Showrunning
The US writer’s YA debut where traumatic memories can be erased
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What would you write as Mindwalker’s cover blurb?
If you could choose to erase your worst memory, would you? Seventeen- year- old Lain Fisher is a prodigy. She’s already mastered the art of Mindwalking – using a neural link to delete her patients’ traumatic memories. When Steven Bent, a troubled classmate, asks her to help him forget a horrific event from his childhood, Lain’s superiors warn her to stay away from him. But she goes against orders… and soon realises that Steven is connected to something much bigger.
How long did you work on i t?
The idea first came to me about five years ago. Originally I wrote Mindwalker as an adult science fiction novel, then came back to it a few years later. I’d been reading a lot of Young Adult Fiction and I’d fallen in love with the genre, so I tried rewriting the book with the protagonist as a 17- year- old girl, and something clicked.
What’s unique about the world in Mindwalker?
It’s not set in a distant, remote future where civilisation has totally crumbled. It’s a lot like our world. Many of the dystopian aspects of the society in Mindwalker – such as the National Registry of Mental Health – are ones that real- life political figures have actually suggested… which makes the world a bit more scarily plausible, I think.
Which SF/ Fantasy authors would you like to be compared to in-a dream review?
Well, there are a lot of authors whose work I adore. I don’t know that I’d want to be seen as the next Suzanne Collins or the next Veronica Roth – I’d rather be the first me.
Mindwalker is published on 2 June by Rock The Boat.