Right Side/Wrong Side

A post I saw today: a mustang stallion made sure a young foal separated from her mother during a round-up was guided to the safety of her herd—even though it meant he gave up his own freedom in the process. It was witnessed, so it’s true. Some might find that an incredible tale—as the women of Cathy Hester Seckman’s Right Side Wrong Side would find it passed belief that a man would care whether or not he had a daughter, and long to see her.
A colony world. Limited resources, and part of them are killing others off. Saving the colony requires drastic measures—and a wall totally separating the sexes. Women to the Right Side, men to the Wrong Side. And generations pass.
The sexes meet at Red Cabins carefully managed by the women, because babies are necessary for society’s survival. Female babies stay with their mothers. Male babies are passed through the wall to the men who thereby learn they have fathered children. And both sides think they’re in a utopia—at least sometimes.
Because a story where all problems are solved and all characters are content…isn’t a story. Some problems just go with the territory—power struggles and politics, work-life balance. But people are…only human, even on a colony world.
The men of Wrong Side raise their sons. And a man without sons may wonder whether no sons means no children. The women of Right Side may find it difficult to give up a child unseen, unknown except for its male sex. But there’s a medication for that, right? Is running a government fulfilling—or duty? Is making art a spare time thing—or necessary to life? Right Side Wrong Side asks those questions, in a fast-paced plot with life & death stakes and memorable characters. 

​It goes on sale October 30, 2023.