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
Friday, April 29, 2016
Sunday, April 24, 2016
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
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
Saturday, April 16, 2016
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
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
Saturday, April 9, 2016
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
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
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