NOVEL IDEAS by JL Greger
The main
sources of ideas for novels are the imaginations of the authors. But what revs
up their imaginations?
Pet
peeves, news headlines, travel, special interest columns in Sunday papers, and
people encountered daily are all sources of novel ideas. The list is endless.
The
ideas for MALIGNANCY, my medical thriller released in October, came from two
sources: my trip to Cuba in 2013 and my pet peeve that there are so few woman
protagonists in thrillers and suspense novels. The women who populate suspense
and thrillers are often young action heroines, like Lara Croft or Super Woman,
or old women, like Miss Jane Marple. That leaves out women from thirty to
sixty-five. According to the US Census in 2000, about fifty percent of females
in the U.S. are between thirty and sixty-five.
In other
words, authors should populate their
novels with more smart, fit women in their forties and older. Characters who
could be played by Helen Mirren, Sigourney Weaver, Salma Hayek, Marcia Gaye
Hardin, and Alfre Woodard. Now that’s a novel idea.
The
birthing of MALIGNANCY
Among
the propaganda spouted by Cuban tour guide in 2013 was the statement: Cuban
researchers had patented a drug for cancer. When I got home, I investigated her
claim and found it was true.
This patent for a vaccine against a rare type of
lung cancer demonstrates Cuban scientists are doing competitive science and
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. (Check out the
editorial “Science diplomacy with Cuba” 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. Let’s
face it, a twenty or even thirty-something heroine hasn’t had time to get a
Ph.D. and gain enough experiences to be an international science consultant.
Here’s a
blurb on MALIGNANCY. Men
disguised as police officers shoot at Sara Almquist twice in one day. Albuquerque
police suspect Jim Mazzone, a drug czar who Sara has tangled with several
times, will order more hits on Sara. Thus 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 and to see the mysterious Xave Zack, who rescued her in Bolivia. Maybe,
she should question their motives.
Read Malignancy and imagine Helen Mirren or
Marcia Gaye Hardin as Sara Almquist. Now that’s
another novel idea.
Malignancy
is available at Amazon http://amzn.com/1610091779 and Oak Tree Press: pressdept@oaktreebooks.com
Bio: As a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I honed my
story-telling skills as I lectured to bleary-eyed students at 8:30 in the
morning. Students remember chemical reactions better when the instructor
attaches stories to the processes.
Now I have two great
passions – my Japanese Chin dog, Bug, and travel. I’ve included both in my
novels. You can learn more about me at my website: www.jlgreger.com and blog (JL Greger’s Bugs): www.jlgreger.com. I also
answer question directed to: JLGreger@oaktreebooks.com.
From Marilyn:
This books sounds great! Anxious to read it. Good post, my Deputy Tempe Crabtree falls in the early forties range.
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