This FAQ is available for quote by members of the media under the following conditions:
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Paolo Fernandez
Health Communications Inc.
paolaf@hcibooks.com
3201 SW 15th St.
Deerfield Beach, FL 33442
Phone: 954.360.0909
Fax: 954.360.0034
1. What made you decide to start writing real-life dramas?Deborah Morris: It all started one year when my family was on vacation in Florida. A big tractor-trailer ran us off the highway and sent us spinning through a guard rail and end over end down into some trees. It was like going off the edge of a cliff! It should have killed us, but we all walked away from it. I wrote the story for a magazine called Guideposts...and that's how I found out that dramatic storytelling was a lot of fun. Soon I was writing dramas for Reader's Digest and other magazines, and that eventually led to the Real Kids, Real Adventures series, and now, of course, to the Teens 911 series.
2. What kinds of things did you do before you became a writer?
Deborah Morris: Just about everything. My husband and I worked on a commercial fishing boat in Florida for awhile, then we became partners in an Arizona gold-mining venture. That was fun: I had to buy the dynamite we used, so I ended up driving around all the time with "EXPLOSIVES!" signs pasted all over my car. The signs even had this great "exploding bomb" picture. Everybody got out of the way when they saw me coming! After the gold mine, we spent the next year traveling cross-country with our kids in a Mayflower Moving Van. All along, though--well, ever since 6th grade--I wanted to be a writer.
3. Have you had any adventures of your own while writing real-life dramas?
Deborah Morris: There was the time I was crawling on my belly through a West Virginia cave and accidentally dropped my headlamp batteries down a crack. Everything went pitch black, and my batteries fell for what seemed like forever, but fortunately I was there with a whole team of professional cave rescuers, having learned from the predicament of the family whose story I was writing. I got lost in the woods one time with a twelve-year-old I was interviewing. And of course, there was the time I was subpoenaed as a hostile witness for the defense in an attempted capital murder trial. (I had written the survivor's story for Reader's Digest.) A judge in Fort Worth, Texas, almost threw me in jail, but insisted that the defendant--who had confessed to the murder attempt, led the police to the gun, been positively identified by the victim and convicted of another, similar murder attempt just weeks before--was a "nice, polite young man". He went to jail, thank goodness. I decided I didn't much care for writing true crime after that.
4. How did you become interested in writing for young people?
Deborah Morris: It might sound a little cold, but I got bored with interviewing adults! After a while it seemed I could almost script the adult responses, but the kids were never predictable. In the cave story, the dad quite understandably focused on his concern for his sons, and his sense of guilt over having unintentionally led them into danger. The two boys, meanwhile, were more impressed with how the rats' eyes looked "neon pink" in the lamplight, and how cave dust--which is actually a mix of dust and bat guano--felt "greasy" and stuck to their skin. What can I say? I found myself much more intrigued by the rat's eyes and cave dust observations.
5. Where do you find these stories?
Deborah Morris: I get them from many different sources. I have friends all over the country who pick up the phone and call me, fax me newspaper clippings, send me e-mail, etc. Sometimes if I'm looking for a specific kind of story--for instance a teen who's been struck by lightning and lived to tell the tale--I'll use Newsbank, keying in on words like "lightning" and "teen". I also get lots of tips from readers who send in story tips by mail.
6. What do you like best about writing Teens 911 and Real Kids, Real Adventures? Deborah Morris: I love drawing attention to the many positive things kids are doing today. Too often, 'teens' and 'violence' are linked in people's minds. But when I hear 'teens', my first thought is heroism. Kids have sharp reflexes, and when they see someone in trouble they don't stop to consider the risks, or to weigh out whose life is more important. They just do what they think is right-- often while adults stand around and act useless.
7. How does the re-telling of such traumatic events affect the young people you interview?
Deborah Morris: Since these stories all involve some kind of frightening situation, sometimes re-living the story is very difficult for the kids. That's one of the reasons I usually wait at least six months before I go do interviews. Even then, sometimes they're emotionally fragile... they'll choke up or get nervous as we talk. I watch for that, and back off instantly if I pick up distress signals. Sometimes we'll take a break and go out to lunch, or go hiking or something, and I don't resume until they tell me that they're ready. But I've found in general that it's a very cathartic experience for kids to go back and thoroughly tell the story to someone they're not trying to "protect", and also--this is important--to apply their current understanding and conclusions to the whole event to put it in perspective. I've had several parents tell me that their teens had suffered nightmares for months, but that after we finished, a lot of that was put to bed. And I'm happy about that. I've never yet done an interview where I left additional trauma behind as a result of the interview. No story is worth that to me.
8. Do these series have any educational value?
Deborah Morris: I think so. Kids and teens have always absorbed far more from stories than from "lessons". By seeing how other kids have reacted in dangerous situations, they pick up practical safety and first aid tips, and by reading about different families' lifestyles and environments, they learn more about the world, and the people, around them. They see clearly that they are not helpless, that they can make a real difference. I think that's one of the most important lessons young people can learn.
9. What was your reaction the first time you saw one of your stories "brought to life" in the Real Kids Real Adventures television series?
Deborah Morris: It was incredibly exciting to see how a written story I'd shaped from hours and hours of interviews could be transformed so magically from the page to the screen! I know many authors get upset when they see what's been done "to" their work, but I never felt that way. Executive Producer Bob Banner and head writer Chris Rowe were absolutely relentless in their committment to stay true to the story whenever possible, and to stay true to the "heart" of the story when the TV format forced compromises like time compressions. And I believe it was that committment and integrity that led to the Emmy nomination.
10. How did you react last year when you learned that Real Kids Real Adventures had been nominated for an Emmy as an "Outstanding Children's Series"?
Deborah Morris: You mean aside from screaming and jumping up and down? I called and emailed everybody I knew, then tried to make new friends fast just so I could tell them about it! I couldn't believe it. Bob [Banner] was used to it since he'd already won nine Emmys in his career, but it was "my" first. And it was one of those magic moments to watch my "baby" get played up there in competition with Disney, PBS and Nickelodeon. Reading Rainbow won again--you'd think they had enough Emmys on their shelves by now, wouldn't you?--but it didn't matter. I'm not sure I could've taken any more excitement by then.
11. Do you have plans to take Teens 911 to television?
Deborah Morris: As a matter of fact, the series is in the process right now of being optioned for television, but we're not ready to announce details yet. Stay tuned.
12. Will you be touring when the first Teens 911 volume releases this fall?
Deborah Morris: You bet! One of the many wonderful things about HCI [the publisher] is that the marketing director rides a Harley, so she is allowing me to tour on my bike, a '98 Harley-Davidson 883 XLH. Talk about combining business with pleasure! For a rider/writer, it doesn't get much better than this.
13. So what's next?
Deborah Morris: I'm already working on the next Teens 911 volume, which is also under wraps until we're ready to announce details. I've also got a special Texas edition of Real Kids Real Adventures coming out in August from Republic of Texas Press, and large print hardcover editions of two Real Kids volumes coming out this fall from Thorndike Press. It's been a very busy year.
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