Margarita Morris and Steve Morris are the husband-and-wife writing duo who excel at mystery and police procedural drama at university. They write individually under their own names, and as a couple under the penname, M S Morris. They live near Oxford, England.
Good morning, Margarita and Steve! Welcome to Vision and Verse, the site for art and authors and those who love them. Can you tell us a little about what you've written?
As Margarita Morris I write twentieth-century historical fiction set in Europe. Oranges for Christmas is about a family escaping from the confines of the Berlin Wall and Goodbye to Budapest is about the Hungarian Uprising of 1956.
Steve Morris is currently writing a werewolf apocalypse series called Lycanthropic.
And writing together as M S Morris we have created the Bridget Hart series of murder mystery novels set in Oxford. The first book in the series is called Aspire to Die. We have published five books so far and book six will be coming out in May 2021.
What is your favorite genre to write?
We love writing crime and mystery novels together. It helps to have two people when you are trying to work out a plot with lots of twists and turns. When it comes to writing separately, I lean towards historical fiction, and Steve likes
science-fiction and fantasy.
Favorite food.
I adore a perfectly boiled egg with a runny yolk! Steve loves mince pies at Christmas. We both agree that you can’t beat fish and chips from Scarborough.
Tea or coffee?
For me it’s peppermint tea. Steve can’t do without a strong black coffee. But at mealtimes we share a pot of jasmine tea.
Pizza or ice cream?
Nine times out of ten the answer has to be pizza. Unless we’re in Italy of course, where the gelato is divine.
Wine or beer?
We both love a good red wine with dinner, maybe a Shiraz or a Merlot.
Where would you like to visit?
My ideal trip is travelling around Europe by train. I’ve visited most western European countries and am gradually working my way eastwards. Recent trips include Romania and Poland. I’d love to visit the Baltic States and Russia.
Steve would like to see more of America, particularly New York.
Steve, New York is wonderful, but the American Southwest is absolutely fabulous. If you make it across the pond, don't go home until you're seen the Grand Canyon. It is mind-falteringly beautiful. Favorite musical artist.
I sing in choirs so I have a passion for things like Bach’s St John Passion, Verdi’s Requiem and Mozart’s Requiem. I also love early twentieth-century English songs by composers such as Vaughan Williams and George Butterworth. And I’m a lifelong fan of David Bowie.
Do you listen to music when you write?
No, neither of listens to music when we write. It would be too distracting.
But if the neighbours’ dogs are barking I sometimes listen to the sound
of falling rain on YouTube.
What makes you laugh?Growing up we both loved shows like Blackadder. One of our favourite films is Love Actually. And my favourite comedy sketch of all time has to be when André Previn appeared on the Morecambe and Wise show, Christmas 1971. It’s an all-time classic and is on YouTube for anyone who hasn’t seen it.
Favorite work of art or sculpture.
We both love the Impressionists and the Pre-Raphaelites. On a recent visit to Kraków I was lucky enough to have Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine all to myself for a few minutes. I now have a framed postcard of it near my writing desk.
How old were you when you started writing?
We both did lots of other things before we started writing so we didn’t start until we were in our forties.
Do you plan out your book with outlines and notecards? Or just write?It depends on what sort of book it is. For our mystery books, we spend up to four weeks planning the plot scene by scene. Mystery novels need lots of suspects and clues and red herrings, and that all takes a lot of planning. For our other books we tend to write more organically, but still stopping to work things out at a high level as required.
Describe your perfect evening.
A delicious meal with a glass of wine, good conversation and then an engrossing film. Our favourite film of all time is The English Patient.
Where do you get your inspiration?
The Bridget Hart series is set in Oxford so much of the inspiration comes from the city and the university. We both studied at Oxford so we know it well. The city with its history and idiosyncrasies is really the main character in the books. My historical fiction is inspired by my travels and my reading. In his science-fiction writing Steve likes to ask big ‘what if’ questions.
I love the Bridget Hart series! I highly recommend. What do you do when you get a writer's block?
Fortunately, writer’s block is rare in the Bridget Hart series because we spend so much time planning up front. Reading and watching TV are good ways to get inspired with new ideas.
Who is your favorite author?
Impossible to pick just one, so for general authors I would choose Sarah Waters, Kate Atkinson, Charles Dickens, Robert Harris and Robert Galbraith (i.e. J.K. Rowling). Steve loves George R.R. Martin, Frank Herbert and Joe Abercrombie. In the crime and mystery genre we both like Elly Griffiths, Ann Cleeves, Ian Rankin, Anthony Horowitz and Agatha Christie.
Best book you ever read.
I would have to choose Bleak House by Charles Dickens. Steve would go for The Dune Series by Frank Herbert.
Last book you read.
The last book I read was Lustrum, the second book in the Cicero trilogy by Robert Harris. Steve has just finished Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield.
What would you do for a living if you weren’t a writer?
We both had other careers before becoming writers. I worked in the IT industry before joining Steve in our internet business. Steve was a nuclear physicist before becoming a dot.com entrepreneur. But at the moment we have no plans to do anything except write books.
Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why?This is going to sound terribly corny, but the answer for both of us is ‘each other’. We’ve always supported the other person in whatever they wanted to do professionally. We’ve been able to give each other the confidence to write.
No, my dears, that does not sound corny. That sounds wonderful. That is something we are strive for, but rarely get. Good on you!
If you could sit down and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why?
It would be fascinating to meet Agatha Christie and to talk about her books and how she developed her amazing plots. Steve would like to be Doctor Who’s companion for a day.
What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer?
It’s important to enjoy what you’re doing, but also to have the discipline to sit down each day and commit to a regular routine. Writing is hard work and progress can seem painfully slow at times. It’s important to remember that writing a novel is a marathon, not a sprint. If you want to be commercially successful as an independent author then it’s important to understand the market and genres. Being an independent author is as much about running a business as being a creative. That’s why we love what we do!
Do you have some links for us to follow you?
Websites:
http://www.msmorrisbooks.com/
http://margaritamorris.com/
https://www.stevemorrisbooks.com/
Facebook pages:
https://www.facebook.com/msmorrisbooks/
https://www.facebook.com/margaritamorrisauthor/
https://www.facebook.com/stevemorrisauthor
Amazon author pages:
https://www.amazon.com/M-S-Morris/e/B07H1HHZKR/
https://www.amazon.com/Margarita-Morris/e/B00G8KTA0C
https://www.amazon.com/Steve-Morris/e/B076547GBG/
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