{"id":26872,"date":"2020-07-22T16:50:38","date_gmt":"2020-07-22T20:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=26872"},"modified":"2020-07-22T20:38:04","modified_gmt":"2020-07-23T00:38:04","slug":"lee-murray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2020\/07\/22\/lee-murray\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s time for a long-distance lunch and<\/em> dinner with award-winning writer Lee Murray"},"content":{"rendered":"

I should be on my way to Wellington, New Zealand right now to attend CoNZealand<\/a>, the 78th World Science Fiction convention, during which I\u2019d planned to dine with friends and then share our conversations with you. But alas, that’s not happening, and I’m sure I don’t need to explain why.<\/p>\n

But at the urgings of some of my Patreon<\/a> supporters, I’ve decided to break bread anyway with some of the creators I’d intended to record with had I made it there, only with 16 hours and thousands of miles separating us. So last night, I had dinner with writer Lee Murray<\/a>, while she had lunch the following day.<\/p>\n

Lee is a three-time Bram Stoker Awards finalist, and is also New Zealand\u2019s most\u00a0awarded writer and editor of fantastic fiction, having won two Australian Shadows and a dozen Sir Julius Vogel Awards. Her novels include\u00a0The Battle of the Birds<\/em> (2011),\u00a0Dawn of the Zombie Apocalypse<\/em>\u00a0(2019), as well as\u00a0Into the Mist<\/em> (2016),\u00a0Into the Sounds<\/em> (2018),\u00a0Into the Ashes<\/em> (2019), and others. \u00a0\u00a0She’s edited fourteen anthologies, including Baby Teeth: Bite-Sized Tales of Terror <\/em>(2013), Hellhole: An Anthology of Subterranean Terror <\/em>(2018), and others. \u00a0Her first collection, Grotesque: Monster Stories<\/em>, will be published July 24.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We discussed how she crafted her first short story collection, the importance of mentoring our next generation of genre writers, why we’re unlikely to ever go spelunking together, whether she prefers her zombies fast or slow, the unique awards club of which we’re both members, the way her use of New Zealand culture might be perceived differently by readers in and out of her country, the difficulties some seem to have with stories written in the present tense, the thrill of being the first New Zealander to appear in Weird Tales<\/em> magazine, how the experiences of reading aloud The Hobbit<\/em> and The Lord of the Rings<\/em> differ, and much more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how you can eavesdrop on our conversation — <\/p>\n

1) Subscribe at Apple Podcasts<\/a> \u2014 where I hope you’ll check out a few of the 123 previous episodes.<\/p>\n

2) Listen using the RSS feed of http:\/\/eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com\/rss<\/a> on the device of your choice.<\/p>\n

3) Or check it out via the embed below.<\/p>\n