This Week’s Featured Author Interview
is with Holly Glogau-Morgan!
Hi, Holly Glogau-Morgan, welcome to the Indie Publishing Group website. Introduce yourself to us. Tell everyone who you are, where you’re from, what do you enjoy doing, hobbies and interests.
My name is Holly Glogau-Morgan and I reside in the Piedmont Valley area of Virginia, though I grew up in the southern part of New Jersey. We live on four beautiful acres where my main hobbies are growing our own food, preserving the harvest, and trying to live more sustainably. I also enjoy sewing, quilting, and roleplay in an MMORPG in the evenings with a group of dear friends.
When did you start writing and why?
I’ve been writing binders full of stories about a single character since I was eight. It has always been a passion of mine. Those notebook stories finally stopped around my mid-twenties and the idea of turning them into a YA series was on the back burner. Six years ago, I had to stop teaching full-time, due to the ravages of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. With extra free time, I made an attempt to put this girls life into book form and hit a wall on page 40. Around that time, a series of dreams happened, with a totally different character. Every night, for three weeks, her story played out. I told a few people about it and they all agreed that this was the story I was meant to write. They were very correct!
Which is your favorite book you have written and what gave you the idea for it?
“Midnight to Morning” is my favorite. The main character and I were both very broken as I started writing. It’s hard dealing with a condition which is bound and determined to put you in horrible pain all the time. She was coming alive just as I was learning to live with the condition. As for what gave me the idea was thinking about refugees – what if those of us in the USA were the ones whose lives were turned on end and had to flee to camps elsewhere? I was thinking through that concept when the dreams kicked in and “Midnight to Morning” wrote itself from there, starting with a couple fleeing the USA to one of those camps.
How did you come up with the title for your book?
I struggled with the title for weeks, until I heard a song on the radio called “Sunrise” by Nicole Nordeman. Part of the chorus says “And how would I know the morning if I knew not midnight.” It fit perfectly with the main characters life and how it goes from incredibly tragic to her seeing and understanding morning through the new life she lives after being rescued.
Who helped you with the cover? Or did you design it yourself? What was your inspiration for your cover design?
I had retained an artist to help with the cover, but she backed out at the 11th hour. My husband and I used the character creator on an MMO to make the main character, and he designed the cover to “Midnight to Morning.” Perhaps I’ll have it redone eventually, as I really want a scene with a nuclear blast and barbed wire in it. A friend of mine made “Sunrise to Shadows” cover for me after hearing the title and learning about a favorite place the main character liked to go.
What are some of the themes of your story?
The themes contained in the novel are the global effects of nuclear war, the nature of political espionage, building hope from loss and learning to grow where you are planted.
What’s your process when you sit down and decide to start writing a book? What is your process, and do you have a system?
No matter if it is a book, poem or short story, I always start with either outlining or bulleting whatever thoughts come to mind about the project. I’ll go back to those pages over a period of about a week, changing a little of this, adding a little of that. If it looks like heavy research needs to be completed, this is when I’ll end up doing most of it. From there, I try to set aside several larger chunks of time to get the actual book or project started. I do my best writing late at night and into the early hours of the morning, as there are less distractions. Also, before I start a writing session, I always re-read what was written in the prior session to get my mind moving in the right direction and to catch bigger errors.
Who are some of your favorite characters and why?
This is a tough one. I really cannot narrow it down to just a few, there’s been so many I’ve loved!
Have you got anything you’re working on now?
I currently have two projects going. One is the third book in the series. Unlike book two, where disability kept stalling progress, I have better adaptive equipment now and am already sixty pages into writing it. The other project is “History of a Halfbreed.” It’s a series on my blog which tells the story of my main character in Star Trek Online. It’s written in the third person, which has been a healthy challenge.
If you could have any superpowers what would they be?
I would have the ability to take a person’s mental or physical pain away, just snap my fingers and it would no longer exist.
If you could travel to any location in the world where would you go?
I would go back to Wales and spend a month traveling through it and Ireland by canal boat.
Where do you hope to be in 5 years’ time?
I would love to be sharing stories (and the books) while doing inspirational speaking. It’s something I’ve been drawn to more and more as of late.
Thanks so much for taking the time to do an author interview, Holly Glogau-Morgan! Take a minute and check Holly Glogau-Morgan out on the links below. Holly Glogau-Morgan’s book, Midnight to Morning, is available now on Amazon!
Author Holly Glogau-Morgan Twitter Account
Author Holly Glogau-Morgan Goodreads Author Page
Author Holly Glogau-Morgan Facebook Page
Author Holly Glogau-Morgan Author Website
Author Holly Glogau-Morgan Blog Page