Enough is a Young Adult dystopian thriller with social justice at its heart. It was a finalist in the Mslexia Children’s Novel Competition and longlisted for the Times / Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition.
We sat down with Laura Baggaley, author of Nourish, Dirt and Enough, Habitat Press’s novels for teenage readers, and discussed her latest book.
Here’s our Q&A with Laura…
What are the similarities and differences between your three YA novels, Dirt, Nourish and Enough?
The main similarity is that they’re all set in imaginary futures, and they each revolve around a big ‘What If…’ question.
In Dirt, the question is what would happen if global food supply chains failed. The book goes on to explore different types of agriculture through the lens of a teenage romance. Nourish explores a world in which society no longer eats, and people get artificial nutrition overnight through tubes. The story asks ‘what if’ some teenagers then discovered real food…
Enough is aimed at slightly older readers (15+) and the concept is a little darker. In a near-future world where old age becomes artificially prolonged, a medical breakthrough has changed everything. Now, when a person thinks they’ve had enough of living, their ‘Switch’ flips and they instantly die. My main character is a teenage girl called Margaretta. She has had to shut down all strong emotions to survive her unhappy home life. The other protagonist, Sky, has taken the opposite approach and focuses entirely on living a carefree life and having as much fun as possible. The story kicks off when Margaretta runs away with Sky. The pair of them then discover a dreadful truth about the Switch and, like all the best teenage heroes, decide to change the world!
What inspired you to write Enough?
The original seed of the idea came to me many years ago, when I was recently bereaved. I was thinking about how hard it can be to die, and how it might be great to have a ‘Switch’. Then I immediately started considering all the terrible possible flipsides of such a thing existing. My ideas were also influenced by politics in the UK. While I was writing it, I was very angry about the UK government’s treatment of vulnerable people at the time. Gradually, instead of being a story about death or euthanasia, it became a story about political corruption. I was pondering the unfairness of our social systems, and the way that wealth and power are intertwined. I wanted to write about it.
How would you say a story about political corruption fits in with the values of the Green Stories Project and Habitat Press?
Enough is the first YA book I wrote and my third book to be published. It was originally due to come out with another publisher but they went bankrupt! I didn’t initially think Habitat Press would consider it. They have such a strong reputation for environmental books and Enough isn’t explicitly ‘eco’. But I heard Denise Baden talking about how sustainability issues are completely intersectional, and I realised that social justice and equality are as important as renewable energy and decarbonisation in achieving a thriving future. So, I sent her the manuscript!
I’ve learnt so much from Denise’s work in this area, and really recommend her brilliant newsletter on LinkedIn, A Jigsaw to Save The World. In it, she explores all these essential issues in such a clear, entertaining and inspiring way. (NB: available here for those not on LinkedIn.)
Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Pick a topic you feel passionate about!
Read lots of writing craft books or go to classes if you can afford it.
Do a timeline for the events of your story, so you don’t get lost in your own chronology!
Be prepared to edit.
Make sure you spend plenty of time getting to know your characters. I find it really valuable to write detailed character sketches and backhistories for everyone in my novels.
I also like to write diary entries from different characters’ points of view, making sure I’m intimately acquainted with their attitudes and perspectives on everything.
What’s your favourite thing about writing novels?
I love immersing myself in imaginary worlds, and crafting the words to bring them to life.
I also feel that fiction is where I can pour some of my environmental and social activism – it has to be entertaining, the story has to come first, but I also can’t help including my passions in the world-building. That’s why all my visions of possible futures include things like compost or solar panels, upcycling and community schemes!
Even Enough – which I wrote before I learnt about the Green Stories Project and before I joined the Climate Fiction Writers League – contains Personal Carbon Allowances and a car-free society.
Why do you write for young adults?
I feel that writing stories about teenagers gives me licence to be more daring and more hopeful than if I were writing for adults!
It’s definitely a challenge – especially when I listen to kids chatting on the bus and realise I don’t understand half the slang they’re using! – but there’s something really energising about telling stories about young rebels.
Are you working on any other creative projects?
I’m co-editor of a thrutopian magazine on Substack called Bending The Arc, which I think Habitat Press readers would love! It’s ‘thrutopian’ in the sense that it explores ways through to a better future. We publish stories, poems, interviews, articles and essays, all of them focused on positive futures and how we can get there – how we can bend the arc of the possible.
It’s free to subscribe, and we produce two editions a year. All the pieces are available to read here – do have a browse!
Is there anything else you’d like to tell our readers about?
I’d like to invite you all to join the Readers’ Club at my website! I send monthly book updates, eco tips (‘Lazy Green Wins’) and reading recommendations. You’ll also get occasional freebies – for example, I’ve just created a homemade zine to go alongside Enough, which I’ll be sending out with my next email. There’s a video of how I made it here!
The zine is based on diary entries and notes for a secondary character, Anna. I thought it would be nice to share some tiny extracts with readers, so I’ve created a mini-diary as an introduction to the world of the book. The content isn’t included in the novel itself so it’s an exclusive sneak peek for my subscribers only…
Do you have any questions book clubs could use?
Yes, Habitat Press produces discussion questions for all the books it publishes and Enough is no exception! The questions can be found at the Habitat Press website, here – scroll down to the bottom for questions about Enough.
Thanks for being our Author of the Month!
A pleasure!