Morgan and me—a young writer talks desserts, Dr. Who, and writing about disability.
On August 14, 2017, I got the chance to interview Morgan, a fantasy writer and college student.
Anna Kander: Introduce yourself!
Morgan AB Sadddleson: My name is Morgan AB Saddleson, and I’m a young writer, lifetime reader, and college student. I’m also an uber-nerd and can’t seem to figure out how to leave Star Trek references out of my writing.
AK: Cake, cookies, or pie?
MS: Pie, definitely. Especially lemon or key lime pie!
AK: Tell us how you started writing.
MS: This will probably sound cliché, but I can’t remember a time when I didn’t write. As a little kid, I would fill out whole notebooks with cringe-worthy short stories and poetry. And, thanks to my mother who decided to homeschool me, I was given more opportunities to wield a pen by working on creative writing projects for school.
AK: These days, what do you write?
MS: Mainly YA books, such as mystery-suspense, romance, and maybe some horror down the road.
AK: Tell us about your current project.
MS: My latest book, which is now in the querying stage of things, is a YA mystery-romance novel. To try and sum it all up shortly, it’s about a sixteen year old boy trying to find his girlfriend by following her newspaper-based clues. There’s lots of references to Western New York, pretty much every sci-fi to ever exist, and more sarcasm than is healthy.
AK: I understand that you sometimes write about disability.
MS: Disability is definitely a topic I hold near and dear, and one that I love writing about. There just don’t seem to be enough accurate portrayals of disabled characters in books today, which is why nearly every one of my writings has a disabled character. For example, my most recent work explores and portrays mental illnesses such as OCD and social anxiety. I wrote one unpublished work where literally every character had a disability—Deafness, Blindness, spastic paraplegia, Autism, and Down syndrome—it had it all!
AK: Talk about your writing process.
MS: This is probably the toughest question of all. I don’t really outline. Nor do I pants it. I get an idea, usually a single sentence, and write it down somewhere. Next I start thinking about different scenarios that would work with that sentence and, if I like the way it sounds, I start writing it down book-style. As I write, I might jot some notes just to make sure I don’t forget anything important. Editing is basically re-reading, removing nonessential words, and tightening things up until it looks nice.
AK: If you were stranded on a desert island, what three items would you want with you?
MS: A food replicator from Star Trek, a laptop with Wi-Fi, and the TARDIS from Dr. Who. Food, shelter, and entertainment for the rest of time.
AK: If you were stranded on a magical desert island, what would be the top three magical powers you’d want?
MS: Wizard powers from Harry Potter would make me perfectly happy. But if I have to have two more, telepathy like Mr. Spock and water-bending from Avatar.
AK: What are your writing goals? What advice would you give new writers with similar goals?
MS: I hope to be traditionally published one day and to continue writing in whatever ways I can—books, short stories, screenplays—all writing is good writing. My advice to new writers is, don’t let age and time stop you from doing what you love! I’m nineteen years old, have written three books, and haven’t been published yet (although I have gotten tons of nibbles *fingers crossed, knock on wood*). Good things take both time and practice, so it’s never too early—or late—to start writing and working towards a goal.
AK: Is there anything else you’d like to share with readers?
MS: I can be followed on Twitter at @mowganatah and my author blog is at http://morganabsaddlesonblog.wordpress.com.
Thanks again for the interview swap!
Anna Kander 