Writer Wednesday: T. L. Morganfield
Originally published at finding my words. Please leave any comments there.
I’m happy to welcome writer T. L. Morganfield. Find out about her latest short story collection (ETA: just learned this is FREE until Sunday), what she has in common with a mouse, her favorite characters, and more…
1. First things first…a name and bio:
T. L. Morganfield lives in Colorado with her husband and two children, where she spends her days researching and writing Aztec-inspired science fiction and fantasy. Her short fiction has garnered recognition in Gardner Dozois’ Year’s Best Science Fiction anthologies, and was nominated as a finalist for the Sidewise Award.
2. Where are you from and what’s your favorite thing about where you live?
I’m originally from San Diego, California, but I’ve lived so long in Colorado that I’m pretty much a native. I love how it can start out below freezing in the morning and end up with shorts weather in the afternoon. Aside from the bizarre weather, I also really love spending time in the mountains and Colorado’s numerous state and national parks. So much beauty.
3. Tell about your latest book. What made you want to write it?
I just released an e-book collection of my short fiction, called Night Bird Soaring and Other Stories on Amazon, which has a mixture of fantasy, science fiction, and horror stories. A whole lot of it is my Aztec-inspired work (as apparent from the snazzy cover art above). I’ve wanted to try out the self-publishing scene for a while now, so what better way to do so then to put my previously published stories back to work?
4. Where can people find your stories?
The collection is only available on amazon.com right now: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009AF98B8. These stories have been published before in Realms of Fantasy, Shock Totem, and Paradox, among others.
5. What are you working on right now?
I’m currently working on an alternate history romance, set in the same universe as my Sidewise Award finalist story “Night Bird Soaring”. I originally wrote it as a novella several years ago, but because it had a romance genre sensibility, I decided to trunk it rather than try to sell it (two years ago I definitely didn’t see myself as a romance writer!). Recently though I dusted it off and gave it a read, and to my surprise, I found it really wasn’t so bad. I’m now working on expanding it to novel length.
I’ve also been working on an Aztec sword and six-gun fantasy novel, inspired by my Realms of Fantasy story “The Hearts of Men”.
6. What inspired you to be a writer?
I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I’ve always loved books and it didn’t take long for me to decide that I wanted to write them, not just read them. I fell in love with writing in my first creative writing class in elementary school (5th grade, if I remember right) and I haven’t looked back since.
7. Who is your favorite character in your stories? Why?
This is a difficult one, because there’s many I like, but there are two that keep cropping up over and over again in my stories. In my fantasy stories, I really like writing about the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. He’s so different from the other Aztec gods, being a benefactor of humanity rather than bloodthirsty, so there’s potential for a great deal of conflict between him and the other gods. The other character I rather adore is Emperor Cuauhtemoc, from my One World alternate history stories. He’s an AI in a human body who gives me a lot of opportunities to explore immortality from a scientific standpoint, and the hows and whys of history unfolding.
8. What is your favorite comfort food?
Cheese. I can’t get enough of it. My husband claims I’m part mouse.
9. What character from your stories was the hardest to write?
At first I couldn’t think of any characters I had trouble with when writing about them, but then I remembered Papalotl, the protagonist for my novel The Bone Flower Throne, which my agent is currently shopping. Once I figured out who she really was, everything fell into place, but darn, it took five full drafts (and four years!) to finally figure her out.
10. What’s the biggest challenge about being a writer?
I think the biggest challenge is actually staying in the chair to work for any length of time. I’m a stay-at-home mom and the kids can be a big distraction, even though they’re older and can keep themselves entertained. The school day is the biggest god-send, otherwise I’d probably get nothing done. There’s also the hesitation between projects that can make it psychologically difficult to start putting things down on paper; I’ve got a neat idea that I want to go forward with, but the muse is unsure how to start, or whether we’re actually ready to start at all. Usually everything turns out okay once I make myself start writing, but getting to the point of sitting down and just starting to type can be intimidating.
11. Do you have any advice for beginning writers?
Don’t get discouraged by rejection. Focus on the next project rather than setting all your hopes into a single story or novel. Learn to let your work go and move onto the next one.
12. Who are your favorite authors and why?
I will read almost everything Stephen King and Aliette de Bodard write. I recently discovered Jeannie Lin, and I think she might be in that category too.
13. What books have most influenced your writing?
I’m sure there’s a lot of stuff I’ve read that has influenced me as a writer, but when I think about how I started writing what I’ve been writing for the last couple years, I can definitely pinpoint that back to 2002. I was at Clarion West, trying to figure out what to write for my week three story, and thought, “I really want to write something similar to Lyda Morehouse’s Archangel Protocol…but with Aztec gods instead of angels.” The stuff I write now looks nothing like the stuff that day, but I doubt I would be writing what I am writing now if not for that impulse.
14. What tools are in your writer’s tool-kit?
Pepsi and some good music, usually Duran Duran, Beatles, Tears for Fears, and Sheryl Crow.
15. Where can people find out more about you and your stories?
www.tlmorganfield.com. You can find links to my various social media pages there.
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If you are a writer interested in participating in Writer Wednesday, please send an email with a short biography to ww (at) ambersistla (dot) com.