Fermanagh based writer Teresa launches new Sci-Fi novel

Teresa Godfrey recently launched her new novel, ‘Wipe Out’, which is a dystopian novel taking place in the future after the world has been wiped out following a pandemic.

However, the Covid-19 pandemic did not play a role in the conception of this novel, as the seeds for it were sewn a few years ago when Teresa’s writing group suggested she expand her short story into a novel.

Teresa Godfrey

Talking to The Impartial Reporter, Teresa said: “I wrote the first draft about five years ago, did the first draft and there were other things going on. I was writing stories and poems, so I set it to one side.”

Speaking of influences for the novel, Teresa lists works by authors including Margaret Atwood (‘The Handmaid’s Tale’), Marge Piercy (‘Woman on the Edge of Time’) and Suzanne Collins (‘The Hunger Games’).

The book’s blurb describes a world where ‘family’ is an outlawed concept, friendships are forbidden and all procreation is artificial and government-controlled.

Hazel, a factory-born military driver, accepts these rules as necessities for human survival after ‘the wipe out’.

Describing her book, Teresa said: “It’s a fast-paced novel, which you can enjoy just simply as entertainment.

“It has a strong female lead, and several other characters coming in and out, and you just go with them and you live that adventure with them.

“On the other hand, there is a story about the pandemic, and there are various horrible experimentations going on, and that’s the sort of the sci-fi part of things. Okay, you can delve deeper into that if you wish.”

Explaining her protagonist’s journey, Teresa said: “The third story as far as I’m concerned is Hazel’s.

“It’s her story about who she is. She develops from being a cold person, she doesn’t know anything else other than this world.

“She gradually starts to realise that there is love, there is connection with other people, that is possible. [That ] it’s just the laws [the moral code] that is preventing people from doing it.”

Continuing, Teresa said: “[In the story, people] are being bombarded all the time with propaganda, telling them not to be in relationships, not to be involved in friendships.

“Whoever the government is, they are completely paranoid, and they’re making their people paranoid, and her story arc is how she develops as a person, and how she gets in touch with her own humanity and begins to recognise humanity in other people.

“That’s what prompts her to do the things that she does. You don’t need to read it like that – you can be a 12-year-old and not be in the least bit concerned about those sort of things, and just enjoy a darn good story.”

Wipe Out

Teresa is currently working on the sequel to the novel, which she says is the first part of a trilogy of works.

‘Wipe Out’ by Teresa Godfrey published by Roswell Press, an imprint of Sunbury Press, can be purchased on Amazon in a print and e-book format.