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The Interview - Chuck Morgan

The Interview - Chuck Morgan

https://www.chuckmorganbooks.com

Can you explain your writing process? Do you prefer to create an outline and plan beforehand, or do you prefer to write more spontaneously and organically?

I start with an idea and I don't sit down to write until I play that idea around in my head like a movie. This can take several weeks and there are plenty of loose ends. When I feel the idea is ready, I sit down and start writing then I sit back and follow my characters around taking notes. There have been many times when I sat back after writing a chapter, re-read the words and think. Well, that's not what I expected. It always fun to see where the character take the story.

What have you found to be most challenging about writing in [genre]?

Coming up with fresh ideas. My characters are very grounded people and I need to put them into storylines that show them as regular folks who solve crimes. hey are not heroic and they don't always solve the crime, but they act like people you would meet on the street.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?

I am not a disciplined writer. When I started I was still working full-time and would need to write whenever the opportunity presented itself, so it was not unusual to find me sitting at my desk at 3 AM. I also write in a very linear fashion. One of the most interesting aspects of my writing is that I start with a well-developed idea but without much direction, I then turn my characters loose in the story and see what develops. sometimes I'm surprised by where the story goes.

Did you always want to be an author? If not, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I have always had the writing bug, but when I started 60 years ago, everything was done on a typewriter with a ton of whiteout sitting next to you and you had to send the entire manuscript to a publisher and hope that they even took the time to read even a small part of it. Fifty years later it is easy to write and self-publish a book and not to even deal with a publisher. So I took up writing. Now that I'm retired I still have no idea what I want to be when I grow up.

Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what kind of music do you like to listen to?

I need a distraction when I am writing, so I will have music or the television on as background music. I like to listen to Jazz or 70s & 80s rock.

Are any of the characters in your book based on people in your real life? If so, can you tell us more about that process and how it influenced your writing?

One of the characters in my first book, Crime Interrupted, A Buck Taylor Novel is based on a real person. She was a friend of my late wife and we got to talking one night over dinner. Somehow we got around to dream jobs and she said that she always wanted to be a civil rights attorney. The novel I was working on had the perfect part for her since her character was a lawyer and she was going to represent a bunch of kids that were kidnapped by a drug cartel and spirited into the US illegally. Her character played a pivotal role in the storyline.

Chuck Morgan

The Lip Reader

“It’s not what you get in life, it’s what you give back that truly defines you.”Set in Iran during the 1960s and 1970s, and later in Los Angeles, California, Zhila Shirazi tells her story firsthand. She reveals the real-life struggle of being a deaf woman who refuses to allow adversity to stop her from reaching her dreams of living a normal and fulfilling life.In 1985, disgusted with the treatment of Jews by the new Islamic government, Zhila immigrates to the United States in pursuit of better circumstances and a chance to receive a cochlear implant to improve her hearing. However, it isn’t until she is forty-nine, when she meets her soulmate, Mickey Daniels, that she begins to fee...

Hot Wheels: Cool Assassins 2

Jen has disrupted the summit of the seven largest transnational corporations. She escapes in a paraglider and rendezvous with JoAnna, her getaway doyen. Both women are pursued by many dozens of corporate mercenaries. What follows is a thrilling chase through the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

Readers will get insider peeks at business ethics and socioeconomics in the 2070s, when the fallout from Climate Change is wreaking havoc around the globe.

FERAL

For Garland, the move to California is just what his family needs to finally find comfort and success. After years of failed businesses, this may be their last chance. However, making the journey across the dangerous Sierra Nevadas is potentially deadly business in the 1800s. The journey is long and arduous.This time, though, Garland's friend Silas says he met a man who has found an easier and safer way to make the journey. Little does he know that his son is having ominous dreams about their trip and that something lurks deep within the woods. The long trek becomes harder and more difficult, taking longer than promised. Soon, the entire train of wagons, horses, and people is trapped in the ...

Against the Machine: Evolution

Earth, 2212: The novel, third in the Against The Machine trilogy, yet free standing on its own, tells of a dystopian society in the midst of catastrophic climate change. Billions have died. The minority of people remaining inhabit the MEGs, former cities transformed by technology into huge protective domes. Outside is the MASS living by subsistence. All seems well for those in the CORPORATE. It is not. With worsening climate, the MASS increasingly restive and their AI Silicons becoming sentient, those at the top have concocted a final solution: to leave Earth for Alpha Centauri, destroying the planet in their wake. Four protagonists, each from separate segments of this world, come together t...

Astronomy For Teenagers

Astronomy for Teenagers: Galactic Odyssey – Inspiring Tales of Celestial TrailblazersThis book, stemming from Prof. Robert Stewart’s profound engagement with Astronomy at U.C. Berkeley, culminated in the attainment of an Sc.D. in the field. Throughout his academic journey, a predominant focus on the historical discoveries of astronomers was noted, with a notable absence of insights into their personal lives. In response, the book aims to bridge that gap by delving into the private lives of scientists, providing a comprehensive understanding of their backgrounds. The individuals featured in these pages represent just a fraction of the many contributors who have left an indelible mark on t...

Twilight of War: A Vietnam War Novel (The Airmen Series Book 20)

What secrets do the fog-laden jungles of Vietnam still hold?In 1973-1974, a fragile truce hangs in the air. Nearing their exit, American soldiers, weary yet resolute, move stealthily through battle-scarred landscapes that harbor unseen enemies. The morning mist that shrouds the terrain that seems to breathe with a life of its own, where danger lurks in shadowed corners.Back home, families gather as television screens cast a flickering, distant connection to lands engulfed in turmoil, igniting a medley of pride and confusion. A country bitterly divided, seeking a new direction, seeking redemption from failed international policies.As the scent of rain mingles with the residue of gunpowder, Vi...

The Return of Ellie Black: A Novel

It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work.Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State.But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken—an...

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