About Me

Long version: I was born in 1991 in Atlanta, Georgia, to a Mr. and Mrs. Murray who found it convenient that I should share their name. I think that was a very sensible choice, all things considered, and it’s a name that I’ve been proud to carry with me ever since.

But despite our common cognomen, I gave Mr. and Mrs. Murray no end of trouble, especially when it came to defining my interests. I liked everything, and I got into everything. Though I always had something in mind, almost nothing I ever did made sense out of context; so if you found some disaster around the house that would definitely require an explanation or three, you could make money betting that it was probably my fault.

I can’t be sure, but this was likely at least a consideration for Mrs. Murray when she made the decision to home-school my siblings and me. This was not a decision to be made lightly. Mrs. Murray was not an educator by trade, so home-schooling her children would require her to abandon her promising engineering career in favor of an unsung, unpaid twenty-year tour in pedagogy. We three, her children, can never thank her enough for that sacrifice.

And I in particular, I think, benefited greatly from the paradoxical rigor and flexibility of Schoolhouse Murray. Because she could adapt the curriculum to the needs and interests of each student, Mrs. Murray was able to harness the natural enthusiasm of our youth by guiding us to what we needed to know when we wanted to know it. She also ensured that we were exposed to as broad a base of knowledge as possible, modelling her curricula on the principles of classical education. Through all of that, and while dealing with my diverse and ever-changing interests, she somehow managed to always encourage focus and never discourage learning.

Thus, with this guidance, I grew in discipline while never drawing back in curiosity. I still was excited by almost everything, but I learned to hold myself to standards that turned idle curiosity into productivity. Finally, in my eighteenth year and (so I thought) at the very doorstep of young adulthood, I made a decision about my life: “I’m going to be a writer.”

Whereupon I went to Dartmouth College for a major in computer science.

Now, that might sound like the same capricious zigzagging I was known for as a child, but this time it wasn’t. I had a plan. A year or so before my college decision, my grandmother (Mrs. Grand-Murray, a Cuban refugee whose rather singular worldview I can only describe as practical romanticism) had sat me down so she could pass on the wisdom of the ages. “Young master Murray [sic],” she said, “you have many interests. When you’re thinking about a career, start by making a list of the three things you like doing most. From that list, choose the most lucrative. Major in that, and you can afford to do the other two as hobbies.”

I followed her advice, and from a list that featured writing, music, and technology, it wasn’t hard to spot the best breadwinner. I couldn’t deny my elder’s wisdom; and yet, in spite of it, I still saw myself as a writer. I would be a writer. It wasn’t just a hobby for me, it was something I’d decided that I will do. So, based on my grandmother’s sagacity and my own unyielding determination, I decided to play the long game.

I became a software engineer with the intention of becoming a fantasy novelist. Maintaining this duality, pursuing both careers at once, has required me to remain very self-disciplined for a very long time. However, that work has put me in a peculiar position of strength which allows me to now say with confidence — rational, well-founded confidence — what I originally promised myself as a teenager: I will succeed as a writer. I will succeed because I will never stop, and I have the discipline and resources to try and learn and try and learn and try and learn for as long as it takes until I get good.

That, at least, was the ambition; and with that zealous morsel as my anthem, I attended college, graduated, and embarked on what has become a very promising young career in the technology industry (much to the satisfaction of Mr. and Mrs. Murray, who are both engineers by training [though neither by trade anymore, which is ironic {or possibly thematic, in a past-is-precedent sort of way}]). 

But in all of that process, I’ve never forgotten the plan, and I’ve never stopped writing. In fact, I’ve often found ways to leverage my technology expertise to help me with my writing (see the blog for some fun examples). And today, the launch of this very website is my latest step toward the career as a writer that I’ve been working toward for so long.

The next step is to seek representation for my debut novel, a character-focused fantasy in an ancient/medieval setting. Sadly, I can’t post details about the book publicly yet, so unfortunately this brief autobiography will have to end with a sequel hook.

“Next time, on TheMiddleMurray.com…”

–Murray