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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
Imagine for a moment everything your character cares about—Love, Friendship, Family, Country, Ideals, Religion, Tradition, Self, and Things More Specific—as a string, wrapped around your character. The more your character cares about that thing, the tighter that string is pulled—the more tension on the line. The more strings? The more interesting it gets. Tension […]
