RICHARD WRIGHT is an author of strange dark fictions, currently living with his wife and daughter in New Delhi, India. His short stories have been widely published in the United Kingdom and USA for over a decade, most recently in magazines and anthologies including The Anthology of Dark Wisdom, Withersin 3.2, Beneath the Surface, Shroud, Tattered Souls, Choices, and the Doctor Who collection Short Trips: Re:Collections. His pulp novella Hiram Grange and the Nymphs of Krakow is available from Shroud Publishing. If you enjoyed “Sandboys,” drop by his website at www.richardwright.org and say hello.

Richard’s contribution to DARK FAITH is titled “Sandboys.”

Who are you?
Richard Wright. An literary English-Scottish hybridization experiment that went so horribly wrong it was banished to India.

What is your story about?
On a beach in the middle of everywhere, a man discovers that the whole universe can be two sand sculptures facing down the tide. It’s a made up story, that’s absolutely true.

Where is your story set?
A town called Hannah’s Bell, that I grew in my head years ago, after living in something like it several years before that. It’s on the edge of the North Sea. it’s rough, and cold, and I love it there.

When does your story take place?
Anytime you like, but also six years ago.

Why do you think Maurice Broaddus throws a convention in honor of himself(Mo*Con)?
If you want a job done properly…

How does your story tie into the concept of faith?
Faith is what we cling to. It is respite in adversity, and the cause of adversity. ‘Sandboys’ is a tiny story about both aspects, and deals with faith on a very personal and intimate level.

Excerpt from “Sandboys”:
Somewhere out there, on the continent, his baby boy might be looking back. Did a one-year-old know what he had lost? Not even that, not even one year old. Gabriel was only six months in this world when Nancy had called time on Terence’s future, walking out and taking his son with her. It had been bad when she was in London, far to the south, and his time with his son measured only hours per month. Now she had made for the continent and taken his purpose for living with her.

Did a one-year-old baby know what a father was? Did a baby care at all? He knew it was selfish to hope that Gabe did, to wish the knowledge of loss on an innocent whom he loved, but if he shared nothing else with his son, if the fog of grief was the only bond they had left, then surely that was better than nothing at all. New tears burned his eyes, like neat tequila on a dry throat, but he was used to them and the breathless shriveling of the chest that came with them.

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Tomorrow we make a devotion to DARK FAITH contributor J.C. Hay.

Missed our earlier devotions?
Lon Prater and Kurt Dinan
Eliyanna Kaiser
Lucien Soulban
Kelli Dunlap
Geoffrey Girard
Lavie Tidhar
Ekaterina Sedia
Linda Addison & Rain Graves
Richard Dansky
Lucy A. Snyder
Nick Mamatas
Jennifer Pelland
Wrath James White
Tom Piccirilli
D.T. Friedman
Mary Robinette Kowal
Alethea Kontis

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Related posts:

1. DARK FAITH Devotion: Richard Dansky
2. DARK FAITH Devotion: Lavie Tidhar
3. DARK FAITH Devotion: Ekaterina Sedia