Ten Questions with… B. Morris Allen
For today’s guest, we have B. Morris Allen, the author of The Speed of Winter. Welcome to the blog today!
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Author Bio: B. Morris Allen grew up in a house full of books that traveled the world, and was initially a fan of Gogol and Dickens. Then, one cool night, he saw the light of Barsoom…
He’s been a biochemist, an environmental activist, and a lawyer. He pauses from time to time on the Oregon coast to recharge, but now he’s back on the move, and the books are multiplying like mad. When he can, he works on his own contributions to speculative fiction.
Author Site: http://www.BMorrisAllen.com
You can find his book at Amazon, Smashwords and Barnes & Noble!
About the Writer
1. What five words describe you?
Reserved, funny, tall, vegan, reader.
2. What was the first story you ever wrote? I mean the really bad one we all have that you’re trying to hide in the back of closet now that you’re published?
“The Orange Donkey”. This is the story that started me on the path to best-sellerdom, back when I was six. My parents liked it. I actually posted it on my website, just for fun, so it’s a closet with a window.
3. What inspires you?
Almost everything inspires me. I keep a file full of story ideas that’s up to a few hundred now. My SF novella The Speed of Winter emerged from the chance juxtaposition of two of them. One, the idea of an arkship (suspended animation colony ship) with an unlivable destination, arose after remembering Robert Heinlein’s classic Orphans of the Sky (about an arkship crew that forgets what it is). The other, the title “Speed of Winter” came from the 2003 (I think) UNDP Human Development Report for Mongolia. But really almost anything can trigger an idea. Usually I forget about them before I can write them down.
4. What distracts you?
Almost anything, but reading and pets have to be at the top. Setting aside work, family, and the real world.
5. What’s your favorite story? This can be specific, as in a particular book or even story-driven movie, or general, like “I’m a sucker for a hero looking for redemption story.”
I actually sat down once and figured out what it is I like in stories, and I can sum it up with “discovery”. A good alien ruin (cf. Jack McDevitt) gets me every time. But good writing will get me to read about anything. I’ll read anything Jack Vance writes – I’m a proud owner of a very expensive Compact Vance Integral Edition of everything he’s written, because the way he uses language is so fantastic. But one of the best SF stories I ever read was “Ender’s Game” – way back in the last century, my middle school English teacher gave me her boyfriend’s old SF pulps, and Ender was in one of them. I’ve seldom read anything so powerful. And George R. R. Martin’s Dying of the Light really affected me. His novels are hugely popular now, but it’s in his shorter work that he really excels. And How Green Was My Valley – a really effective piece of writing; the rest of the series went downhill, but I read the first book as a child, and thought it was amazing; still do. I could go on and on.
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About the Writing
1. Tell us about your currently available titles.
There are several short stories out there, and more coming (see my website for links). In books, I have a story in the Sparks fantasy anthology on Amazon, and my SF novella The Speed of Winter is on Amazon as well.
2. What’s your favorite part about writing these stories?
Getting down to work is usually hard, but once I’ve started and I’m fully immersed in the story, I sometimes get into a mode where I feel really good about what I’m writing, and I get really excited. When that happens, I could go for hours, if real life didn’t interfere. I do some of y best writing at those times.
3. What would your characters say about you? Be honest!
They’d probably say I’m cruel. Bad things happen to some of my characters. Good things happen to them too, but you know characters. And they might say there’s a lot of dry humor floating just beneath the surface (so to speak).
4. Who would play your favorite character if they made a movie of their story?
I have a story called “Spring and the Arachnodactylst” in which Jeff Goldblum would play the lead character – a guy who’s in thrall to his books, but breaks free to find love and happiness. Or maybe Johnyy Depp. But it would be tough to film. The Speed of Winter would be easier – Clive Owen would play Arek Khachatrya, the Lieutenant; he doesn’t look too Armenian, but it would make my wife happy. And Salma Hayek would play the Captain. No idea about Elyse, the main character – someone small, and cool, and hard. The most filmable story is probably my short serial “Drive Like Lightning…Crash Like Thunder” (Out someday soon at Ray Gun Revival, I think). Jewel Staite would play Anjica Zelnov, the feisty pilot.
5. Do you have any projects currently in the works you want to talk about?
The Speed of Winter started out as a short story, but readers wanted it expanded, so it became a novella. As I was writing it, I realized that it was just one of a set of five stories. As it grew, so did they. So, now I have three more books in the Four Seasons series plotted, and feeling about the last – which is important, since they all have different moods. I’ve already written a short story sequel to book two (A Heading for Fall), and I’ve plotted a prequel to book three (tentatively The Loss of Summer). But generally, I have more projects than time. I’ve also got at least a dozen other stories partly done.
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Thank you for joining us today, and good luck with your writing!
