Carbon Dreams a novel

At an oceanography institute in northern California, Dr. Tina Arenas studies climates of the distant geologic past— but her data has unexpectedly modern implications. As she struggles to obtain research funding, Tina finds herself being dragged into the media spotlight on global warming and falling in love with a local organic farmer, who has his own ideas about climate, the media, scientific funding, and commitment. Set in the early 1980s, when the oil industry was beginning its climate change denial campaign, CARBON DREAMS is the story of one scientist’ s struggle to reconcile her conflicting responsibilities to science, to society, and to her own loved ones.

Susan M. Gaines is the author of the novels ACCIDENTALS and CARBON DREAMS, and of the non-fiction book ECHOES OF LIFE: WHAT FOSSIL MOLECULES REVEAL ABOUT EARTH HISTORY. Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, her stories and essays have appeared in the North American Review, Missouri Review, Nature, and many other journals. She divides her time between Santa Cruz, CA and Bremen Germany, where she was one of the founders of the Fiction Meets Science program at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg.