Reviews like the one from Midwest Book Review make the work of writing fiction worth all of the time, effort and energy.
Here is what they wrote about the first book in the series: The Fragrance Shed By A Violet: Murder in the Medical Center:
Midwest Book Review said “A fine balance between suspense and emotional character development, The Fragrance Shed by a Violet is a murder mystery that reaches deep into a primal fear..”
One of the questions I am frequently asked is whether I started out to write a medical mystery series.
No, in fact, I am surprised that here in January, 2017, I am writing the 4th in the Dr. Lindsey McCall medical mystery series.
But then life is like that, isn’t it? A series of surprises, many which hurt and maim and some which seem to take everything we have to deal with them.
These are the reasons I have grown to love these characters. Their fictionalized lives and fanciful story lines deal with the most gripping issues of life.
With each story, the challenge to myself is always the same. Can I create characters who can be heard and seen, better yet, felt as he reveals himself to the reader?
In The Price for Genius, the 3rd book released at the end of 2016, I introduce an assassin, Joe Cairns.
In the beginning of the story, his character tested me in multiple ways:
- Could Joe be a guy you could relate to? The neighbor who happens to be a hired killer?
- Could an assassin be someone whose evil actions be accepted if not understood by those of us who had never walked in his shoes?
- Would my readers like reading about a man like this?
- Is this story crafted better than its two predecessors?
Now, in the next book, Malthus Revisited (working title) that I am writing now, the ceiling is even higher. Malthus is a complicated story. The kind I love because it is so challenging, in a sense, it will remind the reader of The Fragrance Shed By A Violet: Murder in the Medical Center because there is so much going on. And my new characters, two eighteen-year-old young women, LJ and Morgan have taken off remarkably fast. Generally, it takes time for people so different from me to take the lead but not for these teens, I am working to keep up with them!
A couple of readers of A Price for Genius have asked if this next book with include a Kate Townsend investigative reporter story. And maybe some courtroom scenes like Fragrance and Do You Solemnly Swear? A Nation of Law- The Dark Side. This early in the book, I don’t know because the direction the story takes always surprises me- it will depend on where the characters take it. That is, of course, the implicit adventure of writing fiction!