I saw Nicola Chester read an extract from her memoir about her experiences as an environmental protestor at the ‘Wild Women: Writing the Earth’ Symposium yesterday, and it blew me away. If you’re wondering whether to join the XR ‘Big One’ protest in London this weekend (21st – 24th April), this might inspire you to
At a session at COP27 with speculative fiction writer Andrew Dana Hudson on how fiction can help save the climate, I may have accidentally coined a term ‘social-science fiction’. Just as science fiction helps us to imagine the pros and cons of new technologies, social-science fiction can help us imagine how transformative systemic solutions, such
I run the Green Stories project and our aim is to move beyond preaching to the converted to share climate solutions using fiction. A key goal is to encourage writers to create positive visions of what a sustainable society might look like and how we might get there. This year we have been working with
I’m taking time off writing the sequel to Habitat Man to co-ordinate an anthology of climate solutions wrapped in short stories targeted at COP27 delegates. The idea is to bring together climate experts and experienced writers to promote green solutions in an engaging short story. I’ll be writing a few myself and here is the
Now spring is approaching, and we start to think about our gardens, watch out for plastic-backed meadow mats. Many people buy wildflower turf or meadow mats thinking they are helping nature and improving biodiversity, but they don’t realise that almost all of them have plastic backing. Suppliers say they break down, but they don’t, they
My venture into indie authorship has been an up and down road. The strange peace of the first lockdown spring. Long, thoughtful walks by the river watching nature, dreaming up characters, musing over plot lines, imaginary conversations in my head. Sideways looks from other walkers wondering who the strange person was laughing to herself and
I love to write stories that have a benign effect on the environment and I set up the free Green Stories writing competitions to encourage more writers to do the same. But Father Christmas is probably the biggest example of a fictional story that has had a widespread negative impact on the environment, encouraging widespread
This December my book Habitat Man went on tour (well, at least virtually)! The book passed through the desks of lots of different book bloggers who read and reviewed the books. Here are a few highlights in case you missed it! I’d like to say thanks to EVERYONE that took part in the tour! –
I have to choose a short clip of <5 minutes to accompany the audio version of Habitat Man. I’d welcome your opinions. Please listen to these below and email me at Hello@DABaden.com or leave a comment with your view. I’m so excited the audio book will be out soon, but it’s tricky choosing the right
This month has been busy with podcasts and events. I was delighted to speak with Joanna Penn on the Creative Penn podcast earlier this month https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2021/11/19/writing-for-the-environment/. We talked about sustainability in the book industry, how to write eco-fiction without being preachy and the upcoming Orna Ross Green Stories novel prize coming up end of December
