A Literal Journey

Who Are We Becoming? 🕯️ Emily Bain Murphy on Lightseekers, Writing, and Finding Hope and Beauty

• Seth Adam Smith • Season 1 • Episode 23

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 1:01:51

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

In this meaning-FILLED episode of A LITERAL JOURNEY, I sit down with Emily Bain Murphy—author of The Disappearances, Enchanted Hill, The Ivory City,  Splinters of Scarlet, and The Lightseekers Series—for a conversation about hope, beauty, and the power of stories to shape our lives.

During the interview, Emily shares some of the stories and themes behind her books, the long road to publishing, how stories can help us "zoom out" and see the bigger picture, what it means to become a "light seeker," and her firm belief that there is hope and beauty in the world if we have the eyes to see it.

About EMILY BAIN MURPHY:

Emily Bain Murphy is the USA TODAY bestselling author of the adult historical mysteries The Ivory City and Enchanted Hill.

She is also the author of the YA fantasies The Disappearances, which was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, and Splinters of Scarlet, which received multiple starred reviews and was nominated for the MASL Truman Readers’ Award. Both are available now from HarperCollins.

Murphy was born in Indiana and raised in Hong Kong and Japan. She graduated from Tufts University and has also called Massachusetts, Connecticut, and California home. Her debut middle grade fantasy trilogy Lightseekers was published March 2026. She currently lives in the St. Louis area with her husband, three children, and a rescue bunny.

📖 ORDER "The Lightseekers: A Kingdom of Shadows" by Emily Bain Murphy: https://amzn.to/4eRpD3a

📚 READ other Books by Emily Bain Murphy: https://amzn.to/4tIWR8E

🎧 LISTEN on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1CvEfBcK1xALUswAkOwlNf?si=98cea0829ca145e6

🍎 LISTEN on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-literal-journey/id1839517342

🎥 WATCH more episodes of A LITERAL JOURNEY: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRTQ34vyf-9NkrTcSH0KEwXPOhdVqZRVZ

Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe to A LITERAL JOURNEY for more exclusive author interviews, book recommendations, and thoughtful conversations about the stories that shape us. 📖✨

#EmilyBainMurphy #Fantasy #CSLewis #MiddleGradeBooks #BookTube #Author #AuthorInterview #Lewis #Christian #Storytelling #BooksThatMatter #Hope #Writing

My name is Seth Adam Smith. I’m a husband, father, and author who believes in the power of stories to inspire people forward.

Subscribe for:
📚 A LITERAL JOURNEY – exclusive interviews with bestselling authors
🎙️ THE NORTHERN LIGHTS Podcast – uplifting messages to inspire you forward
🕯️ AN AWE-FUL STORY – true tales that turn the “awful” into the “awe-full”

✨ My Books: http://amzn.to/2p7FXA8
🌐 Website: http://www.SethAdamSmith.com

Thank you for watching—and for being part of this journey!

Emily Bain Murphy

I think that the other commonalities in my stories are beauty, that um there's so much beauty in the world and in our lives if we have the eyes to see it. Um, that comes up over and over again. And then I think uh our our internal formation is something that I'm revisiting over and over again um in Splungers of Scarlet, as I mentioned. And then it's a huge part of Lightseekers. It is, you know, we are becoming some someone from a very young age from these times of middle grade, eight and up. Um, we are becoming someone through all of our choices, little and big. And I think that gets lost sometimes when we're just kind of doing our thing day to day. We we lose sight of the big picture of what is forming us. Who are we becoming as we go through our days? And so what I think is so beautiful about stories is we can cover so much ground of a life in um within the context of a story. It kind of helps us to zoom out and regain that bigger picture that we can lose just in the midst of our everyday. And so with Light Seekers, I am trying to help cast the vision for myself, for my own kids, and just for whoever reads it, that, you know, we get to choose who we want to become in some ways by who we surround ourselves with and these choices that we make. And what are we ultimately aiming towards? Are we are we going towards the light? Have we caught a vision of something that's so beautiful and so lovely that we want to spend our lives pursuing it on this adventure? Um, and I think that hopefully that resonates with, you know, readers of all ages, uh, if if they want to spend time in the Kingdom of Wildf owl with this story.

Seth Adam Smith

And today we certainly have a fantastic author, Emily Bain Murphy. Thank you for coming out to the show.

Emily Bain Murphy

Thank you so much. I'm so thrilled to be here.

Seth Adam Smith

Well, yeah, we've had a fun time already, and I haven't even I didn't even restart the interview until just now. This is we're this is good. This is all signs point to a good, great interview. Emily Bain Murphy is the USA Today best-selling author of the adult historical mysteries, The Ivory City and Enchanted Hill. She is also the author of the YA Fantasies, The Disappearances. Murphy was born in Indiana and raised in Hong Kong and Japan. She graduated from Tufts University and also has called Massachusetts, Connecticut, and California home. Her debut middle grade fantasy trilogy, Light Seekers. I'll say that one more time. Her debut middle, her debut middle grade fantasy trilogy, Light Seekers, was published in March 2026. And that's what caught my eye. I I know a lot of middle grade authors, and suddenly all of them were posting about it. She currently lives in the St. Louis, Missouri area with her husband, three children, and a rescue bunny. Again, Emily, thank you so much for agreeing to come out to the show. It is an honor.

Emily Bain Murphy

Thank you. This is such a pleasure for me.

Seth Adam Smith

Well, give our listeners, our viewers, a little bit of background on you. What's your story and what got you into storytelling?

Emily Bain Murphy

Yeah. So as you mentioned in my bio, um, when I was seven years old, we moved from southern Indiana to Hong Kong. And this was in the 90s, early 90s. And so it was before, you know, much internet. There was very little English TV, and I just loved reading. That's what I did most of my time. Um, I remember being so excited by our school book fair and just, you know, loading up on as many stories as I could from there and from the school library. I loved stories like Babysitter's Club, um, Brambley Hedge, Anna Breen Gables, The Secret Garden. And I just loved falling into the imaginative reality of all these stories. And they they did start to feel like home even when I was far from home. And so, in addition to the reading, I was constantly just writing stories. And my mom would find half-finished, you know, papers all over the house, which she then saved for me in save boxes. And I got like, I got so many in the last few years, just like giant plastic boxes of my old stories. And that was really fun to see. So I would say around that time, second grade was really where my love and dreaming of storytelling began.

Seth Adam Smith

Wow. And that's, you know, I'm I'm a parent. I have a few kids, quite a few. And and to keep all of their papers, I mean, that would be like closets and closets. Oh, yes.

Emily Bain Murphy

It's definitely not all of them, but um I think I think a few rose to the top and got saved.

Seth Adam Smith

That is very, that's very sweet. Um, were you how old were you when you moved to Hong Kong?

Emily Bain Murphy

I was in second grade, and I distinctly remember um my teacher, Mrs. Adams. I've wanted to get in touch with her and haven't been able to. She was so instrumental in me becoming an author because we had a lot of focus that year on writing our own stories. And we got writing time, and we got to um illustrate and like publish our own stories. And she was so encouraging about my writing, even when I was seven. And that just really planted a seed in me that thought maybe I could do this someday uh when I get older, when I'm a grown-up as my job. And so I would really like to tell her that someday that she was so instrumental in that.

Seth Adam Smith

Well, this is kind of a a break from the interview. My mom's an Adams, so who knows? But that's why I use Adam that she called me after her family. So I love that. But if maybe maybe I could help you on the hunt for one of the Adams is uh if you know anybody that used to live in Hong Kong. I'm sure, I'm sure the the list very limited that. So second grade, that's incredible. I mean, every journey has an inciting incident, uh, a moment that feels like a call to adventure for for the protagonist of a story. Uh, and it seems like yours was more of a slow build from what you said from your teacher. Had it she had inspired you and kind of encouraged your writings. But was there was there a book or an author that really just you know sparked your imagination like a door to another world?

Emily Bain Murphy

I would say I would have to choose either the secret garden. Um, I just I loved that book. It ignited my imagination. Um, I was constantly looking for my own version of a secret garden, a little door to enter. Um, and I loved Narnia as well. Um, so probably one of those two stories. Oh gosh, it's hard. There's so many, but um, such riches in children's literature that we get to experience. And I'm I'm just so grateful to be a part of that.

Seth Adam Smith

Well, talk about your your career in writing. When did you actually decide to, I guess, take it a little, take it up a notch, take it a little bit more seriously. So professional, go GoPro, as much as professional you know, writers can be, you know, the lives we live. But um, but what what was it that made you said, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna go for this?

Emily Bain Murphy

So I would say after my first child was born, he is almost 15 now. Um, my husband and I had just moved to Connecticut, and my husband was getting ready to start his five-year surgical residency, which was very intense for him and for our family. And so, you know, we didn't know many people, and he just was at the hospital a lot. And so I would put my son to bed and just think, you know, maybe I want to write. Maybe I want to write us like really go for this. And so it became something that was born out of a time that was full of a lot of loneliness and uncertainty in becoming a new mom. And this was a place that felt so life-giving for me. It kind of made me feel like myself, like the true self that I'd always been, was able to come out even more in that time of great transition.

Seth Adam Smith

Very magical place, Connecticut, to be to be coming up with stories. What was the story that really grabbed your imagination and and made you put pen to paper?

Emily Bain Murphy

So that story became my debut novel, The Disappearances. And it is set in New England. It's set in 1942, New England. Um, I really tried to capture sort of the magic of small town in that area, and it does have a lot of fall vibes. Um, I started with this just the simple idea of magic that you could hold in your hand, and it kind of sparkled. And I thought, well, that's interesting. Um, and I pants my way through uh that first novel, Pantsing for anyone who doesn't know is when you read by the seat of your pants and you don't know where you're going.

Seth Adam Smith

It's an important, yeah, an important thing to clarify for those who don't know what Emily means by pants.

Emily Bain Murphy

Yes, it has a couple of different uh definitions. That's the one that I'm referring to. Um, and it became this story about just discovering the beauty um in everyday life. And so in the disappearances, it's set in this strange little town. And every seven years, something that makes life beautiful, just kind of the regular things, disappears forever. And so this can be anything from the ability to see the stars or have color come out of your paints and pencils, um, hear music, these sorts of things, just every seven years disappear. And so our protagonist is a young girl named Ayla, and she ends up following these clues that her late mother left behind in a Shakespeare book to try and help solve the reason for this this curse on this town.

Seth Adam Smith

I love that idea. And I I assume becoming a mother really played into that because I know that when my daughter was born back in 2016. Oh my gosh, I can't believe it. Ten years ago, I when she was born, it was like I it was like seeing light as soon as her eyes opened up, that was what I saw was just light in her eyes. But as you were talking about that being your debut novel, I assume there's a connection between the magic of the book, but also magic in being a parent.

Emily Bain Murphy

Yes, completely. And I think what's so lovely about becoming a parent is that you do get to see the world again with brand new eyes, and everything is just magical and wonder, you know, bugs and grass and flowers, and and so I absolutely think that my journey to motherhood poured into this book in more than one way.

Seth Adam Smith

So then um talk about getting that book published. I mean, what was the the the I guess the simplified process? It could be quite a complicated journey, but yes, talk about the process of taking that manuscript and getting it your first book published.

Emily Bain Murphy

So that was a long journey, um, as I know is true for a lot of authors. So, first of all, I think start to end, I I wrote that book 14 times, like 14 drafts. Oh wow. Wow. Because I didn't know what I was doing. You know, I didn't I didn't have my degree was in English, but I didn't have an MFA or anything. I just knew that I loved stories and I loved to write. And so I kind of fumbled my way through some drafts and had friends read it and just got their opinion and realized I needed to learn a lot more about writing books before this would be successful. So I studied a lot of craft books. And then eventually, when I finally felt like it was good enough to start querying, jumped into the query trenches. And that was a very long road as well. Uh, things that I needed to learn, even about the query letter process. Um, it was just a lot of like falling forward, stumbling forward, and being very um stubborn that I loved this book and I wanted to be an author. And so I eventually signed with my agent, Peter Knapp. And he is still my agent. Uh, I adore him. He's wonderful, and he has been so such a fantastic partner for all of the twists and turns uh that my career has taken.

Seth Adam Smith

And then when it was accepted for publication, I mean, I you never know exactly what to expect. You always hope for the best. But just on the cursory glance that I have right here, you know, when I list most popular or most reviewed, I mean it's the disappearances, your first book. It's done very well. Um, thank you. What has been your reaction to the reaction?

Emily Bain Murphy

My reaction to the reaction. I think because it took so long from start to finish for that book to be born. And there were so many times when I didn't know if anyone else, if anybody else was ever gonna read it, if it would see the light of day, that when readers connect to it, and every once in a while someone will say, Oh, that that's my favorite book. It just blows your mind. Um, you know, it's just it's such a dream come true that it's out there and people are receiving it, um, especially just after kind of that that long journey of doubt. It's it's it's extra sweet.

Seth Adam Smith

It's funny to watch um I just to see that authors are real people. Um like because sometimes there's you've read a story from somebody and you're like, I I finally got to talk to this author that I loved their book as a kid. And um, I'm watching Mary Averling uh right now. She's getting her book going through the net galley process and having beta readers, and then it's going to be published. She's been published before, but her very personal responses, which she'll put up in her Instagram stories, are so funny and so relatable. Where she's like, People are reading this book. Like, do you realize how embarrassing this is? Like, yes to have somebody reading, like, why would you read it? Why would you talk to me about reading my book?

Emily Bain Murphy

Yes. So cute. I I get that. And that was actually a really big um hurdle that I felt like I had to overcome when I was writing my second book, Splinters of Scarlet, because you really understand in a very visceral way how many people are gonna read what you're writing. And it is terrifying. You're like, oh, people are gonna professionally review this, and people are gonna tag me in reviews on on Instagram, some of which are not that flattering. Um, and you know, your person you haven't seen in 15 years is gonna reach out and say that they read it. And so that was definitely a huge, like, mental battle that I and I have heard a lot of other authors when you're writing your second book have to. It's a mountain you have to climb.

Seth Adam Smith

It's a weird one because you're like, Yeah, I know I wrote it for people to read, but why are you reading it? Why are you why are you talking to me about it? Just read it and move on. Well, um, like I said, I I kind of loosely structure these uh interviews around the hero's journey because I I've seen how authors are basically going on that hero's journey that Joseph Campbell talked about, where you leave what's comfortable and you go on this journey to publish this story that you feel called to create. And you go through ups and downs, you meet friends along the way, and then you go into the abyss, which is the hardest part of getting your story out there, and then you come back home with a story you've published. Um, so a key part of that journey is resistance, and that can be internal or external, um, but everyone encounters resistance when creating something meaningful. Um, what was the resistance that you felt like you were encountering at any point, not just with the disappearances, but with with all of your the books you've been working on? What was the resistance you've encountered and how have you overcome that resistance?

Emily Bain Murphy

That's such a good question. I think that the resistance has been consistent in that it has existed, but it has come in different forms throughout my publishing journey. So with the disappearances, it was will this ever happen? You know, can I hack it? Uh, will anyone think that I can create a good story that's worth other people reading? And then with the splendors of Scarlet, as I mentioned, a huge mental battle in just realizing how vulnerable it is to put stories out into the world. Um and then in just kind of successive things, I'm always trying to push myself to grow and to expand what I am capable of. I I never want to write the same story over and over again. And so uh after Splingers of Scarlet, I moved from young adult to enter the adult world. And that comes with the same sort of questions, the imposter syndrome of can I do this? Um, and and then again with light seekers, I'm entering the middle grade world and it's it's so much fun to push myself and just kind of find new new areas to explore while also constantly wondering like this is a brand new area for me. Why why am I doing this to myself? Um, and I think just to be very personal, the the question that I am always kind of asking as I'm writing is does this matter? Like, is this worth someone giving part of their life to read? Because that's that's what it is. You're asking for people's time, and time is increasingly valuable, and my own time is valuable. And so I'm trying to only take on the projects that feel um really exciting and important to me that I feel proud of to put into the world and to reject those voices that say this doesn't matter or this isn't good. And so that's just a constant, a constant battle, I think, for me and most creatives.

Seth Adam Smith

I'd agree, I'd agree. And I feel like the lesson that I've been learning over and over again, which I feel like I learned this before, but I always forget it. I think it's an important one that God doesn't want you to be comfortable. If you're comfortable, you don't progress, you don't grow, you don't learn. And you just gotta get out there and you have to push.

Emily Bain Murphy

Yeah, that it reminds me of um, I was learning about the original word for sloth is acidia. And it's basically this idea of just I'm good, I'm just gonna stay here. I'm comfortable. And that um that's actually not what we're made for. And so that's what um, yeah, that's always in the back of my mind is let's let's see what we can do. God, let's partner and see what we can do together.

Seth Adam Smith

Yeah, I'm and I'm I I see that because God creates. Um, and it's like if if you want to advance in life and become a better person, you have to create something. I mean, somebody had told me that the that really everything that our body does in some some sense or another is to support the function of our hands to be creating something. Yeah, I love it. Yes, it's like everything that's going on is it's it's like, okay, hands, now create something because I'm doing all of this for you to make something. And when we don't, not to oversimplify, but you know, when we don't, there is a form of depression that settles in when we're not progressing, not creating something inside of us feels dead until we start to make and that I guess that makes AI a very interesting conversation because it's not real, it lacks that journey. It's not, it doesn't connect with people. There's an unsettling factor when we see AI images, we're like turned off.

Emily Bain Murphy

Almost right, yeah, but it's not there's something a little off and It doesn't have a soul. And so I do think there's something deeply connected to God as creator and we as his creation also being able to create that he gives us that dignity. And so yeah, I think that does raise some very interesting, potentially problematic questions for AI that we're all kind of facing as it's becoming more and more prevalent.

Seth Adam Smith

So talk to me about the Ivory City. You had mentioned it a little bit earlier, but that's an adult novel, or it's an it's a novel, it's a novel tailored to adults.

Emily Bain Murphy

Yes.

Seth Adam Smith

Tell our listeners about, you know, the premise of that story and what inspired that.

Emily Bain Murphy

So the Ivory City is, I pitch it as Pride and Prejudice Meets the Devil in the White City, set at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. And so I decided that when I was living in California, I was deeply inspired by my trips to Hearst Castle and Alcatraz and pulled on some of my experiences living in Boston with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art heist. And that had kind of all come together into my book, Enchanted Hill. And so when I was thinking about my next adult project to follow that one, I thought I would really love to set a book here in my newish at the time hometown of St. Louis. And so I went down to the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis. And actually, it was the very last day of their um exhibit for the World's Fair because they were getting ready to redo it. And it was the renovation was going to take, you know, years. And so I just happened to slip in um providentially on that last day and walked through and read the plaques. And I I just remember I'm starting to kind of hone this sense now of when I know I have an idea that is something. And I was getting that kind of that shiver, that excitement. Um and so I I came home and I I just kind of, you know, wrote as much as I could based on this idea and then started gathering a lot of my research. And that book was, it was really fun to write and um have it come out and be so well received in the place that I live. And I love historical research because I think it kind of provides you like a trellis for for then your imagination to have something to grow off of. And so I reached out to a public historian at the Missouri History Museum, this wonderful man named Adam Kloppy. And he agreed to meet me for coffee. And I just came and asked him all of the questions uh that I could think of, and he was so gracious to answer them for me. Um, but I also did a walking tour um with the Philippine Historical Society as I began to learn some of the more unsavory parts of the fair. I thought I kind of thought, oh, this is just gonna be this fun story and yay, the fair. And then immediately I was like, oh, there's some really awfully complex things about this fair. And then I had to kind of decide, what am I gonna do with that? And I felt like the only thing I could really do with integrity was to bring it into the story in the best way that I that I could. So I did that. I reached out to this doctor um who had written a book on poison because poison factors into some of the plot. And she she was very sweet and pointed me to some old textbooks. And it was just, you know, you talk about being on a journey as an author, and the research itself was such a fun journey. It's kind of a little bit meta as I'm writing a mystery. I am uncovering the clues that I'm then going to plant in the mystery. And so um, yeah, that book was it was a lot of it was a lot of fun to write.

Seth Adam Smith

Well, it's fun that you mention um the the the poison aspect because I I'm sure like a lot of like a lot of authors are like, well, you probably don't want to look into my search history. Totally, yes.

Emily Bain Murphy

It's bad.

Seth Adam Smith

It's like I'm about ready to murder someone.

Emily Bain Murphy

We're all on an FBI watch list somewhere for sure.

Seth Adam Smith

Like it's just research.

Emily Bain Murphy

I promise if you meet me up there, sweet. I'm not planning to kill anyone. Only fictional.

Seth Adam Smith

Yeah, only fictionally, fictionally. It's just in my mind. I'm just thinking about it all the time. That's all it is. Tell our listeners about your novel Enchanted Hill. Um, what was the kind of what's the premise behind that and what was the inspiration for it?

Emily Bain Murphy

Yeah, so Enchanted Hill was, as I mentioned, um largely came out of this year that I spent in San Francisco. And we, my family and I did, we knew we were only going to be there for a year. We were there for part of my husband's training. And so we just tried to get everything we could out of that year. And we drove down the coast to go to Disneyland with my two young kids at the time. And my husband had heard about this house called Hearst Castle. And some of the people that he was working with said, Oh, if your wife loves old houses, you have to go to this place. And so, for whatever reason, I'm always very inspired by old mansions. I just think they set my imagination alight. And so I have this very distinct memory of us driving down the Pacific Coast Highway and this gorgeous. I don't know if you've ever been there before, but it's up on um, you know, this beautiful mountain overlooking the Pacific Ocean and surrounded by these like needle-thin palm trees. And it's just this massive, massive mansion that William Randolph Hearst built. It's in the middle of nowhere. And wild zebras are just grazing right there along the highway because they used to be part of his zoo, and now they're just wild, I guess. Um, and so we took a tour, and I just fell in love with so many aspects of this place. And I thought, yes, I think this is where I want to spend my mental time is in this house. And so I ended up writing the majority of that book during COVID when I was trying to um, you know, my kids are doing Zoom school. And so that book took longer than some of the other books that I've written because of that time of my life. But I will always associate it with um, you know, we were we were all stuck inside. I was in Missouri, but my mind was able to travel to this beautiful, this beautiful mansion set on the Pacific Ocean. And the premise of the book is um, we have Cora McCavanaugh, and she is posing as a maid at this fictionalized Hearst Castle, which is called Bird Castle. And um, she grew up on a fictionalized version of Alcatraz. She was the daughter of a prison guard there. And um without spoiler spoiling anything, um, something happened to her on this island that still haunts her. And she's kind of become a private investigator to help right some of the wrongs that she thinks that she has committed. And so she's there under false pretenses for this week of glittering parties on the California coast, set in 1930. And um, someone else walks in who she recognizes from her past, who is also there under false pretenses. And they're the only people who know who the real person is. They they know each other's actual true identity. And so it becomes this kind of cat and mouse game of can we trust each other? They're both there trying to uncover a deeper mystery that might actually help them heal from this shared um traumatic experience of their past. And um I always just when I think about this book, whenever I'm writing, I'm always trying to work out my own questions about the world. And when I look at this one, the questions that I was asking mainly were what do we do when someone has wronged us? And what does that choice of response look like five, 10, 15, 20 years down the road? And so there's a bunch of different characters who have um things that have happened to them in their past, and we kind of get to see all the different facets of the way that they have chosen to respond and the way that it has then shaped their character.

Seth Adam Smith

I love that. I love that. Um, two things that you mentioned during that really stood out to me. One is that you you wrote it during COVID while all the kids were home. I cannot write when I hear my kids fighting. I I don't know how I don't know how you did that, and I don't know how you did um I mean, it was COVID at the same time. I mean, kind of the world was in upheaval, and I know authors are really good at kind of tuning out um a lot of what's going on in order to write, but how how did you to me that looks like resistance? Like that's my resistance. How did you overcome that resistance of tuning out the world, the noise in the world, and then the noise in your own home to a healthy degree? How do you how do you zero in and focus on on finishing a book?

Emily Bain Murphy

I think that I have just really come to find that writing for me is so life-giving. Um, that I do it almost because I have to in the best possible way. Um, it just brings me joy. And so I think that's kind of a common pattern looking back on my story, of some of the some of my most creative times have come out of the darkest parts of my life because that is where I feel alive is when I'm creating. And so it's it's such a beautiful picture actually of just the light that can come out of darkness over and over again. And so that's especially true when I look back at those COVID years, because they were hard and they were scary and they stretched us a lot. And I think I turned to my writing as a way of escapism, both just, you know, oh, I get to be on this mansion doing parties in 1930 in California. This is so fun. Um, but also just the escapism of I'm doing what makes me feel alive, even when the rest of the world feels very uncertain. I can come back to this. And it just, yeah, life-giving is the word that just really encapsulates encapsulates that for me the best.

Seth Adam Smith

When you mentioned light, which I imagine light plays a role in the light seekers series that you've just released. Um, just as a note to that, I I we mentioned we were talking a little bit about God during the interview, and then before the interview, we we had talked about him. But whenever I see C.S. Lewis's name, and then you had the book, it says there's a lot of people who have mentioned C. S. Lewis kind of playing an aspect or an influence in Lightseekers. Um, I always think about him in connection with light when he talks about he talks about his conversion, and when he goes underneath the bridge and it's dark, and then he comes out on the other side and there's light, and he marks that as his conversion. And he says, 'It's a man who was asleep and suddenly realized that he's he's awake.

Emily Bain Murphy

Yeah.

Seth Adam Smith

Um, and I love that. And light has always been so closely connected with there's there is a lot of darkness in the world. C.S. Lewis was describing darkness, but there is somewhere inside of that, somewhere beyond that, in the midst of all that chaos, there's still light, there's still hope. So I I love it. So I'm already really interested. I saw C. S. Lewis and Light and all these these images in connection with Light Seekers, but give our listeners an idea of what light seekers is about and what prompted you to write in middle grade.

Emily Bain Murphy

Yeah. So I just have to say, when you were telling that story about C. S. Lewis, I I love his quote about how um you can follow, you see a beautiful sunbeam and you can admire the sunbeam, and then you can follow the sunbeam up to find its source. And I think that um just coming back to the disappearances, that is kind of what I was doing with that book as well. It's just um finding the beauty in the world, and then maybe going the next step and asking, where is all this beauty coming from and why? Why do we get to experience it? Um, and so circling back to Lightseekers, um I never know if I should tell the backstory first or give the pitch. So I'll do the backstory.

Seth Adam Smith

You're the author of this, really. It's it's up to you.

Emily Bain Murphy

Um so I wrote Lightseekers also kind of in that same COVID period. Um, the idea first came to me for the first for the first book. I was doing a two-year spiritual Christian spiritual formation course, and I was learning all of these things that again were just making the world feel so alive to me and were bringing so much light in a period that felt personally very dark. And I was um I was learning about discipleship and um just this interactive relationship that you can have with God and it's exciting and it's an adventure. And I really wanted to convey this in a way that my kids could understand. And so I, and as mentioned, a lot of times whatever I am working through mentally, I process through fiction. It's just the way that I am able to make sense of the world and figure out the story that I'm telling to myself, just about life in general. And so I began writing this story, and it's called Light Seekers. The first is called A Kingdom of Shadows. It is the first of a fantasy trilogy. And the premise of the story um it's about 12-year-old Finn, and he is, for all intents and purposes, an orphan. He's kind of been abandoned uh with his younger sister in this kingdom called Wildfell. And they survive in this kingdom with his best friend Adrian by kind of thieving and um just doing whatever they can to survive. And this kingdom, for the last 10 years, every year, um, the shadows have been growing darker and deeper and stronger, and the light itself has been growing a little bit dimmer. And so they're very concerned about how are we gonna live in this world when they meet this mysterious stranger. He's an older boy named Eric. And he arrives in their lives and says, I know of the way to this lake of light. I am the only one that knows how to make the key. And if you would like to, you can join me on this adventure as we cross the kingdom to get all the elements needed to make this key. And so as they embark on this adventure with him, it becomes a question of what are we gonna find? Is this even real? Um, is this all in my head? Is this person crazy? And what things are we gonna discover that are going to change not only the nature of the kingdom itself, but the deepest parts of these kids as they go on this journey and adventure together? Wow.

Seth Adam Smith

I I can already I can already see a bunch of stuff uh that I that immediately like I'm thinking of the scene um in the silver chair with the with the witch, and she's playing the music and the smoke from the fireplace is going up and clouding them. Anyway, I'm I'm getting I'm getting hints. I love it. I love I love the concept. And was there a particular thing that really sparked the idea for this story?

Emily Bain Murphy

Looking back, um, to the way that I write, I will usually get some sort of an image, primarily. Um and that that's happened with most of my books. I'm just very visual. And usually when I'm writing, it's like I'm seeing a movie and then I'm just trying to dictate what happens. Um, try and translate that into the written word. Yeah. And so with this book, I got this image years before I started writing the book of a boy, and he had I could see like a forest in his chest almost. Um and so I kind of sat with that for a while and I thought, can everyone see this forest? Is it like a glass window? And is that what everyone in this boy's world do they all just walk around with you can kind of see the deepest parts of them? And then um over the years, that kind of evolved into no, only this boy can see this. He has this kind of unique ability to sense what's going on inside of him on the deepest level, on the soul level, if you will. And then gradually he's gonna be able to start sensing this in other people as well. And um, and so as with as with all of my books, I just find that I'll get the little seed of something, and it will lie dormant for a little while. It'll just simmer, and then eventually it will come into contact with the thing that that brings it to life and makes it grow. And for me, that was doing this spiritual formation course. And then I was like, oh, yes, I understand now what how these things are gonna come together and coalesce into a wider fantasy adventure story.

Seth Adam Smith

So tell our listeners a little bit about Splinters of Scarlet. What was the idea of that story and and how did you come up with that?

Emily Bain Murphy

So Splinters of Scarlet is my um Downton Abbey Meets Frozen, YA Fantasy, set in 1866 Denmark. Um, it follows the story of a girl named Merritt. She's an orphan and she has seamstress magic. And so she can sew things just with the touch of her finger. Um, but the problem is in this world, magic is something that comes with a cost. And every time you use it, a little bit more of this ice-like sediment called the fern um builds up in your veins. And so you have to decide what is worth using my magic for, if it might be actually shortening my life at the same time. And so um, that was kind of one of the questions that I was asking as I was writing. What do we pour our lives into? What is what what does it look like when we're writing story, when we're taking time to write these stories or um, you know, pour our lives into other people, and how does that form us um on the inside? So that was kind of some of the deeper questions that I was asking, but it is also just a fun kind of murder mystery. It has it has these mystery elements, magic, ballet, jewels, and a lot of it came from uh I was watching Frozen a lot with my with my daughter at the end. What do you kids? Yeah, oh yeah. Yes. We were doing that one daily. Um, I was enjoying the upstairs-downstairs dynamic of Downton Abbey, and that's gonna play a lot into this um story as Merritt takes on a role as a seamstress in kind of a giant manor house there in Denmark. And I was also um pulling from getting to go to places in that for that year in San Francisco. We went to the San Francisco Ballet and saw um the nutcracker with the with the beautiful snow falling on the stage, which I found so inspiring, and a gem gemstone jewel exhibit at the um San Francisco Academy of Sciences. So it's funny to talk about my books in these situations because I just realize how much I'm constantly just pulling from museums and houses and just whatever is my physical environment around me is probably gonna wind up somehow in a book.

Seth Adam Smith

So that's that's a warning to people not to not to stand too. Close or that's right.

Emily Bain Murphy

Is that people in places?

Seth Adam Smith

So people are safe.

Emily Bain Murphy

Places are not safe.

Seth Adam Smith

Yeah, places are not safe. Well, I I love that question. What do you pour your life into? Because I mean, my wife and I both just turn 40, and before 40, you don't think about time as much as you think about time after you're 40. You're like, okay, well, suddenly time is running out.

Emily Bain Murphy

The hour class.

Seth Adam Smith

Yeah. You're like, but we're on the other side of this. Yeah, that's it's now the equal parts are gone. So they're going down. Um, but we you think more about time and you think more about what is important, more so than when you're younger. And and you know, what do you pour your life into? And what because you're gonna pour your life into something, right? Um either waste it or you put it into something, and so that is an important question to be asking. I like that.

Emily Bain Murphy

Yeah, thank you.

Seth Adam Smith

Um, we'll talk about the shift into middle grade writing because you were talking about every book as a way of expanding into something new, something challenging. Um, talk about that shift into middle grade. I have a perspective on middle grade novels because I've interviewed so many middle grade authors.

Emily Bain Murphy

Yes.

Seth Adam Smith

Yeah, and I love it. It's my favorite genre, but I I would love to hear your perspective about what it's been like to transition into this, into this world.

Emily Bain Murphy

Yeah. Well, first of all, it's just been really fun to write books that I can immediately put into my own kids' hands. Um, I often even get their feedback as part of the drafting process. And so that's that's been new and fun. I think that there's there's just a couple of different aspects that are really intriguing and exciting about writing for this age group. And the first is I just remember how formational stories were for me in when I was that age. There's something about store middle grade stories that just plant something very deep in us that we then get to carry around with us for the rest of our lives. And so I'm not sure I realized how deeply meaningful that would be for me until this book came out and young kids were just they were so excited and they just they loved this story in a way that I remembered feeling and that you don't get quite as easily as an adult. And so that has been, yeah, that has just touched me in a very deep way. And then I think that constantly when you're writing, you know, my adult books and even my young adult books are around the 90,000-word um mark, and my middle grade books are around like 60 to 65,000 words. And so there's an economy of space there that you want to tell a full good story with uh, you know, fully realized and developed characters who are all going on their own character arcs, and especially with this being a fully fantasy book, there's a lot of world building. And so you're trying to do um the same amount of story in you know, two-thirds of the space. And so it's a unique challenge, and knowing that um, you know, you're not probably gonna have quite as much space to like have a lot of internal pontificating. And so it's just it's a it's definitely a new challenge. And I what I loved about Lightseekers is I did not dumb anything down when I wrote it. I wrote this book, um, you know, hoping that any adult who picks it up will be equally as not only entertained, but that is thought-provoking for them. That it's it's asking these questions of becoming, and um the more time that we choose to either spend in the light or in the darkness, that is actually forming something in us. And so trying to cast this vision of I want to seek the light, I want to become a light seeker and have that mirrored um in the deepest parts of myself. And so it's definitely a unique challenge to let my imagination go wild. This is my first book that's not a mystery. Um, it is my first book that's fully fantasy. It's my first middle grade, it's my first trilogy. And so there's a lot, a lot of me being stretched. Um and it and I it feels so exciting when I'm doing that. And I hope that that translates in some way onto the page.

Seth Adam Smith

It's wonderful. I I mentioned my my daughters was born 10 years ago, and before I before she was born, I had the opportunity to go hike the Grand Canyon. I love the Grand Canyon. Wow. That's all I want to do. That's the only place I want to be, is the Grand Canyon. And I got to hike it. I was I went down, I was by myself. I've done it before, and and so I was familiar with the path and went down to the Colorado River. It got really dark. Um, I didn't see a single person on the trail. No one. Wow, not at all. And I saw there was always this big crow that would follow me around, thought it would give it food, you know. But that that was it. That was it. It was just me and that crow. I loved it, but I remember being, I was like, this is the most alone I've ever felt in my life. And when I was getting close to the top of the trail, it's dark. I mean, stars are out, moon's out, dark. And I looked down the trail and I can see these little tiny lights from these people hiking the trail, the flashlight. And I realized I wasn't alone.

Emily Bain Murphy

Oh, wow.

Seth Adam Smith

And that image has just stayed with me because we think in so much that you know of what we're experiencing, sometimes we can feel very alone. Yeah. Um, and we feel like there's there's nothing, it's totally dark. Our journey, like we on our journey, we we feel like there's nothing left or something. We feel a sense of hopelessness. But if you look for the light, you will find it. And that image is just stuck into my mind is that there are people out there who do have light, you know, and you know, the trail would have been less lonely if you associate with those people. But I I've thought of that. And again, the image of light and darkness is just so ingrained in my mind. So when I saw all of my author friends posting your book, all of them, I mean, I was there it's over and over again. I was like, okay, well, I gotta check it out. I got the memo.

Emily Bain Murphy

Um that's a beautiful picture. Thank you for sharing that.

Seth Adam Smith

Well, yeah, it but it stuck out to me because of my daughter. I remember she was born shortly after that. It was the darkest day of the year, it's the 21st of December, the darkest day. And I just remember she opened up her little eyes and you could see the light reflecting in them. Oh, yeah. And it's just such a sharp image, is that no matter how it could be the darkest day of the year, there is light. There's always light, there's always hope. And so uh every good story, or every good, I guess, meaningful story uh seems to have an idea or a theme that it's it's trying to convey. Um, and not to speak too broadly, I mean, you've got a lot of different kinds of books, different genres, but what do you feel like is the message that you're trying to convey? Maybe not with all of them, but one that's really standing out to you.

Emily Bain Murphy

Well, I do think there is commonality in all of my books, and the bedrock of them is my just my worldview that I'm bringing to the table, which is hope. Um, I always want to bring stories into the world that ultimately are about hope. Um and with Lightseekers in particular, um well, I'll back up and say I think that that the other commonalities in my stories are beauty, that um there's so much beauty in the world and in our lives if we have the eyes to see it. Um that comes up over and over again. And then I think uh our our internal formation is something that I'm revisiting over and over again um in Spongers of Scarlet, as I mentioned, and then it's a huge part of Light Seekers. It is, you know, we are becoming some someone from a very young age, from from these times of middle grade, eight and up. Um, we are becoming someone through all of our choices, little and big. And I think that gets lost sometimes when we're just kind of doing our thing day to day. We we lose sight of the big picture of what is forming us. Who are we becoming as we go through our days? And so what I think is so beautiful about stories is we can cover so much ground of a life in um within the context of a story. It kind of helps us to zoom out and regain that bigger picture that we can lose just in the midst of our everyday. And so with Light Seekers, I am trying to help cast the vision for myself, for my own kids, and just for whoever reads it, that, you know, we get to choose who we want to become in some ways by who we surround ourselves with and these choices that we make. And what are we ultimately aiming towards? Are we are we going towards the light? Have we caught a vision of something that's so beautiful and so lovely that we want to spend our lives pursuing it on this adventure? Um, and I think that hopefully that resonates with, you know, readers of all ages, uh, if if they want to spend time in the Kingdom of Wildfowl with this story.

Seth Adam Smith

I love that. That is the perfect note for what's basically the final question. Um, I I named this podcast a literal journey, partly inspired by Joseph's Joseph Campbell's Heroes Journey, but also what I was telling you about the Grand Canyon and hiking and everything. I I've seen how a story, a good story or a bad story, can shape someone's life. It just depends on what they believe, right? Um, I do a lot of work in addiction recovery, and so much of it has to do with what what they think their story is. So much of it. Yeah, there's some very difficult situations, but a lot of it, if if they just say, I don't want to live out this story anymore, I want to live a different story, it's a complete turnaround.

Emily Bain Murphy

Yes.

Seth Adam Smith

And with with that in mind, what is a story? It could be fiction, nonfiction, personal, or or otherwise. What is the story that inspires you to move forward?

Emily Bain Murphy

I love this question. I've loved this whole conversation, by the way. It's been lovely. Thank you. Feelings mutual. Thank you. Um, I think uh there's kind of three things that are coming to mind. The first is just this experience that I had again as a young girl reading The Secret Garden. It kind of just opened the door for me that there is adventure and beauty just all over the place. Um and to be seeking that. Like, look for that, seek for seek that, find the beauty um in your life wherever you can. And then um probably the book that has changed my life the most drastically, other than the Bible, um, is The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard. That book introduced um a new story for me to live into. Uh it's it's Steve Sledding. Um he taught philosophy at um USC and as a Baptist minister, and his worldview um, particularly about the kingdom of God, just has changed my entire life. And then lastly, um I'm I'm just right now in the midst of reading this book series that again I found out because everyone on all my author friends on Instagram were raving about it. It's called the uh The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lyon by Beth Brower. And I'm only on book three, but it's just so delightful and it's reminding me of just the pure delight that stories provide. And so that's giving me inspiration again to say, you know, this actually really stories really matter because this is this is bringing a lot of joy and brightness into my life through this fictional character that I just find is so delightful. And so it's it's reminding me of why I do what I do, that I'm hoping to create this same feeling that I'm getting from these books for other people, just pass that, you know, be a conduit of just joy and goodness to bring into other people's lives.

Seth Adam Smith

I love that because if you are, I mean, if you are living a life that's has light that that that could inspire so many people down the line to to change, to find light. If they see light in you, that inspires them to find light elsewhere. I mean, while you were talking, I was thinking about my grandfather, who was an alcoholic. I didn't know him, I never met him. Um, but he was on my dad's side. He was an alcoholic. And my dad, I was at lunch with my dad, and he had just he never liked talking about growing up. He would never talk about it. But sometimes if you if you'd kind of if you're in if he's in the peripheral vision, you're not focusing directly on him, you just kind of kind of say something and he'll he'll say something offhand. And so I have to be very delicate with how I talked to him. But that I was he had mentioned in this conversation, he said, you know, the only time my my dad was was able to quit drinking was when he joined AA and he believed in God. And I remember I was sitting back, he had said that, and I sat up uh at dinner, and I sat up and I said, say that again. And he said, um, well, and he repeated it. He says, The only time my my dad could quit was when he believed in God. And I said, Are you serious? And he said, Yeah. And that story of my grandfather was the story that actually helped me quit drinking. Because that I said, There's there's a solution, there's there's some hope. And it was it was hope from a man in my life I had never met that had turned his life around. He found God, turned his life around. And 30 years after his death, his story had changed my life. And I it's just it's true. Like you seek light, you change your life, you do the best you can to find beauty, the best he could to find beauty and hope. Is the only thing he could do was to find God. And because he did that, he was able to save his grandson 30 years later.

Emily Bain Murphy

My goodness. Yes. Oh, that is that is so beautiful.

Seth Adam Smith

Well, I never I've never shared that story. I've never thank you, I've never publicly. So, but it's it's a testament how good this conversation has been. I've and it's a testament to your book. I mean, I we wouldn't have had this conversation had you not written this book. And I'm I'm gonna send this out. Yeah, yeah, but I'm I'm it's the light that you're sharing that's helping people. I I I I don't doubt it. So thank you.

Emily Bain Murphy

Thank you. Well, thank you for helping me get the word out about it as well, and for inviting me on this podcast for such a lovely, beautiful, meaningful conversation.

Seth Adam Smith

Oh, thank you. Where where's the best place for people to to find you and support what you're doing?

Emily Bain Murphy

Thank you. Um, probably my website, which is www.emilybanemurphy.com. Um, we also have a book specific, series specific website um for the lightseekers called www.jointhelightseekers.com. And I'm also on Instagram and Facebook at Emily Bainmurphy.