In just three weeks, my debut book—Venomous: How Earth’s Deadliest Creatures Mastered Biochemistry—hits shelves in the U.S. The book is my tribute to the most notorious animals on the planet and the awesome weaponry they wield. I talk about the diversity of venomous animals, from the serpents, spiders and scorpions on land to the ocean’s snails, octopus and jellies. It’s a trip around the world and down to the molecular level to reveal how venoms work, and how they might hold the cures to our most hated diseases. The Scientific American Books site for it has links to every which way you could possibly want to pre-order it.
It’s hard to describe how much this book means to me. It’s been a long, windy road to get to this point. Venomous is the melding of my two selves: me, the scientist, and me, the writer. I started blogging in between undergrad and grad school, but for much of my career as a writer, I kept my work separate from my studies. I didn’t write about what I worked on. It wasn’t until I dug deeper into my PhD that I began to blend my science with my blogging and writing. Now, I consider my scientific expertise and viewpoint an integral part of who I am as a writer. Venomous is an extension of what I do here, a more in depth, long-form version tying together many of the themes that I explore in Science Sushi. If you follow this blog, you already know my style, and what to expect from Venomous. If you’re new here, welcome!, and feel free to poke around to get a better sense of me as a writer; if you like what you see, then I hope you’ll check out book.
So far, the early response has been very encouraging. Booklist’s Nancy Bent called it “superbly entertaining popular science” and gave it a starred review. Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus both gave the book positive reviews, and Greg Laden from ScienceBlogs gave it a glowing review, calling it “one of the better science books I’ve read in some time,” and noting that although he’s a biologist, he was “learning something new with every page turn.” You can also hear me talk venoms with Greg and Mike Haubrich on the Ikonokast Podcast.
If you like what you read, I would be grateful for any help with getting the word out about Venomous—talking it up on social media, leaving reviews on Amazon or Goodreads, or however else you wish to show your support. If you want to buy a signed copy, hit up the Book Passage website.
Below is a brief description of the book, what others have thought of it, and a list of where you can find me in the near future. This information can also be found on my website, and will be updated regularly.
Mahalo nui loa,
Christie
Continue reading “T minus 3 weeks until Venomous, my first book, is out!”
