iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 20h

(To be clear my book is nonfiction narrative science!) But I’m a romance girlie, and what i read inspires me. I even have a section in my acknowledgements thanking romance authors/ novels that inspired me 😇

Romance Novels that inspired my writing
1.) Dare, Tessa. 2014. Romancing the Duke:
Castles Ever After. HarperCollins.
2.) Simone, Sierra. 2015. Priest. Sierra Simone.
3.) Thomas, Sherry. 2016. A Study in Scarlet Women. Berkley Books.
4.) Comfort, Jen. 2023. Midnight Duet: A Novel.
Montlake.
5.) Dixon, Ruby. 2015. Ice Planet Barbarians.
Ruby Dixon.
6.) Milan, Courtney. 2016. Hold Me. Courtney Milan.
7.) Balogh, Mary. 1997. Indiscreet. Jove.
8.) Charles, K.J. An Unnatural Vice. Loveswept.

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 20h

Someone on TikTok asked me if RESONANCE & RADIANCE has smut in it —and not exactly BUT!!! I reference multiple romance novels in my book!

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Awww thank you Micaela! That means so much

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

I’ll mail you one!! Just dm me your address when we are closer to April

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Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Front Range friends! I’m reading spooky stories at Tattered Cover Aspen Grove with some of my faves this Thursday & hope you’ll join us if you can 🎃❤️🦇✨ www.eventbrite.com/e/spooky-sto...

eventbrite.com

Spooky Stories with Rachel Feder & Friends at Tattered Cover Aspen Grove

Join us for a FREE night of spooky story-telling from local authors!

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

And then another two hours to make a two-slide IG post in canva that does not even look very good... but done is better than perfect at this point.

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Kelsey K Davenport (She/Her) @kkdavenportauthor.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

@authormsbev.bsky.social Look at this amazing fan work!

From /Aware-sea-8593 on Reddit: author of post shares the custom American girl dress she created from the cover of author Beverly Jenkins’ ‘Forbidden’

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Omg it’s been so long since I’ve made any video content for TikTok /IG It took me 4 hours to make a 4 min video today. Doing just fine 🥲

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

aww maybe I should make a magnetic resonance one too! The one in the picture is microwave spectroscopy generally--so I guess kinda works for EPR 🧲🤓

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I hope you find the book interesting/fun/helpful!

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findlatergroup.bsky.social @findlatergroup.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

preordered my copy! In addition to Debbie being one of the absolute best and most generous long time members of the chemtwitter (RIP) and now chemsky communities, she is also a phenomenal spectroscopist. Even if she weren’t both those things, this just looks like a great read! Order yours today!

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Fated Mates @fatedmates.net · 10/10/2026

The 2026 elections are also about the 2028 elections. That’s why we're working with @statesprojectus.bsky.social to flip the Pennsylvania state senate and deliver a Democratic trifecta to protect the path to the Presidency. We're matching donations up to $2000 for the next week! Help us win!

fatedmates.net

Fated States | Join and Donate | The States Project

Learn more about Fated States on Grapevine.org

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

thank you so much! I hope you find it interesting/fun/helpful! ⚛️🧪🧲🚨

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

aww thank you so much. Translating the beauty of spectroscopy into words was not easy! I hope folks find it helpful/fun/interesting.

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Thanks Scott!! I tried to keep the backstory brief! It’s been such a loooong project! 😇

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Aww, I can mail you one! Postage on the print would not be wild. Just remind me when we are getting closer to april with your address in a DM and I will get it in the mail!

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

if you would like to preorder the book I would be SO grateful! I drew ~75 images for this book, and (w/ help two artists) I turned one into a Riso print! If you would like a signed book plus a Riso print, you can order from my local indie, Westside books: westsidebooks.com/book/9780262...

A stack of prints with a water molecule rotating generating an electric field that matches the electric field from the microwave light

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Anyway! I’m really proud of how RESONANCE & RADIANCE turned out! Please consider adding to your TBR on goodreads or clicking the “notify me” button 🔔 in the Libby app for all of your library cards! These are some free ways that you can support my book!

Screenshot of the Book RESONANCE &RADIANCE: how light reveals the chemistry of our world on goodreads

Screenshot of the book resonance and radiance how light reveals the chemistry of our world on Libby

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Thanks, Chad! Yes, helping your dad would be a great goal!

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Oh thank you so much!! I’ll let you know when it’s up on NetGalley!

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Thank you! I’m proud of how it turned out!

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Awww omg I wish I was skilled and or talented enough to write fiction. But maybe one day!!!!

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

And for all the long time #chemtwitter / #chemsky friends—i interviewed @sararah.bsky.social for the NMR chapter in her magnet lab in Ames, Iowa! I’m so grateful for the generosity of experts like Sarah who took the time to talk to me and also give feedback on the book! bsky.app/profile/heyd...

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Because I’m an expert in one type of spectroscopy (🧲magnetic resonance spectroscopy) I interviewed more than 25 other spectroscopists, scientists, physicians, & art conservators. One ex: To write my fluorescence chapter, I shadowed an evolutionary geneticist studying crickets & ran my first gel! 🦗🧬

Photo of a gel of cricket DNA visualized on a TV screen

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

My goal was to write narratives that the reader could relate to that also explained the science. Ex: To explain IR spectroscopy, I wrote about my experience as a disabled person navigating the COVID-19 pandemic & my pocket-size IR spectrometer (CO2 sensor) that is a proxy for ventilation/covid risk.

Photo of a notebook with sketches of a co2 monitor and a schematic of how the spectrometer works

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

The challenge was connecting the dots. How do I get the reader from this intro chapter on color & light to understanding the Air Quality Index? I knew I needed a chapter on lasers, a chapter on IR spectroscopy, fluorescence, etc! And, how can I use storytelling to hopefully make it fun to read?

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I had taught a chemistry + art class at DU, so I knew that visual arts were a great entry point to talking about spectroscopy. I wrote a sample chapter introducing spectroscopy set in the Denver art museum. (With a lot of help & feedback from my writing partner @skzingales.bsky.social ! )

A Monet painting of a river and a city mostly in blues and greys

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

The goal of helping folks understand the AQI helped motivate me to start working on this huge project. Using books like STUFF MATTERS and THE DISORDERED COSMOS as inspiration, I started writing narratives from my life and weaving in scientific explanations. At first I was writing to explore.

A photo of a bullet journal page with a narrative about manganese

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Simultaneously—Id thought about writing a narrative nonfiction book about spectroscopy for a long time. Im a huge reader & I kept hoping to find a narrative science book specifically about spectroscopy, but it never happened. My lack of experience w/ creative writing made the project intimidating!

A stack of about 20 nonfiction science books including THE KISSING BUG, SUPERHEAVY, etc

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Because, to explain how the five criteria pollutants are measured you need to know 5 different types of spectroscopy !! PM2.5 is measured by detecting the scattering of lasers. NOx : chemiluminescence & visible spectroscopy. Ozone : UV spectroscopy CO :IR spectroscopy SO2 : fluorescence!

Screen shot of my local AQI on my weather app

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

In 2020, I thought about writing a blog post or some type of article explaining how AQI is measured written for a general audience. But every time I sat down to write it—I knew the audience needed more scaffolding than what was possible in a short article.

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

During the late summer of 2020, the air outside was not safe to breathe bc of the smoke from the wildfires. And indoor air had the threat of COVID. I had many friends and family members asking me: How is air quality measured? How can I protect myself and my kids from poor air quality?

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Since 2017, I started applying EPR spectroscopy to study environmentally persistent free radicals in particulate matter (PM) with an atmospheric chemist in my department. (I started to become very familiar with research & spectroscopy related to the air quality index, AQI)

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Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

August 2020, friends & family began regularly asking me about air quality & the AQI. That year, Colorado experienced our worst wildfire season due to the Pine Gulch fire along the western slope & the Cameron Peak Wildfire near RMNP. Also, many scientists suspected COVID was an airborne virus.

Photo of a woman (me) sitting at Mesa Arch in Canyonlands national park.

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