Featured Interview With K.R.M. Morgan
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
As long as I can remember I have had a fascination for action, adventure and travel. My earliest memories are of my father practising the, then little known, martial art of Taekwondo, at the RAF base in Changi, Singapore, back in the 1960s. Since my father was in active military service, my early years were spent at a series of bases in different locations around the world. This experience gave me a wanderlust which has been one of the dominating influences in my life.
After leaving school I took an entry level job in a local company and devoted my free time to studying the martial arts. I eventually ran a few clubs, in some of the more socially deprived areas, near my home. In addition to my interest in martial arts I was also consumed with a curiosity for knowledge and spent many years in evening classes at local colleges. Eventually, I was fortunate enough to be offered a scholarship by Edinburgh University, in Scotland, where I completed my education in Psychology and Computer Science. This qualification gave me the opportunity to work in a number of different countries around the world, often in very remote and poor locations helping to improve educational provision. Apart from my interest in educational development projects I also researched how to improve police and intelligence methods, working with law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the UK and abroad. In 2012, after nearly 30 years of such varied academic work, I was able to return back the UK, where I now live on the South Coast of England, with my wife Maddy.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Even as a very young child I was a voracious reader and would consume every book I could get my hands on. Often, I would be declared lost by teachers only to be discovered in the reference section of the library. Naturally, given my occupation, a lot of my reading has been science based but I have also always had a great joy of reading action adventure stories.
Most of my own writing has been for scientific journals and it has only been quite recently that I have had the opportunity to indulge my love of literature by exploring the delights of writing epic action adventure tales.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My special loves are the early “Lost World” tales by writers such as Conan Doyle, Rider-Haggard and Verne. I also admire the writing of Ian Fleming, although now rather dated, and modern writers such as Clive Cussler, Matthew Reilly and Chris Ryan.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
When I returned back to the UK, in 2012, I was fortunate enough to have periods of time, between projects, where I could indulge my love for adventure stories by writing the kind of epic tale that I would have loved to read myself but could not find on the bookshelf.
Bridge of Souls was never intended for anyone else to read but I soon discovered that my wife, Maddy, enjoyed hearing each chapter as it was completed. We started a sort of ritual where, after each chapter was completed, Maddy would sit on the sofa in our living room and listen to the next instalment. This encouraged me to build “cliffhangers” at the end of each section, to keep the anticipation growing, and to focus more on the characters that Maddy loved. She enjoys stories with some supernatural component so there is a strong supernatural backstory, interspersed with some intended “friendly winks” to the reader, where the story pays homage to some of the action/adventure genres best loved themes (super villains, evil plots to destroy the world, secret lairs and humorous asides from the hero).
In writing Bridge of Souls, I wanted to create a more intelligent alternative to the modern action genre, where the hero acts within ethical principles and his mind is his primary weapon. I feel that too many of the modern action heroes are clichéd in being troubled former special forces operatives. So, I made Tavish Stewart extraordinary, not in his resources, training or supporting personnel, but in his character and his intellect.
Of course, a hero is defined by the forces that oppose him or her. I therefore had to give Tavish Stewart the most dangerous antagonist I could imagine… I will leave it to you to read Bridge of Souls and judge how well I did in that task!
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