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Gwynn Morgan is one of the few romantic suspense ebook authors I’ve
had the pleasure of reading. Though her romantic suspense contains hot sex scenes, Ms. Morgan brings readers a refreshing change from just straight erotica. She also throws in danger, mystery, and a meticulous plot to keep you guessing.
Born in Kansas City, Missouri, and later moving to Arizona with her
parents at the age of three, Gwynn Morgan spent most of her childhood
alone. Since her parents lived in rural areas, even running a Forest
Service Fire lookout one summer, not many people surrounded her. So
she made up her own games and stories to go along with them. She
amused herself with make-believe things, and her creative outlets extended
to making paper dolls and other crafts.
When Ms. Morgan isn’t writing, she makes jewelry by cutting and shaping
unique stones and building a silver setting to set it off. Though she doesn’t imitate Native American styles of the Southwest, she draws inspiration from those traditional patterns.
She describes herself as an inveterate and unredeemable pack rat,
collecting almost anything with wolves and hummingbirds on it. She
collects mostly bead earrings she’s made and rebuilds odd jewelry she
picks up from thrift shops, and she cannot pass up fabric stores or places
that sell beads.
Personal freedom and responsibility are very important to her, and she believes that rights must be earned by being responsible—and rights given to children and animals must be respected and never violated.
On Writing in Ms. Morgan’s Own Words
What or who inspires you to write?
I have made up stories since I was very small, and I’ve written them since I
could print letters and spell a few words. My father wrote and my
mother wrote poetry some, so I grew up thinking it was a normal thing
to do. I was an avid reader from about age five, and I loved stories and
books so much that I knew early on that I wanted to create them, too. A
couple of my English teachers in school and some favorite authors were
the final influences in this, but I took a long time to get to be a
professional and serious writer and find which genre I was best working
in. I still do not really specialize.
Why did you begin writing?
I was almost driven or compelled to. I wrote a few verses when I was
eight, and then I started rewriting things I read to suit my own visions
of what should have happened. I have steno notebooks full of western
romances I wrote in my early teens. Some are not too awful, even. I
was always writing in every spare moment when in school and later
while working for the Army and Air Force in various jobs.
Which author inspires you?
I suppose my all-time favorite author is Anya Seton. I read all of her
novels, but I was most inspired by Katherine. I was very much into
medieval history as a young teen, and I read the condensed version of
this novel in a magazine (I think Ladies Home Journal, but I could be
wrong) and then the whole novel a bit later. I also enjoyed Zane Grey
(always loved cowboys) and a number of others. I also enjoy sci-fi and
fantasy, and I really love the work of Anne McCaffery, C.J. Cherryh, and
the late Marion Zimmer Bradley. I wanted to mix more romance with
their stories, though. So it’s really great that mixed genre and
paranormal romance is such a big thing now. I am edging that way in my
writing, although the idea intimidated me at first.
What do you find most rewarding about writing?
Meeting and communicating with readers who are clearly enjoying what
you have written and are very interested in you and your work. When I hear
from a reader about how she or he enjoyed or was maybe inspired or
supported by one of my works, it just puts me up there on cloud nine.
I would write even if no one ever read it, but to be able to reach out
and share a vision with others is such an awesome gift and blessing.
Have you experienced writer’s block? If so, how did you cure it?
After my husband died, I had trouble getting back to writing. He was
my first critic and my tech advisor on military and law enforcement
topics, which I write a lot. He was also a writer himself, and we were
working on a few projects together. I began to write some mild erotica
as a way to get started again—a new venture for me—and that has
taken over, along with the new pen name I came up with for that genre.
I’ve had more of that published in the last four years than other fiction,
although I have had four novels published since his death, one that we
started co-writing, that I was finally able to finish, January Gets her
Gunn, which came out from Awe-Struck early this year. Deidre O’Dare,
my “hottie” persona, has about twenty stories and novellas at Amber
Quill in their Amber Heat and Amber Allure lines, and my third print
anthology collection was just released there this month, Daring
Departures. My first anthology of m/m erotica, Daring Desires, will be
released in November.
When is your next book due out, and what’s it about?
I’m struggling to complete the third of my planned trilogy, Copper
Stars of Cochise, about law enforcement people in my former home county
in Arizona. I had nearly finished the second one when my husband
died, and I haven’t been able to get the third one, tentatively titled
Jessie’s Legacy completed. It will be done eventually, though—I promise those
who have read Penny’s Luck and Mollie’s McGuire. I am also
redoing Healing Hearts which was initially published by Treble Heart
Books and will get it republished as a steamier story probably in 2009.
I’m also working on a spin-off from Deal for Love (Hardshell Word Factory),
featuring the hero of that story’s Native American attorney friend,
Jason Hunter, as the hero, along with an investigative reporter heroine. No
working title there yet, but Hunter will likely be part of it.
I had a big book of poetry, Walking Down My Shadows, published in two
parts in 2007 and 2008 by Eternal Press. I plan to enter them in the
Eppies, and I may follow up with another poetry collection, this one
mostly on paranormal themes, in the fairly near future. I am compiling
it now.
And Deirdre O’Dare will continue to write erotic and romantic
adventures from 10 to 30,000 words in length for Amber Quill, since
they have done very well and I really enjoy this now. I want to finish
my Canine Cupids series, tales of two guys and one or more dogs who
play Cupid for them. Four are out now, and I plan two more to be
printed in an anthology, maybe in 2009.
I don’t ever plan to stop writing, although I am taking a brief
sabbatical, since I just moved from Arizona to New Mexico, and I’ve had a lot of things to do relative to this, so I’ve had to set writing
aside for a few weeks while I relocated and then got settled again. I’m about ready to gear up the story machine once more!
Ms. Morgan certainly has a lot in the works, and I hope to see them in
publication soon. In the meantime, you can visit Gwynn Morgan at
GwynnMorgan.com to learn more about this noteworthy ebook author.
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