WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY: YA Author, Robin Leigh Morgan

Robin Leigh Morgan brings us I KISSED A GHOST, a YA (Young Adult) Paranormal/Time Travel/First Kiss novel targeted at pre-teens. As stated by Morgan, quite simply the story is about a girl (Mary) and her kissing the ghost (George) she has living in her house.

Retired for three years as a civil servant, Morgan is starting a second career as an author, building on her more than 11 years writing commentary for a community newspaper. She plans to write cross-genre, starting with YA time-travel romance. 

Q: What inspired you to write a time-travel, paranormal story, I KISSED A GHOST, which according to one reviewer is “a sweet, delightful tale sure to especially appeal to pre-teen readers”?

Robin Leigh Morgan: I actually began to write back in June 1995, where until June 2006 I wrote over 450 commentary type items for a community newspaper.  Along the way I decided to see if I could write something else. I didn’t own a computer back then, but I did have access to one where I wrote my commentaries, and it was on this computer I wrote about two pages a week. Once I got my computer I began to write what I wanted to be a contemporary romance with a paranormal element running through, but I never seemed to get the sense it would be good enough to be read by someone else.  Eventually, someone suggested I write for a younger audience, which is how I came to write my debut novel, a YA (Young Adult) Paranormal/Time Travel/First Kiss romance entitled, I KISSED A GHOST.  The story itself has been one of pure imagination; there was no specific thing which inspired to write this story, which brings me in part to your next question.

Q: Do your characters push you around and make you write what they want? Or are you in control? Do you start with an outline?

Robin Leigh Morgan: If you’re asking me whether I’m a plotter or a pantser I’d probably say a little of both. I make a skeleton of an outside, writing down the basic plot points I’d like to hit, and as the story unfolded I added more points needing to be hit; and as a sculptor starting with a wire base of what they’d like to have, I added material, then took some away, until I had the finished product I had in mind.

Q. How did you decide to give your book its title?

Robin Leigh Morgan: When I started to select a title for a book it had been a very challenging experience for me; but after racking my brain over it for a while, I decided to merely summarize the premise for the entire story in as few words as possible until I had something which could be used as the title for my book. Hence, since the story is about a girl (Mary) and her kissing the ghost (George) she had living in her house, I decided the story had to be called, I KISSED A GHOST.

Q: How do you make your paranormal world and ghostly characters credible?

Robin Leigh Morgan: By keeping things simple, easy to envision and able to relate to.

Q: What do you do to make readers care about your characters?

Robin Leigh Morgan: In creating my characters, especially that of Mary, I endeavor to create a situation where as many readers could relate to her (them) as possible.

Q: What are the attributes of a hero?

Robin Leigh Morgan: I’d have to say they would have to be honesty and the willingness to do the right thing for those who’d need it the most with any consideration of what he/she would get in return.

Q: What makes a good villain?

Robin Leigh Morgan: A villain attributes would have to be completely juxtaposed when placed side by side to that of a hero.

Q: How helpful is your career of writing commentaries and other nonfiction items to writing fiction?

Robin Leigh Morgan: In writing these commentaries I had been limited to a thousand words in which I needed to quickly communicate what I wanted the readers to be able to read and who would hopefully agree with my thoughts.  The more I wrote, the easier I found it to write everything I needed to say given the word restriction I’d been under. When it came to writing fiction, especially my first YA Paranormal/Time Travel/First Kiss romance novel, I found it easy to delete the additional “fluff” I’d written during my first drafts without losing anything I wanted to say.

Q. What are you working on at the moment?

Robin Leigh Morgan: As I’ve stated in the above I had started to write a contemporary romance but never completed writing it. Now with my debut YA novel self-published I’ve returned to writing the romance manuscript I had started many years ago, and approaching it anew with the knowledge I’ve gained along the way in writing I KISSED A GHOST.  The reason I’ve returned to writing it is relatively simple, I’ve always felt somewhat incomplete not having completed something I once had started out to do, and I now want to fill the void it has created in my life.

Q: What do you do when you’re not writing? Tell us a little something about yourself. What are some of your favorite things to do?

Robin Leigh Morgan: When I’m not writing I simply enjoy my retirement. I enjoyed watching NetFlix through discs or online especially those of my favorite programs when I’d been much younger. I’m currently watching “Wild Wild West” (1969–1973) on discs, and online it’s “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1955-1959). I also like to listen to easy listening type music, Broadway tunes and comedy.

About Robin Leigh Morgan

Robin Leigh Morgan has enjoyed a long career writing commentaries and other nonfiction items, but since retiring Robin has devoted leisure time and acquired skills to the writing of the first of what will be many books. Robin’s debut novel is a Young Adult paranormal romance, complete with elements of time travel and the special first kiss in every girl’s life. Robin believes the blending of these different genres will be endearing to all those who read it, regardless of their age.

About I KISSED A GHOST

In I KISSED A GHOST, Mary gets a new classmate named Jonathan who’s a great baseball player and to get on the team, he needs Mary’s help to improve his grades. Six months later when she learns she’s moving, she decides to give him something special--a first kiss. Moving into her new home she soon discovers it has a ghost named George, her age, who takes her on numerous trips to the past of a hundred years ago. As she meets children her own age, everyone teases her about her house being haunted, but no one will go inside. Mary likes his help doing her math homework, writing her reports, and taking her back in time. George and Mary’s interaction grows and she eventually gives him a quick peck on his lips while they’re in the past, which is the only place George is a real boy, for having done something special for her. Can Mary kiss George again at the special date and time he needs to be kissed? What happens afterwards if she does? The answers are all in the book!

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