Murphy Writes Blog

5

Inspire

Taking time to listen to the wind

When I was a little girl, my family lived across the street from a large wooded lot where hundreds, maybe thousands, of old pine trees grew wild. The lot was a stone’s throw from...

2

Inspire

Forget the Regret!

  (source) “Nobody gets to live life backward. Look ahead, that is where your future lies. “ ~ Ann Landers This past year I read a very touching news story about the biggest life...

2

Inspire / Work

Just be who you are!

    Back in 2007, the New York Times hired me as a freelance writer to cover the resignation of staunch Republican Idaho senator Larry Craig, who had been arrested in a Minnesota men’s...

0

Book Publishing / Inspire

Fulfilling a wish and a goal

A couple of years ago when I started working on my first book, “Mother Knows Best – Wit and Wisdom from Idaho Moms,” one of my main goals was to be able to donate...

2

Inspire / Work

Letting the universe work for us

Have you ever had the amazing experience of everything falling into place, unexpectedly, just the way it was supposed to? When it happens, we are filled with gratefulness. Because we never know when we’ll...

0

Book Publishing

What crazy things did your mom used to say?

“If you swallow your gum your butt cheeks will stick together.” ~ A mom in Boise, Idaho NOTE: This book was published in 2013. I am putting together my second book of “momisms,” to...

2

Inspire

Rescuing your dreams from the “place that never was”

(source) I recently read a delightful book called “The Traveler’s Gift,”by Andy Andrews. It is about David Ponder, a former executive in a Fortune 500 company who now works a part-time minimum wage job...

0

Work

Building a story? It’s like laying beautiful stones

(photo credit) If you visit this blog at all you know I’ve been absent for a while. I took several weeks off from blogging to turn my attention to creating something totally different –...

0

Inspire

Are you a leader? Do you know it?

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”  ~ John Quincy Adams   Do you consider yourself a leader? Leaders don’t necessarily have...

0

Work

Bird by Bird…

(source)  What is your day like as a writer? Some writers get up at Oh-dark-thirty, grab a cuppa’ Joe and sit in front of their computer screen or notepad and write for hours –...

1

Work

Hitting the bottom of the inspirational well

There are times when the well of creativity seems to dry up and, as hard as you try, you don’t know how to get it all kick started again. You search for advice on...

7

Family / Inspire

Lessons from a dad on Father’s Day

In honor of Father’s Day, I’d like to share some of the ‘dadisms’ from my father, Pat Murphy, a journalist, writer, political commentator and one of the most interesting people I’ve ever known. Throughout...

0

Pets / Work

Puppies, mentors and learning from others

I recently dog-sat my sister’s new puppy, a high energy, hard- headed, assertive little herding dog who is adorable but misdirected. At only a couple months old, he had not spent any significant time...

0

Family / Work

The enduring power of the written word

The written word is really a miracle. Except for some style and grammatical changes over the generations, it remains constant and allows us to carry knowledge, thoughts and history through time. Speech is limited, and memories of the mind only last so long. But through the written word, we can preserve information and ideas, and share them for all time.

1

Inspire

5 thoughts on winning from an Olympic Gold Medalist

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Olympic Gold winning cyclist Kristin Armstrong for a magazine article. Armstrong lives in my home town of Boise, Idaho, and has been called America’s most decorated professional...

0

Work

What’s a Real Writer? Is it me? Is it you?

When I was a kid I used to say that I wanted to be a “real writer.” A real writer, to me, wrote books and films and then someone would publish their work and...

0

Work

Keeping Butt In Chair

  (graphic from) I think all writers have gone through times when we’ve wondered, “What the hell am I doing? I can’t seem to string more than a few words together and even they...