A Masterful Dystopia: an interview with Grace Hudson
I recently had a nice chat with best-selling author Grace Hudson, author of the dystopian thriller FERTS, a novel that is as exciting as it is chilling. Check out the interview below . . .
Can you tell us why you decided to become a writer, Grace?
The funny thing is, I didn’t actually decide to become a writer. I have always written stories and articles and it was just something I did. When I wrote FERTS and Open Doors, I guess you could say publishing them was something akin to a decision.
What do you love the most about writing?
I love how the characters tell the story to me, rather than the other way around. It’s great to be inside the heads of the characters and go through the adventures with them. It’s also exciting to create another world and hang out there for a while.
Where do you get you inspiration from?
I generally get inspiration from human emotions, whether it be real life, films, music, books, whatever. When it comes to writing, I’m not 100% sure where the inspiration comes from.
How would you describe FERTS?
It’s a dystopian post-war thriller. It’s a story about survival and inner strength.
Why should people read FERTS?
Because it’s a different type of dystopian story. It’s scary, it’s confronting, it deals with psychic ability and it’s not romantic. It gets creepier as the story progresses. If you like horror and suspense, then you’ll probably like it.
Where did the idea for FERTS come from?
I’m not sure if the acronym or the full name came first. I think they arrived around the same time. It just sounded kind of ominous. The title came before the book and the words “Fertility Emigration Resource and Training Supply” just came into my head. Hence, FERTS.
What do you expect to accomplish with FERTS?
Well firstly, I hope that readers enjoy it. Anything after that is a bonus. I know a lot of people have said that it made them think. That’s what I would like to achieve. To make people think.
What can you tell us about FERTS, without giving away any spoilers?
It’s set in a segregated facility for females, with specific regulations and reward for achievement. The story focuses on one particular Internee, named Beth #259201 and her journey within the facility.
Which were the easiest and the hardest parts for you to write, without giving away any spoilers?
Writing a book like FERTS is a complex undertaking, so the challenging parts would have to have been the nuances of the world, the terminology, that sort of thing. The easiest parts to write were the horror moments and the action scenes. The story affected me emotionally, but that didn’t make it hard or easy, it’s just how it was.
Do you have a favorite character, scene or situation in FERTS, and can you tell us why he, she or it is your favorite?
I love 201, she’s an awesome character. She has so many layers of complexity but what I admire most about her is her inner strength.
What can we expect to see in the next books in the FERTS series, again without giving away any spoilers?
Well, the new one (book 2) will be my next release coming up. You can expect to see a different kind of journey, more revelations, new companions and of course, fierce battles.
Some stories are what some have taken to calling Message Fiction, due to the fact that there are (conscious or unconscious) messages to be found in those stories. Did you insert any conscious messages in your story, and if so, what do they try to convey?
I don’t tend consciously insert messages into my stories, however my subconscious tends to subconsciously insert messages into my stories that I didn’t know were there.
I love how a story can be ambiguous, but then someone will email me and say “I got (insert message or discovery or something) from this part” and I think that’s cool. Especially when I didn’t necessarily mean it that way, but that doesn’t mean that someone’s reading is any more or less valid.
The thing is, everybody reads a different book, depending on who they are and what they have experienced. You can’t be categorically “wrong” or “right” about it. It basically means what you want it to mean.
If your story is mature in nature (containing graphic sexual scenes, violence, swearing, etc.), what led you to decide that this was the right way to go, despite the fact that it might limit your potential readership?
I didn’t decide one way or the other. The thing is, when I’m writing a story, if sex, violence, swearing or whatever is in there, it’s because that is where the story needed to go. I’m not big on censorship just to gain more readers.
I’m also not big on forcing these scenes into a book to make it more ‘interesting’ and gain more readers that way. So I guess what I’m saying is, if the characters in the story want to go a certain way, it’s not my business to stop them.
And finally, is there anything else that you’d like to add?
Yes, thanks so much for the awesome interview!
Thank you very much for your time and answers, Grace!
About Grace Hudson in her own words:
I’m from Melbourne, Australia and I love classic cars, horror movies and long walks on the beach. Only kidding about the beach thing. Although I like living near the beach so that’s got to count for something.
Okay, enough about me. My book, FERTS, is a dark dystopian tale with creepy undertones. Or overtones, depending on how you read it.
Books from Grace Hudson:
The Rogue Thread (FERTS Book 2)
Alpha Field (FERTS Book 3, available for pre-order)
Follow Grace Hudson at:
