Steven J. Morris - Immersive Epic Fantasy

Steven J. Morris is an engineer, husband, and father of three wonderful girls by day. Fantasy fiction writer by night (and other random times he's not taxiing kids, pulling hair out of drains, helping with math and science homework, coaching soccer, remodeling rooms, and walking the dogs).  As our Author of the Day, he tells us all about his book, Bones of Cenaedth.Please give us a short introduction to what Bones of Cenaedth is about.Bones of Cenaedth is the second book in the Thaumatropic Roots series, which itself is a prequel to the Guardian League series, telling the backstory of the elves and their magic. The overarching story focuses on an elf who lacks magic, and the role she plays in establishing the boundaries of magic at a time when magic was more formative. Bones of Cenaedth specifically follows the story of an attempt by a Warder to build an army and fight back against trolls, the elves' long-standing nemesis.Bones of Cenaedth deals with profound themes like prophecy, trust, and fate. What inspired you to weave these elements into Elliah’s journey?I treat prophecy and fate in this series with a principle from quantum mechanics, which boils down to the idea that observing the future closely can alter it. It's a necessity for the story, because the world where this story takes place was locked into a path of destruction. It makes it difficult to determine whether their pushing against predictions will break them, or fulfill them. Frankly, those of us who believe in God have to wrestle with that every day. The Bible says God is in charge of appointing leaders. The Bible also says the antichrist will rise up and become a leader. What's our role as humans then? (I don't think that's where we are in history, but the question remains.) They're not easy questions.The idea of "Dragons collect their dead" is both ominous and intriguing. Could you elaborate on how this concept shapes the story?At least one reviewer pointed out that it's obvious dragon bones are important for magic, and assumed that was it... that was why dragon's collect their dead. It is not. You'll understand better after Book 3, Secrets of Deara. You'll also understand "fire lies" better after Book 3. (At least, that's the hope... I haven't written that part yet). Sorry, can't tell you. Yet.Elliah is portrayed as an outcast elf without magic. How did you develop her character to resonate with readers despite her lack of traditional elven traits?The outcast is a role that I would think resonantes with most folks. Maybe I'm unusual, but I feel outside the box most of the time, and I assume many others feel that too. Really, her journey is about realized just how many people sit outside the box in some way, and connecting up because of that rather than despite it.Fire Magic and the Alluvium play significant roles in the story. What challenges did you face in creating a balanced and believable magic system?I actually ended up granting more power through magic than I intended in this series. The magic system of Guardian League is different, and this series, Thaumatropic Roots, is a prequel, but part of the point is that the magic system evolves between the two sets of books. As the name Thaumatropic Roots implies, we're dinking with magic in this story. A good bit of how the magic systems differ become pretty clear at the end of Book 2 and the beginning of Book 3. So let's shelve that part of the question for now. But because I had to amp up the magic more than I originally intended, I locked down who could cast what, so that each race of elves had dominant forms of magic. You'll also see the introduction of mixed-race elves and mixed forms of magic. (You see it in Book 1, but you don't get close enough to the characters to understand.)The Warder’s questionable motives introduce an element of moral ambiguity. How do you approach writing morally complex characters?That's the best part - we're all morally complex characters. Everyone in Bones is a collection of my good friends and family, pieced together differently. We humans (and those of you who are elves) are finite, and have to make complex decisions with piecemeal information constantly. We don't have to look far to find how to write such characters.Besides writing, what other secret skills do you have?I was one of the best in the world at writing solvers for complex physical interactions in a human-digestible way (writing code for complex physics that runs quickly and has slick user interfaces). I haven't done it in twenty years, but I was exceedingly good at it. My early writing is all scientific journals. I smoke a good brisket and my chocolate-chip pancakes are top-notch (most of the time... I get distracted easily). I can wire a house (have done so). Togher, my wife and I can kill almost any household plant (despite my being raised by florists).Bones of Cenaedth is the second book in the Thaumatropic Roots series. How does it build upon the foundation laid in the first book?Book 1, Mother of Trees, is all about breaking the main character out of her routine of constantly running and hiding, to step up and lay claim to a right to exist. Book 2 moves the story forward, in many ways, more around the motivations of the Warder than the MC, to raise an army to fight back against the dying light. She's the perfect MC for that, having just realized her own right to exist.Can you share how the evolving prophecies in the series create tension and drive the plot forward?It'll become more clear in Book 3. As I mentioned, the prophecies work on the idea that seeing the future affects it (observability affects reality). You're going to see there's multiple forces pushing things around. It makes success a very difficult path to navigate.The Mother of Trees symbolizes a dying world. How did you develop this ecological metaphor, and what does it mean to you?The story is meant to have Biblical undertones, though not meant to parallel the Bible. It wasn't meant to specifically be an ecological metaphor as much as an End Times metaphor, which, admittedly, goes hand in hand with ecology. A dead world is a dead world, after all.As an engineer and fantasy writer, how do your day-to-day experiences influence your storytelling?I've mentioned the quantum mechanics principles a couple of times. But really, it's people that affect my storytelling more than engineering or physics. Just watching the good and the ugly from people.Do you have any interesting writing habits? What is an average writing day like for you?Sorry, I don't think so. I write mostly in the morning. I recently (a couple of months ago) retired. Before that, I wrote in the mornings before work, and in the evenings while waiting for kids to finish activities. A great deal of my writing happened on my phone. I don't have a new normal yet post retirement.What are you working on right now?Book 3, Secrets of Deara. I'm spending a lot of time trying to understand marketing better. I haven't figured out how to survive as an indie writer yet. Love Matthew J. Holmes' teachings for advertising.Where can our readers discover more of your work or interact with you?http://sjmorriswrites.cominstagram - http://instagram.com/steven.j.morris.writerfacebook - http://facebook.com/steven.j.morris.writer