A Pound of Flesh, Sorta

 Are you tired of TV reruns, why not  read a new novel - a medical mystery entwined in a western #thriller.

A Pound of Flesh, Sorta starts when a a ticking package with the guts of animals is delivered to Sara Almquist. The police doubts it's a prank because Sara is a key witness in an upcoming trial of gang leaders. Scientist Sara Almquist thinks it might be plea for help after she learns the guts are contaminated with the bacteria that causes the #plague. Read the book and see who's right.

PS Prairie dog die-offs regularly occur in the American #Southwest and are caused by the plague. A few people in the Southwest die of the plague most years.

Available at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0960028560

Here’s the start of the A Pound of Flesh, Sorta.

CHAPTER 1: Sara Almquist on Wednesday

Sara Almquist looked at the white parcel in front of her door. A brown UPS delivery van careened around the corner away from her home. This was typical when the doorbell rang at this time of day. She never reached the door before the delivery guy was climbing into his truck. Today she was either a little slower than usual or he was a little faster. 

The box was clearly marked with her name and address. She didn’t remember ordering anything recently, but she sometimes forgot orders. Maybe Eric Sanders had sent her a surprise package. Red “PERISHABLE” stamps were on the top and sides of the package. She guessed it must be food. Bug, her black and white Japanese Chin, was smelling the carton intently and waving his plumed tail. He seldom gave boxes left at the door a second sniff. It must be special.

She carried the package, about the size of six shoe boxes, to the counter in her kitchen. It was odd that the label listed the shipper as “New Mexico Industries,” but didn’t show a return address. She didn’t know a company with that name. She pulled a utility knife from her tool drawer and slit the silver duct tape connecting the two flaps of the box. A Styrofoam carton was tightly wedged inside. Sanders had sent her something fragile or that needed to be kept cold—maybe it was tropical flowers or gourmet cheeses?

She cut the tape around the lid, lifted the lid, took out two blue gel freeze packs, and screamed. The shock passed quickly, and her innate curiosity and scientific training took over.

A firm-looking ivory mass with streaks of pink and ridges lay in the box. It was probably the tissue of a large animal. It was not squishy like brains or squiggly tubes like intestines. It looked sorta like the tripe sold in rural meat markets, but this blob had big linear ridges, not a honeycomb of ridges. It was most likely the stomach of an animal. Several red, almost black, spots dotted the creases between the ridges. 

She wasn’t going to touch it. It might be laced with a poison. This wasn’t a gift from a friend. Someone was angry with her.

Four months ago, Sara had helped local police and the FBI identify the butcher at a carnicería in nearby Mercado as the killer of homeless veterans who interfered with his drug business in Albuquerque. It had been a complicated case and her friend Eric Sanders, then assigned by the State Department to the embassy in Cuba, had tracked an assassin hired by the drug syndicate from Havana to Miami to Albuquerque. Now the butcher, his wife, drug kingpins from Miami, and a number of former members of the Albuquerque Police Department awaited trial for murder and drug trafficking. They would be tried in federal court under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as the “RICO” Act. Sara would be a key witness for the prosecution.

The mass didn’t look like it would explode or emit dangerous gasses, but it was covered with plastic film. As a scientist, she’d seen many disgusting samples over the years. As Sara put the ice packs and the lid back on the carton, she thought she heard a ticking noise. Her imagination was probably working overtime, but she saw no reason to tempt fate. She carried the carton out of her house and placed it in her driveway. If it exploded, the house wouldn’t suffer too much damage. She didn’t think the package was big enough to contain a lot of explosives, but it wouldn’t take much with the right ones.

Rather than call 9-1-1, Sara punched the button for Mercado Police Chief Gil Andrews. She had his cell phone number on speed dial because they had worked together on several cases during the last couple of years. “Gil? I have an emergency. Just received a package of… tripe or something like it. Anyway, it’s ticking.”

“What do you mean ‘tripe?’ Ticking?”

“The carton is in my driveway so it won’t blow up my house.”

Eat! Next Diet and Exercise! Then eat some more!

Do you, like most Americans, have a love—hate relationship with food? You love sizzling steaks and pizzas dripping with gooey cheese, but occasionally you’re filled with remorse. Then you avoid everything but salads and exercise. After you lose a couple of pounds, you return to your old routine and regain the weight. This is sometimes called yo-yo dieting.

Funny? Sad and pathetic? Annoying, especially to me, a former professor of nutrition. Maybe, that’s why I wrote Murder…A New Way to Lose Weight.

Let me tell you a little about my new medical mystery.

Dieting is hard. So is fitting into a new job where you aren’t wanted. Linda Almquist is trying to do both as she investigates allegations against two diet doctors that they are taking shortcuts in their current clinical trail and endangering their patients. When she discovers one of them dead, the police suspect the other diet doctor. Maybe they’re wrong. The murders might be related to something in the past – something involving her boss the Dean.

One subplot in this novel is Linda’s efforts to lose weight. There are many insidious threats to her weight loss plans (i.e. tempting high-fat foods typical of New Mexican cuisine, vending machines with junk food, and humongous servings in most restaurants).

As a nutritionist, I also wanted to tell readers about a hot new area of research—gut bacteria. Scientists have found the microflora (bacteria) in the gut change with weight loss. Researchers hypothesize they may be able to help patients increase weight loss and keep weight off by altering their gut bacteria. That’s why my diet doctors are studying the gut bacteria of their obese patients in a clinical trail. However, I was careful to not make false promises. (I guess I wouldn’t be good on TV infomercials.)

Please note the diet doctors in Murder…A Way to Lose Weight do not resemble any researchers in the field, but they do have the characteristics of several overly ambitious researchers, who have had ethical lapses.  

Murder… A Way to Lose Weight (paperback & Kindle) is available from Amazon (http://amzn.com/1610092392).

Writing Advice from Oscar Wilde

 What can you learn about writing from Oscar Wilde - the famous Irish author and wit?

Humor is important.

Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.

Know your audience.

The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.

Experiment with new ideas and approaches.

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

The best fiction has the ring of truth.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth. 

I think writing fiction is a type of mask. Often the “truth” is more apparent in fiction than nonfiction.

Advertise your writing.

The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

Now I’m taking Oscar’s advice and am promoting my newest medical mystery,

MURDER…A WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT, by participating in a GoodReads Giveaway. You can win a FREE copy by signing up by June 4 at: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/188425-murder-a-way-to-lose-weight.

One more piece of advice from Oscar.

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

I think you’ll find Murder… A Way to Lose Weight can be read on several levels (and hence several times). It’s a mystery. It’s got lots weird science tidbits (and references at the end), which will make you think and spark your conversation at boring parties. It addresses real problems in medical schools—scientific misconduct and hazing of junior staff and women. These problems can affect the safety of drugs you depend on. 

Here’s the blurb: Dieting is hard. So is fitting into a new job where you aren’t wanted. In MURDER…A WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT, Dr. Linda Almquist is trying to do both as she investigates two diet doctors who are endangering the lives of obese participants in their current clinical trail. When she finds one diet doctor dead, the police suspect the other diet doctor. Then the threats against Linda begin.

Also available at Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ENPSPR2

Do you want to write a medical thriller or mystery?

Has the nightly TV news made you think about writing a novel on an Ebola or measles epidemic?

#The first step in writing is a medical thriller is research.

This type of research needs depth and breadth. Not surprisingly, many medical and scientific thrillers have been written by physicians or scientists, like Robin Cook, Michael Crichton, Kathy Reichs, and myself.

Let me explain what depth and breadth means. Someone (If I tell you who it will ruin the mystery.) “poisons” a diet doctor in Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight. This toxin was the cause of a rash of real poisonings in New Mexico in the 1980s. I wove the information from two scientific articles into my tale of an intentional poisoning and set the novel in Albuquerque as an oblique clue.

To add authenticity to all my medical mysteries/thrillers, I reference key articles in the “Scientific Epilogues” of each novel.

How did I find such arcane articles? I read articles on science and medicine in newspapers and magazines and on line. I also read scientific journals, especially the journal Science, and look for trends. For example, the dead diet doctor had been studying ways to modify the bacteria in the guts of obese subjects as a way to help them lose weight. I thought this research had humorous aspects and is a promising area of research.

#The second step in writing medical mysteries is creating a filing system that allows retrieval of articles by several headings.

If you're not careful, all your research becomes a lot of clutter. So I cross-reference materials I stash in real and virtual files carefully. I note not only the medical or scientific issue discussed in articles but also the location (if outside the U.S. or in New Mexico) where the research was done and the possible social significance of the work.

For example, I’ve had files on Ebola and other tropical diseases for twenty years ago. No, I don’t plan to write a novel on Ebola, but I know these articles are good sources of information on the problems faced by health care workers during epidemics and the responses of citizens to quarantines.

# The third step in writing a medical novels is basically scientific education.

It’s finding clear ways to explain complex issues in human terms.

Among the propaganda spouted by Cuban tour guide in 2013 was the statement: Cuban scientists had patented a drug for cancer. When I got home, I investigated her claim and found researchers in Havana had patented a therapeutic cancer vaccine to treat a rather rare type of lung cancer (non-small cell). This drug revs up a patient’s own immune system to produce cells, which recognize substances found on the surface of tumor cells but not on the surface of normal cells. These immune cells then slay the cancer cells, but not the normal cells.

Okay that’s a heavy dose of science. What’s the social relevance? This patent demonstrates several Cuban scientists are doing competitive science, and the Cuban government understand the importance of commercialization of their research. I also discovered U.S. scientists were trying to augment existing scientific exchanges between the U.S. and Cuba, despite the embargo on Cuba. (Editorial in the journal Science on June 6, 2014.)

I thought Sara Almquist, as an epidemiologist and heroine of my previous medical thrillers Coming Flu and Ignore the Pain, would be the perfect protagonist to do a little “scientific diplomacy” in Cuba. The result is my thriller Malignancy. Of course, Sara gets involved in a lot more than science; it wouldn’t be a thriller without danger.

So are you ready to write a medical mystery or thriller?

Real Science Is Essential in Mysteries & Thrillers

Laboratory results, psychology, and computer analyses are essential for plot development in any modern mystery or crime fiction. Think of the TV shows—CSI, NCIS, and Criminal Minds. Many thrillers depend on technologically to provide innovative ways to trap or destroy villains. Big Bang Theory has shown science nerds can be funny. However, many authors (especially those who are not scientists or physicians) are uncomfortable about using scientific tidbits in their writing.

Essential considerations when adding science to fictional tales.

1) Use scientific details to create realistic scenes, but not so many as to slow the plot. As a biologist, who regularly reads scientific journals, I’m intrigued by cancer immunotherapy. (Scientists are making vaccines that trigger the immune systems of cancer patients to more effectively fight their disease.) That’s the scientist in me talking. The novelist part of me says the plot and character development rule.

In Malignancy, men disguised as police officers shoot at Sara Almquist twice in one day. Albuquerque police suspect Jim Mazzone, a drug czar who has tangled with Sara before, will order more hits on Sara. When colleagues in the State Department invite Sara to arrange scientific exchanges between the U.S. and Cuba, she jumps at the chance to get out of town. Soon, she realizes Cuba offers more surprises than Albuquerque.

That’s the plot. One of Sara’s surprises is Cuban researchers have patented a therapeutic vaccine for a certain type of lung cancer (actual fact). Another surprise involves her love interest, the shady Xave Zack. I can’t tell you about the others because that would spoil your surprises as a reader.

2)  Pick relevant science topics. Readers are more apt to be interested in facts that are relevant to real issues—global warming, fracking for natural gas, or curing cancer than in learning details about biochemical pathways.

I thought weights control was one of universal interest to Americans, but most want to hear something besides the obvious: eat less and exercise more. Scientist know fat animals (including humans) lose weight when their gut bacteria are altered, but scientists don’t know which of the 15,000 to 36,000 species of bacteria in the gut are important. Talk about a lot of red herrings. I thought descriptions of this research (based on current ongoing studies) would be intriguing, maybe slightly funny, to readers.

In Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight, a diet doctor is found dead after she charges her partner with recklessly endangering the lives of obese subjects in their clinical trials. Linda Almquist, the associate dean in the medical school, must protect the subjects in the clinical trial, while she searches for a sophisticated killer who knows a lot about poisons.

3) Be accurate. In Malignancy, I state the truth about the cancer vaccine Racotumomab developed by the Cubans. It triggers patients’ bodies to mount an immune response against of certain types of lung tumor cells because they have an unusual compound on their surface. It doesn’t prevent or cure cancer, but in it should slow the progression of the disease. It may be one of the first successes in cancer immunotherapy, but it’s too soon to tell. Many clinical trials, which require international cooperation of scientists and physicians, are need. Thus this is a practical example of why the State Department sent my heroine, a scientist, to Cuba to begin to set up exchanges Cuban and American scientists.

Why not pick up copies of Malignancy and Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight and see if you like how I incorporated science into my thrillers/mysteries?

I'll try to visit more often in 2015, but I've been busy preparing a collection of short stories.

# Main rule to include science in fiction. Use scientific details to create realistic scenes, but not so many as to slow the plot. http://jlgregerblog.blogspot.com

WRITING IS LIKE DIETING

Doubt me? Let’s look at six pieces of advice for writers and dieters.

1. Set realistic priorities. You are more apt to attain small achievable goals (such as losing a pound a week or writing ten pages per week) than larger goals with artificial deadlines (for example losing fifty pounds before your class reunion or writing a three hundred page novel by Christmas).

2. Don’t procrastinate. Start working on your goals today, by skipping dessert at supper and writing at least one page for your next novel tonight.

3. Control problems and distractions. For writers, the distractions on the Internet are comparable to high fat, sugary foods to dieters. Perhaps this advice to Linda Almquist in the first chapter of Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight will help you sort through your clutter.

“There are three types of problems. A few problems are like wine; those situations improve if you delay decisions and let them age. Most problems are like waste paper. You can ignore them because they don’t matter. Unfortunately like waste paper, they tend to be messy when they pile up. And some problems are like manure. You must identify them quickly before they stink.”

4. Work at it every day. Most successful dieters have changed their lifestyle and eaten less and exercised more for months. If you want to write a novel a year, set aside time to “work on your book” every day.

5. Sweat the small stuff. Little bedtime snacks can undo our good behavior at meals or in the gym. Similarly grammar and spelling errors can ruin a novel with a great plot and characters.

6. Laugh at all those who give advice like this because you know it’s easier to give advice than follow it.

SHOP ON SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY AT AN IDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE

First there was Black Friday and then Cyber Monday. In 2010, American Express started publicizing #Small Business Saturday.

Independent bookstores need your business. They exist in most towns. Some are musty-smelling used-bookstores; others are combinations of bookstores and neighborhood cafés; still more are morphs of old-fashioned magazine stands. From my experience, many of these stores are hurting and need more paying customers, not just browsers or those trading in old books.

Books make wonderful holiday presents for everyone. Some of the most personal gifts I’ve received over the years have been books that were carefully selected. I like to give books because I can shop for a wide variety of people at one stop, and books are easy to wrap.

Here are three great independent bookstores in the Albuquerque area. All frequently sponsor book signings by local authors. There are many more wonderful independent bookstores in the Albuquerque area.

Under Charlie’s Covers (120 US 555 [next to Walgreens], Bernalillo, NM) is a used bookstore with a fresh atmosphere, maybe it’s because of the energetic owner Lara. She stocks books that appeal to children and teens, as well as adults.

Treasure House Books & Gifts (2012 S Plaza Street NW, Albuquerque, NM) focuses on books related to New Mexico and is in the heart of old town Albuquerque. It’s a great place to take friends visiting New Mexico and the owner John can advise you on the history of the state and its writers as you shop.

Menaul Book Exchange (9409 Menaul NE, Albuquerque, NM) is a neighborhood, used bookstore that is lovingly tended by its owner Dorothy. She keeps a rack of new books by local authors near the front door.

I bet there are great independent bookstores in your community too. So why not do your holiday shopping at them?

Unfortunately, Ignore the Pain, my new thriller won’t have reached stores yet on November 30, but the first two books in this medical mystery/thriller series (ComingFlu and Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight) are available. Ignore the Pain is available on Amazon as of November 26.

 

In Ignore the Pain, Sara Almquist couldn’t say no when invited to be the epidemiologist on a public health mission to assess children’s health in Bolivia. Soon someone from her past is chasing her through the Witches’ Market and churches of La Paz. Unfortunately, she can’t decide which of her new colleagues to trust as she learns more about coca production and the god Tío of the silver mines of Potosí than she ever wanted to know.

The cover stripes of red, yellow, and green mimic the stripes on the Bolivian  flag.

When it comes to dieting, do you feel confused?

Many of us appear to have a bipolar relationship with food. We’re either feasting or dieting. Doubt me?

Flip on your TV and watch the ads. First there’s one for a restaurant with pictures of smiling, thin people and sizzling steaks or pizzas dripping with gooey cheese. Next a slender actress coos about a diet regime while she shows you tiny portions of foods that look like plastic models. After a small break for the program, the ads are back.

That’s why I wrote Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight. I thought the love – hate relationship most of us have with food was a good backdrop for a murder mystery. And Albuquerque was the perfect location. Let me explain.

There are similarities between dieting and solving a murder.

 1) Both are hard work.

 2) Both should be taken seriously. Obesity is life threatening; it’s not just a cosmetic problem. Although humorous scenes add to murder mysteries, murder isn’t funny.

3) Little things (like calories and seemingly insignificant clues) are important.

4) Patience and persistence are the keys to success in losing weight or solving a murder.

In Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight, the protagonist Linda Almquist struggles to lose weight, to fit into a new job where she’s not really wanted, and to help the police catch a killer before he strikes a third time. At times, you won’t be sure which of these activities is hardest for Linda.

Albuquerque is a great restaurant town.

I set many scenes in real restaurants (Flying Star, Hurricanes, Jason’s Deli) because Albuquerque is home to a lot of great southwestern cooking – burritos stuffed with everything but the kitchen sink and dripping in cheese, fried chili rellenos smothered in red or green chili sauce, and pork tamales with guacamole and sour cream on the side. Note southwestern cooking isn’t known for its’ low-calorie entrees. And tension builds (I hope) as the “dieting” Linda peruses menus and reluctantly chooses salads with dressing on the side.

Now let’s get’s personal and address your love-hate relationship with food.

This advice comes from a nutritionist who loves eating and cooking and doesn’t always follow this advice.

1. Learn to enjoy more activities that don’t involve eating or drinking.

2. Don’t make a stop for ice cream the reward for exercise.

3. Make a couple of new rules at your house: no eating or drinking in front of the TV or computer or in bed. Hopefully, the activities in these locations will be so interesting, you’ll choose not to get another snack. And you can tell yourself and your spouse, this will reduce messy mistakes.

4. Don’t buy your favorite snack foods. If potato or taco chips aren’t in your house, you can’t eat them. Sometimes I think the main advantage of buying some “diet” snack foods is that they don’t taste good, so I eat less of them.

5. Read more books. And make it a rule not to eat or drink while reading. Remember, resale vendors don’t like books that have food or drink stains.

Okay, these hints are great but they should make you think. How often do you eat because you bored, not hungry?

Why not satisfy your taste for mystery and suspense, by buying Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight and Coming Flu on Amazon or if you’re in Albuquerque at Treasure House (on the square in Old Town Albuquerque) or Menaul Book Exchange (at 9409 Menaul Boulevard)? 

JL Greger

Tag sales line for Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Murder-New-Way-Lose-Weight/dp/1610090624/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1365534310&sr=1-1&keywords=Murder+A+New+Way+to+Lose+Weight

Tag sales line for Coming Flu: http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Flu-J-L-Greger/dp/1610090985/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363872699&sr=1-1&keywords=Coming+Flu

Website: www.jlgreger.com

FIVE REASONS FOR READING Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight

I got my copy of my new medical mystery/suspense novel last Friday. Here’s why you want to read Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight. 

You’ll feel like an “insider” not a patient in a hospital.

In this novel, you get a behind the scenes view of a medical schools – the excitement of scientific research, the quirkiness of at least some faculty members, and the infighting for limited resources.

Linda Almquist, who seldom even smiled, laughed.

Richard Varegos had done it again. He had arranged books and a computer on the front counter of the hospital pavilion for a photo shoot. In the resulting glossy, full-color flyer, he sat at his make-believe teak desk in his supposedly marble-walled office. She read the flyer’s title: THE DIET DOCTOR HAS ANSWERS FOR YOUR WEIGHT PROBLEMS.

Was there no end to his ego?

Maybe this intro doesn’t build confidence in this diet doctor, but don’t you want to know what he does next? So do Linda and the police after the other diet doctor is found dead.

You’ll learn a little science and smile a lot.

The “diet doctors” in this mystery are investigating whether they can help obese subject lose more weight and keep it off by altering their gut flora. Sounds strange? It is an active area of research on weight control. Check out Science, volume 328, pages 179-80 or Science, volume 332, pages 32-3. 

You’ll feel the pain of all the red tape that investigators face when trying to do their research. Or you may feel relief that there are controls on their activities. I guess it depends on your politics.

And then there’s the murder. The possibilities are endless in a medical school.

“Motive?” Hitchings (the lead police investigator) scanned the crowd and motioned Omar (medical examiner) back to him. “Omar, do we even have a murder? Looks like natural causes.”

“Can’t tell,” replied Omar.

“But no bullet or stab wounds? So natural causes are likely.”

“You’re in a medical school.” Omar walked closer to Hitchings and spoke more softly. “Everyone in this building probably knows how to kill someone without using a gun or knife. A complete tox screen will take weeks. And this woman was only in her thirties, pretty young to die suddenly.”

The suspense might help you lose weight.

The protagonist Linda Almquist of this mystery did, as she raced down the long corridors of the medical school after clues and lost her appetite when threatened again and again. It’s amazing how much weight you can lose it you eat less and exercise more. Of course you won’t have the same incentives (I hope) that Linda did.

The reviewers’ comments are good.

You do want read this medical mystery... Scary shenanigans in the medical research field, so possible. You could lose more than INCHES

Virginia Reaves, freelance writer

Linda and Sara are back, this time involved in a plot with plenty of twists and turns and a good deal of wry humor. A fun read, great believable characters and a real sense of place. Marilyn Olsen, President of Public Safety Writers Association

Murder:  A New Way To Lose Weight starts with a memorable title, followed by a unique crime, and continues with quirky, colorful characters, and snappy dialog.  A satisfying follow-up to Greger’s debut novel. Rob Kresge, author of the spy novel Saving Lincoln

Bug is back.

My own Japanese Chinn dog Bug is the only “non-fictional” character in this novel and it prequel Coming Flu. For more information on my books, Bug, and me, please check out my website (www.jlgreger.com).

Thanks for stopping by.

JL Greger 

Are You Ready for COMING FLU in the Winter Book Blast?

Which neighbor would you fear more: a friendly neighbor infected with a new flu virus or a
not-so-friendly neighbor who is a drug dealer? 

Think about the relative amount of column space that newspapers devote to crime and to science. Most of us would fear the drug dealer more. Readers of Coming Flu are challenged to rethink their priorities. 

Don't worry if you don't like a lot of science. Coming Flu is action packed with lots of surprising twists and turns. The realistic characters are like you and your neighbors, just quirky enough to be lovable. 

One reviewer said, "Contagion move over. Coming Flu has realism and heart. I can’t wait to see the movie!" 

Here’s a peek into Coming Flu. A new flu strain – the Philippine flu – kills more than two
hundred in less than a week in the small walled community near the Rio Grande.
The rest face a bleak future under quarantine. One of the residents Sara Almquist, as a medical epidemiologist, pries into every aspect of her neighbors’ lives looking for ways to stop the spread of the flu. She finds promising clues – maybe too many? 

Coming Flu makes a great Christmas gift for men and women. Select it and other books in this Winter Book Blast.

JL Greger and Bug 

Genres:  Crime and Mystery

Purchasing links:
Amazon  http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Flu-J-L-Greger/dp/1610090985?
Oak Tree Press http://oaktreebooks.com/Shop%20OTP.htm#ComFlu

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THE NEXT BIG THING AFTER COMING FLU

http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/ 

THE NEXT BIG THING – a chain letter with set questions

I’ve spent so much time advertising my medical thriller Coming Flu (Oak Tree Press published it in July 2012.) lately that I’ve not thought much about my book now in review. This is a great chance to dream and hope it’s the next big thing.

What is the working title of your book?

I like the title Death of a Diet Doctor; a reading group preferred Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight. Which title would catch their eye more in the bookstore? Let me know in comments to this blog.

Where did the idea come from for the book?
First off, I wanted to write a sequel to Coming Flu, but feature Linda Almquist, the younger, more contemplative and nervous sister of Sara Almquist (the lead character in Coming Flu).

Second, I wanted my second novel to also have a science theme – but not one involving infectious diseases, as my first novel had. I particularly wanted a medical syndrome with a New Mexico tie-in, if possible. Obesity and the related health problems are common in New Mexico. But I wanted something quirkier to add to the mix. As I was searching through journal articles, I came across one that had been published by medical researchers from New Mexico in the New England Journal of Medicine. I’m not going to tell you more or I’ll give away too many secrets in the plot.

What genre does your book fall under?
Death of a Diet Doctor is a mystery set in a medical school. Coming Flu was a medical thriller.

The differences in the two books reflect the lead characters – two sisters. The feistier sister Sara Almquist, a supposedly retired epidemiologist, is the lead in Coming Flu. Linda Almquist, a physician and a newly appointed associate dean in a medical school, is the lead character in Death of A Diet Doctor. Both are in both books.

As I wrote I viewed the sisters as the “Odd Couple of Modern Women.” Sara is the messy Oscar Madison (the Jack Klugman character in the TV show The Odd Couple). Linda is the proper, neatnik Felix Unger (the Tony Randall character).

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Frances McDormand has the toughness and Midwest background that would make her a perfect Sara Almquist. However, a younger version of Shirley MacLaine might be an interesting version of Sara. Besides MacLaine lives near Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Jodie Foster is a perfectionist, has an intellectual bent, and is petite. She would make a perfect Linda Almquist.

 
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

As Linda Almquist investigates scientific fraud by medical researchers, she uncovers simmering feuds among faculty members, long hidden secrets, and two dead bodies – and they’re not patients.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Oak Tree Press published Coming Flu and hopefully will publish Death of a Diet Doctor.  

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Researching and writing the first draft took one year.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

My books are similar to Patricia Cornwell’s mystery series, featuring pathologist Kay Scarpetta, but I show more of the Almquists’ personal lives and quirks. Kathy Reichs’s mystery series, featuring medical anthropologist Tempe Brennan (also of the TV show Bones) is also comparable. But my books include more science tidbits that are relevant to readers’ lives.

Who inspired you to write this book?
My students. I taught nutrition and toxicology for thirty years at Purdue University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Students generally found metabolic pathways dull and hard to remember, until I mentioned health problems caused by aberrations in the pathways. The students taught me to show not tell them about science.

Thank you.

JL Greger

http//www.jlgreger.com