INSIDER AUTHOR INTERVIEWS

An Interview with Author Christopher Stookey - Terminal Care

May 2010

The Insider is a Silver Leaf Books sponsored feature that allows the readers to gain additional information about the authors, books, and projects. This section will consist of live interviews with the authors, and their direct responses.

This Insider interview is with Christopher Stookey, author of the upcoming release, Terminal Care.

SLB: Your debut novel will be released in the next few weeks. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about what got you started with writing and how you came up with the idea for Terminal Care?

STOOKEY: I’ve been interested in writing since I was a teenager. When it came time for me to decide on a career, I was torn between medicine and writing. Probably as a result of parental pressure and practical considerations, I choose to go into medicine. Actually, the truth is I chose medicine because I’m a coward—medicine was the safer route. “The road more traveled by” as Robert Frost might say. But I always retained the itch to do some writing. Over the years, I wrote sporadically and published some short stories and essays, but I’d always wanted to write a novel. The idea for Terminal Care came about from my desire to incorporate some of my medical experiences into a fun, mystery thriller.

SLB: There's nothing that says you can't do both, and now you have! Why don't you tell us a little about your book?

STOOKEY:  The book is about a young, somewhat naïve, not terribly insightful, physician named Phil Pescoe. Pescoe finds himself inadvertently caught up in a string of deaths that occur on the Alzheimer’s unit at the hospital where he works. At first it seems the deaths are simply random events—after all, the patients on the unit are all old, and death is a pretty common thing on the ward. However, as the story progresses, Pescoe becomes involved with another physician at the hospital, an internist named Clara Wong. Wong is also aware of the deaths on the unit, and she’s considerably more concerned about what’s happening.  She notes the deaths started shortly after the drug company, Swan Pharmaceuticals, began testing a new, experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s disease on the ward. Wong suspects the deaths might have something to do with the new drug. The main action involves the search for the truth about what’s really happening on the ward. The plot moves through a number of  unlikely twists and turns, including a late night raid on the hospital morgue, a highly unconventional “treatment” performed on a patient dying of a heart attack, and a sting operation where Clara puts herself at risk of receiving a lethal injection of Amazon River poison.   

SLB: Amazon River poison?

STOOKEY:  Yes. Well, modern medicine’s equivalent of Amazon River poison, a drug called vecuronium. Vecuronium is a close cousin of “curare,” the arrow-tip poison South American Indians used to hunt game. The poison has the deadly effect of causing a complete paralysis of all the muscles of the body except the heart.  The victim, who remains completely conscious, dies a rather gruesome death due to suffocation owing to the inability to use the chest muscles to breathe.

SLB: Sounds pleasant. Or not. But sounds like a great Medical Thriller. You say the book pulls from your own medical experience. What exactly is your medical background?

STOOKEY: I’m an emergency physician. I work in a busy, urban ER three days a week.  Actually, emergency medicine is a great day job for an aspiring writer, something I hadn’t counted on when I first got into medicine. I work three, twelve-hour day shifts per week, and I’m off the rest of the week. Consequently, I have four full days a week to devote to writing.  Emergency doctors, unlike most other doctors, don’t carry pagers, and you aren’t on call when you leave the hospital. It’s shift work. When you walk out of the ER, your time is completely your own till your next shift. Thus, I can retreat to my writer’s garret without disturbances.

SLB: Your protagonist, Phil Pescoe, is also an ER doctor. Is there an autobiographical component to this novel?

STOOKEY: Yes.

SLB: Care to elaborate on that a bit?

STOOKEY:  They say first novels are often autobiographical. I mentioned earlier Phil Pescoe is a bit clueless, a little on the obtuse side. So, the answer to your question is, yes, the novel does have an autobiographical component.

SLB: <Laughter>  Okay. Can you tell us about the process of taking your initial manuscript and getting it to the point where it is now?

STOOKEY:  Well, I wrote the original manuscript pretty quickly. Then I gave it to a friend of mine, George Hansen, another physician, to read. George was such a great help. He read the manuscript “cover-to-cover” and made detailed, page-by-page suggestions. Using his suggestions, I basically rewrote the novel. Then I went online and bought a copy of a book called Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market. I opened the book to the section on “Book Publishers” and used a yellow high-lighter to mark the publishers interested in mysteries.  I sent out query letters to the most promising publishing houses. I received my fair share of form letters saying “not interested.” However, several publishers did express interest. Silver Leaf Books was the first to say, “Yes, we’ll  take a chance on this unknown guy coming out of nowhere—we’ll publish your book.”

SLB: Their loss, our gain. I'm glad it all worked out. When Terminal Care does arrive in a couple of weeks, how excited are you about having a tangible book in your hands?

STOOKEY: Very excited. It’ll be the culmination of three years of work and the fulfillment of a dream to write and publish a novel.

SLB: So wasn’t your book originally entitled Death on the East Annex? Why the name change?

STOOKEY:  The story on that is kind of amusing. An artist named Shaun Lindow did the cover art for the book. When he was drawing up his rough concept ideas for the artwork, he didn’t know the title which, at the time, was going to be Death On the East Annex. In the original title, “East Annex” refers to the Alzheimer’s ward, the hospital ward where patients are mysteriously dying for no apparent reason. But Shaun didn’t know the title, so he just made up a title to go along with his artwork.  The title he made up was Terminal Care.  We—the editors at Silver Leaf Books and I—liked it! As one of the SLB editors pointed out, the original Death On the East Annex sounded more like a murder mystery on a train, like Agatha Christie’s Murder On the Orient Express, than  a medical thriller. We all thought Terminal Care was better. So we changed it. Thanks Shaun.

SLB: I have to admit, when the book was sitting in my pile to read, I did also think, "Oh, a train book. How did that get in my pile?" But I'm glad it did. I was very pleasantly surprised. For those readers who would be interested in meeting you, are you planning on doing any book signings and/or conventions?

STOOKEY: The book was originally supposed to come out in fall 2010. However, the release date has been moved up to spring 2010. Therefore, I’m a bit behind the curve on setting up book signings and researching conventions. I hope to do a signing at the Latitude 33 Bookshop, the local, independent book store here in Laguna Beach where I live. Also, I am more than happy to “meet” readers online and field email questions and comments from readers. My email address is pogoshome@yahoo.com.

SLB: I guess if it had to be one or the other, early is better than late. Less frustrating. Do you have a website where fans and readers can get regular updates from you about your appearances and books?

STOOKEY: Again, I was hoping to work on this this summer. For now, people can use the Silver Leaf Books website for updates. For those interested in a free sample of my writing, a non-fiction essay I wrote was recently published by Norton Press in a book called Becoming a Doctor (W. W. Norton Press, March 2010). The complete essay is offered by Norton online at: http://books.wwnorton.com/books/detail-inside.aspx?ID=12239&CTYPE=G.

SLB: Other than writing, what are some of your interests and hobbies?

STOOKEY: I am an avid surfer. Unfortunately, swell conditions and surf forecasts will often interfere with my writing discipline. I want to be sure, in a future novel, to have at least one main character who is a surfer. I also enjoy running, and I try to do a 10-12K race in some interesting location at least twice a year. I am a nature freak and an animal lover. We have three dogs who live in our house like human members of the family. Probably my favorite “hobby” is simply hanging out with my wife, Sandra. We’ve been married eighteen years, and I think the greatest bliss I know is snuggling in bed with her, sharing a bottle of well-chilled pinot grigio, and watching a good movie on Turner Classics.

SLB: Is there anything else that you would like to tell us about yourself before we leave?

STOOKEY: Anything?

SLB: <Laughter> Am I going to regret asking that? Sure...Anything. Something no one knows about you, perhaps.

STOOKEY: I love to sing in the shower. I have a voice that’s something of a cross between Bob Dylan and Luciano Pavorotii. I’ve even considered going professional because, as a matter of fact, I’ve been offered money when it comes to my singing.

SLB: Really?

STOOKEY: Yes. My next door neighbor has offered to pay me if I stop. Or at least if I shut the window when I’m in the shower. My wife has made a similar monetary offer. Our dogs, on the other hand, they think I’m brilliant. They think I belong at Carnegie Hall. Of course, Freckles, our fourteen-year-old cocker spaniel is deaf. My other two dogs just howl.

SLB / STOOKEY: <Laughter>