By NICK SLEPKO

"I thought writing the book would be the hardest part," says first-time novelist Christine Morgan.

Guess again.

Eight years after completing the initial draft of her first book, Morgan, a North End resident and author of "Curse of the Shadow Beasts" is handing me a copy of the newly released novel. If sales go well, the remaining books in the Magelore trilogy will be published.

"In 10 months, I finished writing the draft," says Morgan. "It then took me 18 months to get my first form rejection letter."

But during that time Morgan ended up writing the second and third books in the series. She also spent those months perusing how-to-get-published books and took the first step of hiring a literary agent.

With the agent, her credibility with various publishers went up a notch, but that was only after getting her third agent after all the others turned out bankrupt or felonious.

"Still, all that time, I was able to revise and write more," Morgan says.

Then one day her agent came through. A publisher agreed to work with her on the book. They sent back their recommended changes: "Cut 14,000 words and revise the dialogue, it's too slangy and modern."

Morgan recalls her reaction. "I hit the ceiling - but they were right of course. So after I got over my little seizure I decided to give it a try."

She was also asked to send Sterling House, the publisher, a map of the Magelore world. "'We need a map. All fantasy books have to have maps,' they told me. So I doodled one up and sent it to them thinking that they'd have their graphics people work it up like they do with the cover. Wrong," says Morgan with a laugh.

Then with a summer release set, the distributors changed and the date was pushed back and the whole format was changed.

Finally, February became the release date and now, after eight years of maneuvering her novel through the process, Morgan has a book debut party planned at Gary's Games in Greenwood on Feb. 27. Gary's Games is managed by Morgan's husband, Tim.

"The book itself changed a lot in the rewrite, but you know I've changed a lot over that time too," Morgan says.

And in that time, Morgan has started a lot of writings, her most recent being a modern horror piece, sort of in the vein of horror novelist Dean Koontz.

"Still," Morgan says, "I like the fantasy genre the best. Modern settings demand too much detail. I like to decide Š I do try to take a new look at the stereotypical fantasy creatures. And even if my elves are in forests and my dwarves are under mountains, exploring motivations and adding imagination to their activities is what I like to write about.

"The whole 'idiot peasant saves creation' line just doesn't do it for me. I think taking a character, especially the standard villain and making them understandable - no matter how reprehensible they may be - is an interesting challenge."

So what's next with the Magelore Series? "They had me write up a screen-treatment, but my real dream would be to have it animated."

Who knows, maybe after another eight years of commuting between her home in Shoreline and the Northgate area where she holds a day job as a residential counselor, Morgan may see up on one of the theater marquees: "Christine and the Seven Sequels."

When asked what advice she'd give aspiring novelists, Morgan offers up a quick dose of reality: "Stick to it, it'll take longer than you think."