Debra - Mother Murphy

 

Stories heal. They heal the people who read them, and they heal the people who write them.
I know this because stories have been healing me my whole life.

I’m Debra Murphy — a Yorkshire lass through and through, now living in Scotland, with Mr M and a Border Collie called Florence who believes the sofa was invented specifically for her.

I’ve been writing since I could hold a pen, but it was the opening of a little tearoom on a hill in Falkirk that gave me my first book, The Magical Tearoom on the Hill. That one book opened a door I’ve never closed. Since then, I’ve written about a time-travelling Border Collie called Beatrix who once saved my life on a Scottish mountain. True story, and there was a helicopter involved. Next off the pen nib came a book about a campervan called Evie, a lifelong dream realised. Now dripping off the pen is a series of children’s adventures starring Florence, the timid, some might call lazy, Border Collie.

The Florence series has taken me into classrooms, school halls, and libraries. Every book starts with a school visit, where children help share their ideas for new stories. Then I go away, write it, and come back to read it to them. Watching their faces when they hear their ideas in print is one of the great joys of my life.

When I’m not writing, I’m helping other authors bring their own stories to life through my self-publishing and editorial services. I’m also training for LEJOG on my bike, Ursula, rationing Cadbury’s Dairy Milk with limited success, and occasionally disappearing into the hills in Evie.

Pull up a chair. There’s always tea and cake.