It has been a productive year for Liz Carter. She has published not one but two books. That’s quite an achievement for anyone, but probably not how Liz would want to judge herself.
Her first book out this year was Valuable. In it she exposes
what she calls the “productivity lie” and how God sees our worth not in our
doing but in our being. Our relationship with Him is far more important than
our usefulness. Even in our weakness we are loved and valuable as Liz has
discovered living with a chronic and debilitating lung condition over many
years.
I read Valuable in July and wrote a blog about it comparing it to the new Mission Impossible film – which is just how my quirky mind works,
putting things together and often making crazy connections.
Only a few months later I was privileged to read an advanced copy of her first novel Repression Ground, written under the name of E.M. Carter.
It is the first book of the Newland trilogy, a complete
departure from her previous works. This is Young Adult Dystopian fiction. However,
it struck me quite early on that although both are written with a very
different audience in mind, there are a great deal of similarities in the
themes of usefulness, value and worth. Surely this is not just me joining up
imaginary dots again.
So, I started by asking Liz which writing idea came first
or did the two books grow organically together?
Way back in the early 2010s I tentatively posted my first blogpost. I’d been wanting to write my whole life, but something happening in those times filled me with a new urgency: some of the stories in the news I was seeing about disabled people on benefits in the new austerity narrative of those times, and how society seemed to be sorting them into ‘strivers’ and ‘skivers’.
As a disabled person myself I felt passionately about the messages being passed on and the damaging lie that people were of more worth if they were more useful – or productive. From then on, I had a vision to write both these books: a non-fiction book for the Christian market exploring value, and a novel for the mainstream market imagining a world where some of these kinds of messages had gone so far they’d become the basis for that society.
Imagine Britain’s Got Talent where contestants are judged on their productivity and not their talent – that was my first picture of Newland, a future England ruled by a fascist dictatorship. The idea just took off from there, and both books kind of grew alongside each other and informed one another.
Have you always wanted to write fiction? And how easy has the transition been between non-fiction and fiction?
I was writing fiction when I was small, inspired by Narnia and the Faraway Tree. I even wrote a book at eight years old; an adventure story about goblins under the River Dove (as you do). My teacher, Mrs Johnson, told me then I’d be an author one day, and I’ve dedicated Repression Ground to her because she asked me to dedicate my first novel to her. Sorry it’s taken so many years, Mrs J!
Over the years I wrote less and less, swallowed up in life, sickness and raising a family, and when I went back into it I concentrated on the non-fiction, devotional side. I somehow felt I wasn’t a proper writer, that I couldn’t possibly write a novel, even though that childhood yearning had never left me, but as I wrote more non-fiction material I felt inspired to go for it with fiction. For me it was more of a parallel journey than a transition – and it’s been an exciting one.
Which do you prefer writing? Although this won’t have
required as much study or research as you have created a whole new believable
world, set in the not-too-distant future.
I love writing both, just as I love writing poetry – different things about these ways of writing fire me and inspire me. But I have to admit that there’s nothing like the breathless rush of fiction writing; when the words fall over one another, spilling out like a waterfall, it’s like a grand adventure – and there’s nothing like it.
Writing gives me joy, and writing fiction has felt like freedom in many ways – caged in a life of disease, my imagination gives me liberation from these shackles as characters play across the screen in my mind (and often go ways I hadn’t planned all of their own accord!) Building a whole new imagined future has been an exciting departure from my usual writing, yet somehow also a natural step on the journey of it all, and I hope to continue to write both fiction and non-fiction.
The book is the first in a trilogy, so how far ahead have you written it? Do you know exactly how it will end, or do you think your characters will surprise you with more twists and turns in the story along the way?
I’ve written books one and two. Book two, Rebellion Ground, will be published (again with Resolute Books) in June 2024, so at the moment it’s undergoing edits. I have yet to finish book three, Redemption Ground, but it is tightly plotted, and I am so excited to write it and allow the characters to show me exactly where to go – they like to surprise me from time to time, however well plotted!
I do know how it will end, but how it gets there may change – I can’t wait to see how. I’ve set aside a couple of months in 2024 to knuckle down and write it – then there’s the editing process, of course!
How much is Girl C like you? Or do you identify more with
one of the other characters? Did you have a favourite character to write?
In some ways Girl C is like me. She’s a little unsure of herself and often feels ‘lesser’ because of her disabilities, and even more so in a society where disabilities are hidden away and unsupported. But she’s also hot-tempered, feisty and tenacious, and probably goes a lot further than I would when she’s angry!
She’s a strong person who has never known what it is to be loved, so it was a challenge to write that into her character and how she thought about things – I had to throw myself into different shoes to imagine the way she would think and act. I realised how easy it could be to indoctrinate children, and how difficult for that child to throw off those bonds and see life differently, and I hope I’ve written her authentically doing so.
I’m looking forward to sharing more of her story and character development, as well as that of her two best friends, Jacob and Amy, who have their own issues and ways of thinking. I identify with both of these, too – both of them driven by the love family members shower on them in a society where such things are discouraged, and responding in different ways to the secrets and lies that pave the streets of Newland.
Thanks Liz for your comprehensive answers. I can't wait to find out what happens next to the trio of friends. There are lots of unanswered questions at the end of Repression Ground that need resolving, as is fitting at the start of a trilogy.
If you want to find out more I heartily recommend you get yourself a copy of the book. It is published by Resolute Books and you can buy it from Amazon by clicking here
And why not check out Liz's new author page and sign up for her newsletter to get firsthand news when book two is released - emcarter.carterclan.me.uk
