Why did I write the Newland Trilogy?

At the recent launch for Book Three, Redemption Ground, my dear friend Dawn asked me a few questions. So I thought I’d share my answers here.

Tell us a bit about the book/series:

• It’s a series that imagines a future in this country in a century or so, and what things might look like if a certain type of government takes hold. At its heart, it’s a story of three youngsters who seem up against impossible odds but hold on with a whole load of courage to face what’s before them and to challenge injustice. It’s a dystopian story – some of you may wonder what that means. It’s basically the opposite of utopia, which is like an imagining of a world where everything is perfect. Dystopia imagines corrupt, fascist societies where the people are under tight control. The genre started with things like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, then through The Handmaids Tale to The Hunger Games and so on.

What gave you the idea?

• I actually drafted the first book quite a few years ago now. I was really disturbed by some of the way people were talking about sick and disabled people, when it came to things like benefits and work, and seeing that amplified through austerity measures in our society. I had an idea about a world where that kind of narrative was taken to its extreme – where people are valued only on how productive they are for the state, so disabled people are seen as unproductive and have no value. As a disabled person myself, I felt it important to represent voices that are often smashed down and unheard. Then I had an idea about a whole system where kids are basically brought up by the state to indoctrinate them – and it kind of took off from there.

How does it balance with your non fiction stuff?

• Well if you’ve read any of my other stuff you’ve probably realised I’m really into speaking value into people’s lives – my latest book Valuable is all about how your worth is not in what you do but who you are as a human being. So this fiction stuff picks up a lot of those themes. I love writing both!

Has it been challenging or easy to get yourself into the heads of the three main characters?

• Great question! I think one of the hardest things as a writer is to represent your characters in such a way that they speak of who they are on the page, and don’t just all sound like another version of the author. I had a challenge here with these three different people. Carys is very indoctrinated at the start and believes in her society and government, it takes her a while to break out of that and it’s pretty painful for her, so writing her I had to really try to get into that headspace of not wanting to believe the stuff she’d based her life on could be a lie. She’s also this impulsive, hot-headed character, so I had to write her dialogue and thoughts like that. With Amy, I had someone who was basically illegal as she’d been in her family who hid her away, so she had a totally different belief system, and she’s a level-headed, gentle person. Jacob has this natural cynicism about his world but also a strong foundation in his grandfather’s love that has given him a different way of thinking too, and he’s also experienced extreme racism his whole life so trying to represent that was both hard and important. I loved journeying with them all and trying to bring out their different quirks and ways of thinking, but yes, it was definitely challenging at times to get out of one head and into another!

What have you found the hardest thing about writing these books? And what have you enjoyed most?

• It’s been a whole learning curve really for me, from starting these years ago and learning a whole lot about the craft of writing along the way. When I look back at first drafts I cringe now, but they were all part of the process. One of the hardest things is just practical – getting time to sit and write, and motivating myself to do it when I don’t always feel like it!
• A big challenge was how to end the trilogy without going all twee and saying ‘and they all lived happily ever after’. I had to wrestle a whole lot with how to end it well, with hope but still reality as well given what they’re facing. I hope I did it justice.
• I’ve just massively enjoyed seeing the story through to the end. When I finished Rebellion Ground I wondered if I’d ever manage to finish this story well – I had a load of ends to tidy up – but I just love the flow of writing when it hits, and the words pour out so fast I can’t contain them – it’s a real rush. I loved deepening the characters and giving them arcs where I could see how far they’d come. I’ve also loved working with my publisher, Resolute Books, who are an amazing new collective indie press with some really talented authors.

What would you say is the key message in these books?

• It’s very much that you don’t have to be defined by what you do or how useful you are to others or to your job or whatever. It’s that every single person is valuable, loved and deserves to be heard. These kids go through some severely tough times to challenge their own dystopian narrative, but know all along that justice and grace is so important and even worth dying for. And the other thing is that there is always hope, even in the darkest places – in Redemption Ground they find this more than ever.

Buy Redemption Ground here