Author turns dream into reality

“Again” began with a dream.

Eight years ago, local author Diane Murdock woke up with the seed of a story in her head. Characters and scenarios visited her unconscious hours, creating an atmosphere that she had to capture on paper. The dreams periodically returned, supplementing and expanding that original idea.

“Those dreams were the original inspiration,” she said. “They basically served as the leaping point for the book.”

 Now, almost a decade later, the fruit of that original inspiration has ripened. Murdock’s first novel “Again” is available for purchase both locally and through major international retailers like Amazon.

The story follows two protagonists, 16th century aristocrat Lady Catherine and modern woman Erin Rexford, whose lives are suspiciously similar. Both lead lives of privilege in all respects except one — their marriages. They are content to tolerate passionless lives until both are confronted with the chance for real romance. The novel explores themes of karma, true love and unresolved issues in past lives impacting current ones, Murdock said.

“I’m a strong believer in the ideas of karma and what goes around comes around,” Murdock said. “So those were natural ideas to put into the story.”

As the inspirational dreams continued, Murdock shaped them into a conventional narrative, embellishing nuance and suggestion into legitimate plot points and adding in a healthy dose of her own experience.

“I think that every writer puts a lot of their own emotions and perspective into their work,” Murdock said. “It played an important role in shaping the story.”

Murdock continued to develop the narrative over the years, writing bits and pieces when she had the time. Between her work in medical transcription and her responsibilities as a mother and wife, however, she was hard-pressed for time. Even so, she increased the rate of her work, rising early to write for a few hours before heading to work, and then returning to more writing. 

Upon completing her manuscript in October and starting the editing process, Murdock began contemplating the various means of distributing her novel.         

“From what I read in blogs and on Internet, everyone really seemed to stress finding an agent and going through a publisher,” she said.

But many publishers won’t even consider work that isn’t delivered through an agent, and agents are swamped with requests for representation. The few rejection letters that Murdock actually received informed her that her book, “wasn’t for me.”

“That’s when I realized that these agents and publishers essentially dictated what people would read,” she said. “They would look at sales figures and trends and if you didn’t fit into that, you got rejected.”

Murdock’s husband Cory, meanwhile, had suggested she look into self-publishing. After doing some research, she liked what she found.

“Self-publishing gives you complete control over your product,” she said. “I can go back to the book, revise it as much as I want and control its marketing, whereas with a publisher, once they have it, it’s completely out of your hands.”

To expand public awareness of her novel, Murdock sent it out for review in various publications. She also used sites like Good Reads and Library Thing, where readers could download the book for free in exchange for a review. Thus far, she’s happy with the book’s sales, particularly for the e-reader platform. But she expects business to improve over the next year.

“It’s just a matter of getting the book more exposure,” she said.

Murdock, however, isn’t one to rest on the merits of a single novel. She’s halfway through the first draft of a young adult paranormal novel, a genre that served the author of a certain vampire series quite well. In addition, is collaborating on another women’s fiction novel and forming the story to a young adult fantasy story. A children’s book with illustrations by Slingin’ Ink Tattoo’s Richard Cliffton completes her journey through fiction’s age group markets. Eventually, she aims to pursue her writing full-time and hopes that “Again’s” expanding readership will advance that goal.

“I’m very grateful for those that have read the book already,” she said, “and I appreciate anyone who decides to give it a chance.”