In uncertain times it can be comforting to look back at past world-turning points, because looking back shows that people made it through. GREEDY HEART takes place during the 2008 stock market crash, a time that changed lives, and its heroine comes out of it with a changed heart, stronger! So we’re thrilled to have the author with us today! Welcome, A.P. Murray!
Lexi: GREEDY HEART is a tale of materialism and selfishness in an uncertain time. And in uncertain times, people go through fire and find out who they really are. Your heroine, Delia, intends to get to the top and she’s willing to jump into sketchy deals and crazy schemes to get there. What did you love about writing a woman who’s goal is monetary?
A great character arc!
I think that’s what readers find satisfying, and it’s also fun to write.
If you want your character to end up HERE < puts hand above head>, she’s gotta start down HERE
Money represents so many things, doesn’t it? It’s practical—everyone needs money to live—but it’s also an abstract. It can mean success, love, security, power. That’s what makes writing about money, and a woman who wants it, so fun!
Lexi: You wrote this book years ago, but eerily, it could just as well be taking place today. Uncertain times push people and sometimes we crack, but, how do we heal? I know for me, my furry friend helps a lot. You’ve got quite a few animal characters in GREEDY HEART, which one is your favorite?
There sure are a lot of creatures in my novel! From rats to dogs to birds to horses.
If I had to pick, I’d say Whitey the horse. There’s an old wives’ tale asserting the more white markings a horse has, the more difficult he is to manage. Whitey has four white socks, a white blaze and white around his eyes. Delia names him Whitey after these markings but also for the gangster, Whitey Bulger.
He’s an absolute maniac, impossible for anyone to ride *except* Delia. Whitey finds himself, at one point, as a runaway carriage horse in NYC. I am a sucker for that kind of spectacle comedy.
Lexi: Animals have such big hearts. And I love that they can help people change and heal. Healing is a heavy topic for people today, and one that readers can find an answer to with Delia’s change. What is one of the main themes you wanted people to walk away with after reading GREEDY HEART?
I think we’re all wondering how the world is going to heal from this pandemic-era we are living through.
In Greedy Heart, the animals show the way. There’s a tropical parakeet who lives in a window box outside Delia’s apartment—as crazy as that sounds. He’s based on an actual colony of parakeets that lives in central Brooklyn.
Who would think parakeets could survive in New York? And yet, they do.
To me this is exactly the message of hope and of survival we need to hear right now. Animals teach us how to do that.
As humans, we need to figure out how disasters—both natural (e.g. pandemics, hurricanes) and man-made (financial crises)—offer us the opportunity to change, learn and heal.
Lexi: Love is powerful. Even though your book reads like a financial thriller, it’s the emotional journey that Delia goes through that really grips you as you read. I guess that’s why the description that GREEDY HEART as a character-driven, female Wolf of Wall Street is very apt. But, Delia does transform through the book, so how would you describe her or her relationship at the end?
In so many ways, at the start of the novel, Delia has given up on love and relationships. The only relationship she’s willing to have is the one with her bank account.
Enter our billionaire hero—There are two billionaires competing for Delia, so I won’t tell you which one wins out! Our hero also begins broken and compromised, just like Delia.
Delia and our hero must both confront the consequences of wanting money. They find a way to each other through the searing experience of the financial crisis.
Lexi: Your debut book gives us quite a ride! We hope to see you back soon, but until then…can you spill any secrets on your next ideas or books?
Ooooo! My next one is set in Greece and is a modern-day woman’s story woven with a historical one. It’s gonna have international intrigue, lost letters, secret societies, and hidden passages in an old house!
Maybe we should’ve poured you more wine! Thank you so much for stopping by and a huge congrats on GREEDY HEART! Cheers!!
Greedy Heartby A.P. Murray
Kindle Edition, 358 pages
Published April 7th 2020 by Tule Publishing
ASINB07Z5DR769
For Delia math just makes sense—more sense than people, anyway.
It’s 2006, and Delia Mulcahy is living in a shabby apartment and facing crushing student debt. Suddenly, she’s plucked from obscurity to work for Wall Street’s top hedge fund. Determined to make her millions, Delia must master the cutthroat world of big-stakes trading and profit off of the cataclysm of the looming crash.
In the underbelly of finance, no one is who they say they are. Delia finds herself embroiled in devious schemes and duplicitous deals as her recklessness threatens every relationship in her life: family, friends and especially the two rival CEOs vying for her genius.
It's a high-risk game and she is a better player than most. When her soul is on the line, how much is enough for her greedy heart?
About A. P. Murray
A.P. Murray’s sprawling Irish Catholic family has roots in New York City going back four generations. Her industrialist great grandfather, Thomas E. Murray, Sr., co-founded Consolidated Edison, was second only to Edison the number of patents attributed to him, and is credited with creating the mass distribution of electricity in New York City. Murray descends from this lace-curtain heritage and also from a working-class mother who rose to international fame as a fashion model.A technology consultant by day, Murray began her career as a teacher and journalist before founding an early stage web company, which built many national bands’ first websites. the firm, tmg-demedia, later expanded in broad-ranging technology consulting. Murray has won multiple awards for her technology leadership and as a woman tech entrepreneur. She lives in New York with her husband and business partner, Christos Moschovitis, and her whippet, Orpheus. Her horse, Hershey, resides separately in Connecticut.Greedy Heart is her debut novel.
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