Meet Mort Stump, Author of Alyssa's Story
BBB: Tell us about yourself:
MS: I am a farmer and teacher form southeast Pennsylvania and are of German and French Huguenot stock. I am married with five children and three grandchildren. I have been active in church, as a school board member, and as a township official for many years. I enjoy hunting, gardening, and many sports.
BBB: What inspired your book?
MS: While working a part-time third shift job in an assisted living center, I listened to late night talk shows that had guests such as economists, futurists, and political analysts. It became clear to me that our country would run into serious trouble if it continues on its current path of spending more than it takes in and being a nation of consumers instead of producers. Additionally, it appeared that God might be withdrawing his blessings from our country as we turned from Him, made other things our idols, and adopted more worldly ways.
My first idea was to create a ministry where people could come and seek help as our economy would deteriorate. Maybe a list of resources that they could use to help pay the bills or keep their homes when they lost their job for example. It then occurred to me that many of those resources were government run and funded and that the government would be in no better shape than we would be to handle bad times, so why bother?
Instead, I decided to write a story that would prepare my fellow citizens for what might soon be happening. I started blogging the story in November 2006 and ran out of written material (Chapter 21) around February 2008. But people who had read those first chapters told me that others needed to read this story and that I must make it a book. They prodded and encouraged me and eventually Alyssa's Story was completed and published.
MS: I am a farmer and teacher form southeast Pennsylvania and are of German and French Huguenot stock. I am married with five children and three grandchildren. I have been active in church, as a school board member, and as a township official for many years. I enjoy hunting, gardening, and many sports.
BBB: What inspired your book?
MS: While working a part-time third shift job in an assisted living center, I listened to late night talk shows that had guests such as economists, futurists, and political analysts. It became clear to me that our country would run into serious trouble if it continues on its current path of spending more than it takes in and being a nation of consumers instead of producers. Additionally, it appeared that God might be withdrawing his blessings from our country as we turned from Him, made other things our idols, and adopted more worldly ways.
My first idea was to create a ministry where people could come and seek help as our economy would deteriorate. Maybe a list of resources that they could use to help pay the bills or keep their homes when they lost their job for example. It then occurred to me that many of those resources were government run and funded and that the government would be in no better shape than we would be to handle bad times, so why bother?
Instead, I decided to write a story that would prepare my fellow citizens for what might soon be happening. I started blogging the story in November 2006 and ran out of written material (Chapter 21) around February 2008. But people who had read those first chapters told me that others needed to read this story and that I must make it a book. They prodded and encouraged me and eventually Alyssa's Story was completed and published.
BBB: Tell us about your main character:
MS: Alyssa Stump is an eleven year old daughter of a farm couple in Pennsylvania. She has three older siblings. She narrates the whole book, chronicling conversations, events, and other activities that occur before, during, and after the collapse of the US dollar. She has a close relationship with her family members, especially her father. Also with her grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and a particularly annoying neighbor boy her age. She is very loving and compassionate, possesses a fair amount of common sense, has a good work ethic, and learns to put up with and even join in the teasing and wit evident in her community. She grows stronger through the whole ordeal, exhibiting courage in difficult situations.
BBB: What are you currently working on?
MS: Currently, the next story is only conceptual, but it involves a 119 year old man being interviewed in 2063 by a college student who desires to know how things were back in the beginning of the first two-three decades of the 2000 millennium. Things like the first African-American President, the first woman President, the way the educational system was fixed, how the government's fiscal crisis was solved, scientific, agricultural and technological developments, and how a revival occurred in the country that brought it to greatness again. Again, it is only conceptual - not enough on the note cards to start writing.
BBB: How can readers discover more about you and your work?
MS: When you google "Mort Stump", I am usually the first eight to ten hits. There you can find another interview, longer biographies, story summaries, and my blog: ainnStoa , where I can respond to readers' inquiries
MS: Alyssa Stump is an eleven year old daughter of a farm couple in Pennsylvania. She has three older siblings. She narrates the whole book, chronicling conversations, events, and other activities that occur before, during, and after the collapse of the US dollar. She has a close relationship with her family members, especially her father. Also with her grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and a particularly annoying neighbor boy her age. She is very loving and compassionate, possesses a fair amount of common sense, has a good work ethic, and learns to put up with and even join in the teasing and wit evident in her community. She grows stronger through the whole ordeal, exhibiting courage in difficult situations.
BBB: What are you currently working on?
MS: Currently, the next story is only conceptual, but it involves a 119 year old man being interviewed in 2063 by a college student who desires to know how things were back in the beginning of the first two-three decades of the 2000 millennium. Things like the first African-American President, the first woman President, the way the educational system was fixed, how the government's fiscal crisis was solved, scientific, agricultural and technological developments, and how a revival occurred in the country that brought it to greatness again. Again, it is only conceptual - not enough on the note cards to start writing.
BBB: How can readers discover more about you and your work?
MS: When you google "Mort Stump", I am usually the first eight to ten hits. There you can find another interview, longer biographies, story summaries, and my blog: ainnStoa , where I can respond to readers' inquiries
