin Noble
has read the book and says this:
"Murphy is a true original: a highly gifted writer steeped in the tradition of Hemingway, Chandler and Elmore Leonard, but with a voice that is distinctively his own - caustic, subtle, and sometimes explosively understated. The novel is a modern noirist thriller of despair and redemption that explores the dark edge of adult violence and its roots in childhood abandonment.
"Salamanders has already attracted praise from Simon & Schuster's ESPwinners for January '97 and AUTHORLINK showcase, which featured Murphy as suspense author of the month. This is a novel and a writer that is crying out to be published, properly.
"We hope we can help." 
Martin
Fletcher (Simon & Schuster) said: "I liked this a lot. Good dialogue
and characters, nice set-up between youthful mischief turning into adult
bloodshed." He voted these initial chapters second place in Purefiction's
Slushpile contest (January) and other chapters honorable mention in May when he wrote " A good, strong piece of writing - slick and impressive
dialogue".
Chapter
one ...After the Fire...
Chapter
two ...The Promise
Chapter
three ...The Kids & The Buddies...
Chapter
four ...The Icehouse
Chapter
five ...A most terrifying business
Chapter
six ...El Yoyo
Chapter
seven ...Pilot
Chapter
eight ...The Wake-Up Call
Chapter
nine ...Odie
Chapter
ten ...Getting Into It
Chapter
eleven ...Along The Suitcase Trail
Chapter
twelve...Freddie...
Chapter
thirteen...The Fox arrives...
Chapter
fourteen...The Fox at the door...
I like writing short stories,
though I worry too much over them to the point they're very slow getting legs. Some have never made it to their feet. And yet I still change them a bit every time I read them, a writer's blessed curse and probably a sign of growing with my toys. Some will eventually make it to an anthology called
I started my notes because I'd already spent a bunch of bucks buying "how-to-write" books and found little value in them for a beginner. They all seemed to be working backwards from the writing to how it got there. That seemed wrong to me, 10 or 20 bucks for a book and I came away from it with maybe one or two sentences I could "plug in".
I was a beginner, a newbie at this writing idea, and couldn't find any books that didn't presume you already knew how to write, so I started The Basement Notes. Seemed a good idea at the time: "Hey! I discovered this today! This is it!" I loved writing them soon as I made a new discovey. I still get excited. A new approach generally means a new short story.
Anyway, somewhere along the line I got crazy about all the melodrama and what I (unfortunately) called "icky" stuff. That's when I got sent down here. You ain't allowed to call melodrama icky. Do not do that in mixed company. I now know that's true. Promise. So here are the
I've not altered them to take my original insolence out. That pride and the folks who critiqued it surely helped write the novel. I've written over 40 of these notes along the way. I've not stopped learning.
This
page and all novel excerpts and short stories in links are
copyright © 2006 Pete Murphy
I'd love to hear your comments. It'll help me
tighten up my work.
Pete