MEET AUTHOR | Stephanie Morrill

Stephanie, describe yourself for our visitors.

I’m 25 and live in Kansas City with my husband—who was also my high school sweetheart—our 18-month old daughter, McKenna, and our mutt, KC. My life is full of pretty normal stuff, like diapers and bill paying. I have a crazy thing for coffee, and I love watching TV. I know it makes me sound lame, but I could watch a lot of TV. If The Office is on, I simply can’t make myself turn away. Even if it’s an episode I’ve seen a thousand times (which it’s a good chance it is). I’m not much of a “hobby” gal, unless reading counts. I used to facilitate a book club for church, but I’ve had to step down from that for a little bit. My husband and I serve in the two- and three-year-old room at church, which I loooove. The kids crack me up and I find spending time in there both relieves stress and refocuses me on what’s important.

How do you find time to connect with God?

With the combination of writing deadlines and chasing after McKenna, it sometimes feels like a lot of work to connect with God. Some days I completely fail, but I’m grateful to have reached a place in my spiritual journey where I miss God when we don’t spend time together. When I’m successful at carving out Bible-reading time, it’s during McKenna’s first nap. I take about 20 minutes to read a chapter and pray. I’ve also taken to saying “breath” prayers in moments of thankfulness and keeping my mind on how all the blessings in my life are because of Him. Another thing I’ve done recently is acquire an accountability partner. My friend Debbie and I meet once a week for coffee. We say it’s only for an hour, but we’re usually there an hour and a half talking about struggles, church, and all kinds of things. I got much better about getting into God’s word consistently when I knew I’d have to tell Debbie whether or not I did.

Who were your favorite authors or books as a teen?

My favorite book as a teenager was Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, although saying that makes me sound like I’m much more of an “intellectual” than I really am. I also loved The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver and Paradise by Toni Morrison. All of these were books I read in my high school English classes. I went to a pretty rigorous school, so pleasure reading kinda dropped off for me until I graduated. That’s when I discovered the amazing world of YA fiction. I love everything Sarah Dessen does, especially This Lullaby, Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries series, and Ann Brashares The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series.

Tell us about your current book, Me, Just Different?

Skylar Hoyt is a girl who seems to have it all—she’s pretty, popular, and has a great-looking boyfriend. Her senior year should be the best one yet. But a horrible experience at a summer party has changed everything. Now she’s vowing to make better choices, including going back to church. But as Skylar tries to gain new perspective on life, the world as she knows it begins to fall apart.

Her parents are constantly fighting. Her younger sister has a big secret that Skylar is forced to keep. The guy she’s dating is annoyingly jealous. And the new guy down the street is just plain annoying. In the midst of the chaos, Skylar starts to wonder who her real friends are and, even more importantly, who she is.

How did you come up with ideas for this book?

Like most my ideas for books, it starts with some really tiny situation, and then I just ask, “What if?” about a thousand times and wind up with a whole book. In middle school, my best friend (who’s name was Jodi, although she’s much nicer and sweeter than Jodi-the-character) and I had this weird condition where we both liked the same guys and he oddly liked both of us back. It happened four and a half times (once we both liked him and he only liked her). It robbed us of our friendship for a while, but we eventually apologized to each other and are good now. But I’d say that situation was the first seed for Skylar’s story.

What are the main themes or lessons in this book?

I’ve never been the type to think, “I want to write about the dangers of partying and teen pregnancy” and then plot out a book. Instead I have a story idea, and then whatever issues I’m dealing with in my own life often find their way into the mix. With Me, Just Different I’d been thinking a lot about middle school and how I wished I’d been strong enough to not care what everybody thought about me and just pursued God’s goals relentlessly. Skylar’s an interesting mix of confidence and fear, like many of us are. So, to put it semi-succinctly, the theme is that it’s hard to live a godly life, but it’ll always be worth it. And there’s nothing in your life that’s unusable to God.

What advice did someone give you as a teenager that still remains with you today?

A very intelligent high school friend of mine liked to quote St. Francis Assisi, who said, “Go into the world and preach the gospel. When necessary, use words.” I like that a whole lot.

 Do you have any embarrassing moments you want to share from your teen years?

That I want to share? Uh, no. But I will. I was a huge Hanson fan. That’s pretty embarrassing, especially now that I’m into alternative rock. There are definitely some moments that I’d take back if I could—like during the talent show senior year when I went up on stage and made my monkey noise. I’d say the most embarrassing thing is that I broke up with my husband our junior year of high school. Obviously we got back together and things worked out great, but it still makes me cringe.

What’s next for you?

Well, there’s two more books in Skylar’s series, Out with the In Crowd, which releases in October, and So Over It, which releases in February 2010. And I have a lot more ideas desperate to make it into books.

Where can visitors find you online?

www.StephanieMorrillBooks.com

Come on by and drop me a note!

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