Meet Morgan St. James

We recently connected with Morgan St. James and have shared our conversation below.

Morgan, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

Sometimes the hardest things are the ones that shape you. Fortunately I was raised in a family that was supportive with a mother who always felt my sister and I were capable of anything. She encouraged us to always look for the humor and positive aspects. That served me throughout my life as I used those tools to sometimes conquer challenges that might have seemed impossible. Surviving an abusive early marriage, a life-threatening car accident, breast cancer, losing everything when companies I worked for went bankrupt owing me thousands. I managed to find the humor, the determination to go on and came out on the “plus” side.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I have done so many things in my long life, sometimes I felt like I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I thought I had found it when I became an interior designer, and that lasted for about twenty years. During that time I became what I now call an accidental writer. A prestigious design magazine approached me and my partner about writing an article for them about a unique floor we created, and that’s when I discovered I had a talent for writing. Over the next few years I wrote several more articles for them, even got a cover story, and wrote other newspaper and magazine articles, but had never tried writing fiction.

In the late nineties my sister and I (both published writers at the time) decided to collaborate on a cozy mystery series, and the Silver Sisters Mysteries were born. The added bonus was that through the writing we became best friends. Our first book was published when I was 66 years old and had retired from my position as Director of Design for a residental developer. I went on to write many books of different genres besides the five Silver Sisters Mysteries. During the past twenty-three years I have written twenty-two books, over 600 articles and and multiple short stories. I am currently working on the third Mack Peters Mystery in what I call a soft thriller genre. I just turned 86, and love that you can continue to write at any age.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

For me the fact, as I mentioned, that I have done so many things in life and traveled extensively gave me a first-hand knowledge of a little about a lot of things. That has been invaluable when I write books. I have worked as a secretary in engineering, law and held security clearances three times, administrative assistant, office manager, interior designer, design liaison for fast food restaurant chains in the eleven western states, a manufacturer’s rep for a state of the art electrical product, Director of Design for two residential developers, manufacturer’s rep for furniture manufactured in Federal prisons and more. Combine that with traveling in many European countries, Morocco, Mexico and a majority of the states in the US. What a wonderful database when combined with research online.

I think the best advice anyone can give is never give up because of a failure. Learn from it. Keep a positive attitude and believe in yourself and your abilities.

Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?

I was fortunate to be raised by a mother who believed her girls (my sister and me) can do anything we set our minds to and we generally do. She instilled us with a sense of positivity which both of us have, in turn, instilled in our children. Throughout life I have had many successes, but I have also had some very dark times. That was where the ability to picture myself like one of those weighted blowup clowns that can’t be kept down prevailed. I was almost killed in an auto accident. I have survived breast cancer and actually worked with my co-authors on the book No More Crying Angels while receiving chemo and radiation. I have twice worked for companies that went bankrupt leaving me with thousands in unpaid commissions. All of those times I could literally hear my Mom saying, “You can do it, Honey. Dust yourself off and keep on going.” And I did. I fully understand the need to keep learning and growing. I am one of those computer savvy seniors and have continued to expand my knowledge on a variety of topics.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.morganstjames-author.com
• Instagram: @morganstjames
• Facebook: @morganstjames
• Linkedin: Morgan St. James
• Youtube: @MorganStJames
• Other: Threads: @morganstjames
  Authors Den: www.authorsden.com/morganstjames1