Heather S. Ransom’s Going Green is a Willamette Writers Success Story

Heather S. Ransom, member of Willamette Writers and a middle school science teacher, is already receiving glowing praise for her debut YA novel, Going Green. Though the novel tackles issues like the debate about GMOs, citizens filming acts of police brutality, and political extremism, it’s also a fun, fast-paced, coming-of-age adventure.

Ransom won the Pitch for the Prize competition at the Willamette Writers Conference in Portland in 2016, and subsequently signed with Not a Pipe Publishing in Independence, Oregon. Benjamin Gorman, the company’s co-publisher and a member of Willamette Writers, was one of the judges. “As soon as I heard the concept, my curiosity was piqued, but I had to find out if it was a fun as it sounded. Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down!”

Going Green takes readers on a journey with Calyssa Brentwood, an entitled high school senior, who has just finished her cellular enhancement in order to “go Green,” now a walking GMO with plant chloroplasts in her cells. She’s well on her way to securing her place in the upper ranks of society. Then she meets Gabe Stayton, the only person she knows who has chosen to not be enhanced. And when she finds herself far from the safety of Sci-City, on a farm, in the middle of a rebel insurgency, Lyssa, a true city girl, soon discovers that the consequences may turn deadly.

“Heather Ransom’s Going Green, is a perfect blend of science, teenage romance, and mystery. It is a cautionary tale about the dangers of genetically modified food leading to genetically modified people, and what can go wrong with both. ”

— Jahnna Beecham, editor/contributing writer of National Geographic’s Science Encyclopedia

“Going Green is a confident, richly conceived and immensely readable debut where unlikely hope grows like grass punching through the cracks of an oppressive system. …Ransom has a remarkable way of juggling the political and socio-economic details of her bleak future with raw, human intimacy.”

-Dale E. Basye, author of the Circles of Heck series

“Heather S. Ransom creates an eerily poignant futuristic world with her intelligent writing. The suspenseful storyline propels the reader on. Bravo!”

– Barbara Herkert, author of Sewing Stories: Harriet Powers’ Journey from Slave to Artist, Mary Cassatt: Extraordinary Impressionist, and A Boy, a Mouse, and a Spider: The Story of E.B. White

Ransom, who teaches life science at South Middle School in Grants Pass, Oregon, is thrilled by all the positive reviews. “Going Green is a story about choices and consequences, about true happiness and real fear, about racism and appreciation of differences, and about deciding who you truly are and what you believe. Set in the future, it allows us to look at and talk about ‘their problems’,” she says, “and then we realize how similar our realities are.”

Going Green is available now at your local independent bookstore or through your favourite online retailer, including Powell’s, Amazon, and B&N.