I must admit that I like and read ebooks (and print books). Getting my novel published has given me a new appreciation of the flexibility that comes with print books, like this little vine to indicate a scene break.
Category: Uncategorized
Meetings and a poll
I just got back from a scientific meeting. The great thing about being a mature scientist is that your student does the work of presenting. I couldn’t resist taking a photo at the U of Iowa, my alma mater. Also, today Natural Attraction went up for pre-sale for Kindle and Nook.
Writing tips from Rick Bass
Author Rick Bass (The Ninemile Wolves,The Hermit’s Story, and many others) visited my Short Story Writing class today. He read from his work, talked about being a geologist (and the moral choices that scientists face), the importance of nature, and reviewed these tips for good writing, paraphrased by me: 1. Make your first sentence your second strongest and your last sentance the strongest. 2. Use no more than 10% back story. 3. Discipline yourself to write every day. 4. Make your protagonist active. (It’s tempting to make the person a passive observer, but don’t.) 5. Sense details and specificity make the story believable. 6. Create trouble for your protagonist–isolation, uncertainty, etc. 7. Emotion, emotion. Here’s a photo with Rick and three of my students who were brave enough to have a photo snapped. 
First Titles
Here are the first two books from Penner Publishing, ready to be shipped as Advance Review Copies. If you are a blogger and want a review copy, contact me or them. I’ve learned a lot about writing and publishing since I got “the call” from Penner last October. This was my first novel but it came after nearly 20 years of free-lance science writing for a company so I was ready to be edited and accustomed to it. I’ve previously published short stories but those have rarely been edited. Only my first published short story, titled East to Ionesco,was ever edited before publication.
I enjoyed watching the editors shape Natural Attraction. If I have any advice about that process it is to leave your own ego out of it. My motivation for writing Natural Attraction was simply to entertain and to record in a fictional (and I hope funny) way, what it’s really like to be a female scientist.Being a female scientist has been very amusing–I highly recommend it. I’ve got a few more novels up my sleeve. Natural Attraction is mostly about biology (with some chemistry tossed in). I’d like to dive into chemistry (the only science where the % of female scientists is increasing) for my next novel and then perhaps, take requests from readers. One thing I enjoyed doing as a science writer was writing about whatever topic the company wanted and conforming to their 40 page book of instructions. Yes, perhaps I’m perverse, but I like to please. Look for another poll in the future.
Older women as characters
A male friend posted this article on his Facebook page. It concerns aging while female. After reading it, I re-read Natural Attraction, which has strong older female characters, a Granny in particular.
Stories most often concern younger characters because they get into trouble more, and a fiction writer’s mantra is “only trouble is interesting.” However, there’s a place for older women as characters. They could be saving the day!
EReader days
Happy solstice! I’m reading Natural Attraction on a mobi file to see how it will look for Kindle users. I find that I’m one of those strange people who likes ereaders (but not before bed). I get into a state of complacency when I read something in a file I’ve typed myself and I don’t see the errors so it’s refreshing to me to read it anew in a format where I’m not familiar with every page. The novel has been through two edits with two different editors. Still, I caught three typos. Next, the print version!
Release Date: May 11 Natural Attraction (Penner Publishing)
To get ahead, she’ll have to become a man. What happens when a traveling preacher who’s never been kissed inadvertently shares a love potion with a young female scientist who has, with the help of a transforming tonic, taken the guise of a man? This is the premise of Natural Attraction, set in the post Civil War United States. Natural Attraction highlights a woman’s journey to balance identity, ambition, and a rich sexual and personal life when society forbids it. from Penner Publishing.
For information on where to purchase click here. Hard copies available from the Central College bookstore soon!
Is romance the invisible genre?
When I meet old friends they ask, “What are you writing”? “A novel.” I say. “What’s it about?” “A romance.” Their eyes narrow. You can see what they’re thinking That is not literature. But ah, of course it is.
The modern romance features a woman complete in her own skin, but open to love. In the words of Amy at The Geek Girl Project “Changes in the conventions of the romance genre have turned the typical romance novel into an extremely empowering story combined with the happily ever after ending.” Romance is the best selling genre and according to Romance Writers of America accounts for over a billion dollars of sales annually, 39% of E-books and 32% of mass-market paper backs. But, the disrespect starts with the trade paperbacks (bookstore books)—here romance captured just 18% of the market in 2013 and as for hardback books—9%. Audiobooks are even slower to catch the trend-1%, as if a romance is an unspoken secret. (RWA)
I’m not sure where this prejudice against romance comes from. I haven’t encountered it in my MFA studies so it’s not an academic prejudice. It must be something cultural. Romance is to literature what quilting is to art. It’s beautiful, but because women do it, it doesn’t command public respect. Tamara Lush has the right perspective on this, romance writing is a feminist act. (In fact, a study at Rutgers University found that feminists make good partners for romance.)
The art world has come to accept handcrafted items as art, thanks in part to Miriam Schapiro, who worked to get quilts and handcrafted items–the “invisible women’s work of civilization” recognized as legitimate art. Why not the same for romance writing?
Catherine Haustein 