You may have seen my home page or perhaps my previous posts about me new upcoming sci-fi horror novella, Obsidian. It is due March 25, and I am writing this on March 19, so it is nearly here. It has a terrific cover and will be published by Baynam Publishing.
It is also my first attempt at horror sci-fi, so I thought you might be interested in where the whole idea came from. I get asked that a lot, to be honest, especially writing about what I write about. I am assuming most people assume I had a horrific childhood or something, but that is not the case. The stories come. Let's dive in.
Working Class Space Heroes
My heroes in the story are on the salvage ship called The Vanguard. They pilot this ship in shifts, looking and waiting for calls to come help or salvage abandoned vessels. Some of the crew sleeps in sleep chambers while a few pilot the ship. So, whenever you have blue-collar working-class astronauts, the inspiration is probably obvious to you if you are a fan of sci-fi horror. Of course, I mean Alien.
I loved the movie Alien when I finally got a chance to see it. I remember hearing my mother, father, aunt and uncle all talking about the chest-burster scene. There was a time, that was the most shocking thing in horror film. When I saw it, I loved it. It was creepy and moody and the xenomorph was amazing. For a brief time, Alien even knocked Jaws off the top spot of my favorite movie list.
Real Life Science
Lots of times stories kick around in my head looking for a home for a long time. Back in 2011, I read with fascination the discovery of a planet now called TrES-2b. It is, so far, an exo-planet and the darkest one discovered. So little light comes from it, it is very hard to see. It reflects less than 1% of the light of its own sun.
It is thought to be a gas giant like Jupiter, with a cloudy surface. I loved the idea and knew I had to eventually write a story about it. I imagined a world when tourists would fly to see "the darkest planet in the universe."
I named my planet Obsidian (which is a type of volcanic glass known to have been crafted into weapons by the Aztecs and other native tribes). I also made up a scientific name that does not resemble the real-life planet.
It soon became a creepy setting for a story that would not actually take place on the planet.
A Thriller on a Boat
The finally piece of my puzzle is a terrific, very claustrophobic thriller called Dead Calm. It was the movie where I first saw Nicole Kidman (and thought she was SO gorgeous) and it is still one of my favorites of her performances. Billy Zane and Sam Neill round out the small cast. It's all about a couple out on their own boat who run across Zane's character in a lifeboat. Once they bring him on board, they soon find out they have brought true evil inside with them.
I have always loved that movie. All of the performances are terrific and it is a great thriller.
I was inspired by that to help move my story forward. I knew my crew were a salvage crew. Therefore, they would be sent to a pleasure vessel in distress. I knew they would find a supposed survivor and bring him on board. I knew then, that the nightmare would commence.
Then the Story Turned
Like most stories, once those components clicked in my brain it began to reveal itself to me. I don't do outlines. I let the story tell itself to me and some part of me really does believe these characters live somewhere and talk to me to tell me the stories I write.
I was soon surprised to see where it went. Since it was sci-fi I could bring in all sorts of technology. Then,, I was completely stunned when I realized where I could go with it and with the evil within their midst. In short, I took components from a few places, blended them together, and it came out its own thing at the end.
I love when that happens.
The Sci-Fi
I have never written sci-fi before. I struggled with it. I wanted to make it realistic, and I think I did my best and did alright. However, I know there are some hard sci-fi fans out there who will love to tear this apart. Look, sometimes you have to bend the rules of space, physics and the real world to tell a compelling story. So, I tried my best, but when the story warranted a little suspension of disbelief, I can only hope the readers will do so.
Take the Journey to the Edge of the Universe
Space is a scary thing. It is so vast, and seemingly endless. That is terrifying, so it is great fodder for both sci-fi and horror. I am glad I wrote Obsidian. I think it is great little horror tale that goes unexpected places. If you don't mind reading novellas, I think you'll enjoy being with the crew of The Vanguard and the nightmares they find at the far end of the universe.
Obsidian comes out March 25. You can pre-order the Kindle edition at Amazon. If you read it, please consider leaving a review! The reviews matter!
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