New Release Spotlight: Meg Dendler's "At the Corner of Magnetic and Main"

Today I'm pleased to tell you about a new novel by fellow Clean Indie Reads author Meg Dendler. Meg is a best-selling, award-winning children's author and former teacher who recently debuted her first full-length adult novel, At the Corner of Magnetic and Main. Welcome to Adventures in Publishing Meg! Here's what you need to know about Meg's book:

It's hard to get on with your life

when you're already dead.

   

Penny had been stuck in the same diner for decades—ever since she died in 1952. Her diner was comfortable and safe. Serving ice cream to those who dropped in on their way to the next level of existence, she helped to ease their transition into The Light, the one place she can't go. Her afterlife was perfect. 

But when the ridiculously handsome, bad-boy biker Jake Thatcher shows up and becomes stuck as well, Penny rediscovers feelings that she thought had been buried with her body.

Life is still life, and love is still love. But was her existence really perfect, or was it something else entirely?

About the Author

Meg Dendler has considered herself a writer since she won a picture book contest in fifth grade and entertained her classmates with ongoing sequels for the rest of the year. Beginning serious work as a freelancer in the '90s while teaching elementary and middle school, Meg has over one hundred articles in print, including interviews with Kirk Douglas, Sylvester Stallone, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. She has won contests with her short stories and poetry, along with multiple international awards for her best-selling Cats in the Mirror alien rescue cat children's book series. At the Corner of Magnetic and Main is her first adult novel, but it won't be her last. Meg and her family (including four cats and her dog, Max) live at 1,400 feet in the Ozark Mountains on what they call Serenity Mountain, just outside of Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  

Purchase At the Corner of Magnetic and Main 
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Guest Author: Judith Lucci, Creator of Author 911, an Online Resource For Writers Writing Medical Scenes

Today’s guest is Judith Lucci, creator and administrator of Author 911: The Authors’ Writing & Medical Academy, an online resource for writing medical scenes. Judith brings a wealth of knowledge and decades of experience to this website. She’s a registered nurse and has worked in the ICU, ER, neurology, medical & surgery, home health, and public health nursing. She’s also a professor of nursing at a large university in the South and holds graduate and doctoral degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Virginia. Judith has authored textbooks, research studies, theoretical articles, policies and just about anything needed in a clinical or educational environment. She is also the author of the Alex Destephano Medical Thriller Series, which currently includes three titles: Chaos at Crescent City Medical Center, The Imposter, and Viral Intent. Welcome to Adventures in Publishing, Judith! Please tell us about Author 911.

Thanks for inviting me to speak to your readers, Marianne. Author 911: The Authors & Writers’ Medical Academy is my latest project to help authors write medical scenes correctly. The site includes interviews with experts in a variety of areas in healthcare and medicine, links to educational websites on the workings of the human body, a tutorial on ballistics and gunshots, and information on poisons and fight scenes. There’s also writing tips and author spotlights. It’s all new and under development and I hope it allows writers to create believable, realistic stories.

Your Alex Destephano medical series has gotten outstanding reviews. Please tell us about them.

My Alex Destephano novels are a compilation of my very active imagination, my years as a clinical nurse, and current events in the news.  The main characters are Alexandra Destephano, a nurse attorney who is legal counsel for Crescent City Medical Center, and Jack Francoise, a dedicated, gnarly, unyielding New Orleans police commander who covers the 8th Precinct and the French Quarter, where in the deepest, sleazy and sordid areas copious crime occurs. Add in dashing surgeon Robert Bonnet, Alex's ex-husband, and psychiatrist Monique Desmonde, her best friend, and the cast is complete. Crescent City Medical is intent on offering the best care in the world but is constantly challenged by competition, health care reform, incompetent management, psychopaths, murder and viral disease outbreaks, not to mention bad guys intent on doing the hospital harm. Chaos at Crescent City Medical Center, The Imposter, Viral Intent and Toxic New Year (release date Winter 2015) are fast-paced, riveting medical thrillers that offer readers believable drama and memorable characters and allows them to escape into the complex, often mysterious world of health care. 

What are your goals as a writer?

I have three goals when I write: to engage the reader to keep them reading, to entertain the reader and to educate them. I have been a college professor and clinician for many years, and each of my books has underlying themes. In Chaos I talk about the changes in health care based on the Affordable Care Act. The Imposter highlights the dismal state of psychiatric medicine in the US. Viral Intent highlights ethical and political issues currently in society.

 

What is the time span in your novel?

Chaos takes place over a week, The Imposter a week as well, and Viral Intent only four days. Toxic New Year spans several months.

How much research goes into your writing?

There is a ton of research in all of my books. I know a lot about medicine and health care but not so much about explosives, AK47s, drones and counterterrorism.

When, why, and how did you start writing?

I have been writing ever since I can remember. For many years, as an academician I wrote research reports, theoretical articles, and textbooks, and I only returned to fiction writing in recent years.  I love writing…It allows me to continue to teach and educate my readers as well as entertain them.   Writing allows me a ‘work through’ and rights the wrongs that I have experienced in clinical practice.

What inspires you?

I am inspired by my readers. There is nothing more exciting for me than to receive an email from one of them or a great review.  They energize me and propel me forward.

Where do you get your ideas?

My plot lines come from copious research, my experience, a TV show, the newspaper, almost everywhere.  An ongoing plot line in all of my novels came from the New Orleans Police Department website for unsolved crimes.

How much do you read? Which genres?    

                     

I read incessantly. I love thrillers, literary fiction, suspense, historical fiction, just about everything.  I am amazed by people who say to me “I never read.  I don’t have any time.”  I have learned about people and the world by reading. I cannot imagine a life without books.

Can you tell us what you’re working on now?

I am currently working on the fourth Alex book, Toxic New Year, which I hope to release in a few months. I also have another series, Michaela McPherson, Private Eye.  Mic is a retired homicide detective in Richmond, VA who, no matter how hard she tries,  cannot retire. These will be shorter books but just as exciting as the Alex series.

What advice do you have for beginning authors?

My advice would be to read, revise, write, read, revise, write, revise and get a great editor.  It is impossible for many authors, myself included, to edit ourselves and find simple errors that don’t stand out to us.

Thank you, Judith. Best wishes on Author 911 and your medical series.

Judith loves to connect with readers. You can visit her blog or contact her via email at  judithlucciwrites@gmail.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and her new website Author911.

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Alzheimer's, Literature, and Still Alice

There is no disease that strikes more fear into the hearts of most of us than Alzheimer’s disease, the thief of memory, the robber of human dignity. Over the last two years, I have had the privilege to speak to many people about this disease and the topic is usually met with a shudder, followed by the words “oh, God.”  Some people are unable to discuss the subject at all, tearing up, shaking their heads, and walking away. Alzheimer's is the disease of my generation, affecting our grandparents and parents at an alarming rate, with the number of cases expected to TRIPLE by 2050. Unfortunately, it does not get enough attention through the popular media to educate us about it, to start a public conversation, or to teach us how to prepare for the tsunami of cases coming our way. 

The recent release of the movie Still Alice, based on the bestselling novel by neuroscientist Lisa Genova, has put Alzheimer’s disease in the spotlight. It’s the first major motion picture to take on Alzheimer’s in many years. Although the disease affects an estimated 5.5 million Americans (and 44 million worldwide), it has not yet penetrated pop culture in a meaningful way, so  it’s encouraging to finally see it addressed in the popular media in a way we can easily relate to, in all its emotional and horrific truth.

I didn't read Still Alice when Genova self-published it in 2007 or when Pocket Books (now Gallery Books) republished it in 2009 because I was in the midst of rewriting then publishing my own Alzheimer’s novel, Blue Hydrangeas. But with the release of the film imminent, I finally sat down and read Genova’s book. It is a fine representation of this disease, and one of the few dealing specifically with early onset Alzheimer’s, which strikes before age 65 and affects five percent of those with the disease.

Genova's heroine Alice Howland has just turned 50. Her life is rich with accomplishment and joy. She is a wife, a mother, and a well-respected, internationally known professor of linguistics at Harvard University. She has no reason to suspect that something is wrong with her brain, but a series of incidents in which she gets lost, forgets oft-repeated words in a lecture, and fails to get on a plane to attend a conference she’s well-prepared for frightens her enough to seek medical attention. When the test results come in she’s told she has early-onset Alzheimer’s. Thus begins a harrowing descent into dementia that affects everyone close to Alice and turns all of their lives upside down.

Watching Alice’s decline is heartbreaking and seems too real, because we know the possibility of Alzheimer’s may exist in any one of us. Genova alternates her clinical knowledge with the human side of this illness, giving us sympathetic, believable characters and a number of credible scenes and scenarios.  Her book is both a manual on the how-to’s of the disease – how to get a diagnosis, how to get help, how to cope - as well as an expertly woven story of one woman’s experience of this disease. I recommend Still Alice for anyone interested in learning more about Alzheimer's, whether or not they or a loved one have the disease. 

As a nurse who writes short stories and novels about families struggling with medical issues, I value books like Still Alice and respect authors like Lisa Genova. There are many ways to educate people about a condition or disease. In regard to Alzheimer’s, there are hundreds of books available to explain the disease, advise what to do about it, how to handle it, and offer solutions and support for caregivers. These are all excellent resources. However, as a novelist, I feel stories that enlighten through the careful balance of useful facts and a cast of relatable and realistic characters may be a better way to shed light on this and many other medical issues. This type of presentation enables the reader to get inside the head of the Alzheimer’s patient, their caregivers, spouse, children, and other loved ones. It’s up close and personal, not clinical and removed. 

Throughout my research for Blue Hydrangeas and beyond I've read many novels about Alzheimer's and dementia which I’d also like to recommend. They include: Nicholas Sparks' The Notebook, (also in film), The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold, Untethered: A Caregiver's Tale by Phyllis Peters, Saving Grace by Barbara Delinsky, Still Time by Maria Hoagland, Eric Rill's An Absent Mind, and The Warrior With Alzheimer’s by Stephen Woodfin.

In addition to novels, memoir can also serve as an educational resource with personal insight, bringing the reader closer to the subject than a self-help or how-to book can.  Many such books were helpful to me in my research. I recommend: Elegy for Iris by John Bayley (also in film as Iris), The House on Beartown Road by Elizabeth Cohen, Thomas DeBaggio’s Losing My Mind, My Mom, My Hero by Lisa R. Hirsch, Released to the Angels: Discovering the Hidden Gifts of Alzheimer's by Marilynn Garzionne, Inside the Dementia Epidemic: A Daughter's Memoir by Martha Stettinius, and Nell Lake’s The Caregivers. The recently released Alzheimer's Daughter, Jean L. Lee's account of caring for two parents with Alzheimer's at the same time, brings knowledge and solace to those grappling with this illness (read my review.)

Two new titles on my to-be-read list gaining much acclaim lately are On Pluto by Greg O'Brien and Matthew Thomas' We Are Not Ourselves.

Alzheimer’s is a frightening possibility, but to meet it without knowledge or an understanding of its implications increases despair and hopelessness and strips one of the power to make competent decisions and access necessary supports and resources. Knowledge gained through literature and film can be as practical and useful as any self-help or how-to manual.

Still Alice, the film, has not yet been released in my area. I look forward to seeing it.

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