cj Sez: Today, Lyrical Pens is happy to spotlight Mystery
Thriller Week author Morgan Talbot. If you don’t know her, Morgan writes cozy
mysteries, one of the most popular mystery genres. Her Smugglers & Scones
is the first book in a new series of cozy/culinary mysteries which sound
absolutely tasty.
Lyrical Pens: Welcome
to Lyrical Pens, Morgan, and here’s my first question:
Where did you get the
idea for Smugglers & Scones?
Morgan Talbot: I enjoy reading
seaside cozies, but none of them were set anywhere near me, so I decided to
incorporate all my childhood trips to the Oregon Coast with a cozy mystery and
some love for B&Bs, another cozy trope I enjoy.
LP: How did you determine that all-important
first sentence?
MT: Honestly, the first
few sentences popped into my head all at once. I wrote them on my Facebook
author page before I even began the book. Now the book is nearing its release
date, and those first lines are almost unchanged. I can only credit my muse—she
did all the work in the background—and my editors, who confirmed what my muse
had chosen.
LP: What are your protagonist’s strengths and
flaws?
MT: Pippa Winterbourne is
not a mystery writer, but all of the guests at her B&B are—it’s a rule of
the charter. Over the years, she’s heard myriad minutiae about the nuts and
bolts of murder and how villains think. She can spout murder trivia at the drop
of a hat. But Pippa doesn’t get to delve into fictional worlds and get lost in
what-ifs—she’s anchored in the real world, with her great-uncle, her BFF, her
job, and all the quirks of living in a small town. However, the whole reason
she’s in Seacrest stems from a dark period in her life that she never wants to
return to—everything she does is aimed at moving forward in her new life, never
back.
LP: Are you a pantser or a plotter?
MT: I’m a plotter. I use
the Snowflake method to plan out my plots, and I do a lot of world-building and
character development outside that. I found years ago that if I try to pants a
novel, my imagination will get out of hand and I’ll end up with a 250k story
when I was only aiming for 100k. So I plot to keep my creativity reined in and
focused.
LP: What do you consider the most important
element of any story?
MT: The main character’s conflict.
The mystery can’t be too easy, but the character’s life can’t be too easy,
either. I like to get to know my main characters by watching them suffer and
triumph. That’s how I got where I am, and I suppose that, in that way, my main
characters are very like me.
LP: Where and when do you like to write? Do you need silence or some sound?
LP: Where and when do you like to write? Do you need silence or some sound?
MT: I like to write in a
room with an even amount of noise. I can write in my quiet living room or in a
busy coffee shop, as long as there’s no sudden shouting or questioning where
the Oreos went (that would be my kids at home, not people in the coffee shop).
Though if I’m at home, I often listen to some instrumental soundtrack music to
keep the momentum of the scene going in my head.LP: Everyone's road to publication is different—traditional, indie. Take us down yours.
MT: My first publisher,
for an epic fantasy novel, lasted a month or two. I self-pubbed it after that,
and its sequel. Then I got into mysteries and my next fantasy series around the
same time, tag-teaming what I was writing throughout the years. The fantasy
series missed an opportunity to be published by a small press due to weird
circumstances, so I self-published that one, too, but the mystery series did
get picked up for publication by a small press and has three books. I
self-published a MG mystery book that I wrote for my daughter’s 9th birthday.
After the mystery and fantasy series were all released, I took a year or so
off. Now I’m back in the saddle with a new cozy/culinary mystery series with my
small press.
LP: Are you working on anything new?
LP: Are you working on anything new?
MT: My new cozy/culinary
series is coming out in 2017 with its first installment, Smugglers & Scones. I’m writing the
second book right now.
LP: Where can readers find out about you and your events online?
LP: Where can readers find out about you and your events online?
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MorganCTalbot
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MorganCTalbot/
Blurb: Pippa
Worthy runs the Oregon Coast’s quirkiest bed-and-breakfast—Moorehaven, former
home of world-famous mystery writer A. Raymond Moore, whose guests come and
write their own crime novels. When a real-life murder takes a local’s life and
washes a handsome boat pilot into her arms, Pippa is yanked into a deadly plot
of her own. A tangle of secrets crashes past into present, and Pippa, her authors,
and her willing local accomplices must uncover clues dating back to Seacrest’s
Prohibition days, including a secret Moore himself hid from the world.
Juggling
her book-writing guests, small-town intrigues, secret club agendas, and a
possibly fatal attraction, Pippa must sort fact from fiction to know who to
trust, before a desperate killer claims a final revenge nearly a century in the
making.
Morgan says “My publisher just
informed me that Smugglers &
Scones’ release date is
January 31.”
cj Sez: I’ll put a note on my calendar to watch for it. Thanks,
Morgan, for stopping by and graciously answering my nosy questions. Okay,
Lyrical Pens readers, here’s your chance to ask Morgan a question or just give
her a boost by letting her know you stopped by along her writer’s path. Comment
box is waiting…
Another thing to think about: Signing up for my quarterly newsletter for
info and occasional prizes. Drop me a note at cjpetterson@gmail.com to subscribe. I’m
working to send out the first issue, a one-pager, on March 31, and I’d love to
send one to you.
That’s all for today, folks. You-all guys keep on keeping on,
and I’ll try to do the same.
cj
cjpetterson@gmail.com
PS: The boxed set of More Than Friends is available through
January 30, so hop right on over to Amazon and get SIX romance novels for less
than a buck…a super Valentine’s Day gift.
Thank you so much for having me! I enjoyed every minute of it!
ReplyDeleteMorgan