Cataclysm and Rebirth - Black Dreams, #1

Cataclysm and Rebirth is the first novel of this award-winning author's, post-apocalyptic epic, the Black Dreams Series. The year:  2030. The setting:  a grand opening gala at the remodeled San Francisco mansion--Belle's Art Gallery and Inn. All is aglitter when out of the blue Belle and family are spun into chaos by a climate-triggered earthquake and tsunami that devastate San Francisco. Pandemonium ensues, only intensified by the mixed-blessing birth of three "earthquake babies, " which Belle and husband struggle to raise in the tumultuous aftermath. Once relative calm is restored, the world is rocked by yet another climate-triggered event--this time illness and infertility.
Belle's determination to survive, to maintain her hotel/art gallery, her suddenly expanded family, and her art career, she relies heavily on environmental journalist husband, Forrest, and physician friend, Rush Rorrie. Unexpectedly her art background and artist friends also play a crucial part in what it will take to continue to survive an irrevocably altered world. Gretchen Hummel is a 2011 Writer's Digest Award Finalist and a 2011 USA Best Books Award Finalist in two categories.
She has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing as well as a Master of Science in Psychiatric Nursing. Themes Science and Spirituality Climate Change Lucid Dreaming Neurotherapy Brainwave Training Art and Mystical Symbols Compare to authors Emily St John Mandel, Michel Faber, Margaret Atwood, and Mary Doria Russell. "Gretchen Hummel has created a rich, complex world that is both beautiful and scary--, " Alison Baker, O'Henry Award Winner. "...from the beginning, I was gripped by Hummel's ability to pull together science and imagined technology with myth and spirituality, a winning combination..." Jaclyn Dolomore, librarything.com. Author Gretchen Hummel is a 2011 Writer's Digest Award Finalist and a 2011 USA Best Books Award Finalist in two categories.
She has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing as well as a Master of Science in Psychiatric Nursing.