Today I am honored to present Morgan St. James. She is a fantastic writer. I'm greatly honored to have her here.

Before we begin, here is a little about Morgan:
 A self-described workaholic who splits time between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Morgan is an entertaining speaker, frequently appearing on author’s panels and presenting writing workshops. She co-authors the award-winning Silver Sisters Mysteries series with her sister Phyllice Bradner, also writes as Arliss Adams, and her short stories have won awards. They appear in Chicken Soup for the Soul books, and other anthologies including her own anthology, “Women on the Edge.” Her “Spotlight” and “Writers Tricks of the Trade” columns appear weekly in Los Angeles and Las Vegas editions of www.examiner.com, and inspired her recently released book “Writers’ Tricks of the Trade: 39 Things You Need to Know About the ABCs of Writing Fiction.”


The Writing Bug Knows No Age Limits

Stephanie and I are at opposite ends of the pole. She began writing at an early age and now is twenty and multi-published. I didn’t jump into the insanity of being a writer until I’d had several other successful careers. Some people know where they are heading when they are kids; others, like me, are lucky if they ever find out what they’ll be when they grow up. LOL

That raises the question: “How did I become a writer and eventually write about ‘tricks of the trade’ for other writers?” It wasn’t my major or passion when I was in school, although I loved to read and always wrote well. It all happened when I was an interior designer. My partner and I were approached by a slick West Coast design magazine to write an article for them. We had designed a unique wood floor and the magazine wanted a typical “How we did it” article. 

Of course we said yes—free publicity in a highly circulated magazine—instant credibility as designers recognized by our peers? It never even crossed our minds to turn it down. When reality set in we had to face the fact that we weren’t writers, at least not yet. The photographers had been out, and the deadline approached rapidly. We had nothing! On the night before the article was due we knew we were in trouble. After a few glasses of wine and lots of hand-wringing, we turned out a spoof. A one page noir mystery involving searching the waterfront for crates to turn into a custom wood floor. 

We rationalized that it was better than turning in nothing. Well, the gods were in our corner, because the editor loved it and wanted more. My partner wasn’t interested. She was a designer. But, the moment I plucked the magazine from a rack in the supermarket and saw my name in print I was hooked.

During the years that followed I wrote many ‘how to’ design articles for the trade, then branched into other topics as diverse as dementia and bartering for other magazines and newspapers. When my sister (a published journalist with two non-fiction books to her credit) and I decided to try our hand at fiction, it was an ego-deflating experience. Our first Silver Sisters Mystery took us a few years to write and we loved it so much we fantasized about a bidding war. Instead, we got enough rejection slips to paper a wall. 

The lesson learned? Writing magazine and newspaper articles and writing fiction are two different animals. A few more years followed as we learned the ins and outs of writing fiction. I want to say he

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