An Interview with L.A. Sands

L.A. Sands is an author with aphantasia, a condition that leaves her unable to visualize mental images. As a result, her stories are crafted to be felt as much as seen, inviting readers to imagine the world in their own way. Her immersive style places readers alongside the characters, allowing them to walk the path of the story rather than simply observing it.

---

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

This is a difficult question to answer. It wasn’t until I started to write that I understood my brain worked differently than others. Influence and inspiration are words usually connected to images seen or mentally created. I can enjoy an image, but it disappears when it leaves my sight. I can’t connect to it in the way others do.

I am inspired by how others see the world and talk about it. How their bodies shift as they tell their stories and share their memories. I write about the world being alive and waking, how this affects everything, and I think that my travels and seeing how stories move through people renew my passion to connect through words.

I understand this may not make sense to someone who was inspired to write about a great piece of art or a beautiful scene they beheld. Let me try to explain this briefly.

I live in my van and travel North America. I have seen things others only read about. I visited the Grand Canyon and have read stories about those who were inspired by what they saw stretched out before their eyes. For me, it was a check mark on the map, an accomplishment, but without the ability to close my eyes and see the canyons stretched out, it is just another location.

For me, the inspiration to write about it wasn’t what I saw, it was how my husband’s breath changed as we entered the park. I remember the way he shifted in his seat, like a child awaiting Christmas morning, and the sound of his exhale as he finally stopped holding his breath when it came into view. I remember the stories of every person visiting there that day, the panic of the mother whose child started to climb under the railings. These are the sounds and physical experiences that inspired me to write about the trip. I close my eyes and see nothing, but I feel the world through the eyes of those that were there.

I hope that explained a little about what influences me.

I write in parking lots and national forests. I live on the road and hope to inspire those I meet as much as they inspire me.

What inspired you to start writing this book?

I have always told stories. Anyone who has ever met me will tell you I love to talk and share experiences with others. During the COVID lockdown, my husband required surgery and afterward suffered from aphasia. Every day was a fight for him to find his words, and for me the world stopped in the silence. My memory is almost one hundred percent audio-based and I missed making memories together.

As part of his therapy, I created The Fey Seam, a world we could walk together on paper. Through this shared experience, he could find his voice again. I learned to write what I felt and how I experienced the awakenings in my books, and he found the words to tell me how he saw my world as he walked beside me.

I have a disability that limits my mobility, and our life has been simple. I would drive to a destination, and he and our dog, Luna, would walk it. He took pictures, and when he returned to the van, we sat and he told me all the things he saw, using the images to prompt his memory and let me feel as if I was there. I don’t remember the images, but the stories … they are part of me now through him.

I wrote this book to feel that again, to let others feel my stories and see my world through their eyes.

Every reader to date that I have spoken to tells the same story, but they all saw a different world. Some saw a tall dark-haired character, others saw someone different. The temples were large stone structures or small wooden huts. I love this, and I think it was this response that inspired me to write different entrances into my world.

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

The title, The Spark of the ALL, came after the book was complete. I was telling someone about it, explaining the ALL from Gnostic myth and the spark that connects everything in the cosmos. The name just came to me like it had always been there, waiting for me to claim it.

The original draft title was character-based and, to my surprise, the book is about the world waking inside a dream, and the main character is only the catalyst, not the protagonist. Naming the book after him didn’t make sense.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

I think the soundtrack should tell the story of a person and the struggle to remember who you are. It should tell of wanting something without realizing the cost and discovering it is not what you need. I would include music of the journey and awakenings. There is a section where loss should be felt, and it needs to end with healing and new possibilities.

I am an eighties girl and love soundtracks to movies. There is a lot out there, but nothing quite close except Rewrite Your Story. This song describes the possibilities in the book and the style in which it is written.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I retired from retail due to an injury, but my employment and prior professions are similar to those of my readers, I would think. I have done many things in my life, from McDonald’s to owning a small business. I believe in working my way up in a company and understanding not only the job but the people I work with, and helping those I can.

Something my readers would not know about me: as a new author and virtually unknown, the list of things that fit this category is long. But my favorite employment story is when I worked as a manager for Frank’s Nursery and Crafts. It is an American store, no longer in business, but similar to the Canadian chain Michaels, with the addition of a garden center. My store was in a rough neighborhood, and finding good help was difficult, and keeping it was almost impossible.

I remember setting up a tutoring room and volunteering my time to help my staff with homework. I organized community projects, and if organizations purchased through my store, I would teach classes for free to the kids or seniors. We held potluck dinners for my staff, and leftovers were taken home for family members, so everyone had food. I loved my job, but the stories and experiences from this period of time have stayed with me the strongest over the years.

I still feel the connection to the people I met back then. I have many moments like this.

My life is an open book, but for those who take the time, it is the stories written between the lines that carry the biggest impact.

What books did you read (for research or comfort) throughout your writing process?

What books did I read? This is a difficult question and my answer is … none. I read everything I could find on how to write better, what scenes need to connect with readers, but because of my aphantasia, I don’t connect well to most fiction stories. I can’t see the story they describe, and if they don’t ground it in how the character feels, I don’t connect.

I talked to people and shared stories about my world, but outside my book. They can be found in my Cormyth’s scrolls section on my website.

For comfort, I wrote a collection of non-fiction short stories about my life on the road, connected with other authors, and took as many classes as I could to understand writing, publishing, and most importantly editing.

I find comfort in knowledge, and there is always something to learn when you are an indie author. I am currently taking video classes, social media advertising courses, and my favorite — how to speak when you can’t edit your words live. LOL.

What advice would you give your past self at the start of your writing journey?

I am not sure I would give myself any advice out of fear it would change my outcome, and I love where I am today. But advice for a new writer … that would be that ‘The End’ is where the story finds itself and the work begins.

Have a thick skin. There are many people out there who will tell you how they want your story written, but a story written for someone else is never as good as the story you write for yourself. Be open to input and learn as much as you can, because writing for yourself is wonderful, but if you hope to publish you need to find a way to keep your story while writing it so that others will want to follow along.

Writing differently, thinking differently in a world that challenges anything not the same is difficult. Protect your voice. Defend it because it defines who you are. Don’t let others, including readers or editors, change your voice or include theirs in your work, and don’t take the easy way and use AI, because at some point you will have to defend your voice as yours, and if you let others in, what are you defending?

I know it sounds cheesy, but it is the best advice I can give. Writing is like a river — you never step into the same river twice. It is always moving forward and changing along the way. Enjoy the moment.

What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?

In a world where you can’t believe what you see anymore, I would love to show readers that reality may not be what you think it is, but trust what you feel. Use your mind again to imagine the world you want to live in and make it happen. My books are about awakening and consequences. They are about discovering that everything we do casts ripples out into the cosmos. Be aware. You can live a dream if you are awake in your life.

---

Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.