When is it going too far?

Okay, here it is in a nutshell. If you read my books, you generally notice my prologue is a tad bit gruesome for the customary romance. That's why mine is a hybrid. I like to blend the two. I usually go 'balls to the wall' with the prologue, making it as realistically gross as possible, and then ease up the rest of the book.

I know some people don't like the nature of it all. I have a group of test subjects (AKA my friends) that I bounce the prologue off of often. When Tammy (proofer extraordinaire) calls me and is freaking out about a scene, it then gets tossed to my next two guinea pigs. Sarah and Holly. I don't often talk about my other girls, but today i'm going to for a change.

Prime example is the book Fire Burns Hot. Tammy calls freaking out that its beyond gross and she can't go any further. (Yeah, read my previous blog about me pushing her out of her comfort zone) What do I do? Panic? Cry? Curl into a ball and rock back and forth on my office floor?
Nope.
I send it to the back up team. Sarah and Holly get an email usually titled HELP!  I'm sure they cringe,knowing what's coming. I paste the whole damn thing in there and send it off.
Here's the general conversation:

Tammy: You went too far.
Me: You don't say. On what this time?
Tammy: Crispy skin with subcutaneous fat bubbling to the surface while her skin went taunt around her mouth.
Me: Hmmmmmm. Really? Because I thought I could have been worse.
Tammy: OMG!
Me: We've had this discussion before, didn't we?
Tammy: You need a second opinion. WAY too far this time.
Me: Okay.

I bang out an email begging for help from the other two ladies in my life.

Me: Guys, Tammy said I went too far. Did I?
Sarah: I read that and literally laughed. Here's my favorite part. 'Crispy skin with subcutaneous fat bubbling to the surface'. It's gross but so you. I love it.
Holly: Too far? No, not really.

If you knew my friends, you'd understand how funny this all is. Tammy is probably the wildest person I know. The girl makes me blush. But toss in some crispy skin and she's ready to break up with me. (I actually get money from her husband to make her nuts. Its pretty lucrative)

Sarah won't read my books in the dark. Yet Crispy skin with subcutaneous fat bubbling to the surface makes her laugh. I swear the woman is my sister from another uterus.

Holly is damn hysterical. Sometimes I want to gross her out just to see if it's possible. Even pregnant she has stronger stomach than I do. I swear she wants to chant 'more guts! more gore! Come on you sissy girl, kill them better than that! What are you? A man?'

Thank you ladies for bearing with me through it all and being an awesome set of women. I love you all and appreciate how you tolerate my craziness.

Needless to say, I apologize in advance if body soup or Crispy skin with subcutaneous fat bubbling to the surface freaks any of you readers out. I'd like to say I was going to tone it down, but let's be honest.

I just won't. I do promise if you make it past the prologue, it does get less gross and then into the romance and personal aspect of the book.

I swear!

Much love and Mayhem,
Morgan




 

Weekend is here.

Good morning!

It's a chilly day here in the Northeast of the country, but it's still a great day. Why you ask?
Because I'm more than halfway through the next novel. It's been a brutal week of 16 hour days and pushing myself through exhaustion. I've already logged an 80 hour work week in five days. One more week like that and I can wrap the book. YAY!

Thank you Caffeine Gods!

Today is also a free download day of The Killing Times  for the kindle on Amazon. I like to give it away once a month to friends of people who read the book and enjoyed it.

I've resolved a few loose ends in Darkness in Truth that were left hanging in book three True Love Lost.  I think I tied them up in a way that's going to make the reader happy. Then again, whenever I get too confident on what makes you all excited, I get surprised. I guess I should say that I'm happy with my vision of what's happened to the characters.

Today I'm also contemplating how long I plan on running the Elizabeth, Ethan and Callen story line. With two new projects on the table, I may have to cut back on how many novels I drop in the FBI series this year. Last year, I began this series and planned three for this year. Since last fall (six months ago) I've dropped five novels. Which isn't impossible, but at almost 200,000 words each, that's a lot of writing.

Rarely do I drop the cover before I release the book, but I thought i'd give you all a look at the next two planned covers. Here's my plan for Book five in the FBI series, Fire Burns Hot.

 

I also have the next cover planned for Darkness of Truth. It's still in the beginning stages of design.

I'm good with the cover art, but I still have to write the synopsis of the back cover. So ignore the gibberish. It's just there to fill the space.

 

 

I had originally changed the cover style for book five and my proofer, Tammy nearly went shit nuts on me. I kid you not. The first thing she said was "NOW it doesn't match the others." I will go on the record and say this once again. "You were right, Tammy." I shouldn't have screwed with the covers.

That being said, when I meet her this morning for bacon, she's going to be a happy girl.

 

I've found I've been telling her she's been right a lot lately.

Like every damn day. I am so off my game.

 

Okay, here's my random email question for the day. I like to toss one or three out there with every blog to reassure you all that I do read and answer them. It's me. I don't have an administrative assistant yet, and I can't get my cat to use spell check. So until he cooperates, i'm on my own.

 

Here we have it.

 

Why did you opt to blend the relationship between Callen, Ethan and Elizabeth? Is there a reason that you decided that a threesome would work in your books? ~ Jayne.

 

Okay, I get this question a lot. For those of you that haven't read past book 3 True love lost,  stop reading now! I may give away more than you want to know. Everyone is always fascinated with the idea that a couple can be more than just the customary man and woman. Whether it be a gay relationship or a threesome, it's always our nature to be fascinated with what isn't the norm. I wanted to show the reader that in literature, you could show a meaningful relationship between three people that didn't involve erotica. I decided to go with two brothers, because there was already that bond between them. Despite what happened between Ethan and Callen in their past, I wanted to prove that they could come together in life and love. To do this, I had to make sure Elizabeth was a strong central point. If the woman can't hold up to the overbearing, dominant male personas than it wouldn't work. I also went there to be outside the box. There are so many romances out there with guy meets girl, girl and guy have drama, guy sweeps her off her feet and they live happily ever after.

If you've read past book three, you realize I like my characters to have 'semi real' situations in their lives . Elizabeth is a normal woman. She had a life outside it all and she also has the same emotions as all of us. Anger, fear, weakness and strength.

I think that when we step outside the box, we open ourselves up to so much more in life, and I wanted my books to be different. I get pushback on the sanctity of marriage, on crossing the line and going too far. In fact, Tammy (my go to girl) nails me on it every book. If you could hear the conversations you'd probably laugh.

I found that when I put something into the book and it's outside her comfort zone, I've achieved my goal. When the phone rings and she tells me I made her squirm or uncomfortable than I hit it on the head. She's my barometer on going too far and not far enough. I have to admit when I stir her up I get a good giggle.

 

Much love and mayhem,

Morgan

              

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress. Progress. Progress and Emails.

Today is the fourth day in writing the new novel 'Darkness In Truth'.  I'm two hundred pages in and 60,000 words. I feel like my brain is mush. I can't even complete a thought. I won't bore you with the details, BUT I will tell you that I just killed off a character from a book.
Can't tell you who but I think it's a twist you'll all appreciate!

I did have some email questions today.
Here they are;

What TV shows do you watch and do they help you plan a book?
~ Marna

Believe it or not, I don't watch TV. I don't even have cable. I honestly don't have time. Don't get me wrong, I love a good episodes of Bones or NCIS, but I just don't sit down to watch them. I go to bed by nine p.m and am back up again at 2:30 to start working again.
I do tend to watch TV when I go away on vacation. It's my little luxury.

When you're not writing what are you doing?
~ Kirstin

Since September 2012 I've only taken two days off. One was Christmas and the other Valentine's Day. On Christmas I played with the kids and on Valentine's Day I played with the husband. Why should Elizabeth Blackhawk have all the fun. I get a great deal of crankiness from my proofer when I don't take time off. (She has ulterior motives. When I'm not working we go out to breakfast and gorge on bacon. When I am working, she gets the irritating text message from my phone telling her I'm busy)

Is Elizabeth anything like you, or you like her?
~ Sarah

* Insert laughter here *
I could only hope to be just like Elizabeth. I would love to be like her when I grow up! Other than the Black curly hair, body type and the height, Elizabeth and I have nothing in common. (My friends will tell you I'm sarcastic like her, but I just don't see it. *wink wink*)  Now, if you're referencing the two men, well that's a well guarded secret and if I tell you, then I have to ass kick you, Darlin'.
Oh Crap! Maybe I am just like her and I'm in total denial!
Let's look at the evidence.
Elizabeth loves a big greasy burger.       So do I.
Elizabeth owns cowboy boots.                So do I.
Elizabeth uses profanity frequently.        Yep, guilty.
Elizabeth is in love with Natives             I am Native.
Elizabeth has attitude issues                   Yeah Yeah
Elizabeth loves her Glock                       I'm a Ruger girl.
See there are differences! I am Not Elizabeth.


Thank you all for the emails. I look forward to them every day. I'll try to update the blog daily, but while I'm in book mode, I can't make promises.

Love, Murder and Mayhem
Morgan.



 

As per an email request. Book list

Today I woke to three emails asking for a complete list of my books in order.
I have them listed on my website www.morgankelley.com, but here they are again.

Stand alone Romance/Thrillers

The Junction

Serial Sins- This one is still available on Amazon, but with a different publisher I will be retaining      the ownership rights in January 2014 and it will be made available on Kindle and new book format.

Celestia's Falling  - out spring 2013

Romance/FBI series

The Killing Times (book 1)
Sacred Burial Grounds (book 2)
True Love Lost (book 3)
Deep Dark Mire (book 4)
Fire Burns Hot (book 5) - This one is with my proofer right now and will b released around the end of March or first week of April.
Darkness of Truth (book 6) - This one is being currently written and slotted to be completed late next week. Projected release is slotted for May or June.
Home Sweet Evil (book 7)-  This one is in outline phase and will be out early fall or Halloween, before I take a break for the holidays.

The Blood Series

The Blood Betrayal- This is book 1 in the vampyre series and the publishing rights aren't mine until 2016. At that time it will be re-released in new cover and kindle version.
The Blood Redemption (book 2)
The Blood Vengeance (book 3)
The Blood Retribution (book 4)
The Blood Seduction (book 5) - due out in the fall. September-ish
The Blood Sacrifice (book 6) Christmas release date.

There is a spin off series in the works for this year too. It's going to branch off from the Romance/FBI series.

The Private Investigator Series

Stolen by Moonlight- (book 1).


Magickal series trilogy.

Dark Elements - Book one - To be released in September.

Thank you for sending your emails! I love hearing from everyone and promise I will email you back, even if it's to just say thank you!

author.m.kelley@gmail.com


Murder and Love,

~Morgan







 

Negative review and what's on the agenda

Today I started working on book six in the FBI/Romance series. Darkness of Truth.
So far I've gotten twenty thousand words down. I'm aiming for my customary 190.000 words.
We're taking the assignment back to Red River, and for those of you that read 'True Love Lost' you know what I'm talking about. We're going to run into some of the characters that we met there the first time.
There's conflict and there's drama a plenty.
In this book, Elizabeth is pregnant again, and I won't spill the details since book five 'Fire Burns Hot' isn't out yet (Hang in there. It's due out by the end of the month) I wasn't due to release it until fall, but because the project ran so smoothly, it's out with the woman that runs my ass over the coals (AKA Tammy my proofer.)  She starts working on it tomorrow, and then cover is done and designed. YAY!
Anyway, I'm releasing book four in my vampire series this week The Blood Redemption too, so my plate if full.

I had a bunch of emails from some readers. They posed quite a few questions. One of my favorite was regarding the negative review The Killing Times got on amazon. Here's the answer to that one.
Clearly, the reader was disappointed in the fact that it was heavy on the romance. Yeah, romance books are like that. If they had less romance, they wouldn't be a romance. Anyone that scrolls down to the details of the book can see its classified Then there was the comment about the depth of the characters. Well, you see... When you write a series of books, if you give it all away in the first book then why write sequels?
The whole point of this series is to watch Elizabeth, Ethan and Callen unfold before us. If I put their entire life story in one book, then that would be one hell of a BIG read. The Killing Times is the smallest in the series, at 389 pages. Every book after is at least 500 pages. Depth of character develops over the entire time frame. Not just in the first book.
While I appreciate everyone's opinion on my books, ultimately I know where they're heading from the beginning. Do I lose sleep over the negative?
Nope. If anything it helps me understand the perspective of the reader.
Writing is a craft and even the best have room for improvement.

Off to kill some people and hide the bodies for Elizabeth, Ethan and Callen!


Update on the proofing of Fire Burns Hot. I just had a call from Tammy, my wonder woman. She scared the bejezuz out of me. Apparently, the prologue was a tad bit gruesome.
Yay! (I apologize Tammy, but this isn't your first rodeo. Get back on the horse and get to reading!)
I do like riling up the readers at the beginning of the book, and then soothing it over with a sex and love band-aid!!!

 

Next up on the agenda. Murder, mayhem and me.

Right now I'm neck deep in the editing of my fifth book in a series. Since I'm a firm believer in murder and love, (I know... I'm a romantic at heart.) I decided back in September to write a new series. I wanted to mix mayhem, murder and romance.
I was taking it back to my roots and my first love. The FBI.
Nothing makes me happier than a crime and the mastermind behind it. Out of that love was the birth of Elizabeth LaRue and Ethan Blackhawk.

 

I fell in love with both of them. Elizabeth is tough, bad ass and isn't afraid to take care of business. Ethan Blackhawk is sexy, brooding and dangerous, until he meets Elizabeth and falls head over heels in love.

Together they try to navigate the slippery slope of love and relationships, all while we voyeuristically watch them come together from the comfort of our own couches. I love a good marriage of love and chaos, and I think I've made that happen with these two characters.

 

I guess what my main hope is that when someone reads my books, they fall in love with the characters, they enjoy the twists of the plot, and they remember that love will always win in the end.

As it should!

After someone reads my books, the next question I get is, 'what are you going to do with the characters?' Well, if I told you that would ruin it, but I'll be very honest with you. Until I sit down to write the book, I have no clue. The books have a life of their own, and take off. I'll tell you that book three morphed into something I didn't know was coming, and then led to a big twist in book 4.

I will say this, book five- 'Fire Burns Hot' has been a struggle as a writer. If you've read my books, you know they're peppered with sex. I try to keep it to a minimum (I hate writing sex scenes. They make me uncomfortable. I always wonder if everyone is thinking 'WOW! Morgan is a freak in bed!') Now back to why it's been a struggle. I'm thinking of spinning off the characters in book 5 into their own series, so this book has to be a bit more personal to introduce what's coming and that means more sex than I'm comfortable with myself.
That being said, it's probably my favorite book in the series personally, due to the emotions, the connections and the love story. I actually cried when I read the end of the book. (Yeah- I knew what was coming, but the love story just tripped me up. I'm a puddle of mush. Sue me!)

I did realize that with this book I'm just on sex burn out. (Who woulda thunk?)

Tammy, feel free to call me and make a comment. I'm waiting for it.

Speaking of Tammy, she's really an important part of the Morgan Kelley team. (It does take a village folks to raise a kid and a story line) When you have a really good friend that will listen to you endlessly yap, read your books and be honest with you, then you're very lucky. Tammy is my conscious.

 She's my Jiminy Cricket if you will. If she loves something you know it. If she hates something?  hahahahhaha Oh, you definitely know it. When your phone rings and you see her number on the ID as she's proofing a draft, it's enough to make me break into a sweat. I may kill people for a living, but she scared the bejezuz out of even me.
We did battle on book three and four. Holy Crap! It was tense and stressful. It culminated with me hanging up on her. I know! I'm a horrible, soulless person that should be slapped for being a horrible friend. I'll plead temporary insanity from the stress of putting out four books with 170,000 - 190,000 each in under 6 months as the culprit, and say I'm sorry here and that I love you and appreciate you. I can be a diva, and thank you for just ignoring me most of the time in my rants and exhaustion induced tirades.

Wow! I feel better! Who would have thought confession was this good for the soul???.

Peace and love!
Morgan.





Successful weekend

Over the weekend I decided to allow Kindle to release my first book in the FBI Thriller series for free download. I tossed around the pros and cons, and then went with my initial premise behind my writing.
It's never been about the money. From day one, I've always told people I don't do what I do for the greenbacks. If you've ever been a new author, you'd know why. You've a better chance of getting struck by lightning, while shot, in a bikini, on a whaler in Alaska than becoming a success as a "newbie" writer.
I've been very fortunate, so I paid the good writer karma forward and had almost 2000 downloads in just over 48 hours.
Seriously?
To me that's staggering. I don't know 2000 people personally, so they can't be my family or friends. To top it all off, I actually had positive reviews and emails from readers asking questions. That had to be the highlight of my year.
(And I've had a pretty terrific year!)
I just want to thank anyone reading this that took the time to be bothered to read my book. From the bottom of my heart, it is greatly appreciated. I also want to thank everyone that rated my books on amazon with five stars.
Yay!
When you write and are up for review, there's always this little voice in the back of your head wondering is it going to be seen how you see it? Will someone rip it to pieces and then crucify the vision that I've nurtured and given life to?
It's not easy to take criticism and keep smiling. I know, I've been rejected by publishers and told 'no thank you'. But there is no greater strength than to release your work into the universe and pray that the hands of fate are gentle.
If you've ever read a really bad book, remember this. To someone, it's their baby.

Good, bad or ugly.

Be gentle, and think about how you'd feel if you (insert skill or favorite thing here) and someone ripped it to pieces and laughed while doing it. Compassion is a lost art, and more people should find it again.

Once more, thank you for falling in love with Elizabeth and Ethan.
xoxoxooxoxoxo

Morgan.

The beginning of it all...

Today I decided to start a blog.
Because I don't spend enough time all day writing, editing and thinking.
A few of my readers have been on me about creating another outlet where they can get to know me, so here it is! (Yes, I do actually read and answer your emails personally)
A little about me to start. I happen to have the best damn job in the universe. I get to sit at home with coffee, my cat and jammies to write.
Yes, I'm a writer folks.
I know you've heard that before. Grandma used to fancy herself pretty quick with weaving a tale, or you know someone, who knows someone, who likes to dally with the idea of banging out their memoires.
Well, I'm neither of those.
I am a real writer. I get paid to sell books and E-books. I kid you not!
If you mosey on over to Amazon, or Barnes and Noble, you'll find me there. Now, whether or not I write the things you'll enjoy reading, well that's another story all together.
I believe in writing things that draw us in and make us happy. My joy comes from copious amounts of sex and violence.

Yeah, you read that right.

 I like to kill some unsuspecting victims, hide their corpses, and then play the game of 'whodunit'! (Don't judge me.)
Is my sex tame? Ehhhh... If you think a threesome is nothing to scoff at then I'm probably pretty tame. If you don't mind some graphic love scenes then welcome to my world.  
As for the killing, I've crushed, hung, strangled, drown, burnt, eviscerated, peeled the flesh from, and cut up my victims. (just to name a few)
In future blogs, I plan on talking about the killers that I've written about. So, hang in there okay?
Anyway, back to me. I love my job, my life, and the fun that I have every damn day.
But please don't think it's all fun and games. I have written a 190,000 word novel in ten days. I sometimes work from three in the morning until ten p.m., go to bed for four hours and start all over again. There's days when its sitting here and having time to blog, and there are days when the nose is to the grindstone.
It's not all royalty checks and fun.
Anyone that has ever said a writer doesn't have to bleed for his/her craft hasn't met a real writer. I stand by that assessment. I was once one of those naysayers. To put it into perspective: Everyday is a struggle. An uphill run, wearing a rucksack, carrying twenty more pounds of gear in the blistering sun of the desert, while a drill sergeant screams vile profanities in your ear.
Yeah, that about sums it up.
Editing, proofing and then slaving away until you want to weep from the stress of it all.
That's why I've decided to make this blog. My bestest girlfriend in the whole world has told me I need to chill out and stop control freaking everything to death. (Yes Tammy, I do hear what you say to me.) So, this is my attempt to relax. I promise here that I will let the words flow, that I won't stress punctuation and editing, and I will give you all an insight into the life of me...

Morgan Kelley.