Interview with Angela Morrison

Angela Morrison's Website

Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?

First grade. My first book was called, "Henry the Bookworm." He conveniently ate all my spelling words.

Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?

[I’ve been playing Beatles Rock Band this past week, so we need a soundtrack for this question. Cue: “The Long and Winding Road”]

When my youngest son went to school full-time, I knew it was finally time to devote myself to writing. I soon realized I needed to qualify myself for this career. I had an English degree. Not enough. I applied to Vermont College’s Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults. That changed my life. I was taught and mentored by legends.

[Cue: “Paperback Writer”]

But three and a half years post-graduation, I was still knocking against the publishing glass ceiling. I had mounds of rejections. I kept marketing and revising—finally created the collage format of poems, chats, and journal-type dive log entries.

Meanwhile, the wondrous Stephanie Meyers made YA hot and abstinence—of all things—even hotter. (Ah, Edward.)

[Cue: “Here Comes the Sun!”]

In the November of 2007, I met my editor at a SCBWI retreat north of Paris and a couple months later I had a two-book contract with Penguin! Taken by Storm is out and will be released in paperback in February 2010, and Sing Me to Sleep is on its way. My hands ache, and my head is still spinning. I’m living my dream, and that’s an amazing gift.

Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?

My upcoming release, Sing Me to Sleep (Penguin/Razorbill, March 4, 2010), is a miracle. There’s a power in it way beyond me that came from an amazing young man, a courageous mother, and an entire choir of guys in tuxedos from London, Ontario (see www.amabile.org) who allowed me to blend their reality with my fiction to create a novel I am still in awe of every time I look at the cover. Get a sneak peak of the first chapter on my website, www.angela-morrison.com.

What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?

My mom. She told the greatest bedtime stories about a magical merry-go-round. She even made old stories about long dead relatives exciting. She acted out my 5th great grandmother walking the Great American Plains to Utah with her granddaughter. Mom did a great Scots brogue and even added howling wolves. That’s the first story I ever published. I’ve written a historical coming of age romance about that same family’s journey from the old world to the new called, My Only Love. I hope to bring it to readers soon.

Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!

I have a wonderful husband and four mostly grown up kids (three sons and one daughter), a beautiful daughter-in-law and the most amazing baby grandson in the entire universe.

Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?

Beef pot pie

What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?

1. Drink a giant glass of orange juice—it’s so dry in Arizona.
2. Pick up my Zebra gel ink pen, lap desk, and a few sheets of pale pink paper and write my morning pages. (Yep, I’m an Artist’s Way devotee.)
3. Pray.

If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise me the most?

All the costumes. I can outfit an entire nativity and a pioneer pageant with loads to spare. I love teaching with dress ups and make my whole family act out the Christmas story every year.

Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know: If you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?

Ballet pink because it’s pale, calm, hard to find, and something about it makes me smile. (Okay. I have major ballerina fantasies.)

Who is your favorite cartoon character?

Bart

Which cartoon character is most like you?

Lisa

If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history, where and when would it be—and why?

Kilmarnock, Scotland in 1828. I’ve tried to recreate this world in my fiction through research, Bobby Burns ballads and travel. I would love to be there and journey with my forefathers and mothers to a new world.

So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while you’re writing?

I love romantic ballads that you can sing along with—bluesy pop, Broadway, choral music.

As for artists, I could listen to Josh Grobin’s “Awake” CD all day, every day. I also love Leona Lewis. We lived in Switzerland and got UK TV there so we watched when she won “The X Factor,” and got to witness a star born. And, of course, the Amabile family of choirs.

I write in silence, but I need music as inspiration as I ponder what to do with a character, where to go with a plot, how to portray them. Kelly Clarkson’s “Beautiful Disaster,” helped me focus how Leesie feels about Michael. When I was writing Michael’s stuff, I played Chris Daughtry all the time. (Can you tell I’m a huge Idol fan?)

Sing Me to Sleep has lyrics sprinkled through it. To write that, I studied and dissected everything from gospel spirituals to diva songs to music from “The Phantom of the Opera.”

Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie you saw at the theater?

TV – Dancing with the Stars (I have ballroom delusions, too), Idol, 24, Lost, Prison Break, The Office, and I have to admit that I’m a huge Fox news junkie.

Movies I watch over and over? Anything made from a Jane Austen novel and old stuff on TCM. I just watched “Casablanca,” again. Now that’s romance.

Last movie I saw in a theater? The new Harry Potter movie. Eagerly awaiting “New Moon!”

You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?

Take care of yourselves. You are amazing and precious. Don’t let anyone damage that.

One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?

I have two more novels planned for Michael and Leesie, Unbroken Connection and Cayman Summer. I’m writing Unbroken Connection this fall.

I also hope to bring out My Only Love, and its companion books, and some of my fantasy work. I’ve got more contemporary YA stories haunting me, so you’ll likely see more of that, too.

Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!