![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Next Big Thing: Catherine Evleschin
Oct. 22nd, 2012 08:07 amMy roommate from Taos Toolbox, adventuress and academic Catherine Evleschin, is kind enough to let me host her Next Big Thing.
***
What is the title of your work-in-progress?
The title is Rivers Still Run.
Where did the idea for the book come from?
I'm terrified by the impact of the population bomb on the environment and on society, and of the possible solutions that may be considered or implemented.
What genre does your book fall under?
Post-apocalyptic science fiction with a sociological slant. The main characters are biracial, Latino, Native American, and Eurasian (reflecting the predicted demographic in Western USA).
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
See #3. No black-face.
What is a one-sentence synopsis of the book?
In post-apocalyptic Cuba, an archivist unearths a conspiracy that has saved the planet from environmental collapse, and must decide if humanity is ready to learn the truth of the Pandemic that destroyed three-fourths of the human race.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I'm watching the way the wind blows in the publishing world.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
Four months. I am currently on perhaps the seventh rewrite.
What other books would you compare this story to in your genre?
Many wonderful novels of the world altered, each with a different take. I have been influenced by the quiet power of Mary Rosenblum's Water Rites, David Brin's The Postman, George R. Stewart's Earth Abides, Octavia Butler's Parables, Pat Murphy's The City, Not Long After... so many visions of humanity struggling with and surviving collapses of societal infrastructure.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Bill McKibben's and James Hansen's warnings about our planet imperiled, and Kim Stanley Robinson's bold visions of future's that are based on science, not fantasies to save the select few.
What else about this book might pique your readers' interest?
I am an ethnologist of African Diasporan and Latin American expressive culture, so each of my five settings reflects where I predict those cultures will be in fifty years after upheavals yield winners and losers in the fight for political and economic survival. Class warfare and exploitation, reflecting my West Coast anarchist upbringing, education, and lifestyle.
Mirrored from Writer Tamago.
