Lynne Murray has just released her fabulous romantic comedy, Bride of the Living Dead, and I’ve gotten the wonderful opportunity to interview her about her experiences trying her hand at romantic comedies, tackling serious topics like anorexia, and writing about her home town, San Francisco.

More of Me to Love: You wrote mysteries before moving to romantic comedy for Bride of the Living Dead. What was the hardest thing about making that transition?

Lynne Murray: The most challenging task was keeping the action at a high pitch. With romantic comedy you can’t fall back on the old Raymond Chandler tactic: “When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.” So, the story tension gets ratcheted up with family drama, which actually works pretty well. I started out writing about my relentlessly casual heroine’s struggle to adapt to a formal wedding, and I began to realize that even without firearms or dead bodies, the tension between the soon-to-merge families and the sisters with opposite viewpoints brought up as much conflict as any mystery novel.

MOMTL: The main character, Daria, writes about indie films. Are you an indie film fan? What’s your favorite indie film, either mentioned in the book or not?

LM: I love all kinds of films—so long as they are comedies.  No just kidding, although I have a weakness for films that make me laugh—both indie and mainstream. My favorites vary widely from small English films such as Truly, Madly, Deeply (which has been called “the thinking person’s Ghost) to a true indie classic Clerks, which I saw after years of hearing people rave about, and laughed at pretty much non-stop.

MOMTL: I love Clerks! You’ve indicated elsewhere that part of writing your large, female, lead characters is getting in touch with certain parts of yourself. What parts of yourself, if any, do you find in Daria?

LM: Daria definitely copes by using humor the way I do.  She doesn’t have the advantage of scribbling down smart-mouthed comments to use in novels. I wish I could have had her body positive attitude when I was in my 20’s, but I’m really happy to see so many more plus-sized young women accepting and enjoying their lives right now rather than obsessing about size issues.

MOMTL: Is her one and only, Oscar, modeled on anyone? (If so, whom?)

LM: I’ve been fortunate enough to know several men who have a great sense of humor and the integrity and self-confidence Oscar demonstrates. I dated one such man and we ended up getting married! Like Charlie, my husband, Oscar is loyal and intelligent without being manipulative. Also he is supportive of his partner without being threatened or jealous when she accomplishes something. After dating so many Worst Boyfriend Award winners, Daria was lucky to find a good man with whom she could build a happy relationship!

MOMTL: What was the most challenging aspect of writing the characters in this book?

LM: My challenge was to keep an eye on the micro crisis aspect of planning a wedding. The fun part of writing a romantic comedy was that I could put in as many jokes as I wanted so long as the fears and frustrations of family dynamics kept ratcheting up the tension.

MOMTL: Anorexia is a pretty central issue in Bride of the Living Dead. What would you say the main thing you want to communicate about anorexia is?

LM: Honestly, I do not have first-hand experience dealing with anorexia in myself and only slightly in friends, but like most kids who are fat or even a bit chubby, my dieting experience began early. At the age of 9 a doctor handed me a diet sheet and amphetamines (fortunately my parents did not force me to take the pills when they saw how horribly nervous they made me).  During my teens and 20s I experienced the crazy state that dieting brings out in people, and the bizarre way that the public at large encourages anorexic behaviors. It’s almost as if the vast majority of people are telling us, “Be anorexic, but not too much.” I can see how someone could cross that very line into severely disordered behavior because anorexics get a lot of applause and approval for meeting unhealthy standards of thinness. The encouragement to starve continues right up to the point where a line is crossed into visible damage and suddenly everyone who admired the self-starving person is worried about her survival. Yet they have facilitated this behavior and even tried to get tips on how to do it themselves.

MOMTL: How do you understand the relationship between the difficulties faced by anorexics and plus-sized gals?

LM: Our culture has embraced eating disorders so heartily that it’s more likely than not that a plus-sized person will run into a doctor who will try to create an eating disorder “for the patient’s own good.”  I admire people who have the courage to stand up and speak the truth about our bodies. To me, the sisterly conflict between plus-sized Daria and her anorexic older sister, Sky, demonstrates the frustration that both feel in the face of unrealistic expectations of what is a “healthy” weight.

MOMTL: What other projects do you have in the works? Do you think that you’ll return to mystery or are you enjoying the romantic comedy genre? (Maybe a romantic mystery!)

LM: The next book is a bit different—a vampire book. The Falstaff Vampire Files, also to be published by Pearlsong Press, features the world’s most famous fat man—Sir John Falstaff—as a vampire, teaming up with a San Francisco psychologist and BBW who is skeptical that vampires even exist, let alone vampires claiming to be fictional characters from Shakespeare. I enjoyed writing about Falstaff, who is such a powerful character that once I started writing about him, he immediately told me where he wanted to go (first to the Big and Tall Men’s Clothing store) and what he wanted to do (visit a restaurant with an acceptably hearty menu that he can persuade a diner to provide a post-dinner blood donation).

MOMTL: That sounds wonderful! And very Christopher Moore, with vampires in San Francisco sporting a sense of humor. I can’t wait! The dedication at the end of the book is to Charles W. Powell, your husband, with whom it appears you eloped in Reno. My wife and I also eloped in Reno. Can you tell me a bit about that and why the dedication seemed particularly appropriate for this book?

LM: Congratulations to you and your wife! 

Eloping is kind of a tradition in my family. My parents eloped just after college. They had to sell their watches to buy simple, metal wedding bands. When my mother would explain and show me her ring, it always seemed extremely romantic to me, because it clearly was to her! Charlie and I agreed that we enjoyed being together and at some point it would make sense to get married. Then when he cooked me dinner and proposed on the evening of December 27th and suggested that we could save a couple thousand dollars on taxes if we got married before the end of the year it sounded like a great idea. Some of my friends thought that this was not very romantic, but I thought it was a very “Charlie” kind of thing to do, and it was also funny which suited me even better. Charlie’s chess player side came out, seizing the initiative. He also knew that the next year was a Leap Year when women traditionally asked men to marry them and if he didn’t ask me, I’d be asking him.

So, the next day we drove up to Reno through a snow storm, not far behind a snow plow that had piled up several feet of snow on either side of the road. We passed occasional automobile-sized indentations in the snow where cars ahead of us had slipped off the road.  It was an adventure for the two of us, which to me is what marriage is about.  In our case, getting families involved came later, but there were many moments over the years when I thought, “I’d marry this man again this very minute.”

MOMTL: I loved that Bride of the Living Dead (among your other books) was set in San Francisco. I had the privilege of living there for a year and though I don’t anymore, Bride of the Living Dead brought me back. What’s your favorite thing about the city?

LM: I’ve always wanted to live in San Francisco. One of my earliest memories was my parents driving over the Golden Gate Bridge and telling me what it was, and my protesting that it was orange-red not gold.  When I first moved here I walked all over the place getting lost and having a wonderful time doing it. The fact that the city is so compact somehow made it possible for me to claim it for myself, and to understand why so many other people do exactly the same thing.

MOMTL: What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of writing about your own city?

LM: San Francisco is always changing and so whatever I write is going to be out of date in the not-too-distant future. It goes with the territory, so I’ve accepted that my San Francisco backgrounds are snapshots in time.

MOMTL: Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers or any message you have to send to the plus-sized community?

LM: I tremendously admire the plus-sized community!  Getting together and encouraging one another helps as we confront the current craziness around living in plus-sized bodies. Its major challenge is not letting someone else’s opinion about us interfere with what we need to do to build a fulfilling life. Every step toward owning and valuing our bodies just as they are is important.  My motto is “Live large and prosper!” and I wish that to everyone in the plus-sized community!

MOMTL: Thank you so much for taking the time to share all of this with us, Lynne! Congratulations on the success of this book. We certainly can’t wait for the next one!

To get your copy of Bride of the Living Dead, by Lynne Murray, click HERE.

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