After the unexpected death of her husband almost 12 years ago, Oconto resident Mary Grace Murphy began delving into the world of food preparation. Now, a completely hooked “foodie,” she incorporated her passion for food and murder mysteries into her recently released first book, “Death Nell.”
“I always knew food would be the death of me,” Murphy joked.
During their marriage, Murphy’s husband, Mike, was the primary cook, and his enthusiasm for finding new recipes and spending hours doing food preparation provided tasty meals. After his passing, Murphy began to develop her own interest in creating good food, and now she is solidly hooked.
After writing captured her heart and soul back in grade school. Murphy always thought she’d like to write a book, but it just never came together until recently, she said.
“I thought it would be a cool livelihood,” she said.
The main character in “Death Nell,” Nell Bailey, like Murphy, is a retired school teacher and struggles with her weight and self-image.
Food, Murphy said, “is the bane of my existence,” reflecting on her lifelong struggle with her weight. “With women, it seems that any emotion, either good or bad, causes them to eat.”
Murphy combines her love of food with her love of murder mysteries for the story line.
In “Death Nell,” Bailey creates a restaurant review blog to give her something interesting and fun to do. Bailey posts a negative blog entry about a local restaurant, and a follower of the blog attacks her unfavorable review. Things heat up between the two, eventually ending in a murder.
Bailey, while trying to cope with her personal issues about her self-image, is caught up in solving the crime.
Murphy said she developed the lead character after much thought.
“I had read several culinary mysteries, which I enjoyed, but they were a little too silly for me. I wanted a heroine that was someone readers could identify and connect with, that had flaws that made her human, but still likable,” she said.
Murphy was a teacher for 35 years, 33 of those in the Oconto School District. Born and raised in Cobb, a small town in southwest Wisconsin, she graduated from high school in the Iowa-Grant School District and attended the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
After assignments in creative writing in grade school piqued her interest, Murphy continued to write through her high school years. But her focus on her college studies, then teaching and marriage did not allow her to pursue her interest.
A few years before her retirement, she attended a writing class in Oconto. Struggling to develop the subject matter for a book, she joined a local writing group, then a larger group in Green Bay. Spending time with other aspiring writers helped motivate her to begin writing.
Murphy said “Death Nell” is the first in a series of books she plans to call Noshes Up North. She began the book in July 2012, finishing the first draft in the first week of January 2013. After recruiting friends to read the story, she hired an editor, who helped her find a cover designer, someone familiar with formatting electronic books and a website designer.
Murphy chose to publish independently.
She said small publishers take a long time to decide whether or not to accept a book and hold onto the book rights for a set period of time.
“I wanted to get my book out there and see if people liked it,” she said.
Also, “small publishers can’t promote for you,” Murphy said. “It’s too expensive for them, so you’re self-promoting anyway.”
She is currently writing the second book in the series, but has not titled it yet. No release date has been set.
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