Clan Murphy originated in the Midwest—Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin—but moved to Oregon in 1995. The “Clan” consists of Debra and Daniel Murphy and their six children, Rachel, John, Kevin, Luke, Maire, and Liam. The Clan members who contribute to the Idyllist (and other Idylls Press online projects) are:

Debra Murphy. Debra’s Catholic mystery-thriller, The Mystery of Things, was published in December 2004 by Idylls Press, which she founded in 2004 with the mission of “publishing the Catholic imagination.” Her current project is a genre mystery set in an Ashland, Oregon and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

In the realm of non-fiction, Debra is a contributing editor for Godspy, where she publishes reviews and op-ed pieces on contemporary culture. An avid reader, moviegoer and Shakespeare fan, Debra also writes book reviews for Catholicfiction.net and film reviews for both bardolatry.com (a website devoted to Shakespeare-on-film) and Catholic movies online.

Rachel Murphy. Rachel is the oldest of the Murphy kids and a gifted seamstress of custom-made Irish dance dresses. (See her business website, Silverlode Needlecraft, to see why her dresses have been described by her customers as “wearable works of art.”)

Rachel is also beginning to make liturgical vestments and hopes to branch out in the areas of Irish dance doll dressmaking and textile art, especially the crafting of wall hangings using the applique and stitching techniques she’s learned in making Irish dance dresses. Rachel is an avid “reader” of audiobooks while she’s working at the sewing machine, and in that capacity has become a frequent reviewer, especially of audiobooks, for catholicfiction.net.

John Murphy. John recently graduated magna cum laude from the University of Oregon’s Clark Honors College with a B.A. in Art History. He plans to go on to get an MFA in film and fulfill a lifelong dream of directing movies, but in the meantime he works as Idylls Press’ in-house cover designer and illustrator. (Go here to see examples of John’s work.)

John also loves to sketch caricatures of famous writers and musicians, and art prints of some of his work are for sale on his website, at Idylls Press, and on clothing and gift items at the Idylls Press Cafepress store. Along more literary lines, John is a frequent contributor of film and book reviews for Godspy, bardolatry, catholicmoviesonline, and catholicfiction.net.

Kevin Murphy is a college student, slowly-but-surely pursuing a B.S. in Psychology, with a minor in Biology. He is also in the process of completing a flight training program on the way to becoming a professional pilot.

In his spare time, Kevin enjoys writing and recording music, which can be listened to here (www.myspace.com/swansongmusik).

Kevin currently works at a bed & breakfast on the Oregon coast.