Amazon.com: Profile for Clare Bell

Location:: Northern California, USA

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Web page:: www.rathascourage.com

Biography: Born in England in 1952, I moved to the US with my family in 1957. I worked in oceanography, electrical engineering, test equipment design and mechanical engineering before I wrote my first book, Ratha’s Creature (Atheneum-Argo Margaret K .McElderry 1983) , the story of a prehistoric wildcat who learns to tame fire.

Since then I have continued to write fantasy and science fiction for children and adults. I continue to be fascinated by big cats, as showcased in Tomorrow’s Sphinx (cheetahs i...[more]
Interests: Writing about animals, especially big cats, researching about animals, especially big cats, sketching my characters, especially... OK, sketching, sculpting (see my website),trading bad jokes with my husband, renewable energy, electric cars, hybrid cars, especially Honda Insights (I drive one), my own little cats, pumas, cougars, cheetahs, lions, sea otters (I was thinking about doing a sea otter series), growing my own veggies, repairing cars with my husband, watching my step-son's poultry (geese, chickens, ducks, doves, quail), listening to my teen step-daughter's music and actually enjoying it, being with my husband, especially....

Ratha Returns With New "Courage"

1:43 PM PDT, April 23, 2008

Ratha, the fire-wielding leader of the Named prehistoric cat clan, has, according to the recent VOYA review of the new Ratha's Courage, “a long and venerable history”. From the now-classic hardcover Ratha's Creature ( Atheneum/Margaret K. McElderry/1983) to Ratha's Challenge (MKM/MacMillan/1996), Ratha's prehistoric Miocene world fascinated readers. Throughout four books, she and the Named grew and developed.

In Ratha's Creature, she learned how to herd three-horn deer, discovered the truth about thesupposedly witless UnNamed raiders, tamed her “creature”, the Red Tongue (fire), and led a blazing revolt against Meoran, the short-sighted, tyrannical clan leader. In Clan Ground, she fought down the challenge to her leadership by the orange-eyed demagogue Shongshar, who tried to turn the Named into a fire-worshiping hegemony. In Ratha and Thistle-chaser, she struggled with the daughter she wounded and abandoned. In Ratha's Challenge, she led the Named in a mystifying encounter with True-of-voice and the Song-entranced mammoth-hunting cat tribe.

Now, thirteen years later, comes Ratha's Courage: The Fifth Book of the Named. Why has there been such a long gap after Challenge and why at last did I return to the series with Courage?

When Ratha sprang from the pages in 1983, she created a whirl of excitement. She captured the 1984 IRA Children's Choice and the PEN Los Angeles awards. She became a regular on recommended book lists for teens and was hailed as an instant classic. CBS Storybreak not only optioned the book, but made an animated episode, which aired in 1987 (and is in clips on MySpaceTV and YouTube). She and the Named were on their way to recognition and popularity, like the kind accorded the present-day Warrior Cat series. .

Then time blew the dazzle away, like so much dust. I began to see the realities of the publishing world. Glowing reviews and awards, but low print runs. Praise by schools and libraries, but no shelf space in bookstores. British editions and paperbacks on Ratha's Creature and Clan Ground, but not on Thistle-chaser or Challenge. Invitations for author appearances and readings, but little publisher support. Finally, after 1996, the series sank out of sight in the mass grave of “Out of Print”. Getting back the rights loomed as an impossible or at least a formidable process. I didn't pursue it.

I mourned, tried to put Ratha behind me, even though it was hard to see old copies at used bookstores reminding me of might have been. I turned instead to my other love and vocation, electric vehicles.

In 1991 the First Gulf War sparked me into building an electric VW conversion from a kit. (The black Porsche 914 EV pictured on the site was my later car, “Black Magic“.)

I became an EV journalist/editor for the Electric Auto Association, then began to build and race EVs. From 1997-2002, using electrical engineering skills acquired from my education and 12 years at IBM San Jose, I became an electric car engineer, working for small EV companies and projects, including the Alameda Station Car Project, Think Nordic (in Norway) and Corbin Motors, builders of the three-wheeled Sparrow EV.

I love EVs, but these small companies can often be rough to work for. They are often minefields of egos and people who prey on the idealism of those who follow the EV dream. After an exhausting and demoralizing stint at Corbin Motors, I hung up my EV shingle. In the process I did what I never thought I'd do, namely fell in love with and later married a sweet, supportive fellow engineer named Chuck Piper and moved out to his property in the mountains near Patterson, CA.

But Ratha didn't go away. She was starting to prowl the infant Internet, finding readers who hadn't forgotten her. Unknown to me, many readers had taken Ratha into their hearts and had never forgotten her. She was the subject of emails and chats between lone fans who had at long last found each other. A Ratha role-playing site sprang up, Clan Ground of the Named. Artwork based on the series appeared at sites such as The Lion King Fan Art Archive and DevArt.

Although I have been Internet-savvy from the mid 1990's, I had no idea all this was going on. Perhaps I caught hints, but didn't really want to see or believe. Stubborn are those who have lost faith, especially in their own creations. Even when my then-to-be husband Chuck, told me about the Ratha role-playing site, I still thought the series was dead.

Then, in 2003, came the call from Viking-Penguin/Firebird editor Sharyn November. Actually the call came to my hubby at work, saying that the editor of the acclaimed Firebird Books line wanted to contact me. Then came a series of getting-to-know-you emails. Sharyn interacts with teen readers through the Internet, taking their recommendations for out of print fantasy books, and re-issuing them in her Firebird line. Her young advisors had suggested my Ratha series. Would I be interested in writing a new Ratha? If I did, the new title would pull the series back into print.

(Next - Researching and writing the new book)

This is syndicated from The Scratching Log, and written by rathacat.

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Ratha's Courage E-Released on Baen!

1:06 PM PDT, April 9, 2008

This version is an electronic book, which means you purchase it, then download it into your laptop, Sony reader or other device. On sale now for $6.00.

To buy it from Baen Books, you need to get an account, which is free and easy.

Here's the link:

http://www.webscription.net/p-822-rathas-c ourage.aspx

Baen's homepage is:

http://www.baen.com

Baen will have an exclusive on the book during April, then Amazon and Fictionwise http://www.fictionwise.com will be carrying it.

If Courage does well as an E-book, the next step is print publication.

Eeeeyarooo!

The other books in the series are Firebird re-issues and are available through the net and at bookstores.

My deepest thanks to everyone who made this happen, including E-Reads, Baen, and my agent, Richard Curtis.