Guest post and competition: Nicole Murphy

One of the themes I've been running with in my life lately recently is change and “fuck plan b”. The fuck plan b phrase comes from something Amanda Palmer (one of my inspirational idols) tweeted at a muso about his music career. I've taken it on as my new motto and my twitter friends and I have had a lot of conversations about fuck plan b, life changes and pursuing dreams. Nicole Murphy, a wonderful writer from Australia, was to write a guest post for Book Bites as part of her blog tour for the release of Rogue Gadda and this is what Nicole had to say about pursuing dreams:

Fuck Plan B

This is one of the scariest things to consider – and one of the most liberating. We’ve all got dreams – something that we wanted to achieve. And for any of you saying “I don’t” – think back to when you were a teenager. What were you passionate about? I bet it still gives you a thrill, right?

So yes, we’ve all got something we WANT to do with our lives. The problem is, society is really good as telling us it’s not possible. You need to have a job. You’ve got to have lots of money. Security. You have to have x by this age, y by this.

I fell into the trap. I knew in high school that I wanted to do something creative. I had some music lessons. I did art up to year ten. I studied drama in year eleven and twelve. I did amateur theatre productions. But the thing I loved most of all was writing.

I made some attempts to live a creative life – I auditioned for the drama course at University of Western Sydney. But I let all the (well-intentioned) folks telling me that I needed a fall-back position to influence me and so when I left year twelve, I went to teacher’s college.

The problem with a fall-back position is that you’ll fall back to it. I did. I dabbled in writing from time to time, but I wasn’t serious about it. I certainly wasn’t acting any more. All my creativity, my passion, went into teaching.

I lasted at teaching for a bit over nine years, until I had a mini-breakdown. When that happened, I’d been lucky enough to meet and marry my husband who wants me to be happy. He asked if I could do anything in the world, what would it be and I had one answer – writing.

So I started to pursue it. Over time, my confidence in myself waned and I found other ways to use the skills I was developing by becoming a journalist, but now that I’d let the dream have some air to breathe it wouldn’t let go of me.

Finally, in 2007, came the crunch time. On the one hand, it had become clear that I was never going to be more than an average journalist – I didn’t have the guts to go for the hard stories – and I wasn’t satisfied with that.

On the other hand, I was struck by a sudden, intense vision. I saw myself on my death bed, thinking to myself “maybe I would have been published if I’d just tried harder…”

It chilled me, in a way few things have, and I swore that if I got to the end of my life and I wasn’t published, it WASN’T going to be because I didn’t try. So with hubby’s support, when I left journalism I got a part-time job at a supermarket so I could focus all my creativity and energy on my writing.

That was February, 2008. History now shows that I sold the Dream of Asarlai trilogy in July 2009 and here we are, two years later, with the third book being released.

Is fucking Plan B and running with the dream an easy thing to do? No. The worthwhile things aren’t easy. People around you won’t understand. You’ll have to go without for a while and make a whole range of sacrifices. But here’s the thing – the happiness you gain from knowing that you’re doing what you want with your life will make up for most of that. And the downs don’t last forever.

Dreams do come true, but not without a whole lotta work and effort. And there’s no reason you can’t start that work today – except for fear.


Giveaway question – To win a copy of Rogue Gadda tell me, what’s your Plan A?

Please provide your email with your answer so Nicole can contact the winner!

Terms of the giveaway:
The winner is decided based solely on the response Nicole chooses.
The winner will be contacted by email.
This giveaway is open internationally.
The give away ends at 12pm on the 5th of July, 2011, Australian EST. 

Note: The giveaway is now officially closed!

Here is a sneak peak of Rogue Gadda.

She took a deep breath and then poured the potion over the amulet, onto her chest. It was jumping into a fire – instantaneous agony that drew a scream of horror from her throat.


She closed her eyes but couldn’t avoid the stench of burning flesh. She’d erred. Despite all her consideration and planning, she’d made the wrong choice. This wasn’t going to save her.


It was going to kill her.

The Dream of Asarlai trilogy by Nicole Murphy: