I’m delighted today to have Ransom Noble visit on a Virtual Blog Tour. Ransom is the author of The Art of Science, to be published in 2009, and lives in Des Moines, Iowa in the United States. Welcome, Ransom.

About Ransom

Ransom Noble has always loved stories. She’s been an avid reader and writer as long as she can remember. Believing determination can help one attain any goal, she set her sights high and achieved many goals. Her love of the sciences led her to a career in mechanical engineering and often pushes her imagination into the speculative fiction realm.

Ransom’s work includes “Qui’s Contract,” a short story that appeared in Ruins Metropolis in June 2008 and The Art of Science, which will be published in 2009.

1. Ransom, can you tell us a little about The Art of Science?

The Art of Science is a story about a girl named Janie as she starts junior high. She has plans for her activities, but her plans are thrown off when she gets into a special program that her mother decides isn’t optional. She tries to find a new balance between the things she loves and the requirements placed on her.

I wrote this six years ago as part of a course and stuffed it in a drawer. I know that’s not the way to do it, but I didn’t think about it for a long time. I heard about a contest through 4RV Publishing, LLC, and remembered the manuscript. With encouragement, I polished up the book and sent it to the contest – and won! Exciting new info on the book: the cover is on my web site now!

2. Tell us about what has happened since acceptance to prepare the book for publication?

In the last year, I’ve worked with editors to improve the story. I chose what the illustrations would be (the illustrator is taking care of the rest, and he’s great). We worked to put a study guide together. I hope it is used in classes.

3. One of the biggest challenges for new authors is promoting both their books and themselves as writers. What are you doing to promote yourself and your forthcoming book?

While starting to promote myself, most of my presence has been online so far. I keep a daily blog, participate in the virtual blog tour, and have a Facebook page. I have also attended a science fiction conference as an author. While it didn’t promote my upcoming book, it did promote a project for a similar age group and got my name out there. Soon I’ll be going to schools and bookstores.

4. Why do you write?

Because I love it and I can’t stop. Ideas pop in my head, even while writing other things. I don’t want to let them escape and I enjoy sharing them with others.

5. How old were you when you first started writing?

I’m not sure. I remember in 4th or 5th grade I was chosen to be part of a journal because of my story about a dragon and a mouse. I think they took the best elementary submissions from all over Iowa, but it’s been awhile. I know I started making up stories around 1 year old, because we got a TV around that time. Mom would catch me watching it (when it was off) and asked me what I was doing. Apparently I told her it was more fun to watch when it was off because I was making up my own shows. Through junior high I made up several stories to fill the required journals for English class and continued because my classmates loved to read them (and I loved to write them and thrived on their participation). Somewhere toward the end of junior high and into high school I switched to poetry, then back to prose when I began college classes (during high school). I had to keep my first Physics notebook from college because it had too many story scenes where I got bored during lectures. When I got out of college, I took a couple correspondence courses because I wanted to learn more and give myself an excuse to write, but work often made me too tired to do it on my own. Still, I finished my first novel while working as well as several short stories and some unfinished novels. Now I write full-time, as well as being a stay at home soon to be mom.

6. Can you tell us where to find more information about you?

http://www.ransomnoble.wordpress.com/

Thanks for joining us, Ransom, and good luck with your first book.

Ransom will be back here next week, answering my seven questions. In the meantime, the other members of the Virtual book tours group are also hosting fellow authors today. You can visit these sites by clicking on the links in the Virtual Book Tour blogroll on the right. Enjoy.