Interview with Dylan Morgan

1.  Tell us a bit about your new book coming out through Sonar4Productions, October Rain in 2010.

October Rain is a novella being released in early 2010 in both print and e-book versions. It's a dark story, a tragic story, a story with one hell of a twist and one hell of an exciting climax. It's set on Mars in the distant future as the solar system chokes to death under the blaze of a dying sun. Earth has been burnt to a crisp and mankind has ventured deeper into the galaxy to try and find habitable worlds in a desperate attempt to avoid extinction. Steele is an assassin working for the Martian government and he's been promised a better more wealthy life for him and his family once he's completed his final mission. But he uncovers a gruesome secret, and a horrifying turn of events plunges not only himself, but his wife and daughter into mortal danger.

2.  I notice you have quite a few impressive credits to your name, where do you get your ideas for stories

Generally my ideas come to me as an image, either moving or freeze-frame, something that disturbs me but that also intrigues me to find out more. I usually toy with these images, mold them, try to find the story inside; sometimes I have to wait a long time before the story finds its way to the surface of my creative mind and allows me to write it down. I have no idea what prompts these images, or where they come from, they just materialize in my head and my mind does the rest.

3.  Where did the idea for this book come from, and how long did it take you to write it?

The idea for October Rain is probably one of the rare exceptions to what I've just described above. About four years ago my eldest daughter, Helene, was very interested in the solar system, the planets, and spaceships. We used to sit together and watch a lot of Discovery when there were space documentaries being shown. I guess this overdose of interstellar imagery instigated a vivid dream one night, whereby the moon Titan was crashing into the planet Saturn. Helene was on the moon and in the dream I was desperately trying to get to her. I woke up before the dream reached its conclusion, by the way. From that image of the colliding planets my creative mind began to lay the foundations for the story, which in the end turned out nothing like the dream! I guess the first draft took me about a month to six weeks to write, and although a lot of that initial story remains there has been significant change to the plotline in the four years since I typed the first word. From that first word the image I have in my mind that eventually formed the prologue and epilogue of October Rain is a disturbing visual that still haunts me.

4.  Have you another book idea and are you working on that now?

October Rain was actually one of my first forays into the world of longer fiction. Before that I'd primarily written short fiction and in fact the novella started out as being a long story which wasn't supposed to surpass 10,000 words. I realized pretty quickly it needed a bigger word count. Since writing October Rain I've written Hosts, which was published in e-book format last year, and should be released in late 2009 in print format. In addition, I've written one novel, one epic novel and one novella since Hosts. None of those others have yet been accepted for publication. Right now I'm working on novel number 4, and as of this interview I've finished 6 chapters.

5. How long have you been writing?

I've been writing for about six years now, although there was a period in the middle, about 6 months to a year, when I didn't write much because we (my fiancée Rhian and me) had our beautiful home built and we moved in. Writing is something I have to do; I need that outlet, that chance to express the sadistic imagery that infects my mind. If I don't write, or at least edit something during an evening, I can get very cranky.

6.  Do you have an online presence, a website, or myspace? If so, what are the addresses so we might find them?

My official website is www.dylanjmorgan.com which will be updated periodically with news and interviews, and also links directly from there to venues where people can purchase my work. I am also active on myspace at www.myspace.com/dylanjmorgan .

7.  What do you feel is your greatest writing strength? Weakness?

Ha, a question like this should really be directed at my proofreaders who point out my strengths, and more often than not my weaknesses, whenever they review my work. Based on their feedback, I guess I could answer with the following: my strength is probably creating an atmosphere. I have been told that with my descriptive writing to set a scene I paint a vivid picture that plants the reader in the action; gives them an eerie sense of foreboding (if the scene is a foreboding one of course). On the other side of things this has also been explained as a weakness as I do tend to over-describe things and have a tendency to use flowery prose. I'm working on that. The above may sound a bit egotistical, but as stated these are other people's opinions and not mine.

8.  What is your favorite genre?

Horror, without question. It's my favorite genre to write and also my favorite genre to read. I don't really write anything other than horror, although October Rain does have some Sci-Fi elements to it. I will read thrillers and crime novels; John Grisham is one of my favorite authors, but more often than not I'm reading horror and writing it in spades!

9.  Where do you see yourself in ten years writing wise?

I see myself still plugging away writing stories to the best of my ability. Hopefully by then I'm quite established with a solid fan base, but regardless I'll still be sitting down every night to exorcise those demonic ideas from my head and get them down onto paper. Of course, I hope to be a successful author, with a best seller and maybe a movie deal, but I'm also a realistic writer and understand it doesn't happen to everybody. If I just keep churning out good stories, then who knows; one day I might take that next step.