Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid: Dead Air
Book Club Discussion
April 9, 2010. Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid, coauthors of Dead Air,
discuss writing this novel together in an interview with Queenie C.
Book Club Discussion: Interview with Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid
This
is my favorite question to ask when I read a book that was written by two people: Can you explain your writing process to us? Do you each come
up with parts of the story and then mesh them together? Do you get together in person or work through email?
Synergy
is the key word. Writing with a partner more than doubles the energy, the ideas, and the input. Plus, we have built-in editors to help us polish
our text. It's worked beautifully for us with the Sammy Greene Thriller series.
We first get together on the phone, or now on Skype, and work out the plot. Each brings ideas to the table, as we might in a mini-writers' room.
We work out a rough plot by talking, then begin assigning scenes. Each of us writes a scene, then emails it to the other who edits and sends back-and
vice versa. After several iterations back and forth, we've got the final product. Both of us have our own "voices," but we have also developed a
third voice, "our common one" for the books. And, after two books, our characters are now so real, THEY tell us what to say.
Book Club Discussion: Interview with Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid
Book Club Discussion: Interview with Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid
Sammy
had a sad childhood involving her parents. Did this shape her as a person, specifically her determination to find out the truth about things?
Indeed.
Sammy was traumatized by the abandonment of her father and the loss of her mother, and like many children, is plagued by undeserved guilt. Children
may assume that random tragic events were their own fault, driving them to seek another cause for sadness and tragedy. Certainly Sammy's response
to her childhood was to 'toughen up, creampuff,' and repress those feelings, but her determination to uncover not only truth, but justice, was motivated
by her childhood experiences.
Book Club Discussion: Interview with Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid
Book Club Discussion: Interview with Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid
What
made you want to write about medical research on a college campus?
We
were both physicians at UCLA and have spent much of our professional lives on campuses, gaining first-hand experience with medical centers and research.
Because less public money has been available in recent years for clinical studies, universities have increasingly looked to corporate or private
moneyed entities for funding. These relationships have the potential to create conflicts of interest, negatively affecting the mission, vision, and
operations of these institutions. Researchers, like the fictitious Dr. Palmer in our novel, may compromise ethics to meet corporate goals and objectives.
Sadly, we've seen how inaccurate and false results on several drug studies have actually harmed real patients. As one reviewer wrote, "Dead Air is
eerily timely."
Book Club Discussion: Interview with Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid
Book Club Discussion: Interview with Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid
Papajohn
was one of my favorite characters. He had a rough exterior with a teddy bear heart. Who was your favorite character?
We
both have a soft spot for Pappajohn, though Linda was more responsible for developing his character, who is based partially on her father. As a
Greek-American, Linda was able to inject real truth into this complicated man. It's difficult for us to pick one favorite--we love all our children.
(Even the naughty ones!) Of course, Sammy is special. She's not perfect, but she's persistent and always well intentioned. It's been a real joy
knowing that her character will grow over several books. Reed is another favorite - loosely modeled after Deborah's husband, Joel (only the good
qualities). Finally, Sergio was based on a dear young man, the partner of a nurse Linda worked with at Kaiser, who passed away of AIDS at too
young an age.
Book Club Discussion: Interview with Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid
Book Club Discussion: Interview with Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid
Was
Reed really naive or was he just so involved with his work that he couldn't understand what Sammy was saying?
Reed
is a hard-working, ambitious medical student who is aiming for the highest echelons of residency training. His ambition may have led him to discount
Sammy's concerns as contrasted with the reputations of his mentors at this Ivy League medical school. The seeds Sammy planted did have an effect
on Reed-and slowly chipped away at his idealism.
Book Club Discussion: Interview with Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid
Book Club Discussion: Interview with Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid
The
cover says that this is A Sammy Greene Thriller. Does this mean that there will be many more stories of Sammy Greene to come? Can you tell
us what you are working on next?
Absolutely.
We have already sold the next Sammy Greene Thriller, Devil Wind, which will be out in April 2011 from Oceanview Publishing. Sammy gets a
plum job in DC at a TV network, but loses it to her impolitic political investigations. She ends up doing the graveyard shift at a small radio
station in Los Angeles, in the midst of gale force Santa Ana winds and Dante-esque blazes, and discovers a Y2K conspiracy involving Sammy's father
that could kill thousands of Angelenos, including Gus Pappajohn's estranged daughter. Lots of exciting action for our favorite friends. We're now
working on book number three which will take Sammy across the US and Europe.
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