The fabulous Niamh Murphy is here today!

I’m so excited. To find out how I met Niamh, check out this post. Hint, it involved lesbian pirates.

Niamh is offering a FREE e-book of Mask of the Highwaywoman to one lucky winner. Details can be found below.

But now, here’s Niamh Murphy!

My writing experience has been sporadic. There have been fits and starts throughout my life.

I wrote plays and stories as a child, then moved on to poetry in my teens, but lost my confidence and lost my way.

Throughout my early twenties I went through the same phases over and over: I wanted to write but I didn’t know what, I didn’t know where, and I didn’t know how to ‘make my mark’.

Then, in around 2009, I stumbled across a website some of you may know very well; AcademyOfBards.org. Although it started as a repository of Xena fan fiction (and there are some great ones there) it hosts so much more.

This was my very first introduction to LesFic, and suddenly I knew that all I wanted was to write stories for people just like me.

People who are tired of the same old male lead, tired of the female supporting role of ‘Damsel in Distress’, and most of all, tired of book after book after book of boy meets girl.

That was the day that Mask of the Highwaywoman was born.

It didn’t come all in one go. Far from it.

I wrote a very tentative short story, it was 3,000 words because I had read somewhere a short story should be 3k. In the story a young aristocrat is robbed by a highwaywoman and her gang, only for the woman to break into her room that night to return the items and steal a kiss.

[You can still read that very first story for free as part of my Magic and Romance anthology]

Although I was terrified of rejection I submitted my story for review.

There is no feeling quite like reading that first acceptance letter. No publisher, magazine, or website since has matched that thrill!

With the encouragement of my new readers I went on to expand the story, first to a 23,000 word novella and then finally to the full-length novel it is today.

So, if you’re a writer, I encourage you to take that first step and share the story you’ve been hiding away!

If you’re a reader, avid or otherwise, I encourage you to reach out to the author you’ve been reading, tell them what you thought of their latest work, or leave them a review.

Because, even if you’re writing to a Grand Master, your words will always make a difference.

About Niamh Murphy:

Niamh Murphy is a historian and novelist specialising in romantic lesbian fiction. She is passionate about experimenting with different genres and has a fondness for romantic action and adventure.

She has written stories with vampires, werewolves, elves, magic, knights, sorceresses, and witches as well as contemporary and humorous stories, but always with a lesbian protagonist and a romantic element to the tale.

Visit her website for a free copy of her short story, Gretel: A Fairytale Retold

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