Morgan Gallagher Interview

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write? 

The wee sma’s.  I’ve always been at my best, between the hours of about midnight and 4am.  Left to my natural instincts, I’d sleep most of the day, get up at 4pm, fit some life in, and then settle down and write until I drop.  However, this does not fit with the rest of the world.  So I write when and where I can, and fit slices of writing in as I go.  I will sometimes put my family to bed at about midnight, and get back up and do a couple of hours, even now.

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

All on computer these days.  Partially, as I’m dyslexic and transcribing from paper takes 4 times as long.  Partially as I no longer have fingers, but keyboards attached to my wrists, a bit like Edward Scissorhands.  I spend a lot of my time, on the computer.  All my work in done via it, for all the aspects of my life.  And my social space! 

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

Actual inspiration, as opposed to ideas, from others around me, who’ve achieved.  I have a lot of very powerful people in my life, who have survived epic stuff, and it gives you the energy to keep going, and trying.

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?

No.  I did do a Novel in 90 on LJ, for a few months, which is 750 words a day.  It helped me out of the tail end of a writer’s block.  But as a general technique, I just hammer at it when and where I can.

5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art?

Self-published and I took advice from others, went looking for the right image and then paid a professional to compose the cover from my own designs.  I’m trained in film and media images.  So I know what to do, and how to translate the concept into images.

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?

I write.  I am.  Simples.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

No.  It’s on the list of things to buy from books sales.  There’s a lot of other writers out there doing things I want to read, so I’ll call it ‘research’ and buy one.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?

Harlan Ellison, Anne McCaffrey, Stephen King, John Wyndham, James White, Tanith Lee, Minette Walters, Arthur C Clarke, James Herbert, LM Montgomery, The Brontes, Jane Austen, Shakespeare, J Michael Straczynski, Joss Whedon, Alan Moore, The Pinis... I could go on for some time....  I’m not reading anything at the moment.  I fall into a book so completely, everything else stops.  So I have to ration myself.  I can only read stuff when I know I have nothing else to do for a day or two.  That’s not happening a lot, right now.

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?

Only just seen my first one today, and I’m not sure.  I may let film students make me some, as I used to teach and I still have friends doing film making with older students.  We’ll see. I think they are a good idea and useful if you get it right.

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?

Changeling.  Growing up in Scotland, the legend of the fairy Changelings was a very strong part of my child hood.  In Scotland, fairies aren’t cute.  They are taller than humans and cut your heart out in a second.  They can give you riches in the morning and take your eyes out in the afternoon: capricious and alien.  A Changeling is both gifted, and cursed, and belongs with neither humans, nor fairies.  Once they are taken, they become in-between people.  Humans can want to be taken, as it looks glamorous, and there is the never ageing thing: but it never ends well for them.  It was an obvious choice to describe a human being taken by a vampire, and being changed forever.

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

The middle book of the trilogy – Lucifer’s Stepdaughter.  It’s a much more traditional narrative – lots of people, lots of events, and a puzzle to be solved.  Lots of new vampires, and a deeper understanding of the vampire world.  Dreyfuss, the only vampire in Changeling, doesn’t always tell the truth, so my main protagonist has to find out what he said that was true, and was false.  It’s much more fun than Changeling, but with elements just as dark.  It’s over half done, unfortunately, the last half.  So a lot of slog in front of me to stitch it together.  It’s already quite interesting having people who’ve read Changeling, clamouring for the next one.  I’m wondering how I’ll cope with the pressure.  J

http://ethicstrading.com/index.php?page=Morgan-Gallagher

Morgan Gallagher/Changeling  Your One Stop Shop  Links, Blurb, Bio 

Buy This Book: Amazon UK       Amazon USA     Smashwords     

Author Pages:   Ethics Trading      Amazon UK      Amazon USA

Contact Author:  Novel Blog    Twitter: @DreyfussTrilogy      FaceBook

Changeling, Blurb  (out on ebook, paperback to follow)

London, April 1987  Dreyfuss holds all the cards: money, power and no conscience. He steals Joanne from the busy streets in a moment; she wakes in a room with no windows. He spends months schooling her to obey, tearing her down with pain and terror. When she begins to break, as hope of escape fades... he reveals his final madness: he is vampire. She too, will be vampire: his Changeling. A greater battle begins. All she has is her will and the need to be free. Can she keep fighting, or will he win?

How long can she stay human? 

Changeling is the first novel in the Dreyfuss Trilogy: a vampire mythology for adults.

Changeling - Lucifer’s Stepdaughter* - Moonchild*