GUEST
POST
The Oxygen Factory
by Renée
des Lauriers
The Oxygen Factory is currently on tour with Ravenswood Publishing. The tour stops here today for a guest post by the author. Please be
sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
Description
Breathe the air and die. Or worse, breathe and survive as one of the infected
- blind, scarred, mangled, and stripped of everything but the hunger. Every day
that Stella survives, scavenging through the buildings left standing, is
another chance for the infected to kill her. If they can hear her, they know
exactly where she is. If she stands still they can sniff her out. Fifteen years
after the spread of the toxins, Stella was raised watching the infected hunt
humans down. She told herself that it wasn’t ever going to happen to her.
Until one day, Stella finds a man washed up on the shore, from the Oxygen
factory; the factory that ships out pills, which work its way into the lungs
and pump oxygen throughout the body. He is part of the only organization
working to keep humanity alive. Stella knows that to save him, will put her
straight into danger. She’ll have to fight off more than just the infected to
keep his secrets and keep him safe.
Featured Review
I think the most compelling aspect of The
Oxygen Factory is the idea of the story. Most stories of the dystopian
genre is about the destruction of the world and the inevitable fall of man. In
this story, it is the beginning of salvation of an infected world. One other
aspect I enjoyed was how the environment very much affects people. There is
Gavin who is virtually ignorant of how destroyed humanity has becomes, and he
cannot comprehend how corrupted the people outside the Oxygen Factory are. Then
there is Stella who only really knows survival and corruption, and this often
makes her manipulative and harsh.
Guest Post by the
Author
Behind the Scenes
There were many ideas for stories, then there was the story that I
always knew was the one: The Oxygen Factory. I imagined the factory before anything else. What would the factory
that held the key to life on earth look like? What would the scientists who
lived there be like? The idea came when I was reading about how little we knew
about the ocean, and all the resources it held. I began to map out designs and
diagrams of a place where science was integrated with nature.
Every part of their lives from their buildings to their experiments to
their houses emerged as a melding of nature and machine.
As I wondered what had happened to the rest of the world, I pictured all
the modern day chemicals that get into the air. All those pesticides, and car
exhaust, and that industrial smoke that gets released every single day. What if
one day, it all became too much? How horrifying would it be if it was the very
air that could kill us? What would it take to survive if we could die in the
space of time it takes to breathe?
But what if those toxins in the air could do worse than just kill you? I
imagined toxins that stripped you down, until every layer of humanity was taken
away. What if you had to watch as every piece of you was gone until the only
thing left was a savage hunger?
How could anyone survive this? The only way was through the greatest
invention of those surviving scientists. You had to take a pill, that was more
than just a pill. Inside it was all the oxygen that you needed, delivered to
your lungs in a time-released pattern. You would take that pill and never have
to breathe at all.
Last, I thought if the world had turned into this wasteland, populated
by the infected, how could it be saved? Someone with the answers from the
oxygen factory, must have gotten separated one day. They met just the right
person from the outside. It was through this series of questions that the
premise for The Oxygen Factory was born.
Some of my life experiences leaked out on to the pages of this book. As
I write I can feel the memories of my years as an emergency medical technician.
The writing reflects all those times that I drove an ambulance with lights and
sirens blaring, and helped victims of burns, cardiac arrests, and heroin
overdoses. I got to see firsthand people facing the worst experiences of their
lives. I also closely worked with dialysis patients. It was haunting to see how
their lives could only continue if they were hooked into a machine day after
day after day.
In order to write through the lens of experience, I also did some things
for this book that I never would have done otherwise. I never would have fired
a gun if I wasn't a writer. But since I am, I shot down targets, and soda cans,
and stuffed animals.
There were some scenes that I knew I could only write through traveling
through them myself. After work one day, I walked across the George Washington
bridge. I stepped into New York City imagining what I would do if all of the
people I saw were infected and wanted to eat me. I answered that question,
decided my path through the city and walked back.
Whenever I reread the story, I can't help but recall all those hundreds
of places where I wrote it. I wrote on airplanes, in hot tubs and swimming
pools. I wrote on line at the grocery store. I wrote on the sidewalk, waiting
for my favorite thrift shop to open. I wrote during Hurricane Sandy with the
power out, surrounded by hundreds of candles.
I also recall the odd quirks I adopted. For some reason I was convinced
that everything I wrote in purple ink was inherently better. I have chapters
all laid out in purple. I also decided that my good friend's purple couch
helped me think, which is where I wrote the majority of my first draft. Looking
back, I have no idea why I did this. Besides in writing, I don't even prefer
that color.
Thank you for reading about what went on behind the scenes, and I hope
you enjoy the book. And by the way, for the sequel I have already purchased a
gas mask, a machete and a new set of purple pens.
About the Author
Renée des Lauriers was raised in New Jersey, the most densely populated
state in America. There amidst the crowds and traffic, she pictured what would
happen if the zombie apocalypse broke out. She now resides in Las Vegas, Nevada
with her husband and chinchillas.
Links
