Stan Morris
is the indie author of the young adult apocalyptic novel, Surviving the Fog. Since 2009, he’s
published six books. Let’s
learn more about Stan and his writing…
Q: How long
have you been writing and when did you decide to indie publish? What was the
biggest hurdle in going it alone?
A: I wrote my
first book about 1965. I don’t remember the title, but it was a science fiction
novel that had teleportation booths in which people could travel from Earth to
Mars. Note: Star Trek was a popular show about this time. Off and on through my
life I wrote more novels and some fan fiction. I always loved English class or
my Creative Writing class. In college I took a science fiction writing class.
Jack Williamson was my teacher.
In 2008 I
began writing Surviving the Fog, and
I finished it that year. I went through the process of obtaining a copyright
from the Library of Congress and had plans to submit it to Tor or Baen books,
but there were new sites on the internet dedicated to ebooks, so I decided to
put it up at one of these sites free of charge. Then I discovered Feedbooks,
Manybooks, and then Smashwords. Not long after that, Amazon created Kindle
Digital Publishing.
I was lucky
to be at the forefront of digital publishing, because there were not many
ebooks available at that time compared to the number available now. I made over
two thousand dollars before Amazon discovered that the book was available for
free elsewhere.
Q: Can you explain the idea behind Surviving the Fog? Where did the inspiration come from?
A: A long
time ago I read Lord of the Flies. It’s a well written book, and I hated it.
Nothing in my anthropology studies suggested that humans in this kind of
situation would act in that manner. Robert Heinlein gave us another view in
Tunnel in the Sky. In Heinlein’s story kids acted totally different; they
created a rational society, and this was how I felt kids would react.
Another trend
had been developing and this was a tendency toward epic science fiction. Those
books are fine, but I wanted to read a simple enjoyable story, so I decided to
write my own. The result was Surviving the Fog.
Q: You recently decided to write a sidequel titled Surviving the Fog-Kathy's
Recollections. Can you explain what led you to write Kathy’s story?
A: I have to
give some credit to Tammy K at Goodreads. Tammy was critical of how I portrayed
the girls in the original story, and it’s true that I concentrated on the boys.
But as I discussed the story with Tammy, I began to visualize Kathy. I had
never been satisfied with the way I wrote Kathy’s character; it did not match
what I was thinking. So I began writing the story again, only this time from Kathy’s
point of view. It’s been a long time since I’ve gained such pleasure in writing
a story, and in this view of Surviving the Fog the girls are in the prominent
roles. I was amazed at how differently they saw things, and how Kathy develops
from a scared and meek child into one of the leaders. There are so many times
when the dialogue is between girls, and so much more of the direction of the
story is due to their influence.
Q: You have a wide array of genres you write for – Science Fiction &
Fantasy, Romance, and History. What drew you to these areas and do you plan to
branch out to even more as your career progresses?
A: I usually
stay away from horror, although I have written the occasional dark short story.
I’m not good with the paranormal. I have ideas for a story titled The
Werewolves of Antarctica but there is a scientific basis for why they appear to
humans as werewolves. I’m not comfortable with dogmatic religion, but there are
several characters in Surviving the Fog-Kathy’s Recollections who are religious,
including Kathy. I like facts; I’m fascinated by anthropology, history, and
sociology. I probably like romances, because I’ve been with the same woman for
almost thirty eight years, and I’m totally in love with her. I like happy
romantic endings, because that is the best part of the story of my life.
I have
numerous books in the works. Some like Julee and the First Officer, Jara Versus
the Planet Marl, and Captain Mackenzie and the Last Chance Spaceship are
science fiction. The Governor of Arslan is a historical YA novel. Growing Up is
a contemporary YA romance. The Thief and the Princess is a light fantasy sequel
to The Colors of Passion and Love.
Q: How do you come up with the names for your characters?
A: Let me
sidetrack for a moment. I have a theory that first names and last names are
saved in different brain cells, and I suspect that it is harder to retrieve a
first name and a last name than it is to retrieve only the first name.
Surviving the Fog was going to have a lot of characters, so I decided to give
most of my characters first names only, hoping that readers would have an
easier time following the story. I think that has been successful.
There are
letters of the alphabet I have to avoid, or else all of my characters would
have names that begin with those letters. “J” for example. I like short names
such as Mike, Desi, or John. I live in Hawaii,
and I wanted one of the characters to be Hawaiian, so I chose Makayla. Imee is
Filipino. Oksana is Ukrainian. I often google names of particular ethic groups
to get ideas.
Q: Chicken or the egg question. Do you create a character and build around
him/her? Or do you imagine a concept and create characters which fit the idea?
A: Good
question. I create the concept of the story, and then the characters will
relate to me their parts in the story. This often occurs at night or when I’m
napping. As I listen to them speak, and as I see them in my mind, I see their
surroundings; what they look like, their distinguishing physical
characteristics, and what they’re wearing. Gradually the characters and the
story are fleshed out.
Q: How do you avoid writing a Mary Sue or Marty Stu when most writers can’t
help falling desperately in love with their creations?
A: I don’t
try to avoid it. I’m old enough to know that all of us have faults, and though
I love my characters I see them for who they are. I’m a product of too many
human failings to think otherwise. The Civil Rights movement, Vietnam, the
period of political assassinations from 1963 to the early 1970’s; I was formed
by these events and more. They are a part of me, and when I write about my
characters, the memory of other real characters intrudes. People sometimes
object to Kathy, who is fourteen, having a boyfriend who is twenty three. Yes,
in our world that’s wrong, but when I was a kid, girls who were twelve could
legally get married or have sex with old men in many states, and there were
still states where I would have been arrested for marrying my wife who is of a
different ethnic group. This knowledge and those experiences seldom translate
to perfect people.
Q: Do you use anything to inspire you while you’re writing? Music, visual aids,
etc? Also have you found ideas come to you more freely in particular places or
at certain times of the day?
A: I’ll
listen to music sometimes, but I have to be in the mood for that. Anything else
is too distracting. A lot of my ideas come to me at night before I drift into
sleep. Some come during naps, and a few occur at other times.
Q: When an idea hits you, do you start writing immediately or plot it out
first?
A: I plot it
out in my mind, because sometimes as I plot the idea I begin to see the holes
in it. Many ideas get abandoned, because they don’t make sense. I say to myself
something like, “No one would be that stupid.”
Q: When you read less than fawning reviews, how do you know when to use the
critique to improve your future writing and when do you chalk up the criticism
as different strokes for different folks?
A: I am so
thankful for the person who took the time to explain the difference between
‘its’ and ‘it’s.’ If I ever read a really good review on when and how to use a
comma, I might expire from delight. I have learned so much from my readers.
Yes, sometimes it is embarrassing, but I want to be a better writer, and it
would be stupid to turn down free advice.
If there is one type of criticism I’m annoyed by, it’s from those who have
never read the book. I don’t mind people objecting to the fact that the kids in
my stories are sexually active, but I do mind when they mention a couple who
I’ve made clear are not having sex, or if they reference a couple where the
teenager is eighteen.
What really
stuns me is the lack of historical knowledge on the part of some people,
especially teenage girls. For a teenage girl not to know that the age of
consent is a recent development, and that in the late 1800’s the age of consent
was as low as seven years old is dangerous. In many parts of the world the
right of women to be in control of their lives is a myth. In the west it is a
recent development that could easily change.
Q: I’ve read criticism from particular bloggers (Fangs for the Fantasy being
one) about the lack of people of color and different sexual orientations in
fantasy. Do you take this lack of diversity into consideration when creating
plots and characters?
A: I don’t
have a lot of experience with gay or lesbian people so I can’t really write
about them. Otherwise, most of my stories have characters from different ethnic
groups. In Surviving the Fog, Eric, the brains of the camp is African-American.
Hector, Kathy’s boyfriend is Hispanic, and so is John. Mary is Native American.
Jacob and Leah are Jewish, Ahmad is Moslem, and Rasul is an Indian Hindu. I
grew up in California,
so for me this is natural.
Q: Do word counts mean anything to you? Do you find your books top out at
around the same lengths?
A: I always
try for at least 100,000 words, because this is what several publishers have
indicated is the minimum length they will accept. Even though I epublish, I
think that is a good length for a novel. Some of my novels are shorter, because
they were supposed to be collected. The stories of Tales of the Ragoon are like
that. However, I decided when I began writing Surviving the Fog-Kathy’s
Recollections that I would just keep writing until I was satisfied, so that’s
what I did. That book will run about 175,000 words.
Until Kathy’s story I had never bothered to write my chapters to a specific
length, but in this book I began with the idea of keeping them between 5,200
and 5, 800 words. The reason is that I tend to stick in more stuff as I edit
the book, and so the chapters tend to expand. I’m glad I started with a range
in this book, because I believe it helped me to write a tighter story. I’ll
probably do this in the future.
Q: How big a
deal is writer’s block for you and what do you do to shake it off?
A: Writers’
block is a problem limited to a particular book or story. When I’m stuck, I
turn to a different book or story. Later, I’ll come back. I would encourage new
writers to do this. Start more than one story. You won’t feel like writing one
story sometimes, so if you have others started you may find yourself interested
in those.
Q: What books did you enjoy most in 2012?
A: Copper
Beach (Krentz), How Firm a Foundation (Weber), The Last Boyfriend (Roberts),
The Last Ship (Brinkley), Half Way Home (Howey), The Papal Stakes (Flint,
Gannon), and Notorious Nineteen (Evanovich).
Q: What trends do you hope die in 2013?
Are there any you hope take off?
A: I love The
Walking Dead, but I’m a little over zombies and the paranormal in general. I’m
hoping that fun science fiction takes off. I’m so tired of blending with the
cosmic all.
Q: What are your plans for 2013 as an indie writer?
A: First, I
plan to publish Surviving the Fog-Kathy’s Recollections. After that, I’m not
sure. Last year I got into that book and couldn’t stop writing. This year I
have not gotten that feeling yet. I’m moving around from book to book, story to
story. I would really like to concentrate on Julee and the First Officer, but I
keep coming back to Jara Versus the Planet Marl which is the second story in
the trilogy. Maybe I’ll write some poetry. Something like this.
Until That Day
Until we see you again,
We will not know what you might have looked like.
We will not hear you call our names,
‘til we see you again.
Until we see you again,
We cannot know who you might have become.
And we cannot teach you what we wished you to know,
‘til we see you again.
Until we see you again,
Mama and I cannot hold you in our arms.
But we will always love you as if we did,
Until the day we see you once again.
Follow Stan at his website, Twitter, Goodreads, and Google Plus.
Find Stan's books at Amazon, Smashwords, and B&N (note: The Great Book is not one of his).
Stan Morris is the indie author of the young adult apocalypitic novel, Surviving the Fog. Earlier this week we spoke with Stan about his writing. Now, let's learn more about him...
