Patricia M Osborne

It gives me great delight to introduce dystopian/Sci-fi author, Lydia Baker, chatting about her brand new novel Ava. Without further ado, it’s over to Lydia.

Ava

Lydia Baker

I’m excited to introduce Ava, the first in a trilogy of dystopian/Sci-Fi books, aimed at young adults and adults alike.

Ava was inspired by many things – a love of film, of stories, of science fiction and thoughts of ‘what if such and such happened? How would the world be after that?’. I wanted to explore the idea of a girl in a world that was supposed to be safe, but actually it was doing more harm than good – like all good dystopian fiction! Good science fiction and good stories let you escape the day to day and that is something I wanted people to be able to do with my novel.

‘Ava’ evolved from the idea of a world facing an apocalyptic event, which became physically divided into two separate places; both places wondering if the other had survived. I wanted to look at what the lengths people might go to, to save themselves and look a little closer at good and evil, and how one might think they are doing good but actually its detrimental. And throw in a few aliens too!

I tend to plan my writing loosely, with an outline and an initial idea. But as I type the story itself begins to unfold and the characters develop almost of their own accord. Needless to say, I do a lot of going back and tweaking when I decided mid-way through to change the whole storyline! I make countless notes; on my phone, in note books, at the bottom of my manuscript.

Dystopian fiction and science fiction are popular at the moment especially dystopian YA – you may have read books such as Hunger Games and Divergent, which have been made into films. I love the excitement and self discovery these books portray and I hope readers will enjoy the same things in Ava.

Ava was written after I had self-published a fantasy novel and my youngest child was big enough to sleep! Needing to write is like an itch you need to scratch, it’s addictive. A few ideas had been swirling around for a while and I began putting them to paper and ‘Ava’ was created.

I love dystopian movies, science fiction and post-apocalyptic worlds so I wanted to create my own. I’ve enjoyed bringing a world to life that is totally different to the one we live in, where things that would never happen in real life can happen. It’s been as much a journey for me as it is for the future readers. I hope my readers love it as much as I have loved writing it.

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About Lydia Baker

Lydia Baker is an award-winning author of science fiction and fantasy living in West Sussex with her husband and four children. She works part-time as well as imagining and penning new novels. When she’s not creating books you can escape into, Lydia likes to crochet and to go running.

Her novel self-published novel ‘The Return of the Queen’ won The Pink Heart Society Reviewers Choice Award 2019 for Paranormal/Fantasy Romance, whereas ‘AVA’ came 5th in the Agora Lost the Plot, Work in Progress Prize.