November 9, 2018 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 7A
‘LUNCH IN THE LOFT’ SERIES
The accidental author
By Rebecca Herren
Seaside Signal
She describes herself as
the accidental author, and up
to about 10 years ago, she was
more of a movie buff than
a reader, or even a creative
writer. “The fact that I’m an
author today shows me that
anyone who wakes up and
says they want to write a book
can do it,” said Kristina Mc-
Morris. One of Beach Books’
favorite authors who returned
for the October “Lunch in the
Loft” series, as part of her
50-stop book tour to promote
“Sold on a Monday,” set in
Depression-era America.
McMorris, who lives in
Happy Valley, detoured from
giving an author reading, opt-
ing to do a slide presentation
of her journey to becoming an
author and the real life stories
that have inspired that process
Her gift of talking comes
from the Irish side of her
family, she said, as she con-
veyed to an attentive audience
anecdotes of real life people
she happened upon in her re-
searches.
McMorris pitches her first
book “Letters from Home” as
a “cross between ‘The Note-
book’ and ‘Saving Private
Ryan,’” as it was based on
the true story of her grandpar-
ents’ long distance courtship
through hand-written letters
during World War II.
“It all started with a family
Christmas project,” McMor-
ris said. “I wanted to create
a self-published cookbook to
include about 400 of her fa-
‘WHAT BROUGHT ME HERE
TODAY IS MY GRANDMOTHER
ASKING ME IF I WOULD
TYPE OUT HER RECIPES
WHEN I HAD A CHANCE.’
vorite recipes she collected
and created over the decades.”
McMorris wanted to also
include a biography of her
grandmother, and through
their conversations, she dis-
covered the history of the let-
ters, that until then, no one in
the family had seen. Here, her
grandma Jean revealed that
the couple “had only dated
twice during the war.”
Thinking about the letters
and the story behind them,
McMorris thought it would
make a great movie. “It would
be Cyrano de Bergerac set
in World War II; a movie I
would totally go see.”
A few years later and preg-
nant with her second child,
McMorris decided to write
the book, not realizing how
difficult it would be. She at-
tempted to write a movie she
had in her head and soon real-
ized she was clueless on how
to put her vision on paper.
“I started reading like
crazy and learning and un-
derstanding the craft more.”
She attended workshops, gave
critiques and plotted — using
post-it’s as a reference guide
for her books.
She said even through the
many rejection letters she re-
ceived, she continued to send
queries and work on her craft
because “it would only take
one.”
It took many drafts to com-
plete “Letters from Home”
and since its debut, McMorris
has written 12 books, all in-
spired by historical events.
In listening to McMor-
ris describe her process and
the stories she encountered,
her drive is evident and her
inspiration is noticeable. To
understand the essence of her
subject matter, she immerses
herself into its atmosphere.
From riding in a B-17
bomber and taking a tour of
the Manzanar War Relocation
Camp for “Bridge of Scar-
let Leaves;” or taking leads
from a declassified document
about Nazi saboteurs in 1942
America, a news story about
REBECCA HERREN
Author Kristina McMorris at Beach Books.
a boy who suffered from se-
vere night terrors about dying
in a plane crash during World
War II and how it correlated
to her own son’s night terrors
for “The Pieces We Keep;”
to being inspired by the doc-
umentary “Children of Alca-
traz” and touring the Island to
get the whole scope of what
life was like for “The Edge of
Lost.”
The inspiration behind
“Sold on a Monday” was
based on a web photo show-
ing a posted sign that read “4
Children For Sale — Inquire
Within.”
After having a visceral re-
action to the photo and asking
herself, “What would bring
a parent to ask for money in
return?” McMorris set out to
find an answer when she read
an article hinting the photo
may have been staged.
Taking that twist, adding a
true account of a male society
editor in Toronto and other
headlines of interest, McMor-
ris set about writing “Sold
on a Monday,” a story about
desperation combined with
ambition.
“So, what brought me here
today is my grandmother ask-
ing me if I would type out her
recipes when I had a chance,”
she said. And for that reason,
based on that one question led
McMorris to become the acci-
dental author.
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