Author Interview: JL Morin: Natures Confession: Trading Dreams Sazzae An Award Winning Author

She is the award-winning author of “Occupy’s Bestselling Novel” Trading Dreams. It was number 1 bestselling novel in “Political Fiction” category on Amazon. She was nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize in 2011. Her novel Sazzae won Gold Medal for 2010 eLit Book Award and also won the 2010 Living Now Book Award. She is an Adjunct Faculty at Boston University and her work has been in many publications of global repute. Few are The Harvard Advocate, The Detroit News, Agence France Presse, Harvard YISEI, Cyprus Weekly, The Harvard Crimson and Livonia Observer Ecentric Newspapers.

She spent her childhood in the inner city Detroit, and then graduated from Harvard. She did her MBA from Stem School of Business, New York. She started her career at the Federal Reserve Bank on 103^rd floor of the World Trade Center and after 9/11 she changed her career as a TV newscaster.

Welcome JL Morin.

Your real name and pen name?

JL Morin

About your education and original career plan?

I originally dreamed of being a space colonist, but, as a product of the Detroit Public School system, soon realized there were certain limitations. At the end of high school, I won 3^rd place in the International Science and Engineering Fair for a project cloning plasmids in yeast cells to discover a genetic mechanism regulating fermentation. I went on to Harvard with the intention of studying biochemistry, but, repulsed by enormous chemistry lectures, U-turned into creative writing.

What languages you can speak and write?

I speak English, French, Greek and a little Japanese. My writing is first published in English, with the exception of a few articles for Agence France-Presse in French.

What hurts you most in this world

Our destruction of the environment and other living creatures.

When did you start writing? What is the purpose of your writing?

I started writing a diary for my English class and never stopped. What a great assignment! English teachers, have your students keep a journal and hand it in once in a while. You’ll be surprised what they’ll share with you. My middle-school writing is responsible for at least one drug bust.

What have you published so far? What are your forthcoming writings?

I wrote my Japan novel, SAZZAE (Gold medalist in the 2010 eLit Book Award, and 2010 Living Now Book Awards winner) as my thesis at Harvard. I took to the road, traveling around the world, working as a TV newscaster and writing three more novels, was hired as adjunct faculty at Boston University, and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2011. My other novels are NATURE'S CONFESSION (forthcoming Jan. 8, 2015); TRAVELLING LIGHT; and ‘Occupy’s 1st bestselling novel’ TRADING DREAMS, a humorous story that unmasks hypocrisy in the banking industry and tosses corruption onto the horns of the Wall Street bull. I write for the Huffington Post, Library Journal and have written for The Harvard Advocate, Harvard Yisei, the Detroit News, Agence France-Presse, Cyprus Weekly, European Daily, Livonia Observer Eccentric Newspapers, the Harvard Crimson and others

Would you like to share a synopsis of your work?

An eco-loving cli-fi romance that takes place next year

When a smart-mouthed, mulatto teen wonders why the work that needs to be done pays so much less than the busywork that the holovision news glorifies, the search for answers takes him on the wildest journey of anyone’s lifetime.

With the girl of his dreams, he inadvertently invents living computers. Just as the human race allows corporations to pollute Earth into total desolation, institute martial law and enslave humanity, the two teens set out to save civilization. Can they thwart polluters of Earth and other fertile planets? The heroes come into their own in different kinds of relationships in this diverse, multi-cultural romance.

Along the way, they enlist the help of female droid Any Gynoid, who uncovers cutting-edge scientific mysteries. Their quest takes them through the Big Bang and back. Will Starliament tear them from the project and unleash ‘intelligent’ life’s habitual pollution, or will youth lead the way to a new way of coexisting with Nature?

With illustrations and topics for discussion at the back of the book, JL Morin entertains questions about busywork; economic incentives to pollute; sustainable energy; exploitation; cyborgs; the sanctity of Nature; and many kinds of relationships in this diverse, multi-cultural romance.

What keeps you motivated to write?

Making time for writing . . . and Nature, especially the sea.

What four top most things you look out for while writing a book?

Four! There are at least a million. It’s infinite, but lately, I’m focusing on the sound of words, natural dialogue, turning pain into humor, and re-writing, re-writing, re-writing (oops, that’s already more than four).

How much real life goes into a fiction?

We experience ‘real’ life on a subconscious, subjective level, and our readers bring their own subconscious interpretations to a book. The communication between the author and reader almost all happens on the subconscious level. How much of that is classifiable as ‘real’? That depends on how much came from or got translated into action, before and after the book. Answer: it varies.

Your dream destination on Earth?

Where I am.

Your favorite time of the day?

First thing in the morning, unless it’s before 5 a.m.

Your zodiac/ sunsign?

Scorpio, scropio, scorpio.

Your favorite color and why?

Yellow: it’s the color of the sun…and a lot of the gamma rays coming out of Sagitarius A*, our galaxy’s creator/‘black hole’.

Your favorite book and why?

The Magus, by John Fowles. It’s nature scenes are beautifully written; it’s a puzzle that piques the senses, reaches backward at the twisted end, and falls into place.

Your favorite movie and why?

‘Braveheart’: “Freedommmmmmm!”