Erin Carrougher Interview - Augland ~ JeanBookNerd

Photo Content from Erin Carrougher

Erin Carrougher is a native of the Pacific Northwest, living the majority of her life near the Seattle area. She loves dystopian books, movies, and shows; so naturally, she weaved her passion for writing with her obsession with the possible futures. When not writing, she works as a sales professional and is a loving wife, Auntie BeeBee, and dog mom. While a novice chef, she enjoys spending time in the kitchen creating her own variations on food creations (mostly because she hates following directions).

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When/how did you realize you had a creative dream or calling to fulfill?
I have always loved creative writing; writing little things here and there when I was in college, but I gave it up mostly when I found myself diving headfirst into the corporate world and working my way up the corporate ladder.

Then, one day I found myself laying on the couch and wondering what made me happy. I’ve always loved reading and watching movies, but found myself making up alternative versions in my head. I found a new determination to do something for myself, different than the repetitiveness of the daily grind. I picked up my laptop and started writing. And I haven’t stopped!

Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.
Hands down – getting to hold the final product!

Writing a book is such a long process. Between writing, rewriting, and editing you spend so much time developing your story, but when the final product comes it makes the months upon months of effort worth it. The moment you can hold it and say, “I did it and I’m so proud of myself.”

TEN RANDOM FACTS ABOUT AUGLAND

1. Workers in Augland don’t have last names! They have a first name followed by a worker identification number.
2. Workers don’t eat normal food; they have nutritional bars and protein shakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The purpose is to minimize extra food production.
3. Older workers that were a part of the Civil War before Augland were told they couldn’t speak about life before Augland in fear of being cast outside the Augland walls.
4. The “Suits” in Augland are addicted to the parks within Augland. They are fed euphoric medicine to keep them in a heightened state.. A “forever” vacation.
5. In Augland, there is no “money”, all tradable wealth is considered resources and status.
6. Atlantis!
7. Maya Bay is based off a beach I visited when I took a cruise to the Caribbean. It was the most surreal experience I’ve ever had. The sand was white and the water clear as glass.
8. Ashton, Augland’s main character, begins her story insecure. She finds strength not only from within but from the people she loves.
9. Wolfe’s personality, Ashton’s love interest, is based off my husband
10. Augland exposes a dystopian geopolitical agenda; something I believe is critical for readers to understand the lengths that greed and political influence will go to keep power.

What was the single worst distraction that kept you from writing this book?
Life! I love to write, but there is no room for multi-tasking. Writing takes time and dedication, and sometimes there simply seems to be not enough hours in the day. Other priorities and real-world things get in the way and I found that what takes the backseat is the most enjoyable part of my day: writing.

Why is storytelling so important for all of us?
Oh goodness. Storytelling is essential! It allows us to speak on what is important, in my case create subtle depictions of current events and foreshadow what could happen in a dystopian world. But it is also important to take ourselves out of reality and plunge into the alternative.

Can you tell us when you started AUGLAND, how that came about?
I was in the middle of another novel when the story of Augland was screaming at me. I had struggled to get my first book to a point in which I felt like it was something I wanted to work on. Eventually, I found myself beginning on an outline of the Augland story and one thing led to another.

What was the most surprising thing you learned in creating your characters?
I would say, I thought the characters would be based on people I knew or have met in my life. Eventually, however, they became their own people! Now, I don’t associate my characters with a certain personality of a person I know or knew, but rather their own identity. It’s quite thrilling, to have these characters feel so real that they have their own voice.

Augland 54 is the Pacific Northwest’s most extravagant theme park. Those with Suits choose the body they want and live the life of their dreams…and those without Suits work for the Artificial Existence Center, or AEC. As long as the workers keep their heads down, Augland provides food and shelter from the post-war world outside its domed walls.

When Ashton is sent to the new Land of Legends park, she discovers that Augland is keeping secrets—inside and outside of its walls—and they’re more violent than she ever expected. So she decides to fight back. After all, if Augland is going to make her dress up as a red-headed warrior princess, then she’s more than willing to become one.

In a corporation-ruled world inhabited by the augmented bodies of the wealthy, securely cut off from the rest in life-extending pods, Ashton exposes the sham of corporate success and refuses to remain a cog in the machine. The only thing that matters now is freedom.

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