It's my pleasure to welcome Murry Pura to Ink Dots once again, for my first interview of 2013. And what a great set of questions I have for my guest authors this year. More of that in a minute... First.. Who is Murray Pura?
Murray was born and raised in Winnipeg,
Manitoba. His first novel was released in Toronto in 1988. Since that time he
has published seven more novels, two collections of short stories, and a number
of nonfiction titles including the Zondervan books Rooted and Streams. He has
been a finalist for several awards in the US and Canada and in 2012 won the
Word Award of Toronto for Best Historical Novel. His book The Wings of Morning
has been nominated for several literary awards including Best Inspirational
Romance by ACFW. Murray lives and writes in southwestern Alberta and is
currently published by Barbour, Baker, Harper One, Zondervan, and Harvest House
as well as several other publishing houses.
Ashton Park - Four
daughters and three sons have come of age at the Danforth family estate in
Lancashire, England called Ashton Park. Some are liberal-minded, some
conservative, some are wild, some more self-controlled, but each one tries to
care for the others and each one is looking for the love of their life. They
don’t necessarily look for that love among other aristocratic peers, a fact
that drives their well-meaning parents, Sir William and Lady Elizabeth, to
distraction. But amidst the pitfalls of war and revolution, sibling quarrels and misunderstandings, forbidden love
between nobility and commoner, and tragedy that strikes when you have three
sons in uniform, a deep-rooted faith and hope in God sustain the family through
the trials and heartbreaks of the early years of the 20th century,
1916-1923.
Want to know more about the author of Ashton Park? Of course you do. Here's a snippet of what really fills Murray's thoughts and days when no one's watching.
If I could go
anywere in the world tomorrow, it would be…..the
Great Barrier Reef. I love to skin dive and snorkel. I was on the 3rd largest
reef last summer in Turks & Caicos but the largest is the Great Barrier
Reef.
One thing I
enjoyed today is… writing a love
scene in one of my books. They really are the most pleasant & enjoyable scenes to write in a novel.
A secret
pleasure of mine is… swishing my
swords around in the air. I have katanas
(Japanese swords) and medieval swords. They are functional (not wall hangers)
and sharp so I do this when I'm alone. It is quite fun.
A moment that
changed my life is… being asked to
minister at Columbine in 1999. I was heading to Denver anyways to talk about my
writing but the shooting happened the same week. Three days after the tragedy I
was there and they asked me to lead a memorial service in one of the churches. I write about
the experience in my book STREAMS. Those days cut right to my heart.
Sundays are for… creative worship, prayer, meditation,
church family, forests, streams, and mountains.
When I was a child I wanted to…. be a writer. Yup. And I've done it all
my life and I'm still doing it, thank God.
I probably
shouldn’t tell you this, but… sometimes
I wish the heroines I create in my
books would come to life and take me out for coffee. :o)
*****
Murray, in Australia, we'd shorten your name to Muzza, and then get out of the way of those swords! Thanks for visiting with me today, and I wish you wonderful success with Ashton Park.
*****
If you're a Downton fan, you will love Ashton Park. It's on my nightstand right now and I'm lost in the romance of the Danforth family. You could be too... Leave a comment below and I'll choose one lucky Ink Dots guest to receive a prize copy. Tell us which fictional character you'd like to take you out for coffee. I'll draw a winner on Friday.
