Biography

K. Murry Johnson holds masters degrees from Rollins College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He earned his undergraduate degree from Loyola University New Orleans. This novel represents the culmination of a 13-year journey: to create a unique and meaningful black gay love story that brings to life the seductive, elusive world of vampires. He lives Washington, DC.

K. Murry Johnson grew up in the city of St. Rose, Louisiana, which is located just 13 miles outside of New Orleans. He lived with his mother, father, and younger brother and sister.

In 1994 he was accepted into the prestigious Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts public boarding high school. It was there he focused on his love of the arts, specifically music and acting. He began playing the clarinet in the fifth grade and eventually made it into the Louisiana All-State Concert and Symphonic bands.

High school provided Johnson an outlet to explore his sexuality. In the small town of Natchitoches, Louisiana he would travel to the local bookstore to make sure his name was first on the waiting list to receive a copy of E. Lynn Harris’ latest black gay love stories. The small town with a population of 39,000 made K. Murry Johnson’s exposure to other black gay men quite limited. In spite of his isolation, he dreamed of falling in love with an educated, handsome black gay man like those described in Mr. Harris’ books.

K. Murry Johnson attended Loyola University on a band scholarship. While there, he became the president of the Gay and Lesbian Outreach At Loyola organization also known as G.O.A.L. Although it was precarious being the president of a gay and lesbian organization at a predominantly white and Jesuit university, it was surprisingly rewarding. K. Murry won the prominent Spirit of Loyola award for racial understanding and was named one of the most influential students at Loyola because of the numerous events he organized that explored the intersection of race and sexuality.

When K. Murry Johnson was a senior at Loyola University, he enrolled in a creative writing class. He decided to try his hand at writing a coming of age black gay love story as his writing assignment. Tour of the School, the first chapter of Image of Emeralds and Chocolate, was created as his short story. He believed Image of Emeralds and Chocolate would end in that writing class. Little did he know, this was the beginning of a 13-year journey.

After graduating from Loyola University with a degree in Computer Information Systems, K. Murry Johnson took a job with the aerospace giant, Lockheed Martin in Orlando, Florida. During his time with the company, he forwarded an electronic copy of his short story to a coworker and dear friend. He never expected her to even read the story. But to his surprise, she not only read the story, but enthusiastically asked “What happened next?” She tricked him into writing four additional chapters by asking that same question at the end of each chapter he presented to her. Her curiosity, faith, and support gave Image of Emeralds and Chocolate the necessary jolt of life for K. Murry to see the beginning of the enormous endeavor of creating a novel.

Earning masters in Technical Program Management and Business Administration and moving from Orlando to New Orleans and then from New Orleans to Atlanta, slowed down the creation of Image and Emeralds and Chocolate. However, this allowed two pivotal events to occur. (1) K. Murry Johnson got into a relationship with an aspiring novelist, who met with him two to three nights a week at Borders books, which took Image of Emeralds and Chocolate from 56 to well over 200 pages (2) K. Murry Johnson had the opportunity to see Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, which subsequently made him read and purchase her entire series of books. Moreover, the Twilight saga inspired him to make the object of Eric’s affection supernatural. This move made Image of Emeralds and Chocolate unique. It was not only a coming of age black gay love story, but also now included the beautiful vampire Marquis.

In 2008 the recession affected K. Murry Johnson directly. He was laid off from, Deloitte, one of the big four consulting firms. This occasion caused him to move away from Atlanta to find work and ended his relationship. K. Murry was not deterred. By himself, he continued to visit Borders books in Silver Spring, MD.

Once he finished the novel, he decided to be brave and approach one of his favorite novelists on Facebook. K. Murry described his book to the author, James Earl Hardy, who thought his subject matter was interesting and agreed to critique the story.

Mr. Hardy described Image of Emeralds and Chocolate as “groundbreaking.”

K. Murry Johnson wanted to create a unique and meaningful black gay love story that also brings to life the seductive, elusive world of vampires. K. Murry Johnson believes Image of Emeralds and Chocolate is that dream fulfilled. He hopes you enjoy his novel.