Emily Bain Murphy

COVER REVEAL! 🦋🌳✨

The adventure of Ehrit, Finn, Lydia, + co. continues in Book Two in the LIGHTSEEKERS trilogy “OF GARDENS AND GRAVES.”

Synopsis:

“Things have been quiet for the Lightseekers since they have returned from their quest to find the famed Lake of Light. But Finn and his sister Lydia are feeling restless, eager for Ehrit to fulfill his promise to help them find and reunite with their mother—a woman who they only have a song and a clay rabbit to remember her by.

But as the shadows in Wildel continue to deepen, and the General’s men begin planting false stories about their group, Ehrit proposes a new quest—this time to collect seeds from the Morning Tree as the next step in reversing the effects of The Great Betrayal, and bringing back the rightful king’s reign.

But following Ehrit has already cost Finn one relationship he held dear, and as the darkness against them ramps up in the form of a new weapon, Finn will have to decide what he’s wiling to sacrifice to confront the shadows in the kingdom—and in himself.”

Coming March 2. Available for preorder now! ✨🦋

If you had asked me a year ago whether I liked epistolary novels, I would have said no. Isn’t it lovely when we can still surprise ourselves? 🌱

I am loving both The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by (I’m on number 5) and The Correspondent by Virgins Evans. Epistolary novels can only work if their authors are masters of voice, and if any writers struggle with identifying what that difficult-to-define concept is, I’d point them straight to these.

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries is another lovely example of this genre (this time in fantasy). Three very different main characters, each bursting with personality, complexities, and charm, and completely carrying the narrative with their compelling use of voice.

How about you—do you like epistolary novels? Have you enjoyed any of these?

“There’s so much beauty in the world and in our lives if we have the eyes to see it.” -Emily Bain Murphy

I absolutely LOVED this interview with Emily Bain Murphy, author of the Lightseekers series and I was pleasantly surprised by how deep and how meaningful the conversation became. I hope you take time to listen! Emily is such a wonderful person and I'm really enjoying her latest book.

This is episode 23 of "A LITERAL JOURNEY," a show where I interview authors about their stories AND the stories they write. The link I've posted is for the YouTube video, but it's available wherever you listen to podcasts.

Check it out (I dare ya)!

Who Are We Becoming? 🕯️ Emily Bain Murphy on Lightseekers, Writing, and Finding Hope and Beauty “There’s so much beauty in the world and in our lives if we have the eyes to see it.” -Emily Bain MurphyIn this meaning-FILLED episode of A LITERAL JOURNEY, ...

Loved this interview that covers all of my books and my journey to becoming an author. I hope you enjoy it as well! Available on YouTube and Apple Podcasts with A Literal Journey.

Who Are We Becoming? 🕯️ Emily Bain Murphy on Lightseekers, Writing, and Finding Hope and Beauty “There’s so much beauty in the world and in our lives if we have the eyes to see it.” -Emily Bain MurphyIn this meaning-FILLED episode of A LITERAL JOURNEY, ...

I adore this new blurb for LIGHTSEEKERS: A KINGDOM OF SHADOWS from :

“LIGHTSEEKERS gleams with great Truth within its beautifully-wrought pages. Each word blooms with imagination and care.”
- Catherine Bakewell, bestselling author of FLOWERHEART

If you know Cat, you know how beautifully generous, talented, and creative she is—which is why I love that she also included a fan art sketch of a magical creature in the book called a neftis (a half owl-bunny hybrid).

You’re invited to join the adventure for a journey across Wildfel with nefti, auerflies (butterflies with golden, stained glass wings), spiders that weave glass webs, and waterfalls that catch the silver light of stars. Available everywhere now. 🦋✨

Thank you for your excitement about LIGHTSEEKERS! I am so grateful that you are sharing it with your kids and friends and joining the adventure in Wildfel!

In case you missed it, there is a free accompanying readers discussion guide at jointhelightseekers. c o m!

And with that—back to edits on Book 2! 🦋✨

(Let me know who you are hoping to see more of in the sequel and maybe you will get your wish) 😉🦋

I’m updating the map for LIGHTSEEKERS: Book 2 today and it is so much fun to expand the Kingdom of Wildfel! I can’t wait to take you on the next part of the adventure. 🦋✨

New map and title reveal coming soon!! In the meantime, a look back at how the map for Book 1 came to be. 🗺️ 👀

There have been several seasons in my life when I have leaned *hard* into remembering that on the original Holy Saturday, the disciples believed that everything—everything—was lost. Their hope was shattered, and they could not imagine what God was doing or that anything good could come from what they had just experienced.

But with God, the most traumatic, despairing things are not the end of anyone’s story. It’s simply not possible in His kind of kingdom—not when even the worst thing that ever happened in human history could be redeemed into an abundant blessing of life and joy beyond imagination.

“On the Day of the Lord - the day that God makes everything right, the day that everything sad comes untrue - on that day the same thing will happen to your hurts and sadness. You will find that the worst things that have ever happened to you will in the end only enhance your eternal delight. On that day, all of it will be turned inside out and you will know joy beyond the walls of the world. The joy of your glory will be that much greater for every scar you bear.”
Tim Keller, King’s Cross

I hope you experience the deep joy and hope of resurrection in every part of you that needs it.

When I lived in San Francisco I remember my pastor at the time (Dave Lomas at Reality SF) exhorting our big-tech-employed congregation to really consider what they were making and its moral impact. Or, as the iconic Jeff Goldblum says in Jurassic Park—“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

I’ve been thinking about this in regard to AI for months, and reading Ezra Klein’s fantastic (and incredibly sobering) op-ed on AI (“I Saw Something New in San Francisco”), I feel like the prophets of our age are fully sounding the alarm. Not just on the external and existential dangers AI poses but—perhaps even more important, and much more insidious—the internal dangers that are taking root perhaps without notice.

We are beings whose thoughts, minds, feelings, trajectories, and souls are constantly being formed. As C.S. Lewis says, “Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different than it was before.” But what happens when we begin, little by little, to outsource the very things that make us human (our ability to dream, think, write, create, reason, learn, and decide)? What happens when we outsource the very things that form us into the people we are meant to become, to a consciousness outside of ourselves?

AI is literally consciousness without a soul.

Why do we not want our children to spend their school years playing video games and outsourcing their work to AI? Because the work itself could be done by a machine, of course, but it would leave a shell of a human behind. The struggles and perseverance and focus that we use in order to learn are building something far beyond the actual knowledge we are acquiring. It’s forming our character and our personhood. It’s teaching us important things about ourselves while building a foundation for us to stand on in the future. (Continued in comments)