Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristof Morrow
Hi Kristof, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I thought to contend there was so much context necessary to inform my answer to your first question, but briefly and in truth, it began because of an extraordinary amount of physical, verbal, and emotional abuse by my parents, a great and inexplicable affection for words, and from constant, lonely contemplation for the nature and habits of people. These three ingredients yielded a sort of ghost of disillusionment that followed me everywhere, and could not be excused nor banished by any measure of happiness. My childhood, I believe, parted my soul in two, and one half of me exists beyond my government, ever observing, ever conceiving stories, and far wiser than its doomed twin that I control, who endures the spectrum of human experiences, and often resents the chaos of life. However, in the discovery and writing of universal truths, I happened upon a fleeting peace I still chase everyday when I do my work so beloved to me.
After high school at the age of 18, I joined the navy as a corpsman and learned triage and combat casualty care. I was never deployed, however this did not insulate me from loss. I failed once, and a friend and comrade died. Tom’s passing has imparted tremendous grief in my life, and it made extinct my want for working in emergency care. I left the navy at the age of 20 upon developing Tourette’s syndrome, but did not know that’s what I had. I began writing more seriously around this time, and won several first place awards for short fiction and poetry at two different colleges in Texas and Louisiana.
I married at 25 to a lovely woman, and continued writing fiction until I was 27, and I earned a position as a journalist at a newspaper where I won awards from the Texas Press Association for photography, and for feature writing from the South Texas Press Association. My Tourette’s became more violent, though, and I was injuring myself regularly. Dozens of times a day, on top of screaming vulgar words, I started to punch and slap myself in the face, and deformed my right hand by hitting it against hard surfaces even more often. I realized I would need regular access to emergency care for myself, so I immigrated to Canada with my ex-spouse who is a Canadian citizen. I quit writing for five years during this time due to stress, pain, and depression. At one point, I was in the ER because I could not stop clenching my teeth due to a tic, and they were at risk of shattering. I was regularly there for x-rays to learn if I had broken any bones in my hand.
As a consequence of how my Tourette’s was manifesting, I could not work a regular job, so I used the British Columbian government services to help me find something more suitable for someone with my condition. After several months of looking on my behalf, they called me October 16th, 2021 and told me they could find nothing, and that perhaps I should return to writing, since I seemed to enjoy that. Ten minutes after hanging up with Erin from the BC government, I began writing my first book, “The Second Sun: Volumes I & II.” I completed the book around July of 2023, was newly divorced, and developed schizotypal personality disorder, a condition on the spectrum of schizophrenia.
Due to living in poverty in British Columbia, I moved eight times between July 2023 and April 2024, (was very briefly homeless) when I returned to the United States, and moved to South Carolina to live with a dear friend, who is an officer in our military, that supports my work as a writer. Even single, I’m far happier here in Charleston than I’ve been anywhere else in the last five years.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My greatest nemeses have been Tourette’s, and the tyranny of depression. My divorce also brung unto me a howling grief, and even though unresolved despair is ever passenger, I’ve never known such hurt. To this day, I contend my divorce is the most traumatic experience of my life, and it even induced schizotypal personality disorder in me. Every moment, I experience several orders of delusion that injure my grasp of reality. I also war with OCD, severe anxiety, borderline personality disorder, and poverty despite my modest pension from the US military. But because of my love for people and my work, I like to say that I subsist in spirit on an anthem and an oath.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I can’t be certain, of course, but I believe I’m singular in the achievement to have written a book of literary epic fantasy (in English). I’ve written two novels, (the second being a sequel to the first) one kids book, and a book of poetry. Most of my 8,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram know me for my novels, my Tourette’s, and my trials with mental health. Because of these factors, I’ve gone viral on TikTok several times and received a great deal of positive attention. It’s meant I’ve sold more than 1600 copies in 50+ countries across the world, and at least one book on every inhabited continent.
I’m most proud of everything I’ve written, given the trials I’ve overcome.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
All the digital versions of my books are 99 cents on Amazon.
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