Micki Murphy well known Las Vegas vocalist, has toured all over the world with her band and as a solo act for decades. When in 2005 she released her album “In my mind” it was no surprise, but when last year she came up as a fiction novelist she amazed more than one. “Fire & Desire” inspired from her own story, is available in book stores, online and is now in path to become a major motion picture. Let’s have a conversation with the author.
Lotus Road Journal: Everybody know you as an amazing performer and vocalist but how did you became a writer?
Micki Murphy: Well, I always wrote poetry. I was very shy when I was a child, didn’t have a lot of friends and writing was the easiest way I found to express myself, my feeling and emotions…When I was about 17, I met someone who had written for television and I told him I wanted to write. He gave me a lot of great advises and one of those was to keep writing whatever the mistakes I could do, just to write. I kept this advise in my mind and never stopped to write.
LRJ: Fire & Desire is your first published novel. How long did it took you to write it?
MM: Actually writing the book was the fastest, I finished all the writing in six months and a half. The writing process was emotionally intense for me, because of the diary where it came from. This diary were I kept all my deepest secrets, was a memory temple for me, especially because of what’s happened. So sometimes, I could find myself laughing and sometimes totally in tears. But I just couldn’t stop to write, I could spend the all day and night writing, it was just flowing.
LRJ: Did you received interest from editors straight away after that?
MM: Not exactly. To find an editor was the hardest part. There is different type of editors, and I had to do an incredible amount of research to find the right one. This is not an easy task and hard to get in touch with them at first, there is a protocol to follow in order to make sure they will receive and read your manuscript. Some publishing houses would not give you an appointment if you are not represented by a literary agent, they don’t talk directly to author, they may request to get your manuscript in a specific format also, with a certain amount of pages…etc…well all of that took me about a year and a half. And then, I had to have it edited at least four times and this is not cheap. The first editor changed it so drastically, that the story was not credible anymore. And this is important to choose the right person who will do the editing, especially for a romantic novel where there is a lot of dialogues between the characters, the authenticity must remain.
LRJ: The story is based on true events, are those events directly linked to your life?
MM: Yes, this is based on my own story. I had someone in my life who has been murdered and i had to go through that experience, to deal with the district attorney, answered questions…etc… but of course in the book there are embellishments, it has been fictionalized on all the characters. There are similarities with people who are in my life, but the names have been changed and it has been fictionalized, just to make it more exciting. At first i was a bit concerned, because in several parts of the book this is very graphic and i felt a bit uncomfortable about that. It was originally a diary, my privacy, so i used a fake name at the beginning and after a while just thought that it was ridiculous, i was an adult and i had to be proud of it!
LRJ: I heard than Major movie companies are interested in your story. Could you tell us more about that?
MM: There is currently three major movie companies who have my book in hands now and are interested to turn my novel in a motion picture. So this is very exciting especially because they are major movie labels!!
LRJ: Could you tell us which companies?
MM: Well one of those is outside of New York and the two other are in LA….but this is a long process because there is so many other manuscripts submitted and it has to have what they call “movie potential”. And it does, this is funny, romantic, mysterious, some people still e-mail me to ask if Ron is still alive! At this point i’am even considering to write a second part.
LRJ: If it happen is there some specific actors you would like to play the roles?
MM: Well, I’d like to have Denzel Washington to play the ex-boyfriend, because he was so tall and handsome.
LRJ: Would you like to play Laura?
MM: I think i’d prefer to play “me” as i’am now, i haven’t think who i’d like to play the younger me (smile).
LRJ: Is there more books to come?
MM: I’am already working on the next one. It is almost half completed. Will be different of this one….(smile).
“Fire & Desire” is available in book stores and online.
© Interview done by TREBEKA.
