Erotic Writers' Lunch - a date with Morgan King

I met up with new writer, Morgan King, last week. New because she is a new writer - her first book was out just last month (more on that below) but also new because we hadn't met before, having only had conversations on Facebook.

We joked about wearing a flower so we could recognise each other. However, the only thing flowering in my garden was a snowdrop which was drooping by the time she arrived so I quickly discarded it!

It was lovely to have a long chat over lunch, particularly as we are both English women working for American/Canadian publishers - we both work for Evernight, and I am also with Siren - so could commiserate about having to write our stories using American spelling, 
despite having set some of our books in England. I'm sorry, but colour and favourite should always be spelled with a U in it!

Morgan recently met up with some other Evernight writers living in England (Doris O'Connor, Michaela Rhue and Ella Gray) having discovered there are several living in the 
east of England where she lives - that is SO not fair! Why can't one of them live in Yorkshire! LOL. I hope to join them down there some time.

So we talked a lot about our writing. Morgan's book 'Duty to Love' (available to buy from Amazon) is an historical story so I asked her whether she had to do a lot of research or was concerned about getting the details wrong - both of which have put me off writing an historical story. However, Morgan has read a lot of historical stories and feels comfortable writing in this genre. And anything she isn't sure about she left out! She also added that she is sure she is bound to make the odd mistake but for her it is about the reader's enjoyment so hopefully anything she writes is convincing enough that it doesn't spoil their enjoyment.

 

Anyhow, this is the blurb: A craftily worded contract and fate finds Arthur, Earl of Hentonury, having to marry not the lady he expected but her younger sister Amelia, the woman he knows his brother James loves and hoped to marry. Arthur cares for both Amelia and James, so how can he choose between his love for them and his duty? James may be the younger son, but he has taken leave from the army and will fight for Amelia. Torn between her feelings for two brothers, Amelia wishes to marry Arthur but can't bear to lose James. Is there any chance the three of them can find happiness together? Will duty or love win out?

She plans to write more in that series, although would like to branch out into paranormal and futuristic. I was a little stunned when she told me she had read my two sci fi stories before she became a writer. I then put her on the spot, poor woman, when I asked what she thought of them. She said she liked them and if she had rated them she would have given 
them four out of five stars. Bless her. I have no idea if she was being very kind but it was nice of her to say that - my  sci fi books have had mixed ratings!

Since then she has been writing some short stories, but doing a day job and with family, she suffers the same problems as me of getting motivated. Having a word count limit each day as some writers so is not something either of us want to do as we feel it takes the fun out of writing and it becomes a chore.

Morgan seems to have avoided the dreaded new author error of head hopping that many new authors fall into (myself included) but we laughed over having to remove the semi colons from our stories - my first editor told me that it is too distracting for the reader!!!

We talked about tons and tons more like getting reviews. So far all her reviews are from people she knows. I often wonder what percentage of our readership are actually other writers, after all, we chose write this genre because we read it first. I certainly didn't get my first fan email from someone I didn't know for eight months after my first book was out. Since then I've gained some lovely fans who seem to adore my stories! Maybe our meeting means we can inspire each other to get in front of our computers and write more for our fans!! If you want to know more about Morgan she can be contacted on the links below.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authormorganking
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/morgankingauthor
Blog/website: www.authormorganking.wordpress.com
Twitter: Morgan King @EroticWritings

Jen