Vanessa Morgan Interview

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

The most productive time for me to write is during the evening. Apparently, that’s typical for many creative people. Nighttime seems to stimulate the right hemisphere, while daytime is better for more logical tasks such as editing and rewriting that require the activation of the left hemisphere.

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

I almost never write with paper and pen. I only use it when I’m stuck and need a solution for a specific problem. Switching from computer to paper and pen helps to order my ideas. A writer friend of mine, Daph Nobody, does exactly the opposite. He writes his entire novels in a notebook and only uses his computer to transfer his text once the book is finished.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

I believe my best writing comes from inside, but I occasionally draw inspiration from horror movies and the people around me. The seventies vampire movie Let’s Scare Jessica to Death inspired part of my horror novel Drowned Sorrow. The stories have nothing in common, but both have dead people coming out of a lake and the New England village I describe in the novel is actually the one from the movie. If you’ve read the book and have seen the movie, then I’m sure you’ll notice the similarities.

The Strangers Outside on the other hand is almost entirely based on reality. But let me warn you, because what follows is really creepy. I’ll start with the fun part. A little over a year ago, my sister Jennifer asked me to use her as a character in one of my stories. I already had an idea for a story with a foreboding atmosphere and dark inhuman figures showing up at different places in a village. Anyway, I thought she was perfect for the story and now the character Jennifer in The Strangers Outside not just resembles my sister, she IS my sister; even the dialogue is based on things she actually told me. To blur the line between reality and fiction even more, I described a real setting and a real house. Now comes the creepy part… Whilst I was writing The Strangers Outside, a few people I know got a call from a psychic who said things about the end of the world being near and seeing dark ghost-like figures when it was about to happen. Those dark figures have now started to show up on different occasions.

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

Never. I write with the objective of creating the creepiest novel or short story ever. I don’t even know how much words I write in a day.

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

Llumina Press published my first horror novel Drowned Sorrow. A year ago, I was asked to contribute a short story to a compilation with only female horror writers. That story was The Strangers Outside. The project fell apart though and so I decided to publish it myself on Amazon Kindle. I was very lucky to have found Allan Beurms to design the cover art for The Strangers Outside. I gave him my idea of what I wanted the cover to look like and he came up with something brilliant.

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

It’s the only thing I can see myself doing at the moment.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

No, not yet. I’m planning to purchase a Kindle, but  I have many book and movie projects coming up and not enough time to read right now.

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

My favorite authors are Michel Houellebecq, Carol Drinkwater and John Saul. The last book I read was a true story, The Pet Psychic by Joanne Hull.

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

My novel Drowned Sorrow has a book trailer. You can watch it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ild3ZunVlz8.  The trailer reminds me a little of M. Night Shyamalan’s movie The Village.

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

The title The Strangers Outside was there even before I came up with the story. I just had a vague idea of dark figures showing up at different spots in town and conveying a sense of dread. It’s the title that inspired me to write the story.

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

I will soon be working on a comic book project with Allan Beurms, the comic book artist who also designed the cover of The Strangers Outside. What the comic book will be about? It’ll be about my cat Avalon who also has a starring role in the film adaptation of The Strangers Outside. I’ve started a new novel too and I’ve been asked to write the screenplay for an upcoming vampire film.

http://vanessa-morgan.blogspot.com/