Megan Morgan's Blog, page 48

Siren Song news

Each of my Siren Song novels has a little news to go with it today! I’m happy to share:

The Wicked City is just 99 cents right now at ALL retailers. This will be going on until the end of the month. So if you wanted to get the first book in the series you can do that right now, cheap!

 

 

 

The Bloody City got a wonderful five star review at The Romance Reviews and was also chosen as one of their top picks. They seem to like me and my work a lot over there, and I’m super grateful for it! Also, if you have interest in becoming a book reviewer, it’s a great site to start on. When you sign up for an account you can also ask to be a reviewer.

 

 

The Burning City now has a sneak peak available. You can find and read the first chapter here! A warning though–there’s some pretty big spoilers if you haven’t read the first two books.

 

 

 

Today is also the opening of the A-Z Challenge sign-ups! Since I got a great deal of my blog followers from that challenge, I can’t wait to participate again and meet a whole bunch of new folks this year. The challenge last year also got me into blogging more regularly and I had a blast doing it.

Are you doing the challenge this year? Are you as excited about it as I am?

Filed under: Siren Song, The Bloody City, The Burning City, The Wicked City Tagged: reviews, urban fantasy

A few updates

Just a few little updates today, about some upcoming and current things I’ve got going on:

Yesterday I did a guest post at author Calisa Rhose’s site, discussing the connection between urban fantasy and romance. If you comment on the post you’re automatically entered to win an e-copy of The Wicked City! The contest runs until 9pm EST time tonight, so there’s still time to join in.
If you don’t win a copy, never fear, The Wicked City is on sale right now for 99 cents at all the retailers listed. Cheap!
This coming Monday, January 25th, sign-ups for this year’s April A-Z Challenge begin! I’m really excited and I can’t wait to participate again. I’m planning a rather ambitious theme this year, but I think it will be lots of fun. Thankfully, I have a few months to work on it.
I’m also going to be participating in the Lost & Found blogfest on February 1st. If you want to join in, there’s still time! The theme is love–lost love, found love…it’s almost Valentine’s Day, after all.
In case you missed it, I’ve started a newsletter. Each edition will feature a contest and prizes, so make sure you sign up!

That’s all my updates for this week. Do you have anything special to share?

Filed under: Contests, Newsletter, The Wicked City Tagged: appearances, blog hop, romance, updates, urban fantasy

Sign up for my newsletter!

After much debating, I’ve finally decided to create a newsletter for myself. Now…I just need subscribers!

I’ll be using the newsletter to keep followers up to date on my new releases, sales, appearances, general news, and upcoming events, as well as sharing information and tidbits from around the writing world. I’ll also have a few fun things, like contests and prizes, and eventually, guest author spots.

I’m planning on launching the newsletter the first week of February (if I have enough subscribers) and the first one will contain a contest for a $10 Amazon gift card. So sign up today if you’d like to keep up with what I’m doing, and maybe win a little something!

Go here to sign up for Megan Morgan’s Author Newsletter.

If you have any questions or comments, or have any trouble signing up, please let me know. Thank you!

 

Filed under: Newsletter, Promotion Tagged: appearances, information, updates

We lost some good ones already this year.

I’m stepping away from the subject of writing for this post today because we’ve had a terrible week for celebrity deaths. We lost David Bowie and Alan Rickman, both aged 69, both to cancer. It’s safe to say Death isn’t playing around as we begin 2016.  I thought I’d dedicate my thoughts today to them.

I was never a MEGA David Bowie fan, but growing up his music was always part of the zeitgeist. Some of his songs I really liked and some I was ambivalent about, but I never hated any of his music. Some of my favorites are collaborations he did with other artists like Dancing In the Street with Mick Jagger and I’m Afraid of Americans with Trent Reznor. If I absolutely had to pick a favorite Bowie song it would probably be China Girl, because I love the low, sensual growl of his voice in that song.

But like a lot of women my age, the biggest impact David Bowie had on me was his role as the Goblin King. Ah yes, do a Google search and you’ll find out just how many young girls had their sexual awakenings via Jareth. Supposed to be a kid’s movie? Of course. That doesn’t explain why he had to have that hugely bulging crotch and be constantly tempting Sarah in an overtly sexual way. Even the creators admit the movie was supposed to have sexual overtones. Thank you David Bowie, from us ladies you helped usher into puberty.

As for Alan Rickman, I was a pretty big fan of his. Many people will always remember him as Snape in the Harry Potter movies, though he had a very long career that spanned many roles–usually playing the bad guy. The very first role I ever saw him in was the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (I’m gonna cut your heart out with a spoon!). I daresay I was more infatuated with the Sheriff than Robin, but then, I’ve always liked the villains more.

I also loved him as the Metatron in Dogma, which was a greatly understated role–and of course in Sweeney Todd, one of my favorite movies ever (the version with Johnny Depp).  In any case, it’s hard to believe he’s gone–it’s the first thing I saw online when I woke up yesterday morning and it darkened my entire day.

That will be quite enough, Death. No more celebrities for you this year!

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In other news, I’ve done some cosmetic work on my site. Do feel free to have a look around and please tell me what you think–what  you like, what you don’t like. I’m also going to be looking into starting a mailing list soon, so I’ll have more information on that in the coming week!

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: celebrities, pictures, tribute

Excuse my dust

Over the next few days I’m going to be doing a bit of tinkering with my website. I want to make it a little more streamlined and professional and make things easier to find.

So if you’re visiting me right now *waves* I apologize for any wonky-ness you might encounter. WordPress has a great preview feature for changes, but not all of them are completely accurate and sometimes it’s not until after you’ve applied them that something appears off. I will try my best to keep things functional while I’m tidying up.

I’ve been considering paying to have my site professionally designed, but I’ve done a lot of my own website work over the years and I’m not sure about paying for something I can probably do myself given enough practice and patience. Do any of you have your sites designed by someone else? Is it worth it? WordPress also offers paid themes that I could do more with, but again, I’d like to see how far I can take it on my own.

I think more important than aesthetics, an author’s site should make it immediately easy for visitors to explore their books, so I’m going to put more focus on that. I’m also not a huge fan of sites that employ too many flash components or animations–not everyone’s computer shows these things correctly. I like to keep things simple.

How about you? What sort of websites are most appealing to you, and what do you want to see when you visit an author’s site?

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: information, technology, tools, updates

The little secrets of writing

The first time I worked with a professional editor, I thought I knew a lot about writing. As it turned out, I knew much less than I thought I did. I was surprised, quite embarrassed, but I was also incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to learn new things and grow as a writer. Some of the things I learned were so simple I couldn’t believe I hadn’t realized them before. I felt like a dummy, but I also felt like I’d somehow unlocked a great treasure trove of secrets about my craft.

One of the things this editor taught me remains to this day my favorite bit of knowledge. I’m so attuned to it now in my own writing that I see it all the time in the writing of others–even very professional, extensively published authors–and so I don’t believe it’s a hard and fast rule, but a wonderful guideline.

My editor called it Detached Body Parts.

Sound scary? It is. Here’s what it means:

Many times we forget that body parts are inanimate, and it takes the action of the owner to affect them. It follows the habit of eliminating the passive voice in writing. I had never thought about it before, but once she explained it, it clicked and I realized she was right. Is this the only way to write and is it always correct? No, of course not. However, it’s an exercise in using the active voice. Here are some examples:

Passive: Her eyes closed (unless she just died, they didn’t close on their own).

Active: She closed her eyes.

Passive: His fingers stroked across my cheek (I’m picturing loose fingers scurrying around).

Active: He stroked his fingers across my cheek.

The tone is much more active and present. She did this, he did that. The focus is on the person doing the action, not the action itself. Body parts don’t move on their own, we move them.

Likewise, here’s another favorite thing I learned. She didn’t give this an amusing name, but I like to call it “Duh, obviously.”

When you write from the point of view of a single character, write what happens to them the way it happens in your own head, because you’re in their head. What do I mean by this? Say your character looked across the room and saw a dog. If you looked across the room and saw a dog, would you think, “I looked over there and saw that dog”? No, you’d think “Hey, there’s a dog.”

Duh: She looked across the room and saw a dog.

Obviously: Across the room, a dog stood.

Why? Because again, you’re inside the character’s head. You don’t need to say they looked or saw. If there’s a dog standing across the room, what is instantly assumed? Indeed, that the character looked over there and saw it. Not only does it eliminate words, it makes the writing much tighter and much more ‘present.’ We don’t think of ourselves “I heard some nice music,” we think “some lovely music is playing.”

These are just a few of my very favorite writing tips. When I learned about them I smacked my hand against my forehead (see what I did there) in shock that I had never realized them before. I love learning new things. I hope I can teach others now and then.

How about you? What are the most startling and brilliant writing tips you learned along the way?

Filed under: Behind The Scenes Tagged: advice, creativity, editing, writing

My 2016 plan: stop making plans.

This post is part of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group blog hop. The first Wednesday of every month is Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. The awesome co-hosts for the January 6 posting of the IWSG will be L.G. Keltner, Denise Covey, Sheri Larsen, J.Q. Rose, Chemist Ken, and Michelle Wallace!

The winners of the IWSG anthology contest are also being announced today!

 

Well, here we are, a new year. A fresh start! Time to regroup and renew. That of course means resolutions–to try harder, do better, get things done, and create some success.

I’ve always been an ‘organizer.’ By that I don’t mean I’m overly organized (ha ha, no), but that I like to make lists and plans for myself and write them out and decide succinctly how I’ll do things, and at what specific times, and how one thing will follow the other and accomplish this and that. I’m very good at creating a plan and working it out neat and tidy on paper. It makes me feel secure and organized and like I’m already accomplishing something.

The problem is, I never actually follow the plans I lay out for myself. I might, for a few days or even weeks, but then I wander off course and forget about it. I think I cripple myself by laying everything out nice and pretty and then my brain thinks “good job, we did it!” only we haven’t even started doing anything. Not to mention it gives me anxiety to think “gosh, I have to get this done today because I wrote it down!” Then I admonish myself for being ‘lazy’ if I don’t scratch things off my list when I’m supposed to.

That’s not to say I don’t get things done, because I do, but I never seem to stick to these explicit directions I write out for myself. I find like most imposed work, I balk at the idea of doing it because I HAVE to, but when I give myself flexibility and breathing room, I tend to get it done anyway. I also know of myself I’ve never been a consistent worker, but the type of writer that gets a huge amount of stuff done in one go and then slacks off the rest of the week. I’ve always been like that. But still, I persist in trying to give myself directions, like it’s going to magically change me.

So, my writing resolution this year is one that seems contradictory to the spirit of resolutions:

I’m going to stop making plans.

I’m just going to write, and edit, and do the work I need to do, when and how I choose to do it, without some self-imposed schedule. I’m going to stop cracking the whip on myself and then getting over-critical of myself when I don’t follow rules I don’t like to begin with. I do want to accomplish certain things and be more active in certain areas as I detailed in my writing resolutions post earlier this week, but I’m not going to give myself some rigid schedule to do it in.

I’m going to get back to enjoying writing, without breathing down my own neck.

How about you? Do you plan on being harder or softer on yourself this year?

Filed under: IWSG Tagged: blog hop, insecure writer's support group, personal life, writing

Writing resolutions

I hope everyone had a great holiday season and a happy new year! Did you make any resolutions this year? Every January feels like a fresh start and a chance to try again–and I know we don’t often keep our resolutions, however well-intentioned we start off the first month…or week…or days… I’m pretty bad at keeping resolutions myself, and yet, I still make them.

I have a few personal resolutions this year which I won’t get into, but I thought I’d detail some of my writing resolutions here. Maybe typing them out will help me keep them–and maybe if you’re looking to make some resolutions of your own, they’ll give you some ideas.

My Writing Resolutions:

General:

Write more. This seems the most obvious resolution for a writer, doesn’t it? The more you write, the more you have written, which is the most important thing. I have a bad habit of using too much of my free time being distracted and messing around instead of being productive. I’m going to create a schedule for myself–a flexible one that I can adjust until I find what works best for me. I would like to cultivate more discipline.
Focus tighter. I also have a bad habit of working on too many projects at once, which is also distracting. It ends up making the projects take longer to complete as well, because I keep switching. I’m going to strive to focus on one thing at a time, that way my mind is conditioned for it and my concentration is better. I’m also going to focus more on writing full-length novels instead of shorter works.
Learn more about promotion and try to schedule some each month. I’m always striving to figure out what does and doesn’t work as far as promotion goes. I’m going to try to find the things that work the best and schedule something each month to keep my name in front of readers. I’m going to spend less time on promotion that, in the past, has proven not worth the time I put into it.

Social Media:

I’m actually pretty terrible at most social media. I want to improve that.

Facebook. My Facebook author page is mostly just news and announcements. I’m pretty bad at getting ‘personal’ on Facebook and my attached personal page under my author name isn’t used (but has to exist in order to moderate the author page). I do have a personal Facebook under my real name, which I’m more active on, but prefer to keep exclusively to friends and family. I’m going to try to be more personable and chatty on Facebook.
Twitter. I’m a terrible tweeter too! I was once pretty good at it on my personal account, but I slack now. I think I can be much better at Twitter because it’s a shorter, quicker format than Facebook.
Blogging. I have to say, I’m pretty proud of my blogging prowess–mostly because once upon a time I was TERRIBLE at blogging, but I got much better with practice. I try to post three times a week and I’m going to keep at it.
Other social media. I’ve been thinking about making a tumblr–I have a fun one, but I’d like to make one more professional and associated with the writing community. I’ve also been told by everyone that an author needs a mailing list, but I’m still not wholly sold on it. I’m not sure what a mailing list might provide that my blog readers don’t already get here.

Other:

Blog hops. I do Insecure Writer’s Support Group and I did the April A-Z Challenge last year and honestly, this is where I got many of my followers from! I love blog hops and I’m going to continue to seek out the best/most relevant ones to participate in.
Research. I’m going to continue to research the business side of writing and try to get better at it–and work on making more connections.

So there are my writing resolutions for this year–let’s see how well I can do. Do you have any writing (or non-writing) resolutions that you’re hoping to hold onto?

Filed under: About Me, Behind The Scenes, Promotion Tagged: blog hop, creativity, facebook, inspiration, me, wellness, writing

Happy New Year!

May your 2016 be filled with great things and good health! Thank you for following this blog and supporting me in 2015–you’re all wonderful!

Filed under: Holidays

End of the year reflections

With 2015 drawing to a close, I wanted to recap my year and count my blessings. I had a lot of highs and lows this year, but overall it was quite an exciting ride. Writing-wise it was a banner year, health-wise, not so much. Here’s a rundown of my 2015:

JANUARY:

Nothing much writing-wise happened this month. I did start edits on my second Siren Song novel with my editor. Also did edits for Her Darkest Secret, which would come out the following month.
I went on a trip to Chicago with my best friend! I love Chicago. We had such an awesome time, and we rented the best suite ever in the heart of downtown Chicago.

It was a sweet suite!

I was writing an article for Kindle Blogs about my novel set in Chicago, while in Chicago (at the same time of year it takes place, even).

FEBRUARY:

Her Darkest Secret was released. I had a great time writing this novella. If you’re into paranormal historical erotic romance (wow that’s a mouthful) you should check it out.
I broke my wrist, two days before Valentine’s Day. Ugh! We had the coldest February in recorded history in Ohio and there was ice EVERYWHERE, leading to my downfall (literally).
I was on the radio!

At least I got a lot of autographs!

MARCH:

My debut novel The Wicked City is released! I still had the cast on my arm for release day.
My cast came off the day after St. Patrick’s Day. I was downgraded to a brace for two weeks.

I still had fun on St. Paddy’s day with my bff…

…and then I got a good downgrade the next day.

APRIL:

Did the Blogging from A-Z Challenge. I’m going to do it in 2016, too!

MAY:

One Night In Chicago is released–my first of two contributions to the City Nights series.
I was on the radio again!

JUNE:

I got my first royalty check and immediately bought a yacht. Just kidding, I bought a couple candy bars.
Did a blog tour for One Night In Chicago.
I had an erotic paranormal novella accepted for publication with Muse It HOT! Publishing. It will be released in fall/winter 2016.
Cover reveal for The Bloody City.

JULY

I turned 40! My best friend took me to Las Vegas, which was awesome, but while there I tripped on my heels, fell, and sustained a severe knee injury that I’m still not fully recovered from. If you really want to see pictures of what it looked like, click here (not for the squeamish!). I was out of work for almost three weeks and had to have ongoing medical treatment. I am never wearing heels again. Or turning 40 again.

Apart from the horrific injury though, we had a great time!

AUGUST

Mostly spent recovering from my knee injury.

SEPTEMBER:

Got another royalty check. Bought another mansion.

OCTOBER:

The Wicked City was nominated for best urban fantasy at The Romance Reviews Readers’ Choice Awards–and it won!

NOVEMBER:

The wildest month of all! I had two new releases this month. My book The Bloody City (sequel to The Wicked City ) and One Night In Cleveland , my second contribution to the City Nights series.
Three blog tours, tons of guest posts.
I did NaNoWriMo, too.
And my son turned 23!

DECEMBER

I co-hosted Insecure Writer’s Support Group.
Participated in Blissemas.
Another royalty check, this time I decided to buy my own private island so I have a peaceful place to write.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from my family to yours! (This is my son and my furry daughter.)

 

And that’s my year in review–up, down, crazy, exciting, fun–I’m hoping 2016 will be just as eventful (without breaking/injuring anything). How did your 2015 fare?

Happy New Year everyone, may 2016 be wonderful for all of us!

Filed under: About Me, Behind The Scenes, Holidays, Publications, Works Tagged: appearances, me, personal life, pictures, updates