Saturday, November 17, 2012

By Paisley Kirkpatrick
I'd like to introduce my friend J. Morgan to you. He's so busy I had to hogtie him just to get him to sit down and talk a spell. Once he gets comfortable he'll share a little about himself and his writing, or I'll be forced to break out the spurs again. Male authors can sure be divas when it comes to kidnapping them out of their beds. I've read his books and can honestly say I can hardly put them down once I start reading. You're on J. Morgan.
J. Morgan: Paisley, thanks for inviting me, but was the chloroform really necessary?
Paisley: Yes, it was. No hush, so we can move this interview along. I've got some broncos to break and the horses need seeing to when I get done with this.
Who are you and how do you come up with these ideas about a world that exists only in your head?
J. Morgan: Who am I? Tough one! Seriously it is. I am a son, a husband, a daddy, and a little over 6 years ago I decided I wanted a new title, author. Like all that wasn't enough to give a guy split personalities. Well, it was about time to give the voices in my head some wiggle room to express themselves. So, I guess you can call me J. Morgan, the voices' talking monkey.
Where do my ideas come from? Really, that's an easy one. As a kid, I lived in my own little world. As I grew up, a part of me never left those worlds. Now, I have the chance to show the world through my writing, how great it was growing up in those worlds only I got to see. Yes, that does make me slightly crazy, but hey, nobody's perfect. Most especially writers!
Paisley: Does your fondness for science-fiction movies and super heroes influence the themes and characters in your stories?
J. Morgan: Most definitely! Science Fiction shaped my early childhood development. In a good way. Superheroes, I'm not so sure about, but they did teach me a valuable life lesson--with great power comes great responsibility. Now, I'm responsible for a lot of insanity. Seriously though, comics taught me the fundamentals of writing, and how to build characters and worlds. Science Fiction taught me a story, or a future, without hope isn't much of a story. That's what I love about Romance, you can do anything. Science Fiction, Paranormal, Westerns, Contemporary, and at its heart is true love, and that hope that each of us aspires to find.
Paisley: Most of your stories are written with humor. Immortally Damned is on a serious note. Would you rather write comedy or lean more toward the deeper side of your personality?
J. Morgan: Comedy vs Serious. There's really no comparison. They are two sides to the same coin. I like to make people laugh, feel good at the end of a really crappy day, but if you just focus on one genre, you're not a whole person, or author in my case. Comedy is great to write, and not as easy as you'd think. Serious books hit the same well, but at the other end of the spectrum. Both make you address parts of yourself and force those experiences to come to the front. If you can't use your personal experiences to fuel a story, you're not going to be able to draw a reader into your story. A 200 page comedy without substance isn't going to be anything but a B-Movie in book form. Likewise, a dark book with no hint of hope or redeeming qualities isn't going to make my books strike a balance between the two, whether you're laughing through them, or searching for that glimmer of hope inside the darkness.
Paisley: By writing in first person you make it easy to get in the head of your main character. Do you prefer writing your stories in first person?
J. Morgan: I love First person! It's like inviting readers into their very own Create Your Own Adventure book. It's the same for me when I'm writing them. For the length of a book, I become my main character, which is slightly odd, because all my first persons are from the female perspective. But, I see writing as acting only on paper. If I, as the author, can't become emotionally attached to my character, why should you as the reader? I think it all comes down to that.
Paisley: How do you choose the titles of your stories?
J. Morgan: My titles? Whoa, that's kind of a toughy. The Love Bites series I more or less used and twisted some of my favorite movie titles. The Southern Werewolf Chronicles, I'm not sure. Where Love Blooms just popped into my head before I wrote the first line. Were the Moon Don't Shine is self explanatory. The Amor Immorati books, again, the titles just came to me, before the story even took shape. The Bite Marks series, I'm delving in song titles for inspiration. It's up to you to guess what movie I twisted. Wink
Paisley: Your cover is amazing. With the bright colors and design you'll draw a lot of curious eyes.
J. Morgan: Thanks on the cover. Desert Breeze Publishing has some of the best cover artists anywhere. Jenifer Ranieri really blew my mind with the one for Immortally Damned. It is perhaps my favorite cover of all time!
Paisley: Can we share some links where people can find your books and learn more about you?
J. Morgan: The first is a link to Immortal Damned, which comes out next month. The second is to my author page on Desert Breeze Publishing's Website. You can also find me through my Amazon Author page.
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-387/Amor-Immorati-Book-Two-cln-/Detail.bok
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-template/JMorganBio/Page.bok
http://amazon.com/J.Morgan/e/B0032R8BFE/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1353210472&sr=1-2-ent
These two are for my Facebook page, where I'm always goofing around, and the second link is for my yahoo newsletter.
jmorganauthor@facebook.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jmorganslair/
Paisley, thanks for having me sit on your hitching post today. I've had a blast. Uh, now do you think you could unhogtie me. I can't feel my legs.
Paisley: Where did I put my Bowie knife? Oops, looks like you're stuck there, J. Morgan.

11 comments:

Josie said...

Thanks, Paisley, for an interesting interview with J. Morgan. Very clever and humorous. And, I love the cover! Super congrats.

Paisley Kirkpatrick said...

Thanks for stopping by, Josie. Desert Breeze really goes over the top for great covers. I might add that J. does live up to the covers. :)

Ana Morgan said...

The cover is amazing, Paisley. J. sounds like quite the guy! Congratulations!!!

Paisley Kirkpatrick said...

Thanks for dropping by, Ana. It's greaat have a guy CP to help with the male dialog and POV.

Mona Risk said...

Hi Paisley and J. Morgan, what a fun interview. I particularly like this: "If you can't use your personal experiences to fuel a story, you're not going to be able to draw a reader into your story." How true! My books are sprinlkled with personal experience.

Paisley Kirkpatrick said...

Hi Mona. Thanks for letting J. Morgan fill in for you today. How true it is that you sprinkle your personal experiences in your stories. I do have my favorites of yours and love going on adventures with you.

Happy Thanksgiving, my friend. :)

J. Morgan said...

Thanks to everyone for stopping in. I love meeting new people. Glad you've enjoyed the interview.

Uh... Could perhaps one of you convince Paisley to untie me? My legs really are going to sleep, and two vultures are giving me funny looks.

Gail R. Delaney said...

Paisley, you may have kidnapped JMo for a bit, but he' ultimately my slave and has work to do for ME (bwahahahah).

Great interview. Of course, I've already seen into the mind of J. Morgan, and I liked what I saw. :-)

J. Morgan said...

Awww... Thanks Gail.

Paisley Kirkpatrick said...

Thank you, Gail. Yes, Jmo hides behind the funny stuff, but he has a great writing talent.

J. Morgan said...

You're making me blush, Paisley. Funny, that seems to happen more than you'd think.