I’m absolutely thrilled to reveal my new website, designed by the unmatched @gaildvillanueva! To give you some insight into the detail work she did here: the flowers by the skull are the same as the flowers in my tattoo. My tattoo is also of a bee, and you can see the glorious little bees all over […]
I can hardly believe STRANGE BEASTS debuts in 2024!!! Do you like gothic historical fantasies with puzzlebox mysteries and queer romance? Or are you just incurably nosy and want to know what I’m working on? Check out this snippet of an interview I did with my publisher, Kathryn Budig of Inky Phoenix Press: Susan J […]
I’ve been reading Publisher’s Weekly for almost 20 years. Last week, I was blown away to see my debut STRANGE BEASTS actually IN it! Article Text Reads: Susan J. Morris has sold world rights (excepting the U.K.) to her novel Strange Beasts to Kathryn Budig at Inky Phoenix Press, an imprint of upstart Bindery Books. […]
Miss my tension workshop last Spring? I’m thrilled to announce I’ll be doing another one in April! This one for MetroWest Writers’ Guild. Join us! I’d love to see you there!
(Originally written years ago for the Gen Con Writer’s Symposium) When I first started to moderate, I asked moderators, authors, and audience members for their favorite panels, and what made them great, in order to kind of create an Ideal Moderator. As you can imagine, everyone had lots to say about this. In the end, […]
C. L. Polk asked a fascinating question on Twitter: “What do you mean when you talk about the story getting moving? What’s happening when the story (finally) feels like it’s in motion?” The breadth of responses was fascinating to me. As was the fact that they all felt accurate! I gave kind of my gut […]
For years, I had this terrible tendency NOT to ask for help, as if someone else helping me meant the story was any less mine. As if acknowledgment lists in books weren’t basically short stories. But I saw that the other members of my writing group were so much better about asking for help, and […]
We talk all the time about how to shore up our weaknesses. That’s basically what getting a critique is all about! And it’s super useful. But not having huge weaknesses is just what makes a book acceptable. What makes a book brilliant is its strengths. So how can you learn to make your crazy diamonds […]
When I think about my reader experience of a book, I think about music. Just as with music, when I read a book, I feel three distinct kinds of satisfaction: intellectual, emotional, and resonant. Every book plays with these elements differently—the way classical compositions play across treble, mid, and bass. Taken together, they create a […]
Something I’ve been working on while brainstorming is mapping out themes and concepts that are sparkly to my brain. Time will tell if it’s useful, but it was really interesting to me, especially in the context of analyzing my past work, and examining areas I haven’t yet explored. It also made me feel super connected […]
