Frequently Asked Questions
Have you had any experience working with handicapped children and the people who care for them? What kind of research went into the creation of these characters in The Decoding of Lana Morris?
When Tom wrote the first scenes of this novel, he was remembering his own experiences with neighbors and relatives who had cared for children with Down's Syndrome. I had no experience to draw on, and I felt I couldn’t write truthfully about that situation. I read a newspaper article about a local Arc center, which is a place for developmentally disabled adults to learn life skills, and I asked the director if I could come there two mornings a week to volunteer and to observe. During those sessions, which continued for a couple of months, I was profoundly moved and disturbed by the struggles of the 30 and 40-year-old adults who spent their days learning to count money, to make a $2-purchase at Wal-Mart, or to make dinner from a mix. They faced a world that I found unbearably forbidding, but they faced it, by and large, with a grace and acceptance that I have never possessed.