WRITE STAR
JULI PAGE MORGAN
Author Bio:
Juli Page Morgan is a former rock ‘n roll radio announcer who had the great luck to meet and interview lots of bands over the years. During those interviews she heard lots of interesting stories, but it was when the microphone was turned off and they were just hanging out that she heard – and saw – the really juicy stuff! Incorporating these revelations in her books (with names and locations changed to protect the innocent, and often the not-so-innocent!) lets her remember those wonderful people that briefly rocked through her life, and to take her readers on a hard rocking journey full of love, music and happy endings while giving a “backstage peek” at some of the things that really happened. Her Romances that Rock™ include Crimson and Clover published by Crimson Romance, and Athena’s Daughter from Carey On Publishing.
Juli lives in Arkansas with her husband. When she’s not writing, she’s recording voiceovers for television commercials, remodeling her old house, and trying to convince her husband the world won’t come to an end if the television is turned off. She also listens to a lot of music at maximum volume and has never met a speed limit she didn’t exceed. Juli’s an unapologetic lover of rock ‘n roll, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, and French onion dip, not necessarily in that order.
A little Q & A with WRITE STAR Juli:
1. What was your favorite chapter to write and why?
I think it would have to be the chapter in Athena’s Daughter when Athena and her sister Andi are unpacking the boxes after Athena’s moved into Derek’s house. That particular chapter almost wrote itself, and didn’t need a lot of editing afterward. Plus, I really like the juxtaposition of Athena seeing all the mementos of her past with Derek compared to the unsettled reality of their present.
2. What old/new author has garnered your attention the most?
Debi Matlack, hands down! I can’t even begin to describe how much I love the way she writes, and I think I’ve read her book Old Dogs about a thousand times since it was released last year. I can’t wait for her to release her next one!
3. Which author do you feel your stories are most like?
Honestly, I don’t know. I’m not being coy or anything, but my books are different from other rock romances, so I don’t have a lot of comparison. Not only are my books set in the 1960s and 1970s (I’m on a mission to create a new sub-genre – Mid Century Romance!), but since I was fortunate enough to hang out with rock bands and musicians when I worked in radio, I was able to get to know them as real people, and not just that public persona they put out there. As a consequence, I don’t sugar coat the rock ‘n roll lifestyle – I put it all in there, the good, the bad and the ugly.
4. Did you learn anything from writing your book(s) and what was it?
I learned to write books the way they want to be written. (Oh, yes; they’re very demanding!) I almost killed Crimson and Clover by trying to change it to fit the rules and the formulas of conventional romance novels, but it was only when I went back to the original manuscript that it found a home with a publisher. I was told that the storyline of Athena’s Daughter wasn’t believable, but I’d learned my lesson by trying to change my first book, so I let Athena’s Daughter stand as written, and it’s done very well!
5. What is your writing process? Do you follow a regular routine?
Oh, have mercy – I try. I like to write for a couple of hours in the morning, and then for a lot of hours in the afternoon. If I’m on a roll, I’ll write at night, too, but I try to leave the evenings open to actually spend time with my husband.
6. Tell me about your muse?
She’s just evil. Out of the blue, she’ll just take off and leave with no warning, and sometimes she doesn’t come back for weeks! I keep on writing whether she’s here or not, though, and I think that makes her jealous. Then she’ll come back and real progress will be made.
7. What was the hardest part of writing your book?
With Crimson and Clover it was knowing when to quit writing it! It was my first book, and I kept going back and tweaking things until one day I realized I was going to have to stop that and let the book stand. With Athena’s Daughter, the hardest part was typing fast enough! That book came to me fully formed, and I couldn’t get it out fast enough!
8. Do you have any advice for other writers?
The only way to write a book is to sit down and write it. All the rules and things? You can’t put those into play unless you’ve written the book, so just do it and then worry about that other stuff. That’s what the editing phase is for.
9. Are there certain characters you would like to work with again, or a theme/idea you’d love to work with?
All my books are Romances that Rock, so that theme will always be prevelant in whatever I write. I learned a long time ago that rock musicians are just people – just because they’re rock stars doesn’t mean they’re all the same, so even though my books are rock romances, they’re all different to some extent. For example, Jay Carey from Crimson and Clover and Derek Marshall from Athena’s Daughter are both rock stars, but they couldn’t be more different from each other! As far as characters, some of the people from Crimson and Clover are pestering me to tell their story, and I plan to do that soon!
10. What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?
I’d have to say that the toughest thing I’ve heard so far is when my publisher told me that the storyline for Athena’s Daughter wasn’t believable. I mean, that didn’t destroy me or anything, but it did cause some consternation. I didn’t see it as unbelievable, and it had been read by several beta readers and my critique partners, none of whom found it unbelievable. And these are people who would tell me if it was. So after a bit of thinking, I went ahead and published it, and it’s sold very well and received fantastic reviews. That brought it all home to me that not everyone is going to like the same thing. I mean, I’ve loved books that my friends were all “Meh” over, right? No, that publisher didn’t love Athena’s Daughter, but there are readers out there who do, so it’s all good. The best compliment I’ve received? Those four and five star reviews that readers have left for the books. That absolutely floors and humbles me more than I can ever express!
To keep up-to-date on this WRITE STAR and read more of her work, please follow JULI PAGE MORGAN on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JuliPageMorganAuthor
Website: www.julipagemorgan.com
Blog: www.julipagemorgan.com/blog
Twitter: https://twitter.com/julipagemorgan
GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6887176.Juli_Page_Morgan
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To Purchase the book click here: http://www.amazon.com/Juli-Page-Morgan/e/B00B2O07QA/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
OR HERE: http://julipagemorgan.com/buy-the-books/
Please VISIT these other blogs today. JULI has a different interview with each one on the hop. While you’re there take a moment to LIKE their page. They are all WRITE STARS in my book. 🙂 ENJOY
Juli Page Morgan: www.julipagemorgan.com/blog
Crimson Kildare and Kat Marlow: www.thrutheglass.net
Check back tomorrow as the FABULOUS BLOG HOP stops here again with another WRITE STAR to be premiered…. Author KAREN VAUGHAN
they showed up every damn time I sat down at my desk to write. It was awful. Spiders have a place and it is NOT in my bedroom. So I went back to Google (a researching writers best friend). Was there a spiritual meaning behind spiders showing up while I wrote? And… yes, there is a meaning and a symbolic nature to them.
S. A. Hussey 