Ask the Author: Terence Morgan
Answered Questions (6)
Terence Morgan
No inspiration -- just sit down and do it. Individual stories might come from a moment of inspiration -- 'The Master of Bruges' came from overhearing a chance remark in a Bruges museum, and 'Star Readers' (under the nom-de-plume of R. L. Richards) came to me in a dream -- but the rest is simply graft. I'm lucky that I enjoy the research, which is far more fascinating than my writing activity, so I'm never short of something to look into.
Terence Morgan
I keep writing, but in a different vein. Unless I'm working on a specific project with a deadline I usually have about six different things on the go in different genres -- a serious novel, say, and a comic novel, a stage play, a tv play, perhaps some journalism etc. etc., and I throw a dice and whatever comes up I'll write a thousand words of that particular story. Even if I'm writing rubbish ideas will start to come (sometimes for other projects) and at the end I feel that I've accomplished something -- and who knopws what the next throw of the dice might bring!
Terence Morgan
Working your own hours and not having to get up in the morning! I am happy to start work at about 10 p.m. and then write until I drop exhausted into bed eight or ten hours later and then just sleep till I wake. Bliss!
Terence Morgan
I am finishing a trilogy based on the foundation of the kingdom of Israel, with the usual suspects -- Saul, David, Goliath, Joab etc. -- but with new and unusual interpretations of the bible story from a political rather than a religious viewpoint.
Terence Morgan
Keep at it! I was 64 when Macmillan accepted my first novel, and I had been writing seriously (with some small success, mainly in freelance journalism and school books) since I was 16 -- but it was worth the wait. If you have the talent then sooner or later someone will spot it.
Terence Morgan
The basic format came to me in a dream about six years ago, and I thought it might make a short story. When I'd finished the three books I had lined up at the time, I started work on it, and it slowly turned into a novel. It's not mu usual historical fiction but a comic sci-fi novel, so my agent doesn't want to know! It's called 'Star Readers' and written under the name of R. L. Richards, and it's available on Kindle. It's the story of a group of 1950s Lancashire who foil an alien invasion of the earth with the use of their language skills, and it was great fun to write.
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