Interview with Amber Toro, Author of Umbra: Sentient Stars

To start off, I would love to hear from you, what is Umbra about? 

The elevator pitch is: it’s an intergalactic space opera with a slow burn enemies to lovers romance told from three point of views with fully sentient starships and a signal in the darkness that threatens to destroy humanity. 

Yes it is! I really loved it because it had a lot of the classic sci-fi elements and the cool tech that you want while still feeling modern and really accessible. What drew you into writing a sci-fi?

That’s awesome to hear because that was the goal right? I’m in stem, so obviously I like the sciency stuff, but not everybody has that background and I wanted it to be fun in general. 

I decided to write a sci-fi because it’s my favorite genre and I didn’t know until I wrote it and was figuring out how to sell it that it was not a popular genre as far as the market. So I guess I wrote it for myself. That’s why I chose sci-fi. 

I think that’s important. If you didn’t like what you were writing then would it really come out the way you wanted? I feel like sci-fi is gaining good momentum, I’ve read a good few recently that were really accessible, that a newbie could read but a veteran geek would enjoy. 

Yeah. I mean I hope so. You see a lot of people that enjoy fantasy and sci-fi can be just like fantasy, but with tech instead of magic. And some of the ones we’ve both read have magic also. 

True. With the sentient starships and how they interact with their captains, it’s something I’ve never seen in another sci-fi, and kind of borders on fantasy. 

I mean I look at it like, I don’t remember the exact quote, but any sufficiently advanced technology will be perceived as magic. And so I think that is very much the direction you can take with sci-fi. 

So what were some of your inspirations for Umbra? 

The idea for it really does stem from my work. Several years ago I had the idea for the whole trilogy, and I excitedly told my husband the whole thing and he was like “Yeah, that sounds like a movie! Sounds cool!” And then I set it on the back burner. 

But it was inspired by the sentient starships. This idea that if we developed artificial intelligence as individuals, the reason that you go down that track is for power balance, that way if you do get an AI that is like Skynet or The Matrix, then you have equally powerful AI that could stand up for humanity. If you develop them as individuals then they should keep each other in check. And that’s a pretty common theory in the space, so I thought about that. And then I was like, what if you also had these starships that wanted to experience a mortal life like humans do, like their creators do, and what would that look like? So that’s where the idea of bonded starships comes from, where the AIs are bonded with a human, and they live the lifespan of a human and within that limited experience, and then when they die they go and join a great AI conscience where they can all share their experience. That piece was the basis for where a lot of the rest of the book comes from. Some of it I can’t say without it being spoilery for book two, but that’s where the idea came from. 

It’s really hard to talk about and review books without being spoilery! But one of my favorite aspects of your story were the characters, they were all really cool and had their own strengths and struggles, and ties within the world that pulled them. So which ones for you were the easiest to write, and the hardest to write?

Skyla was the easiest to write, and I think it does come across because she was the one the story is based around. She was the main character, the one I knew the most and knew where she fit in the whole storyline. She is supposed to be a Han Solo, Indiana Jones character, mixed with some of my qualities, like her love of food is mine. So she was easiest because I knew her best and she was most similar to myself. 

After that, Hinata was easier to write but harder to flesh out because a character that is so straight-laced and ‘by the rules’ is so hard to make interesting. You have to find a way to give them that depth where they're not just a boring robot. So that was kind of tricky with him. Some of his more emotional pieces didn’t come until the editing phase, where it’s like, “Ok, I need the readers to understand why he is the way he is.” That’s one of the things with writing, I know why everyone is the way they are, but figuring out which pieces of that need to go on the page that maybe didn’t make it in the original draft. 

And then Freya was the hardest. I knew the role she played in the story, but it took me the entire first draft to get to know her and really understand her. 

I think it’s interesting that Hinata’s depth was added to because it felt very believable, especially for the culture. Which brings me into the world they live in. It was really interesting with the exodus from the ‘World that Was’ you brought in a lot of different familiar cultures into the book. I thought it was done really well. What inspired that multiculturalism, tribalism, in Umbra? 

From the very beginning I knew I wanted the twelve tribes, and that I wanted some warrior cultures represented for the main characters. I wanted the Norse inspired culture for Skyla and Freya, and then the Samurai inspired culture for Hinata. The reason I wanted those two is I wanted an east meets west, where in the western culture we’re very self focused and furthering the self, and in eastern cultures it’s very focused on the greater good and the society. So I wanted that represented, particularly as a tension piece in the romance, having conflicting values, and where they’re going to place importance. So that's where that piece came from.

And then the twelve tribes, when I decided to flesh them out, I pulled up current space budgets and that’s what I used to assign the rest of the tribes. The idea being that whoever has the most developed space programs when there is an exodus of earth, that's probably who would be the controlling forces in the fleets. 

That’s a great way to choose! It must be hard to have the world as your oyster to bring inspiration into your book, with an end to living on earth, but then have to boil it down to make it work for the story. 

Yeah, well with sci-fi I wanted it to feel believable right? Like this could be a future. And so if you can base it on things that are logically going to make sense from where we are right now, I think that helps. 

That definitely came through, it felt like this was a totally plausible outcome. I think it’s really cool that you took the leap to go into writing. What inspired you to write a novel, and brave sharing your story? 

I have wanted to write a novel since I was a kid, that’s been a dream for a long time. I wrote some growing up and took creative writing in college. Then I had my kids and I didn’t read for fun and I didn’t write, I felt like whatever I had to do had to be hyper productive because your time is limited. So it was only a few years ago, maybe five years ago, that I started reading again for fun where I was like, “I’ve earned this, I can have fun.” And then two years ago my dad passed away suddenly, and I thought, “What would I regret not having done if I were to go right now?” And the answer was writing this story. 

That’s a cool legacy to leave. Your publishing journey isn’t traditional but it’s becoming pretty popular to go the Indie route. Why did you decide to publish this way? 

I hadn’t originally planned on going indie, I was doing all the studying on querying and traditional publishing and I had thought that was the route I wanted to go. But the more I learned about it the more I didn’t feel good about it. It made me really nervous, the idea that someone else could own my world that I poured my soul into and that they could decide how successful the book would be. Depending on who you’re picked up by depends on how much they put into the marketing and the effort they put into you as an author and I felt very uncomfortable with that. I was like “I really believe in this book and I think I’m the best person to launch it.” So that's when I decided to go indie because I wanted to own my world and put my best foot forward with putting the story out there. 

I think it’s really cool. I started doing this when I started reading indie and found these unique, nontraditional, non formulaic worlds. It's been really cool to read books like Umbra that break the mold. I think it’s really important that this movement is happening and it’s encouraging because the art is winning. What was your favorite part about writing this book? And what was the hardest?

My favorite part is drafting. I really enjoy drafting. I’m a planster, I guess. When I started Umbra I thought I was a panster. I knew in general where the whole trilogy was going, but I very loosely planned things. I knew we’re going to have to hit these points, and there’s a couple of scenes I know exist, but otherwise I sit down and me and the characters figure out how we’re getting there. And that’s really fun for me. I don’t always know where we’re going next so that part is the most fun. 

The most challenging is the very end of the edits. I’m very analytical so I’m analyzing every word on the page, like is that the one I want, and it’s exhausting. So that part is more draining for me, whereas the drafting is more relaxing and fun. 

The feedback I’ve seen so far has been really amazing, you know I loved it! How do you hope Umbra will impact your readers? 

Something that I tried to do with the book is I want to meet the readers where they’re at. So you can read Umbra and it can be just a fun adventure story. And I have had some people read it and say that, and they don’t dive into the tech or they don’t dive into the themes and that’s a totally valid way to enjoy the story. But then there are also other layers. There are overarching themes that are in the book and it’s interesting to hear from different people the ones they pick up on. It’s definitely reflective of the reader and what they’re looking for in the book which I think has been really cool to see and how I hoped it would be received. 

So I think the impact that I would like to see, and it’s what I’m starting to see, is that when you read it you can take it in and enjoy it at whatever level that you’re looking for. I think it’s a book that if you read it again 5 years from now it might read differently for you, because there are those different levels that you can interact with. 

I loved how one of the themes in the book is daring to explore the unknown despite it being taboo in the culture. Just like authorship is kind of a brave thing to do. Do you have any advice for people who would dare to write their own story? 

Yeah I mean I think you should do it! I think, like you said, there’s a lot of room in the market for unique stories and if you feel like you have something to say then I think you should put it out there. Have you read A Study in Drowning by Ava Reed? It is really good and I bawled at the end of that book, because the message was that if your story helps one person... (it's a really deep story, about women’s rights and other women's issues) but just the idea that if your story could mean the world to one person, you should put it out there. 

Yeah! It’s that idea too of art begets art. As you share your story you’re inspiring others to share theirs and further and further for generations. It’s really cool! Thank you so much for sharing all of that, sharing your heart. It’s really inspiring. And I hope everyone checks out Umbra!

Amber Toro is the director of data science at a machine learning startup working to make the world a better place with AI. She is a big believer in using tech for good.

Always dreaming Amber writes epic sci-fi and fantasy.

Amber grew up in Seattle with a great love of the outdoors. She now calls Utah her home and when she is not writing or coding you can find her biking, hiking, and camping in the mountains with her amazing partner and two tiny humans, or curled up with a good sci-fi/fantasy book.