Although he is best known for The Destroyer series he created with Dick Sapir, Warren Murphy's writing career has been marked by amazing versatility that goes far beyond his best-known characters of Remo and Chiun. He has written everything from cartoons and comic books to columns of literary criticism; from traditional "cozy" crime puzzles to comic detectives whose exploits have been called "the funniest mysteries ever written." His credits stretch from New York to Hollywood and his books and short stories have won more than a dozen national awards, including two Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America.

Yeah. Great. So what's he done for us lately?

We went and snatched him off the golf course and forced him to write the following update.

From Warren Murphy:

A funny thing happened to me on my way to literary immortality.
What happened was....aaaaah, never mind; who wants to see a grown man cry? Let's just say that when they get around to writing my obituary, they'll refer to this last decade as "the missing years." (I wasn't really missing; my bartender always knew where I was.)
But that was then; this is now, and as the poet Robert Browning used to say, "You ain't seen nothin' yet."
So here are some of the things that are on tap:
First of all, let's talk about the franchise.
--The Destroyer series:
Gold Eagle has contracts to continue publishing new Destroyer novels for the next four years. But Jim Mullaney, who's been doing them for the last five years or so, will no longer be writing them.
Still, I'm counting on Jim to be making a lot of appearances on these pages. One of the things we've got planned right now is a totally new version of the collector's item, "The Assassin's Handbook." Jim's done most of the work on this one already and it should be available before too long.
One of the neat things about doing The Destroyer over the years has been the intense interest readers have shown in subjects, only lightly touched on in the books. Chiun's childhood and the legends of the Masters, the history of Sinanju, even the fighting techniques. In this area, we're going to answer the readers' interests. We'll be developing new tales of Remo and Chiun and Sinanju and they'll be available here first.
And sort of as a partial payback to all the fans who've stayed with the series this long, I'm going to start doing short story anthologies -- written by Destroyer readers. (Come on, all of you: you always knew you could write Destroyers better than Dick or me or Will Murray or Jim Mullaney or anybody else; this'll be your chance to prove it. And to get your own story published too -- in a real book that you can hold (like I always do) in your sweaty, nervous hands.
-- Other books:
I've begun to develop a new mystery series for another publisher -- maybe in the style of the "Trace" books I used to write. And I'm going to continue writing short stories for various anthologies, and also with the Adams Round Table writing group of which I'm a member.
And, closer to home, as soon as Jim Mullaney is done with his last Destroyer novel, he and I are going to collaborate on a big suspense thriller.
-- And on the publishing front:
Most of the old (pre-Gold Eagle) Destroyers are slowly making their way into electronic publishing, that can be bought and read online or downloaded to palm-type readers, and so too are most of my other backlist books. But the operative word there is "slowly." And that's not a complaint -- it's just that the whole process takes time. Eventually, all those backlist Destroyers and other books will also be available in a real, hold-it-in-your-hand paper format. The operative word there is "eventually."
Frankly, while I truly believe that electronic publishing is a major wave that's going to wash over the publishing shore in the future, the future still isn't here. There's too much potential for theft of the books and the cost of the handheld readers is still too high. It'll come and it'll be magic when it does -- (imagine downloading five books onto one disk and carrying them with you on a gadget about the size of a Gameboy) -- but right about now, no one this side of Stephen King seems able to make a nickel on e-books.
What I'm planning is a new publishing company: Ballybunnion Books.
Our aim will be to start publishing our new Remo/Chiun tales in a traditional paperback format and to sell them through this website and also through the more traditional sources: bookstores, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, for instance.
That'll be just the start. Eventually, it's the goal for Ballybunnion to be a more-or-less mainstream publisher. Obviously, we're not going to be competing with the big boys. St. Martin's and Penguin-Putnam have nothing to worry about...at least not right away. But we hope to publish a lot of interesting books in a broad range of subjects, both fiction and non-fiction. Many of these books will be specialty books, not available anywhere else.
This will all take awhile; it's new territory and I've got to find my way. I hope you'll hang around for the ride.
--Merchandise:
Over the years, readers have often asked about merchandise celebrating the whole legend of Remo and Chiun and Sinanju. Soon we'll be opening "Chiun's Steamer Trunk" -- a one-stop shop with various Destroyer-related items.
--Teaching:
Much of my writing life has been spent teaching, trying to get younger writers ready for publication, and one of the things I've missed most in the last handful of years has been the classroom. So this fall, I'm going to start a small writing school in the Virginia Beach area where I live. At first, I'll offer a block of workshop-style classes in writing the commercial novel, and later I hope to do the same for the short story, and perhaps, for screenplays. Enrollments are going to be limited to only about a dozen writers at a time. For those who'll do it my way, I'll guarantee publication. That's right: guarantee. When I'm ready to go, I'll let you know about it here.
Summing up:
That's just a small glancing overview...so much to do, so little time.
Can I get back to the golf course now?

The Webmaster:
No. Get to work.