This
week we’re going to find out a little about author Robin Leigh Morgan. February’s
theme is ‘Self–pubbed/traditional/ other writing formats’ so Robin will be
talking about that topic. She’ll also tell us a little about herself and her
writing, and answer some fun questions.
Beverley:
Are you self–pubbed, traditional or both? What made you chose that path? And tell us how it worked for you.
Robin:
I’ve self-published my two books so far, because I didn’t have the patience to
go through the traditionally published path of query letter, wait, rejection
[?], query letter wait, manuscript submission etc. Unfortunately with thousands
of new books being released each day the competition is quite fierce.
Beverley:
Have you written in any other writing formats? (non-fiction, journalism, flash
fiction, poetry). If yes, can you share why you tried them and how it worked
for you? And how has it affected how you
write today?
Robin:
From the mid-1990’s and continually for about ten years I wrote items for a
community newspaper. I’ve also dabbled in writing Flash Fiction and wound up
self-publishing a collection of 100 of them.
Beverley:
Is there anything else you’d like to share about differences in self-publishing
and traditional publishing for today’s writer?
Robin:
The major difference between the two is that in self-publishing you’re in
control and responsible for all phases of getting your book published.
Beverley:
How long have you been writing?
Robin:
Since the mid-1990’s.
Beverley:
What genre do you write in and why?
Robin:
It happens to be romance primarily because I feel quite comfortable writing in
it.
Beverley:
What obstacles did you have to overcome to begin creating your work?
Robin:
Basically it’s the same as any other author…coming up with an idea of what to
write about.
Beverley:
What will stop your creative muse the quickest?
Robin:
It’s the proverbial affliction known as Writer’s Block.
Beverley: What
gets your creative juices flowing?
Robin:
Writing something in response to a prompt word, the best type is trying to
write a Flash Fiction which as a limitation as to how much you can write.
Beverley:
What do you have for breakfast?
Robin:
I’m actually not a breakfast type of person.
Beverley:
What do you wear when you are writing?
Robin:
Anything that I feel would make me feel the most comfortable.
Beverley:
Where do you do most of your writing?
Robin:
In our spare bedroom, where I keep my desktop computer.
Beverley:
If you had an unexpected free day what would you do with it?
Robin:
Just relax so I can rejuvenate my entire body.
Beverley:
What are you working on now?
Those of us who have chosen to write fiction come from a
variety of places. And by “a variety of places,” I’m not referring to a
physical location; I’m referring to our writing experiences.
There are some of us who have enjoyed writing since we
were children, and each year, by writing something in school, it improved. For
some of us, it continued until we graduated college and began working. Some of
us entered the work force taking jobs, which required us to write, whether it
was procedures, handbooks/manuals, or news stories. But all of these are
non-fiction, and each one has a set of “rules” that need to be followed to
write something well enough to be acceptable.
As for myself, while my regular job did not require me to
write, for eleven years I wrote articles [commentaries/viewpoints] of what was
happening in my community and my feelings about it. When I began writing these
items, my writing skills were not honed. I didn’t have my ideas organized in a
tight manner, although my writing had been informative. By the time I’d written
my last item, I’d become quite adept at it.
When I started to write fiction, I somehow drifted to
writing a contemporary romance story with a paranormal element running through
the storyline, but after almost 9 years I still hadn’t completed it. That is,
until someone suggested I should try writing for a much younger audience, which
is what I did; cumulating in my debut MG/YA Paranormal/Time Travel/First Kiss
romance novel entitled I Kissed a Ghost.
Anyway, making the transition from non-fiction to fiction,
I’ve had to learn a new set of rules on how to write. Most of these involved
dialogue, showing not telling, where before I just told. I now had to learn
about the use of tags. I had to learn not to be overly descriptive of
something, but allow my reader to create the image for themselves in their
minds. In the beginning I found it hard to break my old writing habits. Now I’m
finding myself with these habits essentially gone. The biggest issue I still
have and am trying to get a good handle on, is POV [Point of View]. Regardless
of what’s happening or being said it has to be in one character’s perspective,
and you can’t flip-flop between two characters within a scene. There needs to
be a transition from one character to another. Today I feel my writing has
improved greatly as I’m finding it easier and easier to come up with the words
I want/need
Writing is an ever on-going learning experience as I
learned there are additional rules for each genre, as well as for the sub-genre
you’re writing in. These rules can apply to the dialogue being spoken, which
needs to be true for the time period the storyline is taking place in, as well
as your descriptions for your character’s clothing, and how they address each
other, as is the case with the Regency sub-genre of romance novels.
So as you can see, writing is not merely a string of
words you put together. There are rules that need to be followed if you’re to
be well received by your readers.
Even though I had only written one book, I didn’t want to
get pegged as an author of one particular genre, so I decided to expanded my
audience reach by writing something totally different.
On December 2, 2014, I published my second book, “Micro
Fiction – An Anthology,” which is a collection of these flash fictions, and in
order to round out the number of these items I wrote responses to those words I
didn’t do previously; however I didn’t use the same restriction so the longest
item in the book has about 390 words, and they’re not limited to any one genre.
Wanting to increase my knowledge of writing I decided to
become a serious Book Reviewer towards the end of August 2014 so I could be
exposed to different genres and styles of writing for each one. As of February
9, 2017, I’ve read/reviewed a total of 491 books on Amazon-US/UK where my Amazon
Reviewer ranking is 2,587. I also post all of my reviews on GoodReads and
LibraryThing, and sometimes on my two blog sites. I can’t tell you how much
more I’ve learned about writing simply by reading the works of other authors.
I’m still learning and changing the genres I’m writing
in; something which will continue until the day I decide to type that elusive
period for the last book I’ve decided to write. The best place to go to learn
more about me, my current writing endeavors and all of my links is to go to: http://www.about.me/rlmorgan51
Don’t forget to
check back next week for another author interview and a discussion on self–pubbed/traditional/
other writing formats.
