Murray launches new book Sunday in Lennoxville
Stanstead author Ross Murray says he thought he would be a serious writer. “But I always gravitated back to humour,” he said. He added, however, he sometimes likes to have an underlying purpose.
Murray is set to launch his fourth
book – the third compilation of his columns – Sunday afternoon at Black Cat Books in Lennoxville. The other book is a novel, “A Hole in the Ground,” published in 2016.
His latest, titled “A Jerk in Progress,” is a collection of his columns published between 2011 and 2015 in The Record, CBC Breakaway (those that work in print), and the now defunct Life in Quebec magazine.
The first compilation was columns published in the Stanstead Journal and The Record. His second was from his early Record days, he said.
Murray said it didn’t take him too long to collect his writing.
“I gathered up some of the best ones,” he said. “They’re fleeting. It’s a good way to preserve some of the better ones.” He estimates that he had about 400 pieces over the five-year period.
“A Jerk in Progress” is divided into two sections, he said. One is satirical and the other is about life and family. “A couple of pieces are bittersweet,” he said, “about getting older and the kids getting older.”
Murray has often written about his family. Asked if his children accepted being part of his writing, he replied,
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“When the kids were little they had no say.” But privacy was more important to them when they got to high school. “They’re mostly okay with it.” He said his youngest daughter Abby figures prominently in the latest book.
Murray writes a lot about cats, “not in a good way,” he said.
He decided a few years ago not to mock people as much. “I try to be a bit kinder,” he said.
In some cases, he said, he likes to combine ideas, as in Thursday’s Record column, when he wrote about back-toschool, when roommates struggle to get along. “What would it be like if your roommate was a demon sucking your soul at night?”
Murray writes on Monday nights and he revisits each column on Tuesday when he edits and, hopefully sends it to the newspaper. The veteran journalist is not intimidated by deadlines. But, he added, “Sometimes I say I’m never going to write anything again.”
He said he tries to make every paragraph have meaning, some kind of point or humour in it.
Murray said it took him about a year to write his novel.
“I had it mapped out – I knew where I wanted it to end,” he said. But it took some turns he didn’t even expect, like new characters he hadn’t planned on that surprised him.
He said he’s had some ideas for another novel. One, he said, “started taking a dark turn” as he was working on it. He also though about a sequel to “A Hole in the Ground,” but he got busy.
Murray will be at Black Cat Books in Lennoxville Sunday, September 15 to launch “A Jerk in Progress” with a reading. He will be at the Townshippers’ Festival on September 21 at Massey-vanier High School in Cowansville. “Stop by and say hi,” he said.
Readers can pick up the book at Black Cat and Brome Lake Books in Knowlton, where he will be part of the Knowlton Literary Festival. Townshippers’ Association will have the book available as well.
“Or you can contact me directly,” he said.