Sand and Shadow
by Laurisa White Reyes
Genre: SciFi Horror
★Winner of the Houston Writer's House Competition★
Seven Survivors.
One Monster.
Nowhere to hide.
Mission Specialist Adán Fuentes awakes from cryo-hibernation to discover that most of his fellow crewmates are dead and the shuttle Carpathia is not where it’s supposed to be. Surrounded by a vast barren landscape, he and the other survivors wonder how they can accomplish their mission, to establish a home for future colonists.
When an unseen creature attacks them, the Carpathia’s crew must turn their attention to surviving and solving the true purpose behind their mission.
Inspired by the 50’s sci-fi flick FORBIDDEN PLANET, SAND AND SHADOW plumbs the depths of the human psyche and the power of its influence. As the Carpathia’s crew’s secrets and flaws are revealed, readers may find themselves compelled to examine their own dark places.
Tell us about Sand and Shadow.
Mission Specialist Adán Fuentes
awakes from cryo-hybernation and discovers that he is one of seven survivors of
the shuttle Carpathia’s crew. The shuttle’s been damaged, and they are on a
distant planet, way off course from their intended destination and purpose.
When they are attacked by some unseen creature, the crew must race against time
to figure out where they are, how they got there, and how to defend themselves
– if they can. Think The Martian meets Alien.
What inspired you to write Sand
and Shadow?
When I was kid, one of my favorite
movies was Forbidden Planet, about a scientist on a distant planet who
somehow taps into the deepest recesses of his psyche and unleashes a monster. I
watched the video over and over for years and have always been fascinated with
the plot. I watched it a few months ago. The movie is very hokie by today’s
standards, but the premise still holds up. I wanted to create a new story with
new characters but based on a similar idea: that humans and the human mind are
capable of both great good and profound evil.
Most of your books are either
fantasy or contemporary young adult. What motivated you to delve into science
fiction/horror?
I’m a sucker for horror fiction.
Every summer, I read nothing but horror. I’ve read a lot of zombie and haunted
house books over the years. Most of the short stories I’ve written are either
horror or speculative in nature. Even a couple of my novels have elements of
psychological suspense. So, I was destined to eventually write something
seriously hard core like Sand and Shadow. I would love to write more in
this genre. I’ve got some good ideas.
What was the writing process like
for this book?
I began writing the first draft in
2012, the year my very first novel was published. By then, I’d already written
a dozen other manuscripts, each of which has taken about eight years on average
from start to publication. Writing is a long process for me. I muddle over
details for years before I ever begin to write. I finished the first draft of Sand
and Shadow in about a year, but then it sat on the back burner while I
revised and published my other books. Eventually, I came back around to it. I
spent all of 2020 revising and polishing it, and most of this year on
everything else it takes to publish a book.
Besides writing, how do you spend
your time?
Writing is on and off, depending on
which project I’m working on. I just finished the first draft of a historical
novel that I’ve been working on for about five years. So, I’m not writing
anything new at the moment. I’m currently focused on promoting and marketing my
backlist, which is like a part-time job. I own my own small press, and we’re
actually publishing our second contest winner this fall, a memoir called A
Sacred Duty: How a whistleblower took on the VA and won by Paula Pedene.
So, I’m spending time editing and designing that book as well. When I’m not
writing/editing/designing, I spend the rest of my time with my
thirteen-year-old son (he’s my youngest of five kids – the others are all
adults now). I homeschool him and transport him to his many activities: scouts,
horseback riding, theater, piano, voice lessons. I volunteer with scouting and
theater as well. Oh, and I also teach college composition part-time, take care
of my home and family, and I read. A lot.
What sorts of books do you enjoy
reading?
I’ve always been an avid reader. As
a kid and teenager, my brothers would spend Saturday afternoons outdoors
pulling weeds and doing yardwork for my dad. I’d be lying in bed devouring a
book. I read between 30-50 books a year in a variety of genres. Summers are
devoted to horror fiction, especially zombies and supernatural thrillers. But I
also love historical non-fiction, young adult, suspense, and mysteries. The
only genre I won’t touch is romance. Blech. I’ll read a book with some romance
in it but never a straight up romance novel. Some of the best books I’ve ever
read include:
Gone with the Wind by
Margaret Mitchell
Lilies of the Field by
William E. Barrett
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott
Card
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth
Wein
Angels & Demons by Dan
Brown
What do you enjoy most about
writing?
Most novelists can tell you that
something magical happens while you’re writing a first draft. When you get
really into the story, the real world seems to dissolve, and you’re transported
into a world of your own making. My husband and kids joke that they can ask me
anything while I’m writing, and I’ll just nod my head and have no recollection
of what I’ve agreed to. And then somewhere along the line, it’s hard to explain,
but the story takes on a life of its own. Like you’re not writing the story but
it’s writing itself, and you as the author are the conduit rather than the
creator. The characters become, in some sense, real beings, and the writer’s
job is to be faithful to those characters and the story. That’s why I love
writing first drafts. It’s the creative, magical experience that is so
remarkable. But then later, the real work begins with editing and revising.
It’s a completely different mental process, and I enjoy that too but in a
different way. Editing, to me, is like shaping clay on a potter’s wheel,
molding the material that is already there into something really beautiful.
What kind of research goes into
your writing?
I love research. I’ve spent countless
hours researching for each of my novels: reading non-fiction books, newspapers,
magazines, online studies and websites, conducting interviews, and even on-location
travel. For my novel Sand and Shadow, I had to learn about cryogenics,
habitable planets, ESP, light speed calculations, and a bunch of other stuff.
My dad was a computer programmer for Jet Propulsion Laboratories working on
deep space craft like Voyager and Ulysses. He first introduced me to the idea
of planetary colonization and deep space travel. What we’ve always considered
science fiction is, in reality, within reach. I didn’t want the book to sound
too futuristic but something that could happen within the next few years. The
secret to good research for any book is for the information to be so smoothly
incorporated into the story that the readers don’t notice it. Like the beams
and bolts make up the structure of a building. It should be invisible to the
naked eye.
Laurisa White Reyes is the author of sixteen books. Her middle grade novel THE STORYTELLERS won the 2015 Spark Award from The Society of Children's Books Authors & Illustrators (SCBWI) and her young adult novel PETALS received the 2017 Spark Honor Award.
In addition to writing, Laurisa also is the founder and Senior Editor of Skyrocket Press, which publishes quality fiction and non-fiction for a variety of readers. She also teaches English composition at College of the Canyons in Southern California. To subscribe to Laurisa's monthly newsletter, visit her website at www.LaurisaWhiteReyes.com
Sounds like a great action packed book I know I would love to read.
ReplyDeleteNothing would be more frightening to me than being stuck on another planet with a monster. Looking forward to reading this sci fi read.
ReplyDeletewhat is your favorite genre as a reader?
ReplyDelete