Featured Interview With Stan Morris
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I’m a child of the fifties and sixties. When I was born, Josef Stalin was still alive, and most of Africa was owned by Western Powers. I lived through the Civil Rights movement and the war in Vietnam. I started writing after seeing a show on tv called “Star Trek.” One of the enduring lessons I learned is, “All things in moderation.” I’m an optimist, but a realist, too. I live on the island of Maui where I see, daily, the futility of trying to stop change. I’ve been married for over 38 years, making me one of the weird people, now. We raised two boys who we encouraged to attend college far from home, so they would know that they were capable of thriving without our interference.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I remember sitting on my Grandmother’s knee at three or four as she read books to me. She always owned books, and later I discovered Zane Grey at her farmhouse. When I was about eight, I discovered this wonderful place where they let you take books home for free! It was called the library. I learned to ride to the library, check out books, take them home, and hide them under my bed, so my anxious mother would not realize that her little boy was biking clear across town. I started writing my own novels when I was fourteen, but luckily they have been lost. In 2008, I began writing a novel about some teenagers who were trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains by a mysterious brown fog that covered the Earth below 6,700 ft. (2,042m)
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Over the years, my favorites have changed, often due to the death of the writers. I read Louisa May Alcott, William Campbell Gault, and Jim Kjelgaard when I was a boy. Later it was Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov who thrilled me. After I discovered the “romance” genre, I could not get enough of Jayne Ann Krentz, Marion Chesney, and Nora Roberts. Presently I like David Weber and Eric Flint.
I like most genres as long as the writing is good. I’m not a great fan of fantasies, but I love the Merlin books by Mary Stewart, and the books of Tolkien, Meyers, and Rowling. I heartily recommend Lindsey Davis and her series about a detective in ancient Rome. Pamela Morisi wrote about diversity in romance when there was none. I am inspired by all these writers.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
In 2008, I wrote Surviving the Fog. The theme of the book is that humans tend to form communities in the face of disaster, they don’t turn on each other as portrayed in Lord of the Flies. The main influence of STF was Tunnel in the Sky by Robert Heinlein. Heinlein set his book on another planet. I set my book in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, but the idea was the same; teenagers could cope with disaster. The major complaint I received was that I focused too much on the boys and not enough on the girls, and there is a case to be made for that complaint. I was communicating on Goodreads with a woman who mentioned this, and I started thinking about Kathy, a fourteen year old character from the book. I began to imagine how Kathy would see the events in STF, and to my surprise, she saw many of them quite differently. I began to jot down notes and then to write scenes, and the more I wrote, the more obsessed with the story I became. I decided to write Kathy’s story, and for the first time, I decided not to set a word limit for the novel; I would write until I was satisfied that I had told her story. After ten months and over 200,000 words, I finished. The result is Surviving the Fog-Kathy’s Recollections. I believe it to be a much better book than the original, but of course, it should be, since I’ve grown as a writer.
The book follows the evolution of the teenagers from a group of strangers at camp, to a tribe and then to a community. It shows how the values they learned as kids helped them to survive the elements, outsiders, and each other. It describes the natural growth they go through as the years pass. For example, the amount of cussing in the book gradually increases, the longer they are alone, but when children are born, they take stock of their language, just as they were taught by their parents. Nothing moderates human behavior like having small children around.
The evolution of the characters is probably the most satisfying feature of the book. A boy who is not the biggest, the oldest, the strongest, or the smartest becomes the leader, because he is capable of foresight. A timid girl learns to speak up, and she becomes a force on their Council. Some make critical mistakes, but accept the consequences of those mistakes and move on. Deaths are inevitable, but so are relationships. This is not a book for very young teenagers; 15 and up is the age target.
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