Showing posts with label Bolivia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bolivia. Show all posts

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Setting the Stage for Suspense by Janet Greger


Today, please welcome the guest blog of fellow writer Janet Greger, "Setting the Stage for Suspense."
 
Are the settings in your novels as insipid as the description of Prince Charming in most fairy tales? Do you describe a couple of physical characteristic, but don’t mention anything about the personality of the locale?

Curiosity draws readers to certain locations. I bet many readers purchased a copy of Clavell’s Shogun before they traveled to Japan and reread sections of The Da Vinci Code before they visited Paris or Scotland. I dislike winter, but Smilla’s Sense of Snow made me want to visit Greenland.

I’m hoping readers, who want to “see” more of Cuba than vintage American cars, will read my new medical thriller Malignancy. I juxtaposition the past and present of Cuba. For example, in Malignancy you’ll learn about cutting edge research being done in Cuban medical centers as Sara Almquist, an epidemiologist and my protagonist, sets up scientific exchanges among Cuban and U.S. scientists. It’s not far fetched; one group of Cuban researchers has patented a vaccine against one type of lung cancer. You and Sara will slip into La Floridita Bar, made famous by Hemingway, in Old Havana to meet a mysterious Cuban. Is he just a physician or is he a spymaster? As you and Sara discover historic quirks in Colon cemetery, you might bump into Sara’s past.

Some locations breed intrigue. The steamy and seamy sides of New Orleans have been featured in many novels. Think about: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice, Jambalaya Justice by Holli Castillo, and The Pelican Brief by John Grisham. These novels would not have resonated with readers if they were set elsewhere.

I think Bolivia is one of those mysterious, volatile places. The country is for the physically fit - much of the country has an altitude of over ten thousand feet. Bolivia has arguably some of the most colorfully dressed indigenous people in the world. You’ll see them with Sara Almquist in Ignore the Pain, as she climbs the narrow stone steps to the roof of Iglesia de San Francisco in La Paz and looks down on the Witches’ Market. If that doesn’t sound exciting, please note henchmen of a drug lord are chasing Sara. You’ll also get a different view of coca, the source of cocaine, as you watch Sara question miners at the infamous silver mines of Potosí. She’s there on a public health mission, and Bolivia is a textbook-lesson on public health problems.

Other locations breed nostalgia for a happier or perhaps simpler time. Western fiction can be set in a number of states in the US (Kansas, Texas, Wyoming, Colorado, or New Mexico), but generally the setting is the same – a spare, dry land that exudes loneliness. The protagonist generally looks like the land. He’s spare, often almost gaunt, dry with little to say, and independent because he has to be to survive on the land.

What’s the personality of the locales in your novels? Have you used them to set the stage for suspense?

Blurb for Malignancy. Men disguised as police officers shoot at Sara Almquist twice in one day. The 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 again. Maybe, she should question their motives. 

Malignancy is available at Amazon: http://amzn.com/1610091779,

Malignancy is the sequel to Ignore the Pain.

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 in New Mexico is chasing her through the Witches’ Market of La Paz and trying to trap her at the silver mines of Potosí. Unfortunately, she can’t trust her new colleagues, especially the seedy Xave Zack, because any one of them might be under the control of the coca industry in Bolivia.

Ignore the Pain (paperback & Kindle) is available at Amazon: http://amzn.com/1610091310.


Bio
 JL Greger is no longer a biology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, instead she’s putting tidbits of science into her medical mysteries/ thrillers. She and Bug, her Japanese Chin dog, live in the southwest of the Untied States.

Her novels include: Coming Flu, Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight, Ignore the Pain, and Malignancy. You can learn more about her and her writing at her website: http://www.jlgreger.com and blog JL Greger’s Bugs: http://www.jlgregerblog.blogspot.com.




Tuesday, December 31, 2013

J.L. Greger- Twelve Question Tuesday

Today I am excited to welcome writer, professor, and biologist J.L. Greger to Twelve Question Tuesday.

J.L. and Bug
1. Please tell me the three most important things people should know about you.1. I don’t like science fiction with Martian creatures, but I like science in fiction, even when it’s stretched to the limit. By my standards Jurassic Park is interesting because scientists now have extracted enough DNA from fossils to make cloning a mammoth possible. However, it’s doubtful scientists will find usable DNA from dinosaurs.  

2. My best friend (my apology to my sister and human friends) is my dog Bug. Just look at him. He’s the only character in my novels based on a real individual. As the picture shows, he’s a real character with a mind of his own. 

3. I value my privacy.

2. Are you a dog person or a cat person?
Dog

3. Tea or coffee?Neither, Diet Coke is my favorite source of caffeine.

4. Boxers or briefs?
Doesn’t matter. 

5. What was the first thing you wrote?
My third grade teacher assigned me to draw a picture and write a report on every story we read in class. She was trying to keep me busy.

6.  When did you finally decide to call yourself a writer?
When Coming Flu, my first novel, was published.

7. Which of your works are you most proud of?
The last one out because I learn from the mistakes in previous books. So that means my current favorite is Ignore the Pain.


8. What is the scariest thing that ever happened to you?
Someone tried to attack me physically; he didn’t succeed.


9. How did you end up getting published?
I joined PSWA (Public Safety Writers Association) and got advice.

10. Would be food or a fighter if the zombie apocalypse were to happen?
Fighter

11. What is the most daring thing you have ever done?
Depends how you look at it. Maybe it was being in China in 1983 unintentionally without a passport. The Chinese officials believed me that the travel agent in Hong Kong took it. Or maybe it was taking a consulting assignment to the United Arab Emirates (UAR) in 1991. The officials in UAR invited me as the scientist J. L. Greger and were surprised when they saw the photo in my passport.

12. Would you rather be rich or famous?
Neither I’d pick powerful, actually only the power behind the throne. I’d pick that because there are a lot of things I’d like to try to fix.

 

FROM THE AUTHOR:
In Ignore the Pain, epidemiologist Sara Almquist couldn’t say no when invited to participate in a survey of children’s health in Bolivia. Soon someone from her past is chasing her through the Witches’ Market of La Paz, and she fears her new colleagues are controlled by the coca industry of Bolivia.

 

BIO: 
J. L. Greger, as a biologist and professor emerita of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, enjoys putting tidbits of science into her novels.

Website: www.jlgreger.com
 

Blog: http://jlgregerblog.blogspot.com

Amazon sales link for Ignore the Pain: http://www.amazon.com/Ignore-Pain-J-L-Greger/dp/1610091310/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385498311&sr=1-1&keywords=Ignore+the+Pain 




Thursday, December 5, 2013

LOCATION AS A CHARACTER IN A NOVEL by J.L. Greger

Some locations breed intrigue. The steamy and seamy sides of New Orleans have been featured in many novels. Think about: Dinner at Antoine’s by Frances Parkinson Keyes, Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice, The Pelican Brief by John Grisham, and Jambalaya Justice by Holli Castillo. None of these novels would have resonated with readers if they were set elsewhere.

Similarly it’s hard to generate a more creepy setting for horror novels and mysteries than the slums of Victorian London as a dense fog blankets the foul cobblestone streets.

Other locations breed nostalgia for a happier or perhaps simpler time. Western fiction can be set in a number of states (Kansas, Texas, Wyoming, Colorado, or New Mexico), but generally the setting is the same – a spare, dry land that exudes loneliness. The protagonist generally looks like the land. He’s spare, often almost gaunt, dry with little to say, and independent because he has to be to survive on the land.

Occasionally a location resonates with a writer and suggests a story. That’s what happened to me several years ago when I climbed the narrow stone steps to the roof of Iglesia de San Francisco in La Paz, Bolivia and looked down on the Witches’ Market. I thought of so many “what if” questions as I compared the chaotic, colorful scene below with the cemetery-like roof.

The availability of coca everywhere, the press accounts of deplorable conditions in the silver mines of Potosí, and the lurid stories of life in San Pedro Prison as detailed in the best seller Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America’s Strangest Jail presented me with more scary questions about Bolivia. I added to it public health data on the poor indigenous people of Bolivia and a little bit about the politics in modern Bolivia. Evo Morales, the President of Bolivia, is the first indigenous person to be elected to lead a nation in South or North America in modern times. Then I spun a story.  The net result is Ignore the Pain, my new medical thriller.

In Ignore the Pain, epidemiologist Sara Almquist couldn’t say no when invited to participate in a survey of children’s health in Bolivia. Soon someone from her past is chasing her through the Witches’ Market of La Paz, and she fears her new colleagues are controlled by the coca industry of Bolivia.

I think this story is scary because it is so realistic, but maybe it is because Bolivia is such an interesting character.


Please note: I enjoyed my visit to Bolivia and would recommend it to adventurous travelers.


BIO:
J. L. Greger, as a biologist and professor emerita of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, enjoys putting tidbits of science into her novels. To learn more, check out her website www.jlgreger.com or blog www.jlgregerblog.blogspot.com 

Ignore the Pain is availabe on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Ignore-Pain-J-L-Greger/dp/1610091310/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385498311&sr=1-1&keywords=Ignore+the+Pain

The previous novels in this medical thriller/mystery series: 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 

and Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight http://www.amazon.com/Murder-New-Lose-Weight-ebook/dp/B00DFCC3IM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1372715439&sr=1-1&keywords=Murder%3A+A+New+Way+to+Lose+Weight are also available at Amazon.