Taking Time… a Tale of Physics, Lust and Greed received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Mike Murphey.
What is the name of the book?
Taking Time… a Tale of Physics, Lust and Greed.
What’s the book’s first line?
Given a choice between repeating any part of high school or being gnawed on by badgers, Marshall Grissom would at least consider the alternative.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
The year is 2044. Housed in a secret complex beneath the eastern Arizona desert, a consortium of governments and corporations have undertaken a program on the scale of the Manhattan Project to bludgeon the laws of physics into submission and make time travel a reality.
Fraught with insecurities, Marshall Grissom has spent his whole life trying not to call attention to himself, so he can’t imagine he would be remotely suited for the role of time travel pioneer. He’s even less enthusiastic about this corporate time-travel adventure when he learns that nudity is a job requirement.
As the project evolves into a clash between science and corporate greed, conflicts escalate. Those contributing the funding are mostly interested in manipulating time travel for profit, and will stop at nothing, including murder, to achieve their goals.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
A failed relationship that at first seemed tragic, only to lead to much better things in my life.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
For pure entertainment. There are some deeper meanings and commentaries about the human condition. But mostly, I’m trying to make people laugh.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
Marshall Grissom is a man fraught with insecurities. He’s spent his life desperately trying not to call attention to himself. His story is how he copes with being thrust into an unwanted spotlight. He is probably an exaggeration of my own lack of confidence when I was his age.
When did you first decide to become an author?
I had a long career as a newspaper reporter. Like most reporters, I nursed the ambition of writing a novel but found too many excuses not to do it. I could manage a short story, but couldn’t get it the legs to go any farther. At age 60 I decided to force myself to write 500 words a day—good, bad or indifferent—and see what happened.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
It is the first novel I wrote. However, it has been through several permutations before publication and has traveled a difficult past. It is the third novel (after Section Roads and Wasting Time) I’ve published.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I have a baseball business dealing with adult amateur baseball. I enjoy being an old-man baseball player.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
I continue to practice the discipline of writing 500 words a day, although I take weekends off.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
No. I banged my head against that wall for a long time. Hybrid publishing suits me well. I think it’s the best of both worlds.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
I wouldn’t argue with fame and fortune. But that can’t be the motivation to do something so difficult, so fraught with failure. You must write because you love it. You must write because you need to do it.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
Mark Twain.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
Huckleberry Finn.