Blog Tour: Guest Post: The Catalyst by Andrea Goyan
Today I am on the blog tour for The Catalyst by Andrea Goyan. It was released yesterday and today Goyan is sharing the 20-year path that she and The Catalyst went on. You read that right: It has been a 20 year journey for this novel to become published!
Book Description:
When human bodies are found with scales and tails, DNA specialist Kat Crocker is assigned to uncover the cause of the mutations and stop them before they spread. But her growing visibility makes her a target. As attacks escalate, the trail leads her to a newly released VR game powered by impossible genetics—and to one man: the mentor who taught her everything, the father she buried years ago.
Buy Your Copy Here:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Hi Jessica. Thank you for inviting me here. I’m delighted to meet you and your followers.
I thought I’d chat a bit about my path to The Catalyst’s publication, and how it’s been as much about my personal progression as about the book’s. And of course, how the two things are intertwined.
I’m not a hyper or excitable person, but I’ve always been in a hurry, rushing toward imagined successes. I’ve harbored a lot of magical beliefs like “if I…, then I…” as in, if I win this competition, then I’ll elevate my visibility in the market, or, if my book gets published, people will find, read, and love it. These beliefs date back to my school days, too. If I get good grades, I’ll succeed. If I get the lead in the school play, I’ll be on my way to stardom.
It took me a long while to realize how toxic that belief system is because it’s married to its opposite. If I don’t win this competition, I’m not a good writer. If I don’t get my book published, I’ll never be read. If I’m not married by thirty, I’ll never find a spouse. If I don’t—fill in the blank—I’m a failure.
Reaching the grand age of sixty-six, at a point where there is way less time in front of me than when I was thirty, I find peace in no longer rushing for made-up finish lines. Maybe it’s because the permanent finish line looms and I’m in no hurry to get there, but I think it’s much more than that. Wisdom, age, grace, whatever one chooses to call it, I’ve learned the road continues after the end of every race. And I only progress one moment at a time.
I hope you won’t misinterpret what I mean. I still have lofty goals and pressing stories to tell, but I realize so many things are out of my control. Sometimes projects need to breathe and grow before they’re ready to launch.
I originally wrote my debut novel, The Catalyst, over twenty years ago. At the time, its title was DNA Abnormalis. I signed with a New York literary agent, and the book made the rounds to acquisition editors. I wildly spun my if I dreams until those hopes were dashed. The novel was soundly but kindly rejected. Of course, my nasty interior voices said they were only kind because of their working relationship with the agents, which may have been true. But neither option mattered because I didn’t know what to do next. I was new to the game and didn’t have anyone in my circle who was adept at navigating the submission process. I didn’t understand that getting soundly rejected was a big part of the business, and that over the coming decades, I’d develop moderate coping mechanisms to deal with the noes.
After the rejections, my agent suggested some rewrites that I wasn’t interested in. They would’ve changed my lead character and made the novel into something I didn’t want to write. We parted amicably about a year later. I fiddled with DNA Abnormalis for another year, wrote most of a second book, and set both aside for a decade. Then, I revisited the novel, did another pass, and set it aside again, figuring it was one of those classic writer tales about early novels sitting at the bottom of a drawer, or in today’s nomenclature, archived somewhere on a computer.
I moved forward and continued writing. Since those novel rejections, over forty short stories of mine have appeared in a variety of different publications, and many of those are free to read on my website. I also have three more novels in the works.
When I returned to The Catalyst on a whim two years ago, something clicked. I finally cracked the story and wrote a book I’m happy with. One I couldn’t have written when I started the book. And I know, all my life experiences and writing in the interim made that discovery possible. My finish line kept moving, and for some crazy reason, I slogged along, never rushing, until I reached and surpassed it.
My husband, who has watched me plunk away at my keyboard year after year, and I laughed the other night when we realized that after two decades, The Catalyst (née DNA Abnormalis) had become my debut novel after all. I guess it was always meant to be.
And if I…then I became if I write, then I’m happy.
About the Author:
Andrea Goyan is an award-winning author and an avid animal person who grew up being called Goat-Girl and Raccoon-Mama. She is a grateful part of a flock of collaborative Magpie Poets whose first collection, An Illegal Feast, was released in 2025. Andrea also co-hosts MetaStellar Magazine’s “Long-Lost Friends” and “Storytime.” In her spare time, she walks her dogs and loves to paint, especially animal portraits.
Many of her stories are available for free on her website.
Contact Andrea:
Website
Follow Andrea on Bluesky!