Lara Morgan's Blog, page 3
August 6, 2014
Betrayal Blog Tour Day 4
Coffee, Books & Art is my blog stop today and it’s all about the music and a review plus don’t forget to enter the giveaway!
August 5, 2014
Betrayal Blog Tour Day 3
It’s all going on at Blissful Book Reviews today so head over there to hear them dish the dirt on what they think of Betrayal. ( No chocolates were employed in the review of the book , though I am partial to a chocolate fountain. If anyone wanted to know…. 
August 4, 2014
Betrayal Blog Tour Day 2
It’s Day 2 and I’m talking random facts and my favourite things at
Books Authors Blogs , pour yourself some tea and join me
August 3, 2014
Betrayal Blog tour Day 1
Welcome to the tour! Today I’m casting the movie for Betrayal! Well I’d love to be, but really it’s my wish list for who I’d love to play some of my favourites…go to
Dream within A Dream to find out more…
August 1, 2014
Betrayal available now…..
It’s out in the wilds!
Betrayal, the second book in my fantasy trilogy The Twins of Saranthium is now out and ready to download to your ereader of choice.
Find out what happens to Shaan and Balkis, Tallis and the Faithful and those serpents…
Get it from Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Escape
July 24, 2014
Betrayal Blog Tour- win stuff!
The second book in my fantasy series, The Twins of Saranthium is out in August – yay! – and I’m having a blog tour to celebrate from August 4 – 13. Betrayal is an ebook so warm up your devices, and get ready to download. Or just follow along and if you live in the USA you could win an Amazon voucher. Click the pic below for details. xx
June 19, 2014
How writers write. Blog Hop! Tag: Rhiannon Hart, Raewyn Caisley and Julia Lawrinson
Cristy Burne is an author , science writer and presenter extraordinaire. I first met Cristy through SCWBI and love to catch up when we can over coffee – which is never often enough. She is the author of the Takeshita Demons series which is based on Japanese Folklore and won the Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Award for diversity in children’s writing.
You can find out more about her at her Blog
Part of this Blog Hop is telling you about how I write by answering the Four Questions below, so here’s some insight into what goes on behind the scenes…..
What am I working on:
I’m madly trying to finish the third and final book in my adult fantasy series, The Twins of Saranthium. It involves flying serpents, resurrected ancient gods seeking to conquer all and the twin descendants of one of the gods who must save the human race or die trying. The stakes are high and it’s so complex it does my head in sometimes with the amount of characters but I love dealing with these kind of heroic epic themes.
How does my work differ from others in the genre:
In my adult fantasy I’m more interested in writing about the people than the politics of the world, which can be unusual in epic/high fantasy which often delves greatly into the political games of the empires involved (think Game of Thrones for example) . I prefer to concentrate more on the people and their relationships and how they deal emotionally as well as physically with the dire situations they find themselves in. In my young adult stories I’m a bit different from many other YA series as while the romance between the main female character and the boy in the story is important it’s not the main focus, what really drives the story is her journey and how what she’s experienced changes her and what she does to be the hero of the plot.
Why do I write what I write:
Such a hard question to answer. I write what comes to me, and mostly it is fantasy or science fiction based stories. I write the stories that interest me, the stories the characters demand be told. I’m inspired by grand themes, the chance for someone ordinary to become extraordinary through circumstance and sheer will. Sometimes it feels like I’m the typist, the recorder of existing histories that must be told. I think someone famous once said that.
How does my writing process work:
I day dream about the book. I try to plot the book using a loose three stage story scale: opening catalyst that starts the story, mid point that drastically changes the story, resolution that ties up the story. I write character sketches and notes that I invariably lose, then I start writing. And everything changes as I go. Try as I might I cannot stick to any plot outline I write. It’s a very organic and maddening process and I’m trying to work more on putting together a more cohesive plot outline to follow as my time for writing has drastically reduced recently, but I’m not good at sticking to it. So really it’s ending up with a lot of words then editing and editing and editing. So you know, perfectly normal like most slightly unhinged writers. Oh and I must have tea to write. Not coffee. Tea, tea tea and procrastinating on Twitter.
Now it’s my turn to tag, and here are three other wonderful authors who can tell you about how they write…..
Rhiannon Hart.
Rhiannon is the author of the fabulously lush and gothic paranormal Lharmel novels, Bloodsong, Bloodstorm and Bloodqueen featuring blood cravings, animal companions and secrets – nothing is what it seems in Rhiannon’s world.
She lives mostly in Melbourne and we have never yet met in person but connected over the web and I’m sure if/when we do get together over a cup of tea, or a wine, the talking could go on for days.
Raewyn Caisley
Raewyn is a best selling children’s author including four in the Aussie Nibbles series (for 5 – 7 year olds) as well as a plethora of other titles too numerous to mention.
Reawyn is originally from New Zealand but has been calling Australia home for many years now, we first met when she came to Geraldton for a writers’ festival but we really connected at the recent AFCC in Singapore (I could tell you some stories about her there! But then I’d have to kill you so you’ll just have to use your imagination).
Author, educator and fabulous person, you can read Raewyn’s Blog here.
Julia Lawrinson
Julia writes wonderful, witty, thought provoking books for teens about growing up and coming of age. Sometimes wincingly funny, sometimes sad but always truthful, Julia’s books have won awards and been shortlisted numerous times.
She is also excellent at talking about and teaching writing, and gives lots of workshops and talks you should go to if you get the chance.
I met Julia,through SCWBI at a Rottnest Retreat and was in awe of her talent at telling it like it really is for teens.
June 10, 2014
Supanova Perth Visit: come meet me!
I’m getting excited because I’m going to be in Perth next weekend, June 21 -22 for the Supanova Expo!
Supanova is big on the scifi fantasy calendar with big name stars coming from all over the world to talk about our favourite genre in TV, Books, Comics, Anime, Graphic Novels – you name it, it’s there. I’m going to be doing a panel called Blood on Your Hands on Sunday June 22 from 3.10pm with other stellar authors; Robin Hobb, Jo Spurrier, Colin Taber and Scott Baker and we’re talking about how we deal with maiming and torturing our characters. Fun times!
I’ll also be hanging around the Booktopia shop to sign books and I’ll have some freebies to give away on my fantasy series The Twins of Saranthium.
So come down and have a chat, dress up for Cosplay or just soak up the vibes and catch some of the fantastic panels, Here’s where you can get the Perth Program
June 3, 2014
Fiction, food and friends at the AFCC Singapore
The AFCC in Singapore has been an absolute blast with so much to listen to and discuss and all about writing for children and teens.
I’ve been listening to talks on digital publishing, pitching, writing from history and non fiction for children, writing a series, creating quirky characters and my own panel with Payal Dhar, and Sally Gardner about why we love writing fantasy and sci fi for young adults and the future trends in YA – which by the way we all agreed is impossible to predict!
And take a look at the fabulous book store set up by the Wood in the Books! Just a taste of the imagination that’s gone into this fabulous international festival.
In between the sessions I’ve been trying out all the delicious food in Singapore that I can. Here I am with fellow Australian authors Raewyn Caisley (left) and Deb Fitzpatrick (right) with me in the striped shirt, eating buttered battered squid, stir fried greens and the best green mango salad in Singapore I swear! And that was just one night.
I’ve also been to the amazing SEA Aquarium at Sentosa Island and strolled along the river in the evening light and it’s been thanks to the fantastic people at the AFCC and Writing WA.
Soon I’ll post in more detail about some of the panels but until then happy reading and writing
xxx Lara
May 28, 2014
Three sleeps ’til the AFCC Singapore
I’m almost all packed with shoes counted, dresses rolled to minimise creasing and the all important book to read on the plane chosen as I get ready to head to Singapore for the Asian Festival of Children’s Content. And I can’t wait.
While there I’m doing a panel about the trends in and writing speculative fiction for young adults with two other fabulous writers, Payal Dhar and Sally Gardner. And I’m going to be heading to as many of the other sessions as I can.
I’ll be taking pics and blogging about when I can (wifi permitting!) so look out for that. Ready to go!
xx L
