Featured Interview With Morgan St. James
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Originally from Chicago, I lived in Los Angeles (La La Land, as some call it) from the time I was thirteen years old. In 2002 my husband and I bought a home in Las Vegas and for many years I had a foot in both cities, enjoying the serenity of the area where I live as the perfect writing roost. Making the nearly 300 mile trip every few weeks, I used to joke that I lived on the 15 freeway. Then two years ago we left L.A. behind and moved to Las Vegas full time. Many people are surprised to learn that there are really wonderful communities in Vegas, thinking that the Strip is the real Vegas. We are in the foothills and look down on Vegas Valley. And, yes, it is very peaceful here. Plus, I left the L.A. traffic behind, too.
I am very actively engaged in the Las Vegas writers’ community and am on the Board of Writers of Southern Nevada (nevadawriters.org). Shortly after moving here full time, I adopted Dylan the Dog (cuddling with me in my profile photo), who was a rescue dog unbelievably found abandoned in a backyard. He is my shadow, spends part of his time under my desk when I’m writing and I like to call him my associate editor.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was an avid writer from the time I was a young child, reading at the eighth grade level in the second grade. To this day, I read several books a week, alternating between print, Kindle and audio. But then, writers are supposed to be readers, so I am following the pattern. As a mystery writer, I love to read all kinds of mysteries from thrillers, to suspense to cozies. It is such fun to second guess the outcome.
My first published piece was a magazine article in a then-prestigious interior design magazine, Designers West. I went on to write many magazine articles and newspaper articles, and in the mid-nineties the fiction bug bit me. My sister, also a published writer, and I began to formulate what eventually became the Silver Sisters Mysteries series. With the release of the third Silver Sisters Mystery, “Vanishing Act in Vegas,” on April 10, 2015 and “Bumping Off Fat Vinny,” co-authored with true crime writer Dennis N. Griffin, in mid-May, I will have fourteen books in publication, but over 600 published articles dealing with the business and craft of writing.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I love mystery books that have a ring of reality mixed with humor or sarcasm. I also like the “ticking clock.” I love books by Robert Crais, Michael Connelly, Nelson DeMille, Lee Child and Vince Flynn. I like many of the Janet Evanovich books and Mary Daheim. However, I am always discovering new authors I haven’t read before by making it a rule to keep an open mind and not always choose my “tried and true” favorites.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
The second edition of “Vanishing Act in Vegas” is the latest book. The original publisher went out of business almost two years ago and we have been busy updating it. “Bumping Off Fat Vinny” (a stand alone funny crime caper) will be the second new book out this year. In this third Silver Sisters Mystery, identical twins Goldie Silver and Godiva Olivia DuBois, silver-haired Mae West lookalikes, and their octogenarian mother and uncle, retired vaudeville magicians who love to dress in disguise and go undercover, travel to Las Vegas to visit Godiva’s son Torch.
Instead of a nice little vacation, they discover Torch’s new girlfriend, Mara the Magnificent, the headliner magician at the Glitz Palace, is hiding an astounding secret. When entertainment turns to murder, the Silver Sisters are on the job, but the oldsters steal the show and almost do a vanishing act of their own. Fast-paced, twists, turns and lots of fun.
It generally takes my sister Phyllice Bradner and I about a year and a half to two years to write a new Silver Sisters adventure. We write long distance as she lives in Oregon and I live in Las Vegas. When we first started the series, I lived in L.A. and she lived in Juneau, Alaska, so although we meet in person a few times during the progression of the book, most of our work is by email and phone. The most important thing, though, is writing the series has brought us together as best friends.
Like Goldie and Godiva we have many similarities and many differences. We modeled Goldie, the over-the-hill hippie who owns an antique shop, after Phyllice. Well, she was on the fringes of being a flower child when she moved to Alaska and did own an antique shop at one time. Like Goldie, she is the salt of the earth, willing to lend a helping hand to anyone in need.
As for Godiva, a wealthy Beverly Hills widow who writes a syndicated advice to the lovelorn column, she was VERY loosely modeled after me. I don’t live on an estate in Beverly Hills, but at one time did live two houses out of Beverly Hills, I don’t write an advice column but have written many newspaper columns. And, I admit to being manipulative, but draw the line at being as selfish and self-servicing as Godiva. Well, maybe a little…
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