VACCINATIONS: FACTS & FICTION

Vaccinations are controversial. However, there is no debate scientifically that #vaccines have saved millions of lives.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that routine childhood immunizations averted 732,000 premature deaths from vaccine-preventable illnesses among children born in the U.S. during 1994–2013. (Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report [April 25, 2014] Vol 63, No. 16)

This estimate doesn’t consider the lives saved by #vaccinations for flu, hepatitis, etc. in adults or the effect of vaccinations internationally.

There are four main reasons that vaccinations are controversial. One is their development is a complex, expensive process taking sometimes ten to fifteen years. Two, viruses are constantly mutating (changing)and hence causing the need for new or altered viruses. Three, any vaccine can cause side effects. Most are minor (a sore arm, headache, a low-grade fever) and go away in a few day. Serious side effects (a severe allergic reaction) are rare (probably less than 1 in a million) but clinic staff are trained to deal with them. Four, many do not like the way scientists and medical personnel couch their answers with so many “ifs” and “buts.”

Thus, The Flu Is Coming is not only a thriller but also an example of the how a flu vaccine could be developed. It's really two mysteries combined. Will a woman epidemiologist be able to find clues that will help stop the spread of a new, deadly flu virus? And will police be able to maintain of a quarantine of a community exposed to this flu virus after the epidemiologist learns too many secrets about the criminal activities of several residents in the community?

Prescription. Learn more about vaccines and their development. If you don’t like dry, technical jargon, read The Flu Is Coming. You’ll learn a bit and get to enjoy an action-packed thriller. Paper back & Kindle versions at: https://www.amazon.com/Flu-Coming-Science-Traveler/dp/0578423251

Blurb: In The Flu Is Coming, a new type of flu — the Philippine flu — kills nearly half of the residents in an upscale, gated community in less than a week. A quarantine makes those who survive virtual prisoners in their homes.The Centers for Disease Control recruit Sara Almquist, a resident of the community, to apply her skills as an epidemiologist to find ways to limit the spread of the epidemic. As she pries into her neighbors’ lives, she finds promising scientific clues but unfortunately learns too much about several of them.

SALE: RIDDLED WITH CLUES for $0.99

The Kindle version of RIDDLED WITH CLUES is on sale for $0.99 from February 13 to February 20. Here's more about this mystery/thriller set in Albuquerque.

February is the month with Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays. A time to remember American history, even the wars and conflicts.

Do you have friends or relatives who served in Vietnam? Maybe you served. Generally, I find many veterans are reticent to talk about their experiences. Thus, I was surprised and pleased when one friend after reading one of my novel asked if I’d like to see his notes from being a medic in the secret war in Laos in the 1960s. 

The notes were fascinating but I write modern thrillers. I turned his notes into clues for a mystery/thriller, RIDDLED WITH CLUES, set at the VA Center in Albuquerque. My friend liked the results. Other veterans said I reflected their impressions of the Vietnam War. Maybe you will too. 

For those too young to remember that conflict, maybe you’ll learn a bit of history. In any case, I think you’ll find the clues are a good way to open a fast-moving modrn thriller.

Here’s a short blurb: A woman is attacked repeatedly after she listens to the strange tale of an undercover drug agent and gets puzzling riddled clues from a homeless veteran in Albuquerque. 

Buy at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1938436237

Learn more about the book at: http://www.jlgreger.com.

Christmas Is Almost Here!

You’re probably in a rush of baking, shopping, and either traveling to homes of relatives or getting your home ready for company. Breathe deeply.  Do something for yourself. Order a book that will take you away from the holiday hubbub. If you order it now, you’ll have it as you clean up (or procrastinate from cleaning up) after the first onslaught of the holidays.

Here’s your escape plan: The Flu Is Coming.

In The Flu Is Coming, a new type of flu — the Philippine flu — kills nearly half of the residents in an upscale, gated community near Albuquerque in less than a week. Those who survive become virtual prisoners in their homes when a quarantine is imposed.

The Centers of Disease Control recruits Sara Almquist, a resident of the community and a scientist, to apply her skills as an epidemiologist to find ways to limit the spread of the epidemic. As she pries into her neighbors’ lives, she finds promising scientific clues. Unfortunately, she also learns too much about several of them and violence ensues when several try to escape the quarantine.

Available in print and ebook at:

https://www.amazon.com/Flu-Coming-Science-Traveler/dp/0578423251

Try to relax and have a happy holiday!

If you doubt you’ll have time to read a medical thriller, try short stories (4 -10 pages each). The characters in Other People’s Mothers may remind you of your relatives or make you appreciate your more. 

Available in print and ebook at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1544895011 

BOOKS MAKE GREAT HOLIDAY GIFTS

Books are easy to wrap and ship. They aren't perishable or fattening. You don't need to guess at sizes. Why not give books as gifts during this holiday season?

GOT A DIETER ON YOUR SHOPPING LIST?

She can enjoy a mystery and guess whether an ambitious young doctor or old-timers with buried secrets killed the "diet doctor" in Murder...A Way to Lose Weight. And she'll learn about recent scientific research linking body weight and gut bacteria.

Kindle & paperback at: http://amzn.com/1978377282.

1^st prize in the 2016 Public Safety Writers’ Association contest and finalist for a 2016 NM/Arizona Book Award.

WHAT ABOUT THE  HARD-TO-SHOP-FOR GUY?

He can race to solve the mystery faster than police in Riddled with Clues as he interprets riddled messages from homeless veterans. He also will learn a bit of history. The scenes in Laos during the Vietnam War are based on the memories of a New Mexico veteran who was a medic. 

Kindle & paperback at:http://www.amzn.com/1938436237.

Finalist for a 2017 NM/Arizona Book Award.

WHAT ABOUT THOSE WHO LOVE CONSPIRACY THEORIES?

They'll want to know whether a woman was killed to hide the secrets of polluters and an environmental test lab in She Didn’t Know Her Place?

Kindle &  paperback at: http://www.amzn.com/1979733112

WHAT ABOUT THOSE WITH LITTLE TIME TO READ?

May be they'll enjoy short (4-10 pages) stories at bedtime and gain an better appreciation of their parents and grandparents. 

Kindle & paperback at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1537743813

While you're shopping for everyone else, why not get one or two books for yourself?

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

You're in for a treat. Marilyn Meredith, author more than thirty mystery novels, is giving tips on how to develop interesting characters today. Her newest mystery is Tangled Webs. Enjoy.

Marilyn Meredith's comments: How do I develop my characters? I’ll describe my process, which I admit has changed through the years. At one time, I kept a notebook with pages about each character, I no longer do that.

Because I’m writing a series, the main characters are pretty much set at least in the way they look and often act. However, because this is a long ongoing series, of course each one has matured, and in some cases made some drastic changes.

Probably the one who has changed the most is Ryan Strickland. His marriage and the birth of a daughter with Down syndrome truly affected him.  And then there’s Gordon Butler, popular with readers, whose life has become far less traumatic. 

Two of the newer characters in the series are the RBPD Police Chief, Chandra Butler, and the mayor, Devon Duvall. They’ve begun a romance, a romance that might not happen thanks to some surprising news. Though I know a lot about these two, there is much more to be explored.

Two teens play an important part in this latest Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery, one is Detective Milligan’s daughter, Beth, and the other, her new friend, Kayla. Fortunately, I have a good memory of what it’s like during those teen years and I have enough friends and relatives who are still in that age group if I need to ask any questions. 

No matter what character I’m writing about, I try to get inside their head, see what they are seeing and how they see it, how any new events affect them considering what has gone in their lives. 

What new characters arrive on the scene, I jot down important information about them in a notebook I keep beside my computer where I keep other notes about the book I’m writing. 

In the case of all my characters, I see them as real persons. I know what they think, how they will react in certain situations, and how they view their world.  And that’s the way I develop my characters.

 

Marilyn who writes this series as F. M. Meredith

Blurb for Tangled Webs: Too many people are telling lies: The husband of the murder victim and his secretary, the victim’s co-workers in the day care center, her stalker, and Detective Milligan’s daughter. 

Available at: https://tinyurl.com/yabj9z9f

Links:

http://fictionforyou.com

https://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com

I apologize to Marilyn and the readers but I can't get the comments section to work.

RELATIONSHIPS MAKE CHARACTERS INTERESTING

I doubt many novels have been written in which characters didn’t interact (actually or virtually) with other people or animals. Think about it. Relationships, not really appearances or jobs, make characters interesting to readers.

I looked at dozens of columns written by psychologists, experts on managing stress in the workplace, and writers of columns to the “lovelorn.” In essence, they mentioned three key issues central to all relationships. You can add depth to characters in your novels by showing their relationships in terms of these parameters. 

1) Communications

A sympathetic protagonist listens patiently to others. He/she communicates through actions as well as orally. 

Characters not interested in a relationship interrupt, raise their voice, doodle, look at their watch, or pick at their nails when others are talking. They nag their cohorts. These are good traits for villains.

In Murder...A Way to Lose Weight, Abel Raines never really listens to Richard Varegos. He's always busy cleaning his office or doodling. That's how I hint the two colleagues (who are both faulty members at the university hospital and apparent confidants) might not be friends. While the main question in Murder...A Way to Lose Weight is who killed the diet doctor? One of the subplots in this mystery is: what do these two men have in common, besides work? Can they trust each other?

2) Goals 

Allies or lovers, who have no shared goals, are not realistic partners on a long–term basis. The dissolution of shared goals (divorce, business failure, or war) is the basis of strong plots. If one of your character steamrolls the rights of others to attain a shared goal, you have created a villain.

3) Struggle for control

This is universal to all relationships. If you doubt the statement, think about raising children or training a dog. These struggles, when mainly petty bickering, can add humor to fiction or can foreshadow a crisis. 

In She Didn't Know Her Place, the heroine, Dana Richardson, doesn't share the same goals as many of her colleagues at State U. Yes, she wants the university to enlarge its research portfolio but not at the cost of all ethics. She also wants to discover who killed Sally Stein. Most of her colleagues don't care. 

Think of your favorite fictional characters. How do they interact with others? Now think of your neighbors. Which are your favorites? Do they interact with others in a manner similar to the way your favorite characters interact with others?

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

If you love historical mysteries, you're going to love my guest author. This retired newspaperman - John Lindermuth - can really write a good yarn. His location is in rural Pennsylvania but it feels like a "western" set in a greener setting. I let you tell the story about his new book - The Bartered Body.

Equally with real estate, the phrase can be applied to story. Every story needs a location in which to take place and, in some instances, it can be is as important as characters or plot.

One can choose an actual place as setting for a story, thought the writer runs the risk of being called out for errors by others more familiar with the location. A reader can be jarred out of a story should your character drive the wrong way on a one-way street or dine at a restaurant not on the block where you place it.

I've written stories set in actual locations and--so far--have not had the unpleasant experience of being challenged on my descriptions of the setting.

But I think it's much more fun and challenging to create your own little slice of the world. 

I created the town of Arahpot in Jordan County (both are fictional) and set them down in my neck of Pennsylvania as the location for the novels in the Sheriff Sylvester Tilghman series. Some readers in my region may recognize aspects of the place. Yet they won't find the town or county on any maps.

Actually, I'd created Arahpot for an earlier book (Watch The Hour). The town happened to have a lawman named Tilghman, so it was convenient to borrow the place and have Syl be that man's son.

Arahpot sits on an elevated terrace between two forks of a creek of the same name. It's a rural community, the economy equally dependent on agricultural and coal mining. I've become quite familiar with the place as I name its streets, create its business places and the home of the principal characters. Occasionally my characters will journey to Shannon, the county seat, or Masonville, a neighboring village (both as fictional as Arahpot).

There are now three novels in the series: Fallen From Grace, Sooner Than Gold and The Bartered Body.

Here's a blurb for The Bartered Body: Why would thieves steal the body of a dead woman?

That’s the most challenging question yet to be faced by Sylvester Tilghman, the third of his family to serve as sheriff of Arahpot, Jordan County, Pennsylvania, in the waning days of the 19^th century.

And it’s not just any body but that of Mrs. Arbuckle, Nathan Zimmerman’s late mother-in-law. Zimmerman is burgess of Arahpot and Tilghman’s boss, which puts more than a little pressure on the sheriff to solve the crime in a hurry.

Syl’s investigation is complicated by the arrival in town of a former flame who threatens his relationship with his sweetheart Lydia Longlow; clashes with his old enemy, former burgess McLean Ruppenthal; a string of armed robberies, and a record snowstorm that shuts down train traffic, cuts off telegraph service and freezes cattle in the fields.

It will take all of Syl’s skills and the help of his deputy and friends to untangle the various threads and bring the criminals to justice.

Amazon buy link and Barnes & Noble buy link. Another buy link.