MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The last blog of 2016 so of course I want to wish all of my readers and friends the Merriest of Christmases and all good things for the coming year!

I’m so pleased to say that 2017 will see the release of my fourth book (still untitled) and new blogs to follow my journey of writing. It should be a fun time for me and my readers. 

As I write my blogs I am always so thoughtful about all I have to be thankful for and all of the blessings and opportunities I’ve been given. It is humbling for me to know that what has started as an idea or thought has been taken into words that people read and enjoy. I am blessed with the opportunity to write and the talent to move from ideas to published words. 

So thank you to all of you and may 2017 be a wonderful year for you and all of your loved ones!

Dee Morgan

Martinis with Mom 
Martinis at the Ranch
An Unacceptable Truth 
are all available on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks. 

Follow me on Twitter @dmorganbooks, on Facebook Dee Morgan, or contact me by email at dmorganauthor@gmail.com

THE BLESSING IN BEING FLAWED

The Holiday Season is here! Time for family visits, baking and cooking together, sharing the fun of the season, and yes, the dreaded shopping trips. I love it!

Thanksgiving is one of my personal favorites. It tends to make me very conscious of all that I have in my life to be thankful about and all of the people who have blessed me with their love and their acceptance of my flawed personality. Because as we are all human, we all have flaws. 

I have not only come to recognize and accept my own flaws, as I mature I see the flaws in others and realize I have two choices – accept them or walk away. Sometimes that isn’t an easy decision but I no longer have time in my life for the people that bring me down or make me uneasy. 

So how is all of this related to being a writer? When I write, my characters have to be flawed to be realistic. Some are more flawed than others and some I have to struggle to write them – they’re beyond flawed. They’re hateful and ugly and completely unlikable. I can’t walk away because hey, it’s fiction and sometimes I need those types of people in my writing. 

I just don’t need them in my life. 

So here are my words of wisdom this month – be thankful for your flaws. They make you human and individual and unique. But also be aware that if you are pushing people away because of your flaws, maybe it’s time for a little bit of introspection. 

Focus on all you have that’s good in your life every single day and some of those flaws may just disappear. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!
Dee Morgan

Martinis with Mom 
Martinis at the Ranch
An Unacceptable Truth 
are all available on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks. 

Follow me on Twitter @dmorganbooks, on Facebook Dee Morgan, or contact me by email at dmorganauthor@gmail.com

Rubik’s Cube

Do you remember the Rubik’s Cube puzzle game? I tried it once or twice and found it more frustrating than fun. Twisting the cube, turning it one way then the other, until finally throwing it across the room and swearing at it. 

So much for a “fun” game.

Now I have a story in the works, and struggling through it reminded me of that maddening little cube. All the pieces are there, but I couldn’t seem to get them lined up correctly. This struggle went on for a couple of weeks – making notes, changing scenes, making more notes. It just wasn’t working for me and I really didn’t want to get to that point where the computer goes flying across the room. I put it aside for a few weeks and finally went back to it. 

Nothing.

So I finally said, you know what? Maybe this isn’t the right book at the right time. This was like an epiphany for me! It’s on the shelf for the time being. My mind is finally relaxed and free of the pressure I was putting on myself to get that book done.

Lo and behold! A new book popped into my head and I realized it had been sitting on the back shelf of my mind all the time, patiently waiting its turn to be told. The new book is flowing like lava from a volcano and I couldn’t be happier about it. Characters make sense, the segues are perfect, and the story is coming together in a perfect fit.

My Rubik’s Cube book will just have to wait a while longer.

Martinis with Mom  

Martinis at the Ranch 

An Unacceptable Truth  

are all available on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks.  

Follow me on Twitter @dmorganbooks, on Facebook Dee Morgan, or contact me by email at dmorganauthor@gmail.com 

Road Trips and Renuions

My sisters and I took a road trip this last week on the way to my school reunion. It is always a great trip to spend time with my sisters because they also happen to be two of my best friends. 

One of the things we did along the way was stop at the memorial site of Flight 93 in Shanksville, PA. To say it was a moving tribute just wouldn’t do it justice. The site and the memorial are so lovely and so well done that we spent many hours there just walking through the Visitor’s Center, along the walkway to the memorial wall, and saying a prayer as we viewed the actual crash site. If you have the opportunity to visit, I highly recommend it. 

Then it was on to the reunion on Saturday night. I wasn’t sure what to expect – I haven’t seen most of these people in 50 years. So you can imagine my surprise when I came out of the elevator and heard several people call my name. They recognized me and more shocking was that I recognized them!  

As the evening went on, the subject of my books came up as the emcee was listing the various accomplishments of our graduates. Soon some of my classmates were coming to me asking questions and wanting more information about my work. Since I am E-published on Amazon/Kindle, I only had my bookmarks to give them and I was so pleased and proud to hand them out and sign them when requested. It was a stunning evening for me and as a new author, one I won’t soon forget and for which I will always be grateful.  

Spending time with my sisters, seeing friends from long ago, and talking about my writing – it just doesn’t get much better than this.  

Martinis with Mom  

Martinis at the Ranch 

An Unacceptable Truth  

are all available on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks.  

Follow me on Twitter @dmorganbooks, on Facebook Dee Morgan, or contact me by email at dmorganauthor@gmail.com 

Serious Stuff

I usually keep my blogs pretty lighthearted but I’m writing this on 9-11, so it’s a pretty somber day for Americans and for many in the world.

I tend to talk to God a lot – daily, for sure. Sometimes I just thank Him, other times I ask him to give my love to all of my family that has surely joined Him above those beautiful clouds floating across the sky. Today I asked him to give comfort to the families and loved ones of the victims of that terrible day. They need His comfort not just today, but every day they face without the ones they miss so dearly.

I am also reflecting on my own days and thanking Him for the opportunities He seems to provide to me. I’m so grateful for the ability to write the books that give me so much joy and feed my passion for the written word. People have told me it’s a gift and for me, the gift is to be shared. 

So on this day, fifteen years later, and every day to follow, I hope you all will follow your dreams and passions and love the life you’ve been given. Make the most of it. 
It is a gift. 

Dee Morgan
 
Martinis with Mom and Martinis at the Ranch and An Unacceptable Truth are available on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks. 


Follow me on Twitter @dmorganbooks, on Facebook Dee Morgan, or contact me by email at dmorganauthor@gmail.com

To Sex or Not to Sex

When I began writing my idea was to write Romance novels. I loved reading them – boy meets girl, conflict erupts, gets resolved, and they live happily ever after. Everyone in these novels are beautiful people who don’t struggle with mundane activities like working, cooking, keeping house, etc, etc. They let the reader escape into a carefree world full of romance, fun, and really hot monkey sex. Make your knees buckle, knock the pictures off the wall, scream out my name kind of sex. 

Could I write that stuff? Sure, I’ve read enough of them to figure it out and put my own creative twist on a good storyline and plug in some sex scenes that would make the reader hot and sweaty. 

And then one thought hit me that made my head swirl like I’d just downed 6 shots of tequila – what if my mother read it? Oh. My. God. 

My mother was raised for part of her childhood in a convent, for pete’s sake! A wonderful Christian woman and I would be her worst nightmare. I knew she wouldn’t be angry – oh no, it would be much worse than that. She would be disappointed. She’d lay the Catholic guilt on me so heavy I wouldn’t be able to squirm out of it for years – if ever.  

But Mom is now happily residing in heaven, reaping the rewards of the good life she led. And now I have another thought – is she watching me from some cloudy perch up in the sky, angel wings moving slowly across her back, waiting to swoop down on me to guide my fingers as they tap out the next story? Is she?

I hope not because I’ve got some really hot stuff to put into my next few book. 
Sorry, Mom.

A Piece of Cheese

I was having a bit of a struggle with a particular writing process so I sent an email to one of my favorite very successful authors and asked her what was the right way to do it. She gave me the perfect answer: There’s no right way or wrong way – there’s only your way.

I’m so grateful to her for that piece of advice and I’ve used it more times than I can count. 

When I first started writing I was like a blind mouse trying to find the path that would lead me to the cheese. I could smell it, but I never seemed to find the right direction. The path I was following was a couple of dozen books on how to write the successful novel. 

A good path but it never led me to the cheese. I picked up some good writing tips but kept bumping into a wall because none of them were writing MY novel. They weren’t leading me to the cheese I was hungry for. 

As a writer, each new project means searching for a new piece of cheese. The path to it is never direct but when you reach it, boy does that cheese taste good!



Martinis with Mom and Martinis at the Ranch and An Unacceptable Truth are available on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks. 


Follow me on Twitter @dmorganbooks or contact me by email at dmorganauthor@gmail.com

Drama!

Some people have asked me how I came to write AN UNACCEPTABLE TRUTH. It is completely different than my first couple of books, which were funny and light. I wondered about this myself – why did I do a 180 when it came to this book? The answer, I realized, was pretty simple.

I LOVE DRAMA!! Oh, the MARTINI series had drama queen Nicole, but I’m talking about gut-wrenching, what’s going to happen here, I didn’t see that coming kind of drama. 

While AN UNACCEPTABLE TRUTH was fun to write – as all of my writing should be – it was also a bit difficult at times. As the character and story of Cate Harper evolved I began to see her sink deeper into the desperation the confusion of her own mind was causing her. She couldn’t separate the reality of what she knew with the nightmares and fleeting memories her mind was tossing at her. DRAMA! 

As Cate began to question herself, the man who loves her became more convinced than ever that he needed to protect her – he just wasn’t certain what was keeping Cate so guarded and vulnerable.

I could have gone two ways with the ending – happily ever after or the reality that not all stories have that happy ending.

You’ll have to read Cate’s story to find out which way I chose! I hope you enjoy the book and will leave a good-bad-or ugly review on Amazon!

Dee Morgan

Promoting the Promotion

Really? I have to promote the fact that I’m doing a promotion to promote my books?

When I realized this unwelcome fact of being an author, I wasn’t at all pleased. I want to write books. I don’t want to be a salesperson. But much to my chagrin, this is as much a part of authoring as the writing part. 

So there I was – seated at a table at an outdoor event with twenty or so other vendors selling everything from food to jewelry to 50/50 raffle tickets – and no one was coming by anyone’s table! What the heck?! 

Did I fail to mention this event was an outdoor concert? Oh right, there is that little detail. I looked around and there were hundreds of people seated in their folding chairs waiting for the music to start. 

Time to take the bull by the horns. I grabbed two handfuls of my promotional bookmarks and off I went. If the mountain top won’t come to me, I’ll just go climb that mountain.

I gave out close to 300 bookmarks and spoke to several people that were pleased to know that I was a local author and said they would look at my books. 

Another lesson learned: marketing books is a lot of work. So I’m currently looking for an agent that I will happily pay to represent my work and tell me what more I have to do to promote my books in an electronic world of millions of books. 

Then I’m going to have a glass of wine and write more books. 

Happy Days to all of you!

Dee Morgan 

Next Up

So I’ve finished my first three books and getting ready to start my fourth. I’ve got so many new ideas rolling around in my head that my characters are jumping from one storyline to the next.

Hold on, I tell them. You don’t belong in that book – go back to your own book.

It’s an exciting state of mind, even if it can be a bit distracting while I’m trying to focus on one new story. 

But while all of this is going on, eventually one idea seems to solidify and move to the top of the pile and bingo! There’s my next book.

Right now I’m struggling with a working title. For me the title is kind of like the root of a plant. Nothing seems to grow until the title is settled for me. Strange because my working title isn’t always my final title, but it seems to give me the starting point that I need.

An Unacceptable Truth is my latest book and I’m really excited about it. I’m working on book 4 and I’m even more excited about that one! I’ll keep you posted here. 
 

Martinis with Mom and Martinis at the Ranch are available on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks. 

An Unacceptable Truth is now available on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks.

Follow me on Facebook at Dee Morgan, Twitter @dmorganbooks or contact me by email at dmorganauthor@gmail.com

RELEASED! AN UNACCEPTABLE TRUTH

I’ve been waiting for AN UNACCEPTABLE TRUTH to be released and now it has – and I couldn’t be more thrilled!

Cate Harper is a complex character – likeable but not quite settled in her own skin. She has secrets that she herself can’t figure out. Memories that appear and disappear like the wind blowing particles of dust about her mind, and dreams that frighten and puzzle her, just frequent enough to force Cate to acknowledge they must contain an element of reality.

What Cate knows for certain is that she sent a man to prison for his attack on her and his family has promised to find her and punish her for the testimony she gave.

So Cate keeps moving.

Until she meets Alex Marshall and falls deeply in love. Cate’s fear of being found forces her to make the most difficult decision of her life: stay with Alex and bask in the love he offers or continue to run from the people she fears.

The story of Cate Harper will show you the fear, the love and the heartbreak that can decide a person’s life. It will break families apart and bring them together.

And it will move you toward an unthinkable conclusion.



AN UNACCEPTABLE TRUTH released on June 1, 2016 on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks.

MARTINIS WITH MOM and MARTINIS AT THE RANCH are available on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks. 


Follow me on Twitter @dmorganbooks or contact me by email at dmorganauthor@gmail.com

Martinis At The Ranch

Once I’d released Martinis With Mom, so many people that read it wanted to know if I was going to do a sequel. I hadn’t planned on it but the fans had spoken: they wanted more of Jessie and Jake, Nicole and Matt, and they wanted to know more about Taylor and Bryan. 

Martinis At The Ranch was born. I re-read Martinis With Mom and jotted down some notes on people, places and scenes that would make it into the next book. Martinis At The Ranch not only follows the lead characters into their married lives, it tells the story of Taylor and Bryan and the very lovable and quirky Aunt Gert. Nicole once again becomes the character you love and hate in equal measure and Jessie’s ex (Taylor’s father) is there to shake things up.  

Now people are asking “Will There By A Third book” in the series? Actually I haven’t decided yet. In the meantime there was a different book in my head just screaming to be written. You’ll have to wait a few more weeks for the release of An Unacceptable Truth, which is a completely different genre.  

I’m tossing around the idea of a third Martini book but in the end it will be decided by my readers. Enjoy! 

Martinis with Mom and Martinis at the Ranch are available on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks.  

Watch for An Unacceptable Truth to be released very soon on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks. 

Follow me on Twitter @dmorganbooks or contact me by email at dmorganauthor@gmail.com

AN UNACCAPTABLE TRUTH

When my first two books came out, I was so thrilled to see people buying it and leaving wonderful reviews but I soon realized that euphoria can be short lived unless you keep it alive. The way to do that – for me – is to write more books.

I decided to try something different, still within the women’s fiction genre, and that’s where AN UNACCEPTABLE TRUTH was born. It is a combination of women’s fiction, suspense, and romance and I think it’s a great read.

AN UNACCEPTABLE TRUTH tells the story of Cate Harper, a young woman running from the people that want to hurt her while trying to fill in the memories that seem to never quite come in to focus for her. 

Cate recalls bits of a brutal attack, a trial that sent her attacker to prison for life, and vile threats shouted at her by his family. She suffers from nightmares and visions and is never certain what is real. Her splintered memories keep her moving from place to place to elude the people that are trying to find her and to stay far away from her own family in order to keep them out of harm’s way. 

When Cate meets Alex Marshall she wants desperately to have the life he offers her, but her fears are too powerful. They own her life and she can never seem to escape their grip. When her parents are finally able to confront her and fill in the empty spaces that have eluded her, will it give Cate back her life, or will the truth be worse than she had ever imagined?

  
MARTINIS WITH MOM and MARTINIS AT THE RANCH are available on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks. 

Watch for AN UNACCEPTABLE TRUTH to be released June 1, 2016 on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks.

Follow me on Twitter @dmorganbooks or contact me by email at dmorganauthor@gmail.com

The Voice

I’ve read a lot about “finding your voice” in the writing world. It took me a while to figure out what that really meant.  

To me, it means a couple of things. First, I had to find a style of writing that I felt comfortable using as I write. For me, I use a lot of dialogue between my characters. I don’t let them get into an entire dissertation because that would be boring for a reader, but I do like to explain a lot of the story through their back and forth conversation. Of course there has to be plenty of narrative as well without being author intrusive and that took me a while to get a grip on. 

Second, I had to find a genre I was most comfortable writing. My first two books were very funny chick lit – MARTINIS WITH MOM and MARTINIS AT THE RANCH - and while they were fun to write, it didn’t seem to be my first love. Problem was, I didn’t know what my first love looked and sounded like.  

My third book – AN UNACCEPTABLE TRUTH – is a romantic suspense and I think I’ve got a major crush on that genre. I’ve finished the first draft and am in the fine-tuning stage. While I’m getting major hot flashes from it, I’m still not sure I want to marry myself to that genre. (Talk about fickle!) 

One thing has guided me through all of this – whatever I write to publish, it has to be the best, most-polished work I can deliver to my readers before I put my name to it.  

Good rule to follow.  

Martinis with Mom and Martinis at the Ranch are available on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks.  

Watch for the release of An Unacceptable Truth on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks in the very near future. 

Follow me on Twitter @dmorganbooks or contact me by email at dmorganauthor@gmail.com

Don't Go There!

When my writing partner and I were hard at work on Martinis with Mom, we were both clicking away on our laptops and she suddenly looked at me and said, “Jessie had a baby when she was sixteen.” 

I was shocked – Jessie is very pragmatic and now in her late 30’s – where did this kid come from? And where is the kid now? 

And how the heck did that happen??? Well, obviously I know how it happened in the biological sense, but that was nowhere in our book discussion. 

“It happened and it was a baby girl who is now twenty-one years old.” 

This is how a character can take you places you hadn’t thought about and in this case it worked out perfectly for the book. But beware – if Jessie had tried to join a motorcycle gang just to experience the wild side of life, we could have put the brakes on that move. Sometimes you have to listen to where your character wants to take the story – and sometimes you just have to reel them back in and say, oh hell no. 

It’s a slippery slope. If your character shows you something you hadn’t expected and it works, go with it. If it doesn’t work, send your character to a time out. Eventually they’ll stop pouting and get back in line with the story.  

Martinis with Mom and Martinis at the Ranch are available on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks.  

Follow me on Twitter @dmorganbooks or contact me by email at dmorganauthor@gmail.com

Martinis with Mom

Martinis With Mom is the only book I’ve written with a co-writer. Lori and I are a great team but Lori and her husband still run a very busy gallery and framing store in North Carolina and she doesn’t have the time to dedicate to our writing any longer. That’s why it took us 5 years to get to the end of Martinis With Mom! 

Well, that and the wine.  

The book actually started out quite differently from where it ended up. Jessie and Nicole were actually Frankie and Jonny. They had a brother they didn’t know about at the beginning of the story, and there were so many other quirks that I can’t even list them. We got rid of most of those early ideas as the book evolved into what it is today. 

It was our first foray together into a novel. I’d written several romances and Lori wrote for a magazine. We decided to pool our talents to see where it went and I have to tell you – it was the most fun I’ve ever had writing and I guarantee Lori would tell you the same thing! (We probably could have finished the book in 3 years were it not for the wine.) 

We’d write awhile then drink some wine, finish the book then celebrate with wine, re-write, revise and add wine for inspiration, polish the story and polish off the wine, and 5 years later, Voila! We had a book.  

Martinis with Mom is about two sisters who haven’t had much to do with each other since they were teens. Jessie is the down-to-earth sister that has her own personal struggles with romance. Nicole is the flamboyant drama queen that doesn’t understand Jessie’s need to stay in South Carolina. 
Thrown together for a year after the death of their mom, the sisters must find a way to make a go of it in order to inherit the millions their mother leaves them.  

It’s a fun book and I hope you’ll enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it – and don’t forget the wine. 

Martinis with Mom and Martinis at the Ranch are available on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks. 
Watch for An Unacceptable Truth to be released very soon on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks.
Follow me on Twitter @dmorganbooks or contact me by email at dmorganauthor@gmail.com

Only the Lonely

I’ve heard it said that writing is a lonely profession – WHAT?!? I couldn’t agree less!  

When I write I have a whole cast of characters keeping me company. As a matter of fact, I can’t get rid of them. They sit with me, eat meals with me, they even follow me around when I’m doing my household chores (which isn’t often enough, I must add). I wish I could teach these folks how to mop and shine!

But unfortunately, they’re all in my head so they can’t get the hang of holding a dust cloth.  

When I’m writing a book, the characters are as real to me as my family and my friends. They take on a life of their own while I’m writing and that’s one of the most fun parts of being an author. I love whipping through a scene and suddenly my character takes a left turn and I say, “Well, didn’t see that coming”! Such fun!  

When I was writing Martinis with Mom and Martinis at the Ranch, I had a good idea of what I wanted the books to be but the scenes and dialogue are what got me really excited about moving forward. I couldn’t wait to see what we would come up with next.  

So when one of my characters wakes me up in the middle of the night to tell me “this is what she said”, I just listen, make a note on my bedside notepad and go back to sleep with a smile on my face.  

Martinis with Mom and Martinis at the Ranch are available on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks.  

Follow me on Twitter @dmorganbooks or contact me by email at dmorganauthor@gmail.com