California State University, NorthridgeCalifornia State University, Northridge
April 26, 1996
Contact: Carmen Ramos Chandler,
Director of News and Information,
(818) 885-2130
The book, which explores the endings and beginnings of relationships -- particularly those with lovers and parents, is a far cry from the sterile laboratories and classrooms where Hoppenbrouwers spends most of her time.
"This is quite an exciting thing," she said. "But I am also sticking my neck out big as well -- the book has a lesbian theme. I'm a scientist and all my writing in the past has been professional papers. This, the novel, is a little different for me."
Hoppenbrouwers has been a professor at Cal State Northridge since 1980, teaching such subjects as "Psychology and Behavioral Disorders" and "The Brain and Behavior." She has also been part of a team of researchers at the University of Southern California studying Sudden Infant Death Syndrome for the past 24 years.
She said writing the novel was a way of expressing her creative side and a way to tap into the clinical psychology training she received while earning her doctorate at UCLA and rarely uses.
"The theme of my life is to try to balance the intellectual with the intuitive," Hoppenbrouwers said. "The novel is a way to my intuitive side."
Regardless of how successful her novel turns out to be, Hoppenbrouwers said she has no plans of giving up academia and research.
"I enjoy what I do," she said, adding with a laugh, "Besides, I don't think first novels pay enough to live on."
Hoppenbrouwers' novel, Autumn Sea, published by Astarte Shell Press of Portland, Maine, is currently available in the university's Matador Bookstore. It will be available elsewhere beginning April 30.