Interviews Mark Morris by DJ Forrest

I finally read ‘Bay of the Dead’ and at night.  I’m not really a horror fan, especially where zombies are concerned (often begs belief given that I’m in a film featuring zombies) but once I got past the initial first few chapters I settled into it and found it quite an entertaining story.  There were a few characters I felt really sorry for, including the kid who had gone on the boat trip, putting myself into that scenario as to what could have been done to save him, but he was screwed either way. 

How did the story come about, why zombies?

Mark:  I submitted several ideas to BBC Books editor Steve Tribe and it was the zombie one that he liked the most. As for why zombies in the first place, I’m a big horror movie – and zombie movie – fan, and at that point had never written a full-on zombie novel before and thought it might be fun, especially if given a TORCHWOOD twist. Ironically, almost immediately after finishing my TORCHWOOD novel I got the commission to write the official tie-in novel to zombie apocalypse computer game DEAD ISLAND, then a commission to write a zombie short story for an anthology called 21^ST CENTURY DEAD, and then a commission to write a novel called HORROR HOSPITAL for Steve Jones’s and Robinson Publishing’s ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! shared world franchise. So all in all, I’m feeling a bit zombied-out at the moment… which doesn’t, of course, mean that I wouldn’t be open to any further zombie commissions that might come my way.

Although it’s Torchwood but given that zombies are pretty horrific in their actions and mannerisms, how horrendous were you allowed to write the story to.  I mean there are some pretty gruesome books out there, referring to James Herbert and his ‘Rats’ trilogy of which I found BRILLIANT but absolutely full of twisted gore and The Fog, again pretty horrific the actions involved with the characters.  The readers of Torchwood books are aware that there are levels of violence, considering the injuries that befall Jack but how far can you push the gore?

Mark:  Oh, pretty far. It’s different with DOCTOR WHO, of course, but with TORCHWOOD it’s pretty much anything goes… or at least, I don’t remember being censored or told to rein the gruesomeness in in any way.

Which of the Torchwood characters do you find easier to write for?

Mark:  I don’t know about ‘easier’, but I most enjoyed writing for Gwen and Rhys, I must admit. I love their relationship, and particularly the fact that Rhys is a decent, solid, traditional alpha male sort of bloke, who is socially conditioned to protect and look after his woman – who in turn just happens to be far more capable and kick ass than he will ever be! I love the fact that Gwen and Rhys bicker, but that there is genuine deep love and affection between them. And I also love the fact that Rhys tries so hard to fit in and to not let anyone down. He hasn’t had the training or the experience that the others have had, but he’s absolutely determined to prove his worth.

I’ve not read the Torchwood books in sequence, (it’s taken me a while to collect the series) so hadn’t been aware of Nina’s journey through the books until Joseph Lidster pointed it out in a recent interview.  Was it fun writing a character that already existed in other books although wasn’t a part of the Torchwood regulars?

Mark:  Nina was a character initially imposed upon the writers of my particular trio of books by Steve Tribe at quite a late date, so what I did was adapt one of my already existing characters and make her into Nina instead. It was cool to have that thread running through because it meant that regular readers got that nice little pay-off, though how consistent Nina is throughout the books I’m not entirely sure as I haven’t read them all. As with all of these kinds of things, there were only around ten weeks between commission and deadline, so we writers didn’t really have the time to get together and compare notes and properly flesh out Nina’s character. We had to just write her based on fairly sketchy notes and then rely on Steve to make sure she was consistent throughout her various appearances.

When you write a story do you often note up what the story is about or do you keep a mental map of where the story will take you?

Mark:  I usually do a fairly detailed scene-by-scene plan, especially if I’ve only got a limited time to write the book and if it has to be a certain number of words. I can’t remember exactly, but I think the TORCHWOOD books are 50,000 words long (I know the DOCTOR WHO ones are – the TW ones may be a bit longer), and you have to hit that mark pretty exactly, to the extent that if it’s below 49 or above 51 you have to either add or cut words to make it fit. With so little leeway and so little time, it’s important therefore (for me anyway) to know exactly where the story is going.

As an established writer do you still face rejections for some of your novels and how do you counteract that level of disappointment when a story idea is turned down, especially if you knew it worked well?

Mark:  Yes, I do still get novels and proposals turned down, and the way I deal with it is how I’ve always dealt with it – I just send it somewhere else, or rather my agent does. It’s a very tough market out there at the moment – tougher than I’ve ever known it, in fact – but I’m in the lucky position that everything I’ve written has sold eventually. I have a novel forthcoming from PS called THE BLACK, which it took me three years to sell, and which is almost certainly the last novel I’ll write on spec for a good while. The tendency nowadays, for professional writers at least, is to sell books on proposal. That’s how I sold my forthcoming trilogy OBSIDIAN HEART to Titan Books and it’s also how the tie-in market works. Another thing I’ve done in the last few years with rejected proposals is adapt them for different markets. I had an initially accepted proposal for a DOCTOR WHO audiobook vetoed by the production team because it was too close to one of the stories coming up on TV, and so I adapted that story for an anthology featuring Conan Doyle’s character Professor Challenger and it was accepted. Similarly I adapted a rejected horror novel proposal and turned it into a DOCTOR WHO story and it was accepted by AudioGo. So I guess the moral of this story, if there is one, is that writers should never give up on rejected ideas. Just because one person – or even ten people – turn you down, that doesn’t mean that everyone will.

When did you start writing and can you remember the first story you ever wrote that was accepted by a publisher?

Mark:  I started writing seriously in 1984 after I graduated from college, and I eventually became a full-time writer in 1988, initially on the government’s Enterprise Allowance Scheme, which is now long-since defunct. The first story I wrote which was accepted for publication was a story called HOMEWARD BOUND, which was published in a small press magazine called DARK DREAMS. However my first professional sale (ie one that I actually got money for) was to legendary US anthology editor Charles L. Grant for his highly-regarded SHADOWS series back in the late 80s. My story AGAINST THE SKIN appeared in FINAL SHADOWS, the 11^th and last volume in the series.

Where does the interest in Horror writing come from, which writer, story or perhaps film inspired you to start writing in this genre and have you written for any other genres, such as comedy or non sci-fi dramas?

Mark:  I’ve always loved scary stuff. As a kid/adolescent I devoured anthologies of horror and ghost stories, though funnily enough the first thing I saw/read that really terrified me was DOCTOR WHO, which has remained – and will always remain – my first love. I vividly remember being terrified by THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN when I was four, and then, between the ages of 5-7, by THE INVASION, THE SEEDS OF DEATH, SPEARHEAD FROM SPACE and THE SILURIANS. But it was always that kind of terror that thrilled me and made me want to go back for more – the sort of terror, I guess, that other people get from fairground rides. As well as DOCTOR WHO, I loved Brian Clemens’ THRILLER on Saturday nights, and then, from the age of about eleven, I discovered horror movies, and spent many a happy hour being traumatised by the output of Hammer, Amicus, Tigon and AIP. Particular films which stand out for me from that era include Hammer’s THE REPTILE, THE BRIDES OF DRACULA, DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS and FEAR IN THE NIGHT, Tigon’s THE HAUNTED HOUSE OF HORROR, THE BEAST IN THE CELLAR and BLOOD ON SATAN’S CLAW and most of the Amicus ‘portmanteau’ movies – TALES FROM THE CRYPT, ASYLUM, THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD and FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE.

As for whether I’ve written for any other genres, not really, though I did write a SPARTACUS novel for Titan, which, although it’s a TV tie-in, I guess you could say is more a historical novel than anything else.

Which was your favourite Doctor Who and which was the best episode for you?

Mark:  My favourite Doctor is Tom Baker and, to date, my favourite story is THE TALONS OF WENG-CHIANG – which is why it was such a thrill and a privilege to write for Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter in Big Finish’s JAGO & LITEFOOT series.

Out of all the Torchwood episodes which one sticks in your mind more, and which character did or do you have a soft spot for?

Mark:  The best TORCHWOOD story by far, I think, was CHILDREN OF EARTH, the five-part mini-series, which was just stunning. My favourite episode from the first two seasons – or at least the one that sticks in my mind – is the second season story ADRIFT, starring Ruth Jones and Robert Pugh, which I think is not only shocking and original, but gut-wrenchingly moving. The peripheral characters in those particular stories were really strong, I think. Peter Capaldi was brilliant as Frobisher in CoE and wrung every ounce of sympathy and anguish out of that character. His fate, and that of his family, left me in bits, such was the power of his performance.

Questions from the fans

Mickie Newton:  Hi Mark. Firstly would like to say that I loved the book! A fabulous read. Could you tell me, was there any inspiration for the Zombie idea! Love the twist by the way!!  Who was the easiest and most difficult character to write for in the Torchwood team? Are there any horror authors you enjoy reading, such as Steven King?

Mark:  Hi Mickie. Thanks for your lovely comments about BofD. Not sure how aware you are of my other work, but I’m known primarily as a horror writer, and so most of my ideas tend to be pretty dark and scary. In fact, it was the scariness of DOCTOR WHO, rather than the sci-fi elements (though I love those too) that first attracted me to the programme, and it’s the scary/Gothic stories that tend to be my favourites and the ones I most connect with. As a horror fan I’ve always loved zombie movies, and at the time of writing BotD had always fancied writing a full-on zombie novel because I’d never done it before (ironically I’ve now written three, having subsequently been commissioned to write the official tie-in novel for DEAD ISLAND and a novel for Steve Jones/Robinson Publishing’s successful ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! franchise). It struck me that zombies appearing out of nowhere and rampaging through Cardiff would be a pretty cool idea – after which, I just had to think up a reason why that might be happening!

As for the TORCHWOOD team, I don’t find any of them particularly easy or difficult to write for – it’s just a case of having the individual personalities and voices vivid and fresh in your mind and then trying to imagine those particular characters speaking the dialogue you’ve written for them. Having said that, I do particularly enjoy writing for Gwen and Rhys, simply because I love their relationship.

I read lots of other horror authors, most of whom, I must admit are good friends of mine. Stephen King is still the guvnor as far as I’m concerned (I’ve never met him, though I have been in the same room as him), but other horror and dark fantasy writers whose work I particularly enjoy include Ramsey Campbell, Adam Nevill, Stephen Volk, Tom Fletcher, Stephen Gallagher, M.R. James, Nicholas Royle, Graham Joyce, Dennis Etchison, and… oh, a whole host of others. It’s a rich and fecund field containing many superb writers.

Mel Purplemonkeydishwasher Bennett:  Bay of the Dead was incredible, as was Ghosts of India, I absolutely loved them. What I would like to know, is when did you know you wanted to be an author? And were you always a Doctor Who fan, or did that come later on?

Mark:  Hi Mel. Again, many thanks for your lovely comments. I’m delighted you enjoyed both BotD and GoI. I guess I’ve always wanted to be an author, in that I’ve always loved writing stories. In English at school I would write 15-20 page stories in my school exercise books which would often get read out in class by the teacher, and by the age of twelve I had completed two full-length DOCTOR WHO novels – ‘The Lizards’ and ‘Return of the Cybermen’, both of which I still have and which I take round to schools to show to the children when I get asked to do DOCTOR WHO writing workshops. However it wasn’t until I graduated in 1984 that I really thought seriously about writing for a living, and then it wasn’t until four years later, in 1988, once I’d sold a few stories and started to get good feedback from publishers about my work, that I decided to take the plunge and become a writer full time.

Yes, I’ve always been a DOCTOR WHO fan, and in fact my first TV memory is of watching THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN in 1967 when I was four and being terrified by the Yeti. I watched DOCTOR WHO avidly from then on and bought the Radio Times 10^th anniversary special in 1973, which enabled me to make sense of the show’s structure and history for the first time. Then in 1975, when I was eleven, I bought my first DOCTOR WHO novelisation – THE AUTON INVASION – which actually meant I could re-live many of the stories I’d only previously read about (albeit in print form) and remind myself of ones that I’d seen when I was younger. And I’ve never really looked back from there. I still have a full set of Target Books and still buy tons of DOCTOR WHO merchandise. The shelves of my study are crammed with DOCTOR WHO books, Big Finish audios and action figures. Wherever I look I see Daleks, Cybermen, Axons, Gell Guards, Weeping Angels, Fendahls, Ood, Sontarans… 

Hazel Stanton: As a horror author who inspires you and what scares you? What influenced you to write Bay Of the Dead and mix zombies with Torchwood? Your Doctor Who novel Forever Autumn was pretty creepy and gave me nightmares in places especially given the centipede type creatures having a phobia of them anyways. Did you find it hard to keep it toned down for a teenage audience?

Mark:  Hi Hazel. My influences are many and varied. I’ve already spoken about my early experiences watching DOCTOR WHO, Brian Clemens’ THRILLER and the horror films of the 60s and 70s which shaped my childhood. And I’ve spoken too of the many horror and ghost story anthologies I devoured throughout my adolescent and teenage years, particularly the annual volumes published by Pan, Fontana and Armada books. Other huge influences include TV writer Nigel Kneale, who wrote the QUATERMASS series, a brilliant Christmas ghost story for the BBC called THE STONE TAPE and a fantastic 1977 six-part ITV serial called BEASTS; the M.R. James Christmas ghost story adaptations, which were mostly scripted and directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark (though there were exceptions: the first of these, WHISTLE AND I’LL COME TO YOU, was adapted and directed by Jonathan Miller, and the brilliant THE SIGNALMAN was based on a story by Charles Dickens and not M.R. James); plus I consider myself extremely lucky to have been a child of the 70s, as this was an era when children’s TV was often fabulously creepy, bizarre and disturbing. I have very happy memories of watching some incredibly weird and wonderful tea-time serials from this era: RAVEN, CHILDREN OF THE STONES, ACE OF WANDS, ESCAPE INTO NIGHT, KING OF THE CASTLE, SKY, THE TOMORROW PEOPLE and THE CHANGES, to name but a few.

As for what scares me… far too much, which is probably why I write about this kind of stuff, in an effort to exorcise it or come to terms with it in some way. Having said that, it’s not the supernatural that frightens me necessarily (conversely I find the possibility of that comforting), but real life: death, suffering, violence, the thought of something bad happening to people that I love… all the usual things.

As for combining zombies with Torchwood, I’ll refer you to my answer above, and move on to your final question. Having watched DOCTOR WHO and read DOCTOR WHO books for most of my life I feel as though I know the show inside out, and so instinctively know what works and what doesn’t, and what its limits are in terms of scares, violence and – for want of a better phrase – adult content. So in that respect it wasn’t hard to keep the horror elements toned down for a teenage audience. I knew from the off that we couldn’t have knife fights and beheadings and such like, but then I wouldn’t have wanted to include such elements in a DOCTOR WHO story anyway; it just wouldn’t have felt right. DOCTOR WHO can be dark and creepy and violent, but it also has to be fun and comforting and joyous and inventive. For someone unfamiliar with the show I guess that might seem as daunting and intimidating as a tightrope-walk across a deep, black chasm. But for those of us who have been walking that tightrope for years, it’s as natural as a stroll along the pavement.

Pauline Howard:  Of all the books you have written do you have a favourite?

Mark:  I’m often asked this question, and to be honest it’s a bit like asking a father which is his favourite child. I’ve written over twenty books, and they were written in a variety of ways and under a variety of different circumstances. There are bits of each book I’m proud of and bits of each book I think could have turned out better. There are a few that were written under intense pressure (my SPARTACUS novel, for instance, had to be written and delivered within four weeks, even though, when I received the commission, I had never seen the TV series and knew nothing about Ancient Rome) and others that I laboured and leisured over for months. Also, as a writer, you tend to be fond of particular books for particular reasons – either because it was the first book you had published, or because it was your most successful book, or because it was the book that you were paid most money for. So, sorry to fudge the question, but I honestly don’t have a favourite. They all have their strengths and weaknesses and they all have their own special little place in my heart.