Author Archives: Jennifer Rohn

Many years ago when my first novel Experimental Heart was in the process of being repeatedly rejected, editors would tell my agent that its main problem was one of categorization: What cover would we put on this? At the time, … Continue reading →

I’ve just returned from a lab retreat at the Convento de Arrábida, a crumbling former Franciscan monastery about twenty miles south of Lisbon. Clinging to a hillside overlooking the sea, the white stucco buildings were set in a landscape of … Continue reading →

In a few hours I’m off to a lab retreat in Portugal for the next four days, so unfortunately will be missing a wonderful opportunity to do some public engagement. But for those of you who live in or around … Continue reading →

In fiction, there seems to be an instinctive belief that anything mentioned by characters in dialogue is automatically rendered casual or unobtrusive – that the puppet strings of authorial intent are rendered invisible by speech. I say instinctive because, of … Continue reading →

Sometimes training can become a way of life. When I was a graduate student in Seattle, I once left a nightclub at two in the morning to grab a burger at a nearby fast-food establishment. With hindsight, walking through the … Continue reading →

As a scientist, I am always thinking about the best way to discuss my work with the wider community. And as a novelist, I’ve experimented a lot with a related problem: how to transmit scientific ideas or atmosphere in a … Continue reading →

General fiction with scientists as central characters plying their trade is rare: the number is probably close to a hundred or so novels ever written (we’re keeping a list over on LabLit, if you’re curious). Unlike science fiction or crime … Continue reading →

It is finally happening. Roughly seven years after I first sat down at the iMac in my airy flat in the Oud Zuid quarter of Amsterdam and typed the words “Chapter 1”, my first novel is about to be published. … Continue reading →

I have written before about my admiration of the roll-up-your-sleeves ingenuity of scientists who, when faced with an obstacle, choose to create a solution with materials to hand. But truly great things have been afoot in my laboratory last week. … Continue reading →

Novelists: who can trust them? Delicate creatures with arcane quirks, twisted souls and artistic whims, if you ask me. In this vein, I bring both good news and bad: tomorrow’s Fiction Lab will not, as previously advertised, be invaded by … Continue reading →