Clare Bell
Encyclopedia
Clare Bell is an author in the U.S.
best known for her Ratha
series of young adult fantasy
novels about prehistoric big cats. These books, also called the Named series, are about intelligent self-aware large cats who have puma, cheetah
and lion
characteristics, and are based on fossil creatures who are ancestors of the saber-tooth cat.
The first book in the series, Ratha's Creature
appeared in 1983. The flap copy on the paperback re-issue of Clan Ground (the second book in the series which appeared in 1984) states that Bell:
Readers who followed Erin Hunter
's Warriors series about feral cats have gone on to read the Ratha series.
Bell's love for big cats is also expressed in Tomorrow's Sphinx (about cheetahs in past and future Egypt
) and The Jaguar
Princess (a werecat (jaguar) woman in Aztec
Mexico
). Bell is also fascinated with flight, writing People of the Sky about Pueblo Indians who migrate from Earth to another planet and learn to ride winged aliens. Bell's short stories have appeared in the Witch World
and CatFantastic (cats and magic
) anthologies, both edited by science fiction
and fantasy writer, Andre Norton
.
Recently Bell composed Ratha's Island, an experimental novelette written specifically for the Twitter
microblogging
service, which intentionally limits posts to 140 characters or less so that they can be read on cellphones and other portable wireless devices. Ratha's Island is an early entry into the area of Y/A Twitter fiction and has been well received. It is similar to the phenomenon of cellphone novels which are popular in Japan
. The piece ran on Twitter beginning on March 14, 2009 and ending on May 9, with blocks of 5-10 Tweets
, appearing twice daily during that time. Ratha's Island also explored the possibilities of alternative evolution in hexapodal (six-legged) as opposed to quadrepedal (four-legged) prehistoric mammals that evolved on an isolated island
. Read it online at online at http://forum.rathascourage.com/index.php?showtopic=156
, Hertfordshire
, England
and moved with her family to the United States
in 1957. While growing up in Palo Alto, California
, she became fascinated by prehistoric mammals and pored over Charles R. Knight
's paintings in books on paleontology
. After attending the University of California, Santa Cruz
she used her training in biology
and chemistry
by working as a hydrological and geological field technician for the US Geological Survey, serving on the USGS research vessel Polaris, based in Redwood City, California
. Returning to college under the Women in Engineering Program at the University of California, Davis
, she then joined IBM
in San Jose, California as an electrical engineer.
Inspired since childhood by Olaf Stapledon
's novel Sirius: A Tale of Love and Discord, about a sheep dog
with human-level intelligence, she began writing Ratha's Creature, the first novel of the Named series. Published in 1983 by Margaret K. McElderry Books, this first novel won the International Reading Association's Children's Book Award and the PEN USA Literary Award for that year. Ratha's Creature was also adapted for television animation and aired as a CBS Storybreak
episode in the late 1980s.
Leaving IBM in 1990 to begin a full-time writing career, Bell also became interested in electric vehicles. After converting a VW beetle to electric with a conversion kit, she began building, racing, repairing, designing and racing electric cars. From 1992 to 1999 also became the editor
of the Electric Auto Association
's (a nationwide US electric car club) monthly newsletter, Current Events. As part of the Women's Electric Racing Team, she competed in the Arizona Public Service
utility company's APS Solar and Electric 500 and APS Electrics electric vehicle races, held in Phoenix, Arizona
from 1993 to 1997.
She also turned her electric vehicle experience into a profession, working as an electric vehicle engineer for CALSTART and private companies until 2003.
Bell found to her surprise that books written nearly twenty years ago still had fans and had been kept alive on the Internet
. The first four Ratha titles were reissued as Firebird paperbacks in Summer and Fall 2007, and a new book, Ratha's Courage, was published by Imaginator Press in October, 2008.
Bell and her husband live in the hills west of Patterson, California, where they have built their own solar, wind and hydroelectric systems.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
best known for her Ratha
Ratha
Ratha is the Indo-Iranian term for the spoked-wheel chariot of Antiquity.It derives from a collective to a Proto-Indo-European word for "wheel" that also resulted in Latin rota and is also known from Germanic, Celtic and Baltic...
series of young adult fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
novels about prehistoric big cats. These books, also called the Named series, are about intelligent self-aware large cats who have puma, cheetah
Cheetah
The cheetah is a large-sized feline inhabiting most of Africa and parts of the Middle East. The cheetah is the only extant member of the genus Acinonyx, most notable for modifications in the species' paws...
and lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
characteristics, and are based on fossil creatures who are ancestors of the saber-tooth cat.
The first book in the series, Ratha's Creature
Ratha's Creature
Ratha’s Creature is a novel by Clare Bell. First published in 1983 by Atheneum-Argo, Margaret K. McElderry , it is being re-issued in July 2007 by Viking-Penguin's Firebird Books, edited by Sharyn November....
appeared in 1983. The flap copy on the paperback re-issue of Clan Ground (the second book in the series which appeared in 1984) states that Bell:
- is a scientistScientistA scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
, engineerEngineerAn engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
, and authorAuthorAn author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
whose work has taken her to NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
to build electric cars, to TahitiTahitiTahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
for research, to Marine World/Africa USA to meet a cheetahCheetahThe cheetah is a large-sized feline inhabiting most of Africa and parts of the Middle East. The cheetah is the only extant member of the genus Acinonyx, most notable for modifications in the species' paws...
and into the depths of prehistory to develop the Ratha series...The author blends science and fantastic projection in her depiction of the Named –- cheetah-like cats with an organized society.
Readers who followed Erin Hunter
Erin Hunter
Erin Hunter is a pseudonym used by the authors Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, and Tui Sutherland, along with editor Victoria Holmes. Under this pen name, they have written two series of books. They are best known for the Warriors series, but the authors have also created another similar series called...
's Warriors series about feral cats have gone on to read the Ratha series.
Bell's love for big cats is also expressed in Tomorrow's Sphinx (about cheetahs in past and future Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
) and The Jaguar
Jaguar
The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Southern United States and Mexico...
Princess (a werecat (jaguar) woman in Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
). Bell is also fascinated with flight, writing People of the Sky about Pueblo Indians who migrate from Earth to another planet and learn to ride winged aliens. Bell's short stories have appeared in the Witch World
Witch World
The Witch World by Andre Norton is a long series of fantasy novels set in a parallel universe where magic works and, at the beginning of the series, is exclusively performed by women. The series combines many traits of high fantasy and sword and sorcery. It begins with what is now called the...
and CatFantastic (cats and magic
Magic (fantasy)
Magic in fiction is the endowing of fictional characters or objects with magical powers.Such magic often serves as a plot device, the source of magical artifacts and their quests...
) anthologies, both edited by science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and fantasy writer, Andre Norton
Andre Norton
Andre Alice Norton, née Alice Mary Norton was an American science fiction and fantasy author under the noms de plume Andre Norton, Andrew North and Allen Weston...
.
Recently Bell composed Ratha's Island, an experimental novelette written specifically for the Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
microblogging
Microblogging
Microblogging is a broadcast medium in the form of blogging. A microblog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically smaller in both actual and aggregate file size...
service, which intentionally limits posts to 140 characters or less so that they can be read on cellphones and other portable wireless devices. Ratha's Island is an early entry into the area of Y/A Twitter fiction and has been well received. It is similar to the phenomenon of cellphone novels which are popular in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. The piece ran on Twitter beginning on March 14, 2009 and ending on May 9, with blocks of 5-10 Tweets
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, appearing twice daily during that time. Ratha's Island also explored the possibilities of alternative evolution in hexapodal (six-legged) as opposed to quadrepedal (four-legged) prehistoric mammals that evolved on an isolated island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
. Read it online at online at http://forum.rathascourage.com/index.php?showtopic=156
Biography
Clare Bell was born in 1952 in HitchinHitchin
Hitchin is a town in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population of 30,360.-History:Hitchin is first noted as the central place of the Hicce people mentioned in a 7th century document, the Tribal Hidage. The tribal name is Brittonic rather than Old English and derives from *siccā, meaning...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and moved with her family to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1957. While growing up in Palo Alto, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, she became fascinated by prehistoric mammals and pored over Charles R. Knight
Charles R. Knight
Charles Robert Knight was an American artist best known for his influential paintings of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals...
's paintings in books on paleontology
Paleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
. After attending the University of California, Santa Cruz
University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university; one of ten campuses in the University of California...
she used her training in biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
and chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
by working as a hydrological and geological field technician for the US Geological Survey, serving on the USGS research vessel Polaris, based in Redwood City, California
Redwood City, California
Redwood City is a California charter city located on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California, approximately 27 miles south of San Francisco, and 24 miles north of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans from its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people, to its tradition as a port for...
. Returning to college under the Women in Engineering Program at the University of California, Davis
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...
, she then joined IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
in San Jose, California as an electrical engineer.
Inspired since childhood by Olaf Stapledon
Olaf Stapledon
William Olaf Stapledon was a British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction.-Life:...
's novel Sirius: A Tale of Love and Discord, about a sheep dog
Sheep dog
- Animals :*Livestock guardian dog, a dog used to guard sheep and other livestock*Herding dog, a dog used to herd sheep and other livestock- Computer science :*Sheepdog a distributed storage system for QEMU/KVM - Songs :...
with human-level intelligence, she began writing Ratha's Creature, the first novel of the Named series. Published in 1983 by Margaret K. McElderry Books, this first novel won the International Reading Association's Children's Book Award and the PEN USA Literary Award for that year. Ratha's Creature was also adapted for television animation and aired as a CBS Storybreak
CBS Storybreak
CBS Storybreak is a Saturday morning anthology television series that originally aired on the CBS network during the 1985 season. Hosted by Captain Kangaroo's Bob Keeshan , the episodes are half-hour animated adaptations of some of the most beloved children's books published at the time of airing,...
episode in the late 1980s.
Leaving IBM in 1990 to begin a full-time writing career, Bell also became interested in electric vehicles. After converting a VW beetle to electric with a conversion kit, she began building, racing, repairing, designing and racing electric cars. From 1992 to 1999 also became the editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
of the Electric Auto Association
Electric Auto Association
The Electric Auto Association is a non-profit educational organization that promotes the advancement and widespread adoption of Battery electric vehicles. It was formed in 1967 in San Jose, California.-Members:...
's (a nationwide US electric car club) monthly newsletter, Current Events. As part of the Women's Electric Racing Team, she competed in the Arizona Public Service
Arizona Public Service
Arizona Public Service Company is the largest electric utility in Arizona and the principal subsidiary of publicly-traded S&P 500 member Pinnacle West Capital Corporation , which in turn had been formerly named AZP Group, when Arizona Public Service reorganized as that holding company in 1985.With...
utility company's APS Solar and Electric 500 and APS Electrics electric vehicle races, held in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
from 1993 to 1997.
She also turned her electric vehicle experience into a profession, working as an electric vehicle engineer for CALSTART and private companies until 2003.
Bell found to her surprise that books written nearly twenty years ago still had fans and had been kept alive on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. The first four Ratha titles were reissued as Firebird paperbacks in Summer and Fall 2007, and a new book, Ratha's Courage, was published by Imaginator Press in October, 2008.
Bell and her husband live in the hills west of Patterson, California, where they have built their own solar, wind and hydroelectric systems.
Series
- Ratha (the Named) series:
- Ratha's CreatureRatha's CreatureRatha’s Creature is a novel by Clare Bell. First published in 1983 by Atheneum-Argo, Margaret K. McElderry , it is being re-issued in July 2007 by Viking-Penguin's Firebird Books, edited by Sharyn November....
(orig. 1983), re-issue 2007, ISBN 978-0-14-240843-8 - Clan Ground (orig. 1984), re-issue 2010, ISBN 978-0-9745603-7-3
- Ratha and Thistle-chaserRatha and Thistle-chaserRatha and Thistle-Chaser is a young adult novel, third in the series The Book of the Named by Clare Bell. The series follows a group of sentient, prehistoric large cats called the Named, led by the female cat, Ratha. It also deals with their struggles against the group of non-sentient cats, the...
(1990) ISBN 0-689-50462-4 - Ratha's Challenge (1991)
- Ratha's CourageRatha's CourageRatha’s Courage is a novel by Clare Bell. It was published in 2008 by Imaginator Press.This novel is the final one in the Ratha series, also re-titled as The Book of the Named.-Plot summary:...
(2008) Paperback ISBN 978-0-9745603-6-6,from Imaginator Press, e-book published by E-Reads
- Ratha's Creature
- Ancient Tahiti series: (collaboration with M. Coleman Easton, published under pseudonym Clare Coleman)
- Daughter of the Reef (1992) ISBN 0-515-11012-4
- Sister of the Sky (1993?)
- Child of the Dawn (1994?)
Non-series
- Tomorrow's Sphinx (1986) ISBN 0-689-50402-0
- People of the Sky (1989) ISBN 0-312-93131-X
- The Jaguar Princess
Short stories
- The Hunting of Lord Etsalian's Daughter in Tales of the Witch World, edited by Andre NortonAndre NortonAndre Alice Norton, née Alice Mary Norton was an American science fiction and fantasy author under the noms de plume Andre Norton, Andrew North and Allen Weston...
- The Damcat in the CatFantastic anthologyAnthologyAn anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
series edited by Andre NortonAndre NortonAndre Alice Norton, née Alice Mary Norton was an American science fiction and fantasy author under the noms de plume Andre Norton, Andrew North and Allen Weston... - Bomber and the Bismarck (same)
- A Tangled Tahitian Tale (same)
- Bonechewer's Legacy (Ratha) in the Firebirds Soaring (2009) anthology of speculative fictionSpeculative fictionSpeculative fiction is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as...
edited by Sharyn NovemberSharyn NovemberSharyn November is an American editor of books for children and teenagers. She is Senior Editor for Viking Children's Books and Editorial Director of Firebird Books, which is a mainly paperback imprint publishing fantasy and science fiction for teenagers and adults...
.
Novelettes
- Ratha's Island (2009) electronically published on TwitterTwitterTwitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, archived http://forum.rathascourage.com/index.php?showtopic=156