
My publisher likes to call it a thriller as well, which I am happy about I think it’s exciting and will keep readers on the edge of their seats. I love the atmosphere and trauma of horror amidst the trappings of sci-fi. That is! Sci-fi horror is one of my favorite genres, and it is what I set out to write. Salvation Day sounds like a sci-fi horror story. So all of those things stewed around in my mind for some time, and I wrote some different beginnings (there were two ships at one stage it was confusing) before finally settling on this one - which is, it turns out, very streamlined and fast-paced, but still, I think, manages to capture all of those elements I love. And I am always looking for ways to tell stories about how the damage of the past continues to inflict trauma and pain upon people living in the present. I’ve also long been obsessed with cults and why they do the outrageous things they sometimes do. I’ve long been in love with the idea of writing something set aboard a creepy abandoned spaceship because I love gloomy, moody, dangerous sci-fi settings of all types.

Where did you get the idea for Salvation Day and how did the story evolve as you wrote it? Things for both the cultists and their hostages begin to go very wrong as soon as they set foot aboard the ship because none of them have any idea what’s been waiting for them in that dark, dead, terrifying place. Salvation Day is about what happens when the members of a desperate cult decide to kidnap some students and seize an abandoned spaceship as their new home, only to find out that they don’t know the full truth about why it was abandoned in the first place.

So, in a very basic sense, what is Salvation Day about? I always like to begin with an overview of the plot. In the following email interview, she discusses what inspired and influenced this story, as well as how it actually started out as a YA novel. Though she’s known for writing such young adult fantasy novels as The Memory Tree and City Of Islands, writer Kali Wallace is exploring new territories with her adult sci-fi horror novel Salvation Day ( hardcover, Kindle).
