(In which Lee Murray crashes my blog. )

Who are you and what do you write?

My name is Lee Murray, and I’m author-editor, essayist, screenwriter, and poet from Aotearoa-New Zealand. A USA Today bestselling author, I’ve been lucky enough to win more than two dozen national and international awards, mostly for horror and speculative fiction, among them the Shirley Jackson, the Bram Stoker, Australian Shadows, and Sir Julius Vogel Awards. Over the past fifteen years, I’ve written in multiple genres, for most age groups, and in various formats, but discovering horror was a turning point for me. Horror feels like a grown-up genre, a space to confront the unspeakable, to look those monsters in the eye and reckon with them, and these days there is plenty that scares me. There’s the fall-out of climate change coming ever closer, with my own country ravaged by Cyclone Gabrielle earlier this year, the explosive impact of AI on our creative industries, poverty, women’s rights, cultural tension, war… I feel at some point all writers will tend towards horror, because honest, authentic, powerful writing is sourced from a desire to explore the human condition and those forces that make us who we are. And fear, as our basest and most primitive emotion, is fundamental in shaping the way we think and act, both as individuals and as a society. As a genre horror is subversive, transgressive, progressive, immersive, inclusive, and transformative. Quite frankly, horror is the new black.

Tell us about your new book release.

Thanks so much for asking! Thanks to the UK’s PS Publishing and award-winning author-editor Marie O’Regan, my newest release is a WWI cosmic horror novella, which will form part of the press’s 2023 Absinthe Books imprint under a gorgeous Greg Chapman cover. An epistolary account by newsman Cassius Elgin Smythe, Despatches covers the unspeakable events which took place during the Allies clash with the Ottoman Empire on the Dardanelle Peninsula in 1915. The work was conceived around the time the war in Ukraine broke out, in a work-in-progress discussion with writing colleagues Angela Yuriko Smith and Maxwell Ian Gold, with each of us trying to make sense of world events through our writing, Smith using her Shimanchu-American heritage to examine colonization, diaspora, and changing identity in Inujini: Battle of Okinawa, while Gold was opening old wounds with a cosmic approach to the holocaust in I am Someday (both forthcoming).  My own story addresses one of the bloodiest campaigns in New Zealand’s history and was inspired by and dedicated to my adoptive grandfather, Len Nicklin, a member of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force who served at Anzac Cove and later on the Western Front at the Somme, France.

Response to the work has been wonderful, including this kind endorsement from Australian speculative writer Alistair Hodge, author of titles such as The Cavern and Empire of Blood and Sand:

“Death, disfigurement, and disease prowl the battlelines Gallipoli, slaughtering men in their thousands. But soon there will be more to fear than the enemy. Within the fetid trenches and freezing coastal waters, an ancient evil will be drawn to the chaos. Blending fact and fiction, Despatches leaves the reader with a distinct feeling of unease and sorrow. Another masterful tale from Lee Murray.” —Alister Hodge, Aurealis Award and Australasian Shadows Award finalist.

And this one by multiple Bram Stoker Award®-nominee Anna Taborska:

“Multi-award-winning author Lee Murray skilfully combines history, horror and Māori mythology to create a gripping tale that will slither its way into your imagination, there to make its dark, abiding lair.”—Anna Taborska, author of Bloody Britain and For Those Who Dream Monsters

I’m so excited for the release of this one. For this text, as well as the usual print run, Absinthe will be doing a limited edition signed hardback of just 100 copies, so I hope readers will look to pick up a copy of that collectible edition.

What are you currently reading?

I’m currently reading Root Rot and Other Grim Tales, a horror collection by Sarah Read, an upcoming title from publisher Doug Murano at Bad Hand Books, who kindly offered me a sneak peek. Horror lovers are going to want to put this one on their to-read list. A Bram Stoker Award-winning novelist, Read also excels at the short form, her work mining universal themes and familiar tropes in unique and chilling ways. Take “The Hope Chest”, for example, in which an abused child finds solace in imaginary play. It’s a frank and freakish look at generational trauma with an even darker twist, and the first of 18 emotionally eviscerating tales in the volume. “Skydivers” is another. At once gritty and also whimsical, this visionary short story resonated for me with its stunning worldbuilding and its message of hope, which is, of course, the point of all horror. I’m confident we will see this book on upcoming award lists.

Tell us about your writing spot.

My husband and I both work from home, sharing an office overlooking a cow paddock in the sunny Bay of Plenty—which is just over the hill from Hobbiton. Our desks face one another in the style of Victoria & Albert, only, as a software engineer, his screen is huge. It is truly enormous—115cm x 37cm—and I suspect his intent is to block me out! He complains that I talk to my characters while I’m writing too, and given I write horror, it can be disconcerting. We also share the office with our dog Bella, a Jack-Tsu, who has her own bed, but prefers the office sofa, the armchair, any spot in the sun, and also the gap between my back and my office chair.

What’s on your writing bucket list?

I’ve been lucky enough to have been welcomed to the horror table, and because of the horror community’s generosity already so many of my bucket-list dreams have come true: publication, commissions, translations, invites to panels and festivals, and award recognition. I’ve had the chance to meet some writing heroes, mentor horror’s new wave of creatives, and as an editor, I’m frequently entrusted with other people’s work, which is a special privilege. I’m surrounded by wonderful readers and writers, with some folks even naming me as their favourite writer—I can’t tell you how much that means to me. These things sustain me through a barrage of rejections and other industry disappointments because writing, and being a writer, is hard. Of course I’d love a lucrative writing grant, or a fat advance, a chance at a big publisher, interest from a major literary agent, the opportunity to see my books adapted to the screen, perhaps even a Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud ballet one day. But mostly, I want to keep writing, and maybe one day achieve that once-in-lifetime narrative that touches readers everywhere and truly makes a difference.

Who do you think are up and coming writers to watch?

I’d love to give a shout-out to my Kiwi speculative and horror colleagues, who do not get nearly enough attention, and I’m proud to announce that Remains to be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa (1 October 2023 from Clan Destine Australia) brings together stories and poems from some of my favourite dark fiction from my compatriots, including Dan Rabarts, Kirsten McKenzie, Celine Murray, Kathryn Burnett, Helena Claudia, Marty Young, Gina Cole, William Cook, Del Gibson, Paul Mannering, Tim Jones, Denver Grenell, Bryce Stevens, Debbie Cowens, Lee Murray, Jacqui Greaves, Tracie McBride, and Nikky Lee. Featuring uncanny disturbances, death, and the dank breath of the native bush, Remains to be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa is mired in the shifting landscape of the long white cloud, and deeply imbued with the myth, culture, and character of Aotearoa-New Zealand, and comprising intrigue, suspense, horror, and even a touch of humour.

Remains to be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa includes a foreword by six-time Bram Stoker Awards®-winner and former HWA President Lisa Morton, a Neil Gaiman poem (Gaiman currently lives in in New Zealand) and iconic short story “Coming Home in the Dark” by Owen Marshall, now the subject of a much-acclaimed James Ashcroft feature film. I hope readers will check it out, gain some insight into our unique Kiwi approach to horror, and perhaps discover a new author.

What do you have coming down the pipeline?

Other than Despatches and Remains to be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa, there is Under Her Eye (co-edited with Lindy Ryan) a women-in-horror poetry anthology in support of the Pixel Project to raise awareness about increasing violence towards women and girls through literature, and discourse. From Black Spot Books, the anthology will be released in November 2023 under a stunning Lynne Hansen cover. Coming next year are two fox spirit narratives: feature film, GRAFTED, directed by Bafta-nominated director Sasha Ranbow, which I had a hand in co-writing, and Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud, a narrative prose-poetry collection which recently won the NZSA Laura Solomon Cuba Press Prize, will be published in March. Plus, I’m expecting My Gypsy Life Productions’ Madness & Writers team to pop in and visit me down under, where I’ll be a guest on their documentary series investigating the secret lives of horror writers.

Quick-fire answers:

Oxford comma? Yes.

Pantser or plotter? Mostly pants, with a bit of plot.

Paper or digital? Story—any way it comes.

Advice to younger writers. Don’t wait until you’re as old as me.

Advice to older writers. It’s never too late.

On writing communities. Come over to the dark side!

What’s your ambrosia? A book, a beach, and a long Kiwi summer.

Lee Murray is a multi-award-winning author-editor, essayist, poet, and screenwriter from Aotearoa-New Zealand. A USA Today Bestselling author, Shirley Jackson- and five-time Bram Stoker Awards® winner, she is an NZSA Honorary Literary Fellow, a Grimshaw Sargeson Fellow, and 2023 NZSA Laura Solomon Cuba Press Prize winner. leemurray.info

Website: https://www.leemurray.info/

https://www.pspublishing.co.uk/despatches-hardcover-by-lee-murray-6119-p.asp

Remains to be Told