Morton S Gray – The Secrets of Borteen Bay

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I am delighted to be welcoming back the lovely Morton Gray this morning to talk about her new box set now available on Amazon for £0.99.

Morton worked for many years in the electricity industry in staff development and training. She’s a qualified hypnotherapist and Reiki Master. She enjoys crafts, especially mosaic crochet, history and loves tracing family trees. Having a hunger for learning new things is a bonus for the research behind her books.

Morton, lovely to see you again today, and I know that all seven of your Borteen novels are now available for a short time at £0.99 from Amazon, aren’t they? Which is a definite bargain? And hopefully this will bring Borteen into the lives of new readers.

My work has been incorporated into a box set and launched at the price of 99p for the seven books, so hurry up and grab it if you haven’t read my writing before.

Before we start can I assume you’d still like a skinny flat white?

Yes, a skinny flat white or a white tea, please.

And after a recent British Bake Off, I thought I’d try my hand at fondant fancies, can I tempt you with one?

No, thank you, I don’t like those I’m afraid. Maybe a lemon drizzle cake or an almond bake please.

We’ve spoken before about Borteen, and like Redford in my books, it is a fictional town, but in the way of all good fictional towns made up from the bits you like of I suspect several different places. Do you find yourself adding shops or buildings whenever you visit a different place?

I always used to be adding new things to Borteen, but at the moment I won’t be writing any more books in this series. I thought you might like to see the working map though …

If I was to head for Borteen, where would you recommend that I visit first?

It would have to be the little beach café which hosts lots of community events and where people in the seaside town meet up too.

How have you managed to keep track of recurring characters, places, and details across six books?

The fantastic editor on my second book, The Truth Lies Buried suggested that I keep a spreadsheet detailing all of the characters and buildings in Borteen and this has proved invaluable.

And does writing a series mean you have to be a plotter not a pantser?

I don’t plot. I like to let a story unfold for me as well as for my readers. I start with an idea of a story and then let my imagination take over. It helps that Borteen has become so real to me that I can walk down its streets in my mind.

I always struggle with chapter eight, it doesn’t seem to matter how much planning I do beforehand. Do you have a bit where you get stuck every time, and what do you do to get through it?

There are often sticking points in a book which stop you in your tracks. I find a walk, a shower, or even a coffee whilst listening for potential clues in nearby conversations in the café. You would be surprised how often the last suggestion works!

I love writing books with overlapping characters and some of minor characters from the earlier books often reappear in later novels to tell their own stories, but which characters have surprised you most by taking their stories in directions you didn’t expect?

As I’m not a plotter, so I am frequently surprised by my characters. I think maybe Mandy Vanes, who runs a craft shop which appears in several of the novels – Owl Corner Crafts, surprised me most when she demanded her own story told in Sunny Days at the Beach.

I’m going to put you on the spot and ask, from your seven books you can have any four of your characters over for dinner, who would you invite and why?

Harry Dixon from The Girl on The Beach (I’ve always been in love with Harry!), Carver Rodgers from The Truth Lies Buried, Mandy Vanes, who features in several of the books but as the main character in Sunny Days at the Beach and Becky Finch, who again features in several books but has not had her day as a main character – yet! And why invite these characters? I guess because I’d like to spend more time with them as they have become almost real people to me.

And go on, just for completeness what food would you serve for this meal?

It is going to have to be a mixed buffet to cater for all of the different tastes, with a good selection of seafood from the bay.

Now I’m going to ask you the question I always dread being asked, which is your favourite book of the series and why?

My favourite book is The Truth Lies Buried. I think because I was able to incorporate little things, like our family sayings and some real life disguised events into the story.

How do you think your writing has changed from your first book through to the last?

Now that is a difficult question to answer as the books weren’t actually written in the order they were published! Book six – Summer at Lucerne Lodge was actually written first and parts of the other books were also already written before book one – The Girl on the Beach, originally called by me Who is Harry Dixon? was ever published.

What’s next for you, will we be seeing more of Borteen Bay, or something completely new?

It will hopefully be something new. I’ve been working on several projects, so we will see if anyone wants to publish them. One of these features the coffee clairvoyant, Becky Finch mentioned above, so watch out for her.

It’s been lovely as always talking to you Morton, good luck with the boxset. Ax

Thank you for having me over. Mx

Book link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FQCNJDTD