Featured Interview With Morgan St. James
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I lived in Chicago until I was nine years old. My family made a disastrous ten-month move to Miami, and we were back in Chicago before the year was out. Just when I was ready to begin high school (4 year high school in Chicago at that time) we moved to LA where I lived until I relocated to Las Vegas. And, no, Las Vegas is not just the famous glitzy Strip. We have wonderful residential communities and life here, believe it or not, is peaceful and normal for me. In 2013 I rescued my wonderful dog Dylan. He is part Cocker and part Golden Retriever and is the light of my life. He has been dubbed assistant editor, because he takes his position under my desk when I am writing.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have always been a reader. In fact I was reading at eighth grade level when I was in the second grade. For many years as a child I literally inhaled any book about dogs and Nancy Drew. My first published piece of writing was not a book, but an article in Designer’s West magazine co-authored with my design partner, Carol LeVeque. After that I went on to write several more magazine and newspaper articles, but I hadn’t written fiction. My sister, Phyllice Bradner, was also a published writer but not in fiction. Born of our love of humorous mysteries, we decided to collaborate on our own mystery series. With the publication of “A Corpse in the Soup,” the first Silver Sisters Mystery, my fiction writing career was launched. I was 66 when it was published in 2006. I now have 18 books in publication. The bonus? My sister and I became best friends through our writing together.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Although I read other genres, and have actually written in other genres, mystery with some level of humor will always be my favorite. However, I also like thrillers, short story anthologies for that quick read, and humor. My sister and I were originally inspired by writers like Lillian Jackson Braun, Mary Daheim and Jill Churchill. Then my range expanded and I love books by Michael Connelley, Robert Crais, John Lescroart, Nora Roberts, and the list goes on.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book is “Scammed” the fifth book in the Revenge is Fun series. It began with a desire to use a particular character in a book so I could kill him off, but I couldn’t seem to come up with the right plot. It took 14 years for the plot of “Scammed” to develop. You see, I had an awful experience with a greedy, devious HOA president who wound up costing me $40,000 in attorney’s fees and a ton of stress to get my construction defaults repaired after the HOA won a $1.9 Million lawsuit against the developer. And, I was the one who got the lawsuit started. The complex was a 4-story condo building with 4 units on each floor and our 3,000 ft. single family home behind that building. It was built on land once owned by MGM. The big building was getting fixed, but he led the whole HOA in trying not to fix our house although our foundation was sinking and walls were cracking. I wanted to kill him in print. One of the advantages of being an author is rubbing someone out without worrying about going to prison. While I was still trying to develop just the right plot, he had the nerve to really die. No kidding. So here is the premise of “Scammed.” Life in the upscale Los Angeles area community of the Venice Canals takes an ominous turn when retired doctor Al Shady and his wife Barbara Shady, Vice President and Treasurer of the Venice Canals HOA, disappear after a meeting. The cops are on it, but looking in all the wrong places. What appeared to be home invasion and kidnapping turns out to be so much more including murder. Get ready for characters from different books in this series to come together to dig the dirt. As fate would have it, advertising agency owner Cameron Harson from GETTING EVEN and RIPOFF– the first and second book in this series–and former FBI agent turned author Danny Garrett from BUMPING OFF FAT VINNY, the fourth book, are neighbors who didn’t know each other. A mutual friend and neighbor–89-year-old retired Colonel Michael Thompson introduces them at an HOA meeting where the main focus was to celebrate the settlement of a multi-million dollar suit for construction default against developers who built mini-mansions and polluted the canals in the process. When the trio walks home together along Grand Canal, accompanied by the Colonel’s aged Afghan Hound Clarence, something looks suspicious at the Shady home on the other side of the canal. They cross over the bridge to investigate and find the house door ajar, the house is in a shambles and the Shadys are missing. With their backgrounds in investigating crimes, they are tempted to see what they can uncover, but should they?
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