(contactmusic.com) - Rapper C-Murder is making the most of his prison education - he has written a new novel about life behind bars. The rap star, real name Corey Miller, has been on house arrest in New Orleans for five months after being released from jail in Louisiana, where he was serving a life sentence for a 2002 murder he maintains he didn't commit.
Miller aims to finally clear his name in February (07) when a new trial into the killing of teenager Steve Thomas goes before court. And he hasn't been wasting his time at the Concordia Correctional Facility - he learned how to write fiction and has turned his education into a new book, Death around the corner, which is inspired by his favourite writer Dean Koontz. He tells Vibe magazine, "A lot of people don't know I was an honour student (in jail). I've read about 500 books since I've been locked up. "I started feeling the flow and how different authors express themselves... One of my favourite authors, Dean Koontz, wrote a book on how to write a novel. That was crucial. I liked how he put his words." Miller reveals his first novel took him two years to complete. He adds, "I wrote everything by hand in notebooks and then mailed them out to be typed up on a computer."