Morgan Shamy: The 2012 Guest Interview

Aloha,

It is my honor to present this guest interview with the Fabulous. Red. Head, aka Morgan Shamy.

(Morg is a former ballerina turned YA writer and author of SHADOW WATCHERS, inkpop’s No.1 top pick for Jan. 2010.

She is also wife to Mr. Morgan J, (an amazing X-Games gold medalist) and Mom to four little ankle biters.)

 Here are my ten $6,400 questions:

1.      Your current work revolves, in part, around the world of ballet. How long did you dance before hanging up your pointe shoes?

Ohhh man. Ballet was my world. I started when I was four, and danced hard-core up into college. Danced alongside the big professional company here in Utah for seven years and then traded the stage for teaching. 
I taught around 300 students per week until a couple years ago—until I knew I wanted to be home with the kids full time. It didn’t take long for my creative juices to get antsy… that’s when I discovered writing…

The Morg-inator... Climbing Upside Down in a Utah Canyon

2.      You and Mr. Morgan must have an interesting story on how you met – he being an X-gamer and you a former dancer. Can you share how you guys met?

Hubs and I met our junior year in HS, in Chemistry class. *Insert chemistry joke here* It quite literally was a Bella/Edward thing: where the wind blew my hair as I walked in and he stiffened in his seat… I couldn’t keep my eyes off him and he stared me down like I was something he wanted to eat for breakfast…

Okay, not *quite* like that, but you get the idea. We had an immediate connection. We dated. I ran away to San Francisco with him when he won the Gold medal in speed climbing for the U.S. Just your usual teen story.

3.      You had four kids by the age of twenty-nine and still have time to smile, respond to email and write. HOW do you find time to write? Seriously??

I have the uncanny ability to flip in and out of my MS periodically through the day. When my eyes hit the document, I’m in the world wholly and completely. Until five seconds later when someone is screaming and needs another bowl of cereal. ;) I work whenever and however I can.

I have though gone through different trial and error phases. With my first MS, I woke up at 3:00 a.m. six days a week and wrote until the kids got up. Now I stay up until one or two at night to get the work done. (Those nighttime hours are magic… I highly recommend them!)

4.      You’ve been handed $5,000 with no strings attached – and no obligation to pay it back. What would you do?

I’d go to Hawaii! (I hear there are some great Irish writers there.) But truth? I’d probably do something boring like pay off medical bills or something :P
(Don't believe what that Leprechaun says :)

5.      Have you always wanted to write – and if so, can you recall the first story you ever finished?

Always wanted to write? Bah! Not at all. I didn’t like to read until my adult years! How awful is that? Though I did find a story I wrote in 3^rd grade the other day… and Mark, seriously. It was amazing. (It was about these 3 rings that held power. I think Tolkien ripped off my 3^rd grade paper) I kid, but I believe writing has always been a part of my life without me being aware.

So yes, my first story was written a couple of years ago and the horror of what it was is still fresh in my memory. ;)

6.      If not a writer, you would be a … or a …, but *never* a ….

I would be teaching ballet, or maybe hubs and I would become rock-climbing bums…

But I could never be a stunt water-skier performer for a show in Sea World. Ha. Or anything involving water sports or sun. Sooooo not me. I seriously need to move to the upper Northwest or Ireland or something, where it’s always overcast. ;)

7.      Why not?

Oh! Answered above. LOL

8.      What are looking forward to reading next – and why?

Your next blog post, because they’re hilarious and meaningful. Book-wise? My favorite author is Diana Gabaldon… cannot *wait* until the next book in the Outlander series comes out!
(Man-blushes ...)

9.      How do you respond to blank/polite looks when you tell people you’re a writer?

Hahahaha! Never had the blank/polite look before.
Though I do get the bazillion questions that come from trying to explain the world. Words like “querying” and “submission” and answering why I haven’t been published yet are difficult to spell out.
While I respect self-pubs a great deal, I want to go the traditional route—and most people don’t understand the process.

Morgan & (Right Side Up) Mr. Morgan :)

10.  You seem to have figured how to get writing things done on a daily basis. What words of wisdom could you share on staying motivated – especially when life seems to get in the way of writing America’s. Next. Great. Novel?

LOL to the “Next. Great. Novel.”

But, there’s no shortcut to writing.

It literally is one word at a time over and over and over again.

Are you willing to put in the work?

Simple as that.

Write when you feel like it.

Write when you don’t feel like it.

Write when you’re too tired to write, and when you’d rather be doing something else.

It takes sacrifice, and you have to be willing to make it.

(Yes, I know I’m not there yet, but as I look back on my three-year journey, the leaps I’ve made are astounding.)

Hopefully in another three years I’ll be able to say the same thing. It’s a journey, and no matter where you are in the process, the best thing you can do is connect yourself with good people, smile, and get to work.

There now. That’s what I’m talking about, people!!!

Thanks, Morg, for being a true inspiration to me and other writers – on many different levels.


You can catch Morgan Shamy’s latest posts here.

 Bald. Guy. Out.