Lee Murray

On Saturday May 1, I posted the fifth in this year’s Magic Systems in Fantasy series on the Supernatural Underground (SU) — this month featuring fellow NZ author, Lee Murray, talking magic and the supernatural in her short fiction and Taine McKenna series.

Lee is a multi-award-winning author-editor (Sir Julius Vogel; Australian Shadows), and a five-time Bram Stoker Award®-nominee. A third generation Chinese New Zealander, her work includes military thrillers, the Taine McKenna Adventures, supernatural crime-noir series The Path of Ra (with Dan Rabarts), and debut collection Grotesque: Monster Stories. Lee will soon take up NZ’s Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship for 2021, for her poetry collection Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud.

Just to lure you in ( 😉 ), here’s a wee taste of what Lee has to say in the interview:

“What’s interesting about horror, unlike fantasy and certain other speculative subgenres, is that it doesn’t have to incorporate magical elements at all. Horror, by definition, describes work that instills feelings of fear, the intensity of which appears on a spectrum that extends from vague unease all the way to bone-rattling white-knuckle terror. But the elements that make up our horror stories, the things that contribute to those feelings of fear, can either be anchored in reality or imbued with supernatural elements according to the needs of the story and the preferences of the author. For me, magic and the supernatural are a natural way to approach horror, partly because in New Zealand myth and monsters hover just beyond us in the shadows…”

Of course there’s more, and it’s all fascinating reading — so please do rock on over to the SU and check it out:

Lee Murray In Conversation on “Fear Beyond Boundaries” & Magic & the Supernatural in Her Writing

Enjoy!