Blog | Alison Morton Author

How long does it take to develop a story idea?

In the underground passage, Capua Amphitheatre

I’ve been asked many times how I came to think up Roma Nova and the thriller story behind INCEPTIO. When I mention it started when I was memerised by a Roman mosaic at the age of eleven, people are surprised to say the least.
The full story is here in a guest post I wrote for Women Writers

But how long do you need to let a story mature in your head before writing it? It could be any of three:

Sometimes it’s there, fully formed, ready to spring out like a firework on 5th November. Fine, but you may need to do considerable revision once you’ve written the first draft, even to the extent of rewriting.

Sometimes the idea is like a tiny worm you don’t know is there and grows slowly but steadily into a huge dragon that has to be tamed

Sometimes it takes over your head in intermittent spasms and then disappears for ten years.

I’ve experienced all three, but the best for me has been the combination of the long slow burn with intermittent flashes. Roma Nova has been through many incarnations in my head, the characters have changed and morphed in ways too terrible to describe. But the long maturation was worth it as I had the setting, story arc, characters and plot all ready to go when the novel-writing trigger went “click”.

How do your ideas start? Are you a long-burner or a firework head?

Updated 2025: Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO and RETALIO, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers. JULIA PRIMA, Roma Nova story set in the late 4th century, starts the Foundation stories. The sequel, EXSILIUM, is now out.

Find out more about Roma Nova, its origins, stories and heroines and taste world the latest contemporary thriller Double Identity… Download ‘Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email update. As a result, you’ll be among the first to know about news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.

PERFIDITAS cover reveal, pub date and launch

At last! At last! I have been swayed by pleas and begging to release information about the next book, so here’s the latest cover proof…

PERFIDITAS will be published on 17 October in ebook and paperback. The French launch will be at the Journée du Livre on 13 October and the UK launch at Waterstones Tunbridge Wells on 6 November.

Exciting, or what? 😉

And what’s it about?

BETRAYAL

Captain Carina Mitela of the Praetorian Guard Special Forces is in trouble – one colleague has tried to kill her and another has set a trap to incriminate her in a conspiracy to topple the government of Roma Nova. Founded sixteen hundred years ago by Roman dissidents and ruled by women, Roma Nova barely survived a devastating coup d’état thirty years ago. Carina swears to prevent a repeat and not merely for love of country.

Seeking help from a not quite legal old friend could wreck her marriage to the enigmatic Conrad. Once proscribed and operating illegally, she risks being terminated by both security services and conspirators. As she struggles to overcome the desperate odds and save her beloved Roma Nova and her own life, she faces the ultimate betrayal…

What interests readers?

Authors write books.

Books get published.

Then it begins…

Authors, publishers, publicists and promoters go into full swing, telling the world about the new book, the author’s lifestyle, their children, garden, holiday. Background posts about the book’s setting, the author’s journey, research discoveries, insights, writing hints are posted. Facebook profiles and pages are populated with photos and shared information and friends and fans interact. Tweets are crafted and tweeted, retweeted by friends, jolly conversations are had in 140 characters.

Authors talk in libraries, bookshops, at conferences and exhibitions. They appear in the printed press, national newspapers, on radio and television. Videos are made about the book, the author chatting about how they work, where they did their research, what their book is about.

Does it matter?
Now, I’ll come clean… I LOVE all this. I love talking to people about books, events, research and finding out about other authors, where they’ve been, what they think, wht they’re up to. I’m a nosy type. 😉

But suppose you don’t? Suppose all you want to do is write books and you hate technology and promotion. Are you bound to sink in the fiercely competitive book market of today?

And let’s think about the reader. Yes, they probably do like to find out about new and interesting books. I think that’s a given. And if the author has published previous book(s), readers may be on the lookout for the next one. But do they want all the minutiae of the author’s life?

Sometimes, I think I can hear the readers and fans shout, ‘Switch off and get writing the next damn book!‘

So what do you as the reader, you want from the author and publisher?

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, and PERFIDITAS. Third in series, SUCCESSIO, is now out.

Find out about Roma Nova news, writing tips and info by signing up for my free monthly email newsletter.

INCEPTIO in New York!

Woo-hoo! Karen, the heroine of INCEPTIO has arrived in New York, her home town.
(Of course, this is the real New York we know in our timeline…)

After the terrific success of its trips around the tube as a Book on the Underground in London in the real world, INCEPTIO is hitting New York’s subway.

Photo courtesy of Books on the Subway

I was very honoured when I was approached to contribute to the Books on the Subway program which looks as if it’s going to be as big as the London one.

I can’t wait to see INCEPTIO in a station and on a train!

Photo courtesy of Books on the Subway

STOP PRESS! INCEPTIO is riding on the E train! pic.twitter.com/Y3yRktT9Lt

What I did in Waterstones…

During my trip this month to the UK when I spoke on the Geek Feminism panel and sold books at the NineWorlds conference and did a live interview on BBC Radio Kent, I popped into Waterstones Tunbridge Wells to talk about the launch date for the next book, PERFIDITAS.