Steve and Paul: Two Men and a Typewriter

Steve Murphy has spent much of his life in uniform, starting with four years in the Navy as a GMM, where he earned the Navy Expeditionary Medal and Navy Unit Commendation. Afterwards he did a stint in the Army National Guard. As if that wasn’t enough, Steve then spent 23 years as a police officer, working 9 of those years as a SWAT sniper. So naturally, he writes science-fiction, fantasy, and space opera.

Paul Barrett has had multiple careers, including rock and roll roadie, theater stage manager, television camera operator, mortgage banker, and support specialist for Microsoft Excel. This eclectic mix allowed him to go into his true love: motion picture production.

Tell us a bit about your most recent work.

We have two most recents. The first is Knight Ascendant,  the second novel in the Knights of the Flaming Star series, which is about a group of intergalactic mercenaries. Think Guardians of the Galaxy with magic. It’s a standalone like the first book, with a few throughlines. We came up with the characters in our 20s and they stuck with us all these years. We are currently working on the third book of the series.

The second is the Malaise Falchion, which we call JRR Tolkien meets Elmore Leonard. It’s about a dwarf private eye who gets in over his head trying to help a femme fatale. Paul wrote the first novel, but the second book is in the works and is being done by Paul and Steve.

What are the themes and subjects you tend to revisit in your work?