Saturday, February 15, 2014

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR


I hope all of you who've chosen to visit my blog well and happy! Today, I thought it would be fun to share with you an interview I did with a wonderful owner of a website called BookLoads.weebly.com.  Dawn Hustad is the operator/host of this website which promotes books specifically for indie authors like myself. As many of you know, first and foremost I am a writer having already published three books in an ongoing Fantasy/Magical Realism series titled White Bird Series.  
Many of my blog posts deal with various topics ranging from the Harmonic Convergence to my latest post, the Year of the Yang Wood Horse. I touch on a variety of topics, because, well, there's so much happening in our world I just never know what I'll end up talking about. But behind all of this, dancing in the background of my mind, is my story and its characters, the theme of the series being how today, we as a human race, have beat the odds and will continue enjoying life on planet earth for thousands of more years to come. This, in a nutshell, is the premise of my series. My heroine, Crystal Blue, must travel the world and visit with the indigenous to reveal ancient secrets that will help humanity move forward into the next age. We did beat the odds, yes. We won't experience the Apocalypse or Armageddon. However, we will experience changes of great magnitude and it will get intense. The impetus behind this series, the reason I'm writing these books, is to share with the reader how the indigenous, over the many ages, have survived the changes and remained constant to their true values and beliefs. They know how to survive and the secrets Crystal reveals are recipes for success for all humans so they might experience the changes coming with relative ease, little fear, and actually embrace the changes. 
So, without further adieu, I have attached below my interview where I answer a multitude of questions about my writing process, my characters, why I write, and who some of my writing heroes are. 
Enjoy!

INTERVIEW Q&A

What inspired you to write your first book? This story has been with me for so long I don’t really know when I began creating it. But during my journeys around the world exploring Divine Metaphysics, realizing as I went how very special humanity is and what an amazing time in history we are now living in, and subsequently being completely infatuated and ‘blown away’ by Tolkien’s Middle Earth, I decided to blend my passions by writing a story that would take audiences on the same kind of adventure I was taken on with Tolkien. Instead of Orks and Elves, wizards and hobbits saving Middle Earth, however, my story would center on an amazing girl, an Avatar of sorts, a child of the stars born to illuminate humanity. I was (and still am) passionate about sharing everything that I learned about divine metaphysics in a way that would inspire and entertain readers. I decided to infuse it into a story filled with adventure, action, magical creatures and characters committed to and passionate about the secrets of the divine human.  And so this story was born in the summer of 1995, but I had to tuck it away as my children were quite small and I wanted to be with them, not at my very archaic computer hammering out a story begging to be written.   Then in 2009, after struggling with writer’s block and developing my story for years, I came into contact with an enigmatic young performer who did something to me, created an electrical spark that fired up my imagination and I dove into the book, never coming up for air until completed in 2011. The novel, Illuminating Crystal, the first in an on-going and as yet incomplete series titled: The White Bird Series.  

Do you have a specific writing style?  This question always stumps me. It stumps me because I’ve always been a writer, never considering I had or have a style. However, as I know this is important to readers, I will give it a ‘go.’  My style, I believe, is descriptive and narrative.  Being an avid reader myself, I’m drawn to a book’s style that paints a picture with phrases and words guiding me through a scene, not flowery and ‘over the top’ but enough that I, as a visual reader, can begin painting my own picture of the characters and settings. As the writer, I’ve placed myself in the story, narrating it from my main character’s perspective. However, as there is quite a lot going on, I briefly look into more than one character’s perspective, guiding the reader along by explaining ‘what happened then.’ I don’t like giving too much away though. I like to encourage the reader to use their own imaginations of what might be happening, why this character said this and another said that, what their motives really are.  After a while, the reader will trust that they won’t be left hanging, rather they’ll be fed morsels along the way, hopefully interpreting it differently from another. This, I believe, is a key element to the impetus behind my reason for writing this story. I want the reader to take away their own ideas. 

How do you come up with your titles? How many books have you written? Which is your favorite? My titled come at me quite differently. Illuminating Crystal came to me after the story was written.  This was the only titled I struggled with, but when I realized this is exactly what happens to her by the end of book one, it was then very clear to me.  Illumination means: a source of light, spiritual, to brighten with light.  This is Crystal, my main character’s, purpose throughout the series. She, however, had to go through her own illumination before she was able to ‘shed light’ upon others. The titles thereafter are taken directly from the story, and, I will add, I’ve already titled the remaining 8 – 10 books in the series. This helps keep me on track as a kind of outline for Crystal’s journey.  To answer the second question is simple: I’ve written three and the third question I cannot answer as I have no favorite. Actually, these books, to me, are all a part of the whole. I do not think of them as one book, rather a part of this series that has been with me for more than 20 years and will continue to be with me for another half-dozen before the series is complete.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?  Do you have any advice for other writers? Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?  The message that I want my readers to grasp is this: Humanity is at this moment in history witnessing the greatest compassionate shift in the history of humanity. For real. This statement is not fiction, rather it is a fact. During my journeys, I encountered many, many teachers who describe this moment in time as a time never seen before. A time many thought would never happen because of 2012 and the fear around the ‘end of days.’ The knowledge I acquired through my years of exploring the world of divine metaphysics are the simple truths of the ‘divine human.’ Indigenous groups around the world operate and hold true to these beliefs. These are truths to a happy, simple life, not always easy to attain, yet entirely possible.  Many claim that once one begins understanding and living these truths, life then begins to ‘lighten up,’ their perspective changes and drama disappears. As humanity goes through this ‘shift in time,’ moving into a new Age, life will get chaotic as weather patterns change, political empires collapse, and earth adjusts to new energies coming in from ‘behind the sun.’ This is what I want to say to my readers. Everything is working out perfectly and they will be okay. Even though it often times seems that the world is going to ‘hell in a hand basket’ and bad things are happening everywhere, it isn’t.  Earth and humanity have set a new course for enlightenment and now it’s time to awaken to the truth of who you truly are. A divine human with all the powers of the masters.  As Crystal, my main character, travels the world unveiling ancient secrets, the readers will be exposed to these secrets of the divine human and hopefully choose to incorporate them into their own lives.  The advice I have for other writers is this: Pursue your passion and do not under any circumstances allow another to tell you otherwise.  Writing is a very solitary endeavor, yet we do it because we have a burning passion inside, a story begging to be heard.  Keep your heads up and your hearts open. 

Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?   I guess I’ve pretty much answered this question already.  The events in my story, the characters and experiences are all based on my life, and, those around me I know and love dearly, but mainly myself. However, my characters are my family. They reside in my heart and in my head, keeping me up all hours of the night.

What song best describes the feeling of a book you’ve written? This is a hard question! But happily I already have an answer for all of my books.  There is a singer named, Brandi Carlise who I happen to admire. Her song: “The Story” came to mind immediately when I read this question. “All of these lines across my face tell you the story of who I am. So many stories of where I’ve been and how I got to where I am. But these stories don’t mean anything when you’ve got no one to tell them to it’s true…I was made for you.” 

Do you recall how your interest in writing originated? 
 As a child my imagination took me to places I knew I’d never been and I wondered how I knew about them. In school I’d stare out the window and of course this would get me into trouble, but I was seeing things outside no one else was and I knew this, but I didn’t know how to explain it. So, I’d play with stories, sometimes writing them out, only to throw them away because I thought they were silly. As the years went on, the only classes in school I excelled in were the ones where we could write. I was born to be a writer, that’s all I can say.

What are your favorite movies and what book genres do you like reading/writing the most?  Favorite movies are all the LOTR films, by far. I love movies that sweep you away into other worlds, yet not so scary you hide under your seat. I do not like horror, blood and gore. I don’t mind a good sword fight; a good battle of good and evil, but unnecessary violence leaves me cold. I also love romance and I’ve created a romance with my characters I hope will satisfy the reader. Actually, it is the basis of my story but elusive.  I’m an avid fan of fantasy/fiction and magical realism.  I also love all of Jane Austen’s books, and a good love story from Nora Roberts.  

WHERE CAN READERS CONNECT WITH YOU?



My facebook page is: http://www.facebook.com/pbmorlen
My Author website is: http://www.pbmorlen.com
My Twitter account is: https://twitter.com/PbMorlen
My Blog address is: http://www.pbmorlen.blogspot.com
My Goodreads Author page is: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5769785.P_B_Morlen 

I hope you enjoyed my reading interview as much as I enjoyed giving it! If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I'd be happy to answer! 
Namaste!
PB

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