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10 Questions: Emily Murdoch
Sum up your book in three words.
Love Saves Us.
Where did the initial idea come from?
I was watching a news show really late and night about David and Sean Goldman. David Goldman was married to a Brazilian national who took their 4-year-old son to Brazil on vacation and never brought him back and he didn’t get his son back for 4 ½ years. It broke my hear to think of having a child out in the world not knowing if they’re okay and missing that much of their life. And I couldn’t get the story out of my mind and I thought I could write a story about a girl who’s abducted and then reunited with her father as well being introduced to modern technology and I knew I would enjoy looking out of her eyes at all these things we take for granted.
Where did the title come from?
The first title was The Patron Saint of Beans, and they were OK with the title but were afraid the word saint would come across wrong. With my first book, I wanted it to be a title I came up with so I came up with a list of about a hundred titles and If You Find Me was the last of about a hundred and we all finally agreed. I’m a little looser now about it but with your first book it’s your stuff and everyone wants to edit and change it but you realise this is a give and take and everyone has a hand and a part. You can’t just have someone love your book, it has to sell too and you have to trust your publisher’s expertise.
What's your writing routine?
I run a small animal sanctuary, rescuing horses from slaughter so I take care of them during the day and I write when things come up but for me writing really starts at 10 or 11 o’clock at night and I write until about 4.30 or 5 in the morning because during the day somebody usually needs me and at night it sort of feels like the whole world’s mine.
Which book do you wish you'd written?
Can I change it to a movie? Anything by Nora Ephron.
What's your favourite word in the English language?
Deciduous.
Who's your favourite fictional character?
Anne Frank, Sara Crewe from A Little Princess, Mary Lennox from A Secret Garden. Girls like that – strong heroines that don’t give up, fight back and take the bad things and turn them around.
What was your favourite book as a child?
The Diary of Anne Frank, A Little Princess, The Secret Garden and I loved the Little House series. Little Women, Anne of Green Gables – I love Anne, love her. She’s another strong character from a hard background.
What book are you recommending to everyone at the moment?
Far From You by Tess Sharpe, Canary by Rachele Alpine and I’m dying to read Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick. And I’m part of a group of debut authors called The Lucky 13s and these girls are super-talDebut YA ented, a bunch of authors finding our way through and supporting each other.
What do books and reading mean to you?
I could not imagine a world without books, they open up the entire world to you. I have learned about myself from book, I like to see characters overcoming obstacles, it’s nice to see in a book that things can be bad but it’s just temporary, you can work to make things better. Books make you use your imagination, it’s doorways into all these world. I love things that make you see the world in a new way and expands your mind.
