Roh Morgon's Blog, page 7
February 21, 2017
~ women in horror month blog talks – day 2
W.J. Howard is the organizer behind this week’s Women in Horror Month Blog Talks. Below is her blog post with a list of featured writers for today’s topic, “Favorite Women in Horror”.
~ ~ ~
Welcome to our second day of Women in Horror Month Blog Talks featuring a discussion on our favorite women in horror. Below is a list of blogs and guests in today’s talks.
To Connect with Participants and Join More Discussions
Go to the Facebook Event Page
Morbidly Beautiful hosts
Women I Hope to Write Like
by Roh Morgon
Roh Morgon writes fantasy and horror for middle grade, young adult, and adult readers. She’s best known for her vampire series.
Go to Blog
Roadie Notes hosts
First Lady, Mary Shelley
by James P. McDonald
James is a business and technology consultant, fiction and non-fic author, technology and futurist speaker.
Go to Blog
Blaze McRob hosts
The Dark Romance of Anne Rice
by Travis Heermann
Freelance writer, novelist, award-winning screenwriter, editor, poker player, poet, biker, roustabout, Travis Heermann is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop.
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Juli D. Revezzo hosts
Alexandra Sokoloff
by Zrinka Jelic
Zrinka Jelic is a member Romance Writers of America and its Fantasy Futuristic & Paranormal chapter, as well as Savvy Authors. She writes contemporary fiction, which leans toward the paranormal and adds a pinch of history.
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W. J. Howard hosts
Ghost Dance
by Naching T. Kassa
Naching is a wife, mother, and Horror Author. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association and a contributor to the Demonic Visions series.
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Susanne Leist hosts
Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook
by W. J. Howard
Wendy Howard writes dark stories mixed with comedy. She lives in Colorado with her husband and two boisterous beagles, and wine is an important part of her diet.
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Debbie Christiana hosts
A Few Amazing Ladies
by Dina Rae
Dina has penned 6 books with a 7th on the way. Her themes revolve around conspiracy NWO paranormal, and aliens. The Best Seller is her latest release.
Dana Reed
by Audrey Brice
Audrey writes paranormal thrillers, mysteries, and horror stories where spirits, demons, and occult practitioners are both heroes and villains.
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February 20, 2017
~ women in horror month blog talks – day 1
W.J. Howard is the organizer behind this week’s Women in Horror Month Blog Talks. Below is her blog post with a list of featured writers for today’s topic, “Choice of Weapons”.
~ ~ ~
Welcome to our first day of Women in Horror Month Blog Talks featuring a discussion on weapons. Below is a list of blogs and bloggers in today’s talks.
To Connect with Participants and Join More Discussions
Go to the Facebook Event Page
Audrey Brice hosts
The Art of Weapons
by A. F. Stewart
A. F. Stewart is an author of speculative fiction (fantasy, sci-fi, horror). Her published books include Horror Haiku and Other Poems, the Killers and Demons series, and Ruined City.
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James P. McDonald hosts
Select Your Weapons Carefully
by Lori R. Lopez
Lori’s novels are dark or fantastic. Her poems are horrific or witty. Her stories could be anything, except some things. Her artwork is peculiar, brooding, and quirky like her!
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W. J. Howard hosts
The Deadliest Weapon
By C.A. Verstraete
C.A. Verstraete loves writing with a bit of a scare! She is author of Lizzie Borden, Zombie Hunter and a young adult novel, GIRL Z: My Life as a Teenage Zombie.
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A. F. Stewart hosts
An Out of the Ordinary Weapon
by Roh Morgon
Roh Morgon writes fantasy and horror for middle grade, young adult, and adult readers. She’s best known for her vampire series that begins with Watcher: Book I of The Chosen.
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Blaze McRob hosts
A Special Affinity for Sharp Things
by Naching T. Kassa
Naching is a wife, mother, and Horror Author. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association and a contributor to the Demonic Visions series.
AND
A Take on All Sorts of Weapons
by James T. McDonald
James is a business and technology consultant, fiction and non-fic author, technology and futurist speaker.
Go to Blog
Roadie Notes hosts
Something to Sink Your Teeth Into
by W. J. Howard
Wendy Howard writes dark stories mixed with comedy. Her main focus is creating fast-paced, action-packed stories that keep the interest of young and new adults, although readers of all ages enjoy her work. She lives in Colorado with her husband and two boisterous beagles, and wine is an important part of her diet.
Go to Blog
Claire Fitzpatrick hosts
A Good Sharp Blade
by Jo-Anne Russell
Jo-Anne is a dark fiction writer and a publisher at Lycan Valley Press. Her work can be found in a multitude of anthologies, and as standalone stories.
Go to Blog
~ women in horror month blog talks
This week, Wendy Howard is sponsoring Women in Horror Month Blog Talks on her blog, http://wjhoward.com/
She’s bringing bloggers together to promote and celebrate women horror writers and has lined up a pretty cool program. Check out the flyer below for a list of topics, then visit her website to navigate to the various hosts. You can also find good info on the facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/events/1556103594403190/
I’m thrilled to participate with my contributions to Monday’s topic, “Choice of Weapons” and Tuesday’s “Favorite Women in Horror”. In addition, commenters on my posts will receive free ebooks.
Monday’s host – A. F. Stewart on her blog, Are You Afraid of the Dark http://afstewartblog.blogspot.ca/
Tuesday’s host – Morbidly Beautiful‘s Stephanie Malone on her blog, Morbidly Beautiful http://morbidlybeautiful.com/
February 18, 2017
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Coming Soon
Runner: Book II of The Chosen
~~~
~ 2017 update
2016 was a busy year that included a number of positive events in my life.
Most importantly, a serious health condition that has dogged me for much of my adult life has been resolved. I’m getting healthier by the day and that spark (which had been fading the last few years) has returned. I’m grateful to be alive.
My new lease on life motivated me to take a trip this past summer to a magical place featured in many of my favorite stories – ROMANIA. Even better, the trip was hosted by Dacre Stoker, the great-grandnephew of Dracula author Bram Stoker.
As my husband and I visited Romanian villages and hiked the Carpathian Mountains, I realized our trip was not only to another place, but another time. I absorbed as many sights, sounds, and smells as I could, and hopefully I’ll be able to reproduce some of those experiences in my next novel.
Another significant life event was a change in my day job, which now brings me more satisfaction and will allow me more time – and energy – for writing. In addition, for the first time I can truly see retirement on the not-too-distant horizon.
My dream of writing full-time is now a little closer.
As for my writing itself . . .
* “Saving Magic”, a young adult fantasy from my Forbidden Doorways series, will be released this spring. “Magic” was originally written for the Fresno Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Woadsbury anthology. Unfortunately, the anthology never saw publication.
* “The Games Monsters Play”, a novelette of The Chosen, was published September 2016 and is now available on Amazon in both print and ebook formats.
“Games” is an expanded version of the story that first appeared in 2013’s “High Stakes: A Vampire Anthology”, edited by Gabrielle Faust and published by Evil Jester Press. The story follows a minor character from Watcher and introduces a major character from Runner.
* “Runner: Book II of The Chosen”, after more revisions than I can count, is finally with my editor. I will not promise a publishing date (because that seems to be a promise I’ve been unable to keep so far), but I’m going to do everything I can to get it published this year.
* “Seeker: Book III of The Chosen” is in development. All I can say about it is that my trip to Romania last summer has provided me wonderful backdrop material for Sunny’s continuing journey.
That’s it for now. It’s great to be back in the game.
May 29, 2016
~2016 update
New year. New determination.
I am writing.
I am editing.
Runner will be published by the end of the year.
The last three years have been a wild roller coaster ride. Every time I’ve thought I had control of my life again, or at least some semblance of it, some new challenge rose, frequently flanked by a couple old ones.
But everything feels different now.
My medical and family issues have slowly resolved, finally allowing my creative self to unfurl her wings and climb out from the protective cocoon in which she’s been hiding.
And it feels so glorious to stretch those wings.
My edit of Runner has morphed into a complete re-write of the first section, something that I hadn’t anticipated.
But it’s a good thing. In fact, it’s a great thing, and as it turned out, was absolutely necessary.
Runner‘s opening scene – about 20,000 words – hit the page in 2009, right after I completed the first draft of Watcher. It slowly evolved, 20,000-40,000 words at a time, until the initial draft was complete in late 2013.
Once the final chapter was done, it was time to turn my attention to an early chapter which I had purposely skipped. Medical research was needed to complete it, but that turned out to be much more difficult than I realized. I finally met an ER nurse who gave me a crash course in ER procedures (thank you, Janeane) and made me painfully aware that the scenes leading up to that chapter were completely unrealistic and needed major revision. Further discussions with my sister-in-law, a surgical nurse instructor, helped me fine-tune the scenes and keep them as medically accurate as possible.
And so the re-write began.
But like I said before, that was absolutely necessary. And not just because some of the details were wrong.
The writing was, well, not that great. I wrote those initial chapters five to seven years ago, and in the intervening years, something cool happened.
My writing improved. A lot.
And the first section of Runner is so much better now. There’s a maturity to the writing that even I can see, and I’m grateful I had the opportunity to write this story the right way BEFORE it’s published.
So for those of you who’ve been wondering if you’d ever see Watcher‘s sequel, believe me when I tell you this:
It will be well worth the wait.
And so I slowly step back into the writing world.
I was recently accepted as a featured author at the Great Valley Bookfest in Manteca on October 8th. And next week, I’ll be helping the San Francisco chapter of the Horror Writers Association with their booth at the Bay Area Book Festival.
And in July?
I’m traveling to Romania for an 11-day tour of the country as research for Seeker, my third book in the Chosen series. I’ll post more on that later.
Several weeks ago, I attended StokerCon, the Horror Writers Association convention and awards. I hugged writer friends I haven’t seen in three years, and made some great new ones. The workshops re-energized me, but it was being back in the presence of so much wonderful creativity that really strengthened my determination to finish my current projects and start new ones. That, and the belief in me and my writing that my close friends and family have, is giving me the drive and the energy to pursue my passion and my dream of someday being able to do this full-time.
Because I have so many wonderful stories to tell.
February 1, 2015
~checking in
Thought I’d check in and give you an update.
I’m in the midst of a major revision to the first part of Runner. I know – I thought it was done. But after consulting with an expert on an important part of the storyline, I needed to make some changes. I thought it was going to be the simple addition of a scene and maybe some minor corrections surrounding it. But that’s not the case. It’s amazing how one little change creates a ripple effect, and the tiny blip that was on the edge of your radar is now dead center and staring you down through sights aimed right at your face!
So, yeah. Gonna be a little longer. But I’m halfway through it – finishing it depends on just how much time real life demands of me.
I am also working on another project, one a little more personal and something totally different for me. When my mother was a child, she was given the Civil War diaries of her great-grandfather. He was a well-known war correspondent who regularly wrote articles for the National Tribune, a weekly newspaper based in Washington, D.C.
It’s been her lifelong dream to publish those diaries in the form of a book, and she has been transcribing them – first on a typewriter, then on a computer – for much of her life. She recently started prepping the finished book for publication through Amazon/Create Space and was having trouble with the formatting. I volunteered to help her, and am slowly straightening out the many kinks that Word can throw into a document. And no, not interested in using Scrivener or InDesign – I’m pretty good at beating Word into submission and just don’t have time to learn to use new software at this point.
So anyhow, my latest foray into publishing is now in the realm of non-fiction. I love this business – there’s always something new to learn and new territory to explore.
And for those who are Civil War buffs, I’ll let you know when this book is out. It’s pretty interesting – my great-great grandfather was certainly in the thick of things. I’m enjoying getting to know him, too. It’s kinda cool to think I might’ve inherited some of his talent.
July 30, 2014
~reawakening
That’s what it feels like.
A reawakening.
Words stirring to life. Images joining one another to become fluid scenes, snippets of other worlds. Characters beginning to prod me with their stories again.
An urge similar to the nesting instinct has been building in me for a little while now. An urge to create a space in which the writer within me can once again create. The ingredients necessary for the focused wanderings of my imagination are slowly coming together: a quiet seclusion, a proper desk. A computer strong and powerful enough to capture sentences and harness them into coherence, to explore webpages without hesitation, to craft cover images into lures for the unsuspecting reader.
This past year – yes, it has been a year since the onset of my unplanned withdrawal from writing – has been filled with medical issues and family needs on top of an increased workload at the day job. But as each of these demands on my time and energy lessen, I can feel the writer begin to peek out and look around.
As my new workspace begins to take shape, excitement rises within me at the prospect of long hours spent recording the lives of the characters who’ve entrusted me with their stories. I’m eager to continue Sunny’s saga, to explore the origins of Nicolas, to follow Taz as he storms through history. Others wait as well – Sullivan and Sanders and Jade, whose young lives are complicated by their supernatural needs along with those of normal teenagers. In addition, a number of fresh faces are standing by, impatient to be given life upon pages of their own.
One of my first tasks as I emerge from my cocoon is to find an artist to illustrate my book covers. I need someone who can create from scratch, a realist to replicate the images floating within my mind as well as offer designs of their own. I’m starting my search at local colleges, but will also be exploring online resources.
I’m open to suggestions, so please contact me if you can recommend someone.
That’s it for now. But not for long – I’ll be stopping by regularly to introduce new features to my blog, and hopefully, a new design in the not-too-distant future.
It’s nice to be back.
