King Solomon's Wives: Hunted by Holly McDowell / Interview

 

The two thousand descendants of King Solomon’s ancient harem have the ultimate power of seduction: Their very touch is as addictive as any drug.

But that power comes at a price: Wives are only fertile until the age of twenty-four. They can bear only daughters.And they die giving birth.

Hunted for hundreds of generations by men who crave their touch and fear its power, the Wives have kept themselves safe by following three simple rules:

A Wife shall have no meaningful relationships outside the clan.

A Wife’saddictivetouch may be used only for procreation or to protect the clan.

A Wife shall sacrifice herself for her daughter at the age of twenty-four.

But tonight, the rules have been broken, and someone must pay.

In the blistering first episode of KING SOLOMON’S WIVES: HUNTED, we meet Sumarra on the night she plans to conceive.Instead, she and the other wives find themselves under attack from a group of male hunters, intent on destroying them. Sumarra has always broken small rules and indulged rebellious tendencies. And now that the Wives have been found, her defiance will either be their salvation or her own undoing.

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Welcome Holly!  It’s so great of you to stop by today!  Tell us about your current release.

King Solomon's Wives is a serial novel, released in 100-page episodes, about a group of women alive today who descended from Solomon's ancient harem. It's a contemporary story with plenty of historical context.

 

I've imagined a whole mythology around the women--living in the harem caused genetic changes that gave them an addictive touch. They die in childbirth and always give birth to daughters who carry their memories. It's fun to write, because I can reach back to any time in history to explore the Wives' stories.

 

Does travel play in the writing of your books?

Absolutely. Travel is always research for me, because my characters, the Wives, live as fugitives in small groups all over the world. I've got storylines in New Orleans, Chicago and Paris coming up.

 

Where do you dream of traveling to and why?

Well... considering I need to set a couple of later episodes in Istanbul, I would love to go there soon. I'd also love to see Morocco and Kyoto. I love history, and I'm fascinated by cultures that are so different from mine.
 

 

When in the day/night do you write? How long per day?
 

Every morning, 6-8am. I rarely miss a day. I get in a few extra hours on the weekends, too. My current serial schedule is pretty tight, so I have to stay focused.

 

Who are your books published with?
 

Coliloquy, a new experimental publisher who does "active digital fiction," meaning the books are interactive. Some of their offerings are choose-your-own-adventure. Some are serials. For King Solomon's Wives, readers get to vote on the direction of the series when they reach the end of each episode.

 

Do you hear from your readers?

Yes! This is what made me want to go with Coliloquy to begin with. Readers decide the fate of certain characters and how I'm going to address certain plotlines. I love getting reader feedback stats every Tuesday evening. The next episode ends with the question, "Which Wife would you most like to see fall in love?" This is a difficult fate for a Wife, because love is forbidden by the clan.

 

What book are you reading now?
 

I've been getting into comic books recently. I love anything by Brian K. Vaughn. I'm reading his Saga series now.

 

Are the names of the characters in your novels important?  How and why?
 

Absolutely. My characters descend from Africa, Persia and Jerusalem, and they pass down their names and memories to their daughters. The names are thousands of years old and quite important to them. Examples: Sumarra, Nezaket, Mehve, Aisha, Harika. Each Wife has a long history and a cool story to tell in their current life.

 

 

Holly McDowell lived in Colorado, Georgia and South Carolina before discovering the magical city of Chicago. Now, she can be spotted drinking glögg, searching for the world's best tapas bar and writing in coffee shops all over the windy city.

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The Plaza by Guillermo Paxton: Character Interview

 

 

Plaza-in Mexican culture, a slang word describing the territory of a certain cartel.

"I've been a reporter for years, and a resident of Juarez, Mexico all of my life. I've never seen anything like it. No one thought the drug war would be like this...My town has become the battleground for drug cartels. Even the police are being killed on a daily basis. Bands of teenagers working as paid assassins & extortionists are hitting every business, no matter how small. Things I took for granted like going to a restaurant, getting a haircut, or even an evening at the movies with my family put all our lives in danger. Robberies and public executions have become common place. Now when I report only five homicides in twenty-four hours, it is considered a good day." - Saul Saavedra, crime reporter for The Juarez Daily in THE PLAZA.

Saul Saavedra is a crime reporter for the Juarez Daily newspaper. In just a year’s time he saw his city change from decent place to live and work to a crime-infested inferno. He reports the happenings in a city that is experiencing total social decay and writes against the government that at best does nothing about it. Two major drug cartels battle it out in Juarez and Saul soon finds himself in the crossfire between La Linea and the Sinaloa Cartel.

Guns for hire are a dime a dozen in a war among cartels, but Felipe stands out as one of the best. His only love is for money, or so he believes, until he meets a beautiful young prostitute named Ruby. As he rises in the ranks of La Linea his relationship with Ruby changes as well, and soon he learns that she too has a taste for blood.

Thousands of Mexicans are deported to Mexico every year, Juarez being a dumping ground for many. Some are convicts that have spent years in federal prison and now have lost their status as residents. Juan, a psychopathic killer, is given the option to return to Mexico or finish out his sentence in the federal penitentiary. For him the choice is obvious and he soon finds himself at home in violent Juarez and finds work in the Sinaloa Cartel.

Based on true events in the city of Juarez, The Plaza is about the people, the government and the cartels that make up both the innocent victims and the criminals that are the pawns in the drug war of Mexico.

 

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Saul Saavedra, crime reporter for The Juarez Daily.

Tell us about your family.

My wife, Edilia, is the love of my life. For me, it was love at first sight, for her, well, I grew on her. We have two beautiful daughters that still think I am the best thing since ice cream and chocolate.

What was the scariest moment of your life?

The first time I received threats to my phone from a cartel. I knew that someone had leaked info and that my life, and more importantly, my family’s lives, were now in danger.

What are you passionate about these days?

 My country. Rampant crime, a completely corrupt government system, and wealthy, powerful cartels have brought Mexico to its knees. No one is safe, and the future looks grim. I wish to bring to light the corruption and all of the factors that ill Mexican society and hope to contribute to making at least a small change and leave a better Mexico for my children.

Who should play you in a film? 

Demián Bichir

Tell us about your favorite restaurant.

Los Canarios. They serve the best flautas in the world, with a light cream, guacamole and a red sauce that is made of toasted Japanese peppers.

Do you have any special routines or rituals?

I always look for an escape route, be it in a vehicle or when I am in a building, just in case there is a sudden firefight.

What is something people would be surprised to know about you?

I never wanted to be a crime reporter, or any kind of reporter, when I was growing up. I wanted to be a superhero, or a policeman.

 

Guillermo Paxton and his family lived in Juarez, Mexico and he researched the escalating violence from 2008 until 2011 when he was forced to leave.

 

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The reviews of THE PLAZA are excellent. It is the only book of its kind, written by an author from Juarez that lived the drug war. He has been able to write a fictional account of real events in a way that transports the reader to his home as it became a war zone and truly experience it. The contest is for two copies of THE PLAZA to be given out, one ebook and one a hardcopy. The hardcopy will be signed by the author. There are only three requirements to enter this contest.

One: Like this Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/theplazathenovel

 

Two: Send a message to the FB page admin that you would like to enter the contest.

Three: Repost what the admin sends to you on your FB page.

Flying Solo by Jeanette Vaughan: Interview and Excerpt

 

 

 

French Cajun Nora Broussard Greenwood was born with the wanderlust. However, her adventurous spirit doesn’t fit the sedate expectations of 1960s catholic New Orleans suburbia.  On a whim, she takes flying lessons to become a pilot. Nora discovers the liberating freedom of flight, but an illicit affair with her pilot instructor complicates all.   Confronting her ruthless husband for a divorce, Nora is temporarily grounded. Cast out of her home sans her children, she is threatened with her life. Desperate to regain them, she steals her husband’s plane. Trials and tribulations erupt as she navigates the turbulence her life has become. In a bizarre twist of fate, she survives by serving as caregiver to her lover’s sickly wife; hoping he will fall further in love with her as his soul mate.  But is that to be?  Nora must make the most difficult decision of her life in order to get things back on track.

 

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Chapter 31

A

s instructed by ground control, the Piper Aztec was positioned at the end of the tarmac. “Lakefront tower, this is November, Twin Piper six, niner, one, five, foxtrot requesting permission for takeoff.” Nervously, Nora awaited clearance. If she got it, she would be on her way. If they stopped her, she might be arrested and lose her children forever.       

     There was a brief pause. “Sorry about that, Twin Piper six, niner, one, five, foxtrot. Clear for takeoff on runway two seven.”

     With a huge sigh of relief, Nora taxied the plane to the end of runway twenty seven. Good to go. She pushed forward the throttle and began to increase her speed for takeoff. Within seconds she was aloft. The Greenwood’s Piper, in immaculate condition, flew just like the other Piper that she had flown with Steve. The controls were basically the same. But of course, the Greenwoods had equipped theirs with the latest avionics. Avionics Nora had no idea to operate.

     Nora’s short hair was tucked up in her cap. She was wearing aviators; trying to appear as much like the Greenwood’s pilot as possible. Seventy-five knots, eighty-five knots. Lift, she was off the ground head­ing west.

     Flying out, she could see downtown New Orleans on her left. But as planned, she banked right and made a turn north crossing back over Lakefront and Lake Ponchartrain. Previously, she had only flown over the mouth of the lake, which in and of itself was over five miles. Flying over the diameter of the lake was nerve wracking. Once she got over the middle, there was water as far as she could see. As the second largest salt water lake, it was huge. Forty miles east to west and twenty four miles from its southern shore northward. Exactly the direction Nora was flying. She was relieved when she could see shoreline coming into view near Mandeville. She increased her altitude and leveled off at her cruise.

     Now, it was just a matter of identifying her land­marks along the way, making sure she followed her course. She had studied the maps more intently than any previous flight. It was going to be tremendously difficult to differentiate where she was over the acres and acres of pine forests. Once she hit land at Man­deville, she knew that she was about to cross the bor­der to Mississippi. Then, the plane would be safely in another state.

     The state of Louisiana operated under Napoleonic law. Baton Rouge was where her children temporarily were. Therefore, had she chosen to fly there, it might have been considered theft. At this point, everything she had just left was still considered community prop­erty. With the Greenwood’s power, Nora suspected they would find some loophole and have her arrested. At the moment, no legal papers had been filed; techni­cally, she was still a Greenwood. By flying to another state that recognized community property, Nora avoided the Napoleonic law implications.

      Hattiesburg, Mississippi was an ideal location. A small to medium sized city, close enough in geo­graphical proximity to Baton Rouge and New Orleans to make her plan work. Plus, Pine Belt was a general aviation airport large enough to have hangars for rent. As Nora continued to fly over the immense pine for­ests she realized how harrowing finding her visuals was going to be. There were acres upon acres of them. Tall, lush, and stately under most circumstances unless you were attempting to find a landmark. Pin­pointing her point of reference was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

     Nora plotted her journey along the parallel route that Charlene was driving on Highway 11. Nora knew that construction had commenced for the future Inter­state 59. With both roadways running together in jagged patterns they made a decent north south van­tage point for her to follow.

     Nora made contact with the first tower. “Poplarville tower. Twin Piper, November, six, niner, one, five, foxtrot. VFR, four thousand five hundred feet landing Hattiesburg. Over.”

     “Twin piper six, niner, one, five, foxtrot copy over.”

     First check point done. There weren’t going to be as many checks to towers this time. There was no need. Generally, as long as she could follow her landmarks she would be okay. She sustained her alti­tude of four thousand five hundred feet. The gods were looking down upon her, for the weather today was absolutely gorgeous. There were only some rib­bon-like, cirrus clouds in the sky. Otherwise, it was baby blue.

     As she flew, Nora thought more about what she was actually doing. She was playing the poker card game of her life. Her outcome was to regain custody of her children and her freedom. She would abso­lutely have to hook Frank into her bluff.

     Her normal exhilaration when flying was marked with fear today. She thought about the Naval ideals that Steve had taught. Honor, courage, and commit­ment. Her courage and commitment to her children were driving her actions. Well, at least she had two out of three. For there was certainly no honor in her first totally independent act as a pilot; which was now stealing a plane.

     Nora started to see dwellings increasing in num­bers and proximity. She realized she was on the out­skirts of Hattiesburg and would be flying over the city’s western edge. Pinebelt Regional was north of the city. Almost there. Just a few more moments and she would be home free.

     She made contact with Pinebelt tower when she was ten miles out. “Pinebelt tower. Twin Piper, No­vember six, niner, one, five, foxtrot. Three miles southwest, requesting permission to land.”

     “Twin piper six, niner, one, five, foxtrot clear to land runway three six.”

     Nora recognized from studying her maps that run­way three six required her to bank left when in prox­imity of the airport. She received another radio communication from the tower, “Twin Piper, niner, one. Winds are currently zero four five, at twenty-five knots, gusting to thirty-five. Clear to land runway three six.” Nora knew that meant she would be get­ting quite a bit of crosswind as she attempted to land the plane.

     It suddenly began to dawn on her the risks of this mission. If she somehow failed her landing, and crashed the plane killing herself; her children would not only be motherless, but stranded in Baton Rouge. Although these thoughts began to cross her mind in flashes, she tried to put them out of her head.

     “Come on Jack. Help me out here,” calling on her father’s spirit. He was either in heaven or hell, she re­ally wasn’t sure. She took a deep breath, put her head on straight and mentally focused on the task at hand. When she saw the airport come into view several miles out, she pulled back on the throttles and began a gen­tle descent. A few minutes later she could visually see the numbers of runway three six.

     Nora was also starting to feel the wind. It was dif­ficult to hold her course and her wings were rocking like a boat on rough seas. To maintain her heading required lots of rudder input to compensate. Unfor­tunately, she was sometimes over compensating caus­ing her to overshoot her course in the other direction. She was struggling to keep the nose up. It was going to be the landing from hell.

     In fact, it was so bad, she radioed the tower. She was dropping too much speed and couldn’t pull the nose of the plane up to stabilize. “Pinebelt tower, Piper one, five, foxtrot, going around.” She had to bail the landing.

     “Piper one, five, foxtrot, clear for the go around. You’re the only one in the area; clear to land at your discretion.”

     She pushed the throttles forward and leveled off flying just above the runway. Once she started gaining airspeed, she pulled back on the yoke and began her climb into the sky.

     Sweat was pouring from her brow. This time it was going to take more skill and concentration. She made a climbing bank to the west, leveling off at one thousand five hundred feet. She was now re-estab­lished in the traffic pattern ready to attempt another approach. “Come on Nora, you can do this. You have to do this,” she coached herself.

     Making a sign of the cross, she approached the runway again. This time she was much more aggres­sive in her rudder control to compensate for the gusting crosswind. She pointed the nose in the direc­tion of the gusts as Steve had taught her. Keeping her hands steady, she kept the nose up and lowered her speed to begin her descent. “Steady, steady,” she said. One hundred fifty, one hundred, fifty, twenty five feet. She was at the end of the runway and boom. Nora was down. Smoothly. A huge sigh of relief came over her as she lowered her speed and applied her brakes. She was here. Thank God she was here.

     Nora taxied the plane towards the hangars for gen­eral aviation. She had rented a temporary space from Grayson Aviation. The mechanic planned to meet her. Pulling the plane safely into the hangar, Nora ticked off yet another step of her strategy. Once she parked, she closed up the Piper and applied the pad lock to the outside door of the building.

     “Would you like us to hold the key for you here, Mrs. Greenwood?” the mechanic asked her.

     “No, thank you. I will hold onto them. I appreci­ate the offer, but I know the co-owner will be anxious to get them.” Nora then took off her glasses and baseball cap. It felt good to shake out her hair. De­spite it being December, it was drenched with sweat. She walked from the FBO over to the general termi­nal. It would be another hour or so before Charlene arrived, so Nora ordered a Coca-cola mixed with Or­ange Crush and took a seat in the bar to relax.

     She couldn’t help but watch the clock, wondering how Charlene was making it up Highway 11. Her friend had quite a lead foot; she hoped she wouldn’t be pulled over by the Mississippi Highway Patrol. Nora had given a detailed map to Charlene on how to find the airport.

     It was almost three o’clock and Charlene’s Caddy was nowhere to be found. Nora got up and walked outside the terminal to look for her. She didn’t want to appear like a loiterer in the terminal and she couldn’t drink too many sodas due to the baby. The caffeine and sugar was already making the baby kick incessantly.

     Nora rubbed her tummy. “I wonder if you will be born with the spirit of Jack Broussard?” she ques­tioned the life inside. Nora felt that although her re­cent actions were unlawful and bit dodgy, her father would be proud that she was a fighter.

     A flash of baby blue rounded the corner, tires screeching. Charlene! The Cadillac pulled up to the curb. “Good golly miss molly! I thought you would never get here,” a relieved Nora exclaimed.

     “Well, heck sister. I had my eyes so glued on that detailed map that I missed a damned turn with all the construction. Then, I was worried about rain, so I stopped to put the top up. God, I need a drink.”

     “No time for that, we have to get back on the road and back to Baton Rouge. Especially before we hit rush hour traffic.” At this point, it looked like they might just make it.

     “Nora Jean, I’m at least going through the Dairy Mart drive-thru to get a coke float. This girl’s gotta have some sugar. I’m plum nearly wore out.”

     “Here, move over. I’ll drive then. And yes, I’ll stop at Dairy Mart.”

     “So, how was it?” Charlene had to get all the de­tails.

     “Nerve wracking. I almost couldn’t land. But I made it. The plane is safely locked in the hangar.”

     They hugged and gave a big “yee-haw” out the windows of the Cadillac. Nora could breathe a sigh of relief. Now all that was left was to get back to her kids and call Frank. Devilish delight danced in her eyes as she imagined his face realizing his plane was gone.

 

 

 

 

Welcome Jeanette! Thanks so much for your visit today. It’s great to get this chance to find out more about you.  Tell us about your current release.

FLYING SOLO depicts the death defying adventures of French Cajun Nora Broussard Greenwood who was born with the wanderlust.  Her adventurous spirit doesn’t fit the sedate expectations of 1960s catholic New Orleans suburbia.  On a whim, she takes flying lessons to become a pilot.  Nora discovers the liberating freedom of flight, but an illicit affair with her pilot instructor complicates all.  When she confronts her ruthless husband for a divorce, Nora is temporarily grounded.  She is cast out of her home sans her children, and threatened with her life.  Desperate to regain them, she steals her husband’s plane.  Trials and tribulations erupt as she navigates the turbulence her life has become.  Desperate to regain her self esteem, post domestic violence, she survives by serving as caregiver to her lover’s sickly wife.  It was a bizarre twist of fate but part of self-preservation.  She hoping her close proximity to her paramour will cause him to fall further in love with her as his soul mate.  But is that to be?   Nora must make the most difficult decision of her life in order to get things back on track.   The realities of this tale are based on true antics.  

Did travel play in the writing of your book?

Yes.  I have travelled extensively throughout the South and New Orleans.  I know the city very well, as my mother’s family all grew up and still live there.   The sights, sounds, and foods of this eclectic Mardi Gras town are very familiar to me, thus making the story intriguing to write about. 

What do you think makes a good story?

It sounds trite, but a solid beginning, middle and end woven with richly developed characters that make you care about what happens to them.  Each scene and action should propel a story forward and make the reader salivate to find out what happens next.   

Does your significant other read your stuff?

Absolutely!   He is my first test reader and sometimes a tough critic.   I also have family members or friends close to parts of the story take a read.  It is important for my material to resonate authenticity.    I want the reader to feel that they are right there, in the moment.   No matter what time frame that happens to take place.  

Do you have any suggestions for beginning writers? If so, what are they?

Set aside a time everyday to writer.   Express your thoughts, feelings and ideas in journals or a blog.   Hone your craft and find your style.  Don’t write what you think is the common fad.  Write about what you love.   For me, those are stories about strong, independent women who defy the norm.   I look for and generate stories about  characters that I admire, woman who made a difference.   Besides fictional character in my book, some are real life characters who are Belles of Steel in my blog at www.jeanettevaughan.com .   

Tell us about your next release.

Currently I am working on the sequel to FLYING SOLO.  Everyone who reads it can’t wait to find out what happens to Nora next.    SOLO VIETNAM is during the tuburlent late 1960s.  It takes the characters to the Vietnam War during the Tet Offensive of 1968.    Everyone wants to know what happens to the lovers Nora and Steve.   They are chomping at the bits for me to finish it.   The sequel is a second book in the trilogy of the story.   The third book, TRUAMA QUEEN will finally answer all of the questions and complete the story.  I am loving writing the sequel.   I missed living within my characters.    So it is nice to embrace time with them again.  

 

 

I began my writing career as a young nurse.  My first piece, at age 21, was an article on dying with dignity for the Lubbock Avalanche Journal garnering critical acclaim.   I followed that work with several more articles for nursing journals and periodicals.  Most notably publishing in the Journal of Nursing Education with the article, “Is there really racism in nursing?”

I have served as a nurse in a  career which spans over 29 years in the areas of critical care, trauma, geriatrics and nursing education.   One of my favorite assignments was working Level I trauma in Sydney, Australia.   While completing my Master’s degree in nursing from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, I wrote  a full length screenplay entitled, “Angel of Mercy” which examines the real life journey of a hot oil truck driver of West Texas who in 1970 becomes a nurse.

 My next project was the production and scripting of a four part video series entitled, “All About Aging.”  Abbey Foster Care and Kimberly Quality Care were the corporate sponsors of this award winning educational piece on how to care for older adults.   Hospitals and clinics internationally purchased hundreds of copies and used this intriguing video series to teach their clients.

Characters that challenge the norm, thinking and acting outside the box as pioneers are what make me tick.    They are the subjects of my many forays into writing.  My two oldest boys are pilots for the Navy.  My daughter a successful manager of furniture sales.   My youngest son and I live on a sheep farm in northeast Texas.   I am always looking for the next great tale to tell.

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Enter for a chance to win a Print copy of Flying Solo.

Print giveaway is open Internationally.

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Dead Ringer by Allen Wyler: Interview & Review

 

 

While speaking at a Hong Kong medical conference, neurosurgeon Dr. Lucas McCrae slips the cloth off a cadaver’s head during a routine medical demonstration, and is overwhelmed by what’s staring back at him: The face of his best friend, Andy Baer. 

Stunned, McCrae races back to Seattle to discover that Andy is in fact missing and may have been murdered by a gang of body snatchers who operate a legit funeral business and make a fortune by selling recovered body parts to medical researchers.  

McCrae teams up with an unlikely pair—a beautiful but hardnosed female cop and a gang member whose family was victimized by the cadaver ring—to try and expose a macabre web of corruption that involves law enforcement, politicians, funeral home curators and murdered prostitutes. 

Internationally renowned neurosurgeon Allen Wyler takes us deep into a nightmarish scenario, shockingly ripped from recent headlines, to deliver a horrifically plausible, page-turning thriller.

 

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4.5 Stars

 

The book opens with gifted Neurosurgeon Lucas McCrae at a conference in Hong Kong.  He is there to demonstrate a new procedure he developed and perfected.  However, he gets a severe jolt when he discovers what appears to be his best friend’s head on his demonstration table.  Lucas returns home only to find his friend Andy missing and nobody but Lucas seems concerned about this disturbing news. 

This story was easy to read and highly addictive.  Once I began I did not want to put the book down because I was kept fully engaged.  Lucas quickly became obsessed with finding Andy. This obsession led him finally to put together enough of the puzzle that one police detective began to suspect a correlation between a case she was investigating and Andy’s disappearance.  Before long, Lucas and Sergeant Wendy Elliott are working jointly to unravel the baffling case.  Meanwhile, Lucas must also contend with an unhappy marital situation that is swiftly deteriorating. 

The main villain in this story is positively inspired.  Never have I encountered a fictional character so utterly slimy. Bobbie Ditto is an odd duck who works out an ingenious money-making system that perfectly fills a high-demand niche service.  He takes recycling seriously and believes whole-heartedly that he is actually providing a much-needed service to society.  He will terrify you. 

Lucas is a loyal friend, and as the narrative unfolds bits of his past come to light that help us understand his tenaciousness.  In fact, all the main characters get similar treatments. Not to excess, but enough so that motivations and personality conflicts do become better understood.  The story ended well; I felt satisfied and replete by the end.   

I received this book free from the author’s publicist in return for my honest review.  Except for the free digital book, I received no additional compensation of any kind. 

Reviewed by Laurie-J

 

Welcome, Allen.  I am thrilled to have you as my guest author today and look forward to finding out a little more about you.  I appreciate you taking time for this short interview.

How did you start your writing career?

I’d always loved to read and romanced the idea of writing my own book from the time I was a teenager. But medical school and residency took so much time that it seemed to be an impossible dream. One day, after a particularly difficult surgery, I drove home from the hospital thinking, “The only way I’m going to get a chance to write a book is to start.” That evening I sat down and wrote the opening paragraph to my first book. It was so awful that that manuscript never saw the light of day. But it was a start. I’ve never regretted taking that step.

Tell us about a favorite character from a book.

My favorite is Bobby Ditto, the bad guy in Dead Ringer. You gotta love him because he’s environmentally sensitive and believes in recycling. But to a fault. I really had a great time developing him.

I’ll say.  I can see why he would be a fun character.  He’s certainly an odd duck. One of the most unusual bad guys I’ve encountered.  Complicated in a sort of funny way. Tell us about your current release.

Dead Ringer deals with the lucrative market in body parts and the potential for this business to be abused. It’s a fast-paced thriller that begins in Hong Kong and ends in Seattle with a strong sense of danger and some pretty interesting characters.

Tell us about your next release.

Dead Wrong should come out late this fall. Imagine sitting at your in your office, you look up and see two men aiming a gun at your head while accusing you of a crime you didn’t commit. How do you escape certain death? Well, it isn’t easy. I think this is one of my favorite stories because it goes from 0 to 60 instantaneously and doesn’t let up until the very end.

 

Who is your favorite author?

John Sandford is probably my favorite, followed closely by Michael Connelly and Robert Crais.

When in the day/night do you write? How long per day?

I’m a morning person and like to knock off three to four hours every morning, seven days a week. I really have a hard time concentrating for longer than that. Being retired from surgical practice now gives me the luxury to devote my time to writing instead of showing up in the operating room. I still do a lot of technical writing along with my fiction.

What is the hardest part of writing your books?

Coming up with a fresh idea. I can come up with tons of ideas, but as soon as I begin to flesh them out, I can quickly see too many similarities to other stories. It’s true that there are only a limited number of actual plots, and, in fact I tend to write “chase” or pursuit stories, but the hardest part of putting them together, is finding a fresh way to weave the tale.

Where do you research for your books?

Because my stories deal with medicine and the brain and comes from my own experiences, the research is the easiest part of my work.

How do you describe your writing style?

Fast paced, pithy writing that is heavily plot driven.

 

 

 

Allen Wyler is a renowned neurosurgeon who earned an international reputation for pioneering surgical techniques to record brain activity.  He has served on the faculties of both the University of Washington and the University of Tennessee, and in 1992 was recruited by the prestigious Swedish Medical Center to develop a neuroscience institute.

In 2002, he left active practice to become Medical Director for a startup med-tech company (that went public in 2006) and he now chairs the Institutional Review Board of a major medical center in the Pacific Northwest.

Leveraging a love for thrillers since the early 70’s, Wyler devoted himself to fiction writing in earnest, eventually serving as Vice President of the International Thriller Writers organization for several years. After publishing his first two medical thrillers Deadly Errors (2005) and Dead Head (2007), he officially retired from medicine to devote himself to writing full time.

He and his wife, Lily, divide their time between Seattle and the San Juan Islands.

 Website  |  Amazon  |  Goodreads

 

EDITOR’S NOTE 

Medical research has always been a cornerstone of medical innovation, and thus of our society. But throughout history, many suspect that the gathering of human bodies for research has never been purely ethical or legal. Many believe that today, sophisticated international syndicates exist that traffic in body parts for medical research; the most recent incident appearing in the New York Times just weeks ago. (http://nyti.ms/NfU5kU)  

We feel this crime has been elusively clandestine, easily dismissed, and in many cases overlooked for cynical reasons. We would like to go on record as agreeing with ethics scholars that everyone involved in the medical community, be they students practitioners, media or affiliates should remain vigilant and forthright; and embrace the high standard of responsibility inherent in the ethical conduct of medical research, especially when it involves human remains. 

 

 

 

Heart Stopping Medical Thriller Takes On

True-to-Life Body Snatcher Syndicates

Recent Newspaper Headlines Confirm Horrifying Premise

 

 

"In the tradition of Robin Cook, Wyler takes us behind the scenes to show us things the medical establishment doesn’t want us to see. DEAD RINGER builds a high-speed plot on a startling but all-too-plausible premise. This is the stuff nightmares are made of."

 

-- Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author of Paranoia and Buried Secrets

 

“…Wyler does for hospitals what Benchley did for the ocean.”

 

--Joe Moore, Co-author of the International Bestseller, The Grail Conspiracy

 

“Neurosurgeon Allen Wyler knows of what he speaks, and writes, and the result is a thriller that equals and updates the best of Robin Cook and Michael Crichton.”

 

--Jon Land, bestselling author of Strong at the Break