250-3 Write and Self-Publish Your Geo-Novel: Lessons Learned

Session: Deliver the Message: Harness Diverse Media and Divergent Methods to Describe and Depict Geoscience Information

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Geoscience communication aims to tell the story of the Earth in entertaining and inspiring ways. As a novelist, I have threaded geologic locales, processes, and techniques throughout my fictional Fossil Woman series books. Science and nonscience readers are exposed to a variety of geologic concepts in relevant settings. Through the creation of a strong protagonist, Henrietta Ballantine, my novels, set in the 1950s - 1970s, attempt to inspire new audiences while learning about the past struggles of a female paleontologist. Her journeys to dig sites throughout the country allow introductions to topics of geology, stratigraphy, tectonics, and deep time. By intertwining Henrietta’s story with that of a Paleolithic woman living in Olduvai Gorge, the novel links modern history with the distant past. In my second book, Fossil Thief, Henrietta explores the North Dakota badlands while solving a mystery at a dinosaur dig, with discussions of stratigraphy, sedimentation, and museum preparation of fossils. Oil drilling in South Louisiana is the backdrop of my soon-to-be-released thriller, Living Fossil, enabling discussion of oil and gas generation and exploration. Do you have a geological story you wish to write? Join me as I discuss my journey of writing and self-publishing, with insights acquired along the way.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-8498

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