Judith Lucci
Is
Research Important in Fiction?
Had
you ever read a novel and realized parts of it were untrue? I have and I find it irritating, enough so
that I often do not finish the book. As
a writer of medical fiction, I know how much blood a patient has in his body,
and I know how much blood you can lose and still live. When I see medical errors in a thriller or
any book, I doubt the veracity of the writer.
For many years, I was a medical researcher and a social scientist but
most of all, I was and still am a nurse.
Alex
Destephano medical thrillers novels have three purposes: to engage, to
entertain, and to educate. This
philosophy comes from my teaching days.
My bio and blog say it all: "Judith Rocchiccioli writes about what
she knows... Hospitals, patients,
healthcare, doctors, and nurses".
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When
I wrote the first book in my Alexandra Destephano series, ‘Chaos at Crescent City Medical
Center’, research was not in
a major issue. I was living and working
in New Orleans where the story takes place, so I did not need to research
setting, dialect, and local customs. I wrote the book off the cuff. ‘Chaos’ has a skinny research file, with the exception of the references
to the Healthcare Affordability Act, compared to my second medical thriller
novel, ‘The Imposter’ that
takes place in a psychiatric unit at the same hospital.
I did not have a lot of experience working on
psych units, so I had to do a little research and to find out just how severely
ill psychiatric patients in America really are. In my fictional psych facility
at Crescent City Medical, there is a prison unit that houses the most
criminally insane patients on the Gulf Coast, and a general psych unit. That is not a good combination. ‘The Imposter’ turned into a psycho
thriller as well as an exposé on how dismal the state of psychiatric care is in
America. Based on the research I
gathered for ‘The Imposter’, I am
writing a nonfictional piece called ‘Sarah's Story’ for which I am researching the misdiagnosis of bipolar disease in
the US. This research involves searching
medical databases such as CINAL, PUBMED and PSYCH ABSTRACTS.
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I
keep an electronic marketing file for each book as well as a folder with all of
the research and websites I have visited.
I also have a complete reference list done in APA style. In addition to my electronic files, I keep
hard copies of most of the documents I have used in my stories. My PhD research days prepared me to save
everything in case someone asked me a question or challenged what I wrote.
In
my new release, ‘Viral Intent’, my series switched genres from medical thriller to
political/medical thriller. The storyline, the outbreak of a noxious, lethal
virus in the hospital emergency department on the day before a political
convention, "Operation Fix America" in New Orleans, has police and
Secret Service battling domestic and international terrorism. With POTUS coming to the Big Easy, I had to
research the Secret Service, the FBI, chain of command, and jihad.
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To
write a technically correct book, I subscribed to Al Jazeera magazine and visited
numerous websites about jihad, its mission, how they recruit, how they are
financed, and how they operate. The next
time I flew to New Orleans for a book signing, I found I was on the FBI
"Watch List". Air marshals detained and interrogated me for at least
an hour about my knowledge of jihad. My research
on how to construct bombs got me in the worst trouble. They dusted my hands for
chemicals, examined my luggage numerous times, and asked me the same questions
a dozen different times. In return, I
offered to let them see my research files, and of course, read my books.
While
this experience upset me, I was happy that I had the “evidence" to help
them understand why I had visited those websites. I am all about protecting our country, so now
I just go to the airport two hours early, have my files on a USB drive, and have
books available.
Today,
I conducted research for my fourth novel in the Alex Destephano series, ‘Toxic
New Year’, which I will release at the end of 2014. In
this book, Robert and Monique attempt surgery in a bouncing ambulance to save
Jack's life from a shrapnel injury. I searched to find how ambulance and rescue
squads cooperate with each other, but I could not find documentation of that
anywhere. In desperation, I called a paramedic friend of mine and he was able to
explain the process for Virginia (where the scene occurred). He also said they would never do surgery in a
moving ambulance, but I had to remind him that I was writing fiction!
This has been my experience conducting research
for my books. Some might consider it a
bit excessive or compulsive, but I think it comes from my background as a
researcher. At this time, it is helping
me as an emerging writer. If you would
like more information about how to keep your writing and research files
organized, please email me at judithlucciwrites@gmail.com or visit my website at http://JudithLucciwrites.com
BIO
Judith
is a registered nurse and native Virginian who grew up in Richmond. She holds graduate and doctoral degrees from
Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Virginia. She has been a practicing clinical nurse for
over 25 years and is currently a professor of Nursing at James Madison University
and the author of numerous academic and health-related articles and
documents. In addition to her academic
writing she is the author of the Alexandra Destephano novels, a group of
medical thrillers set in New Orleans and Virginia. When not teaching or writing, Judith is an
avid silk painter and multi-media artist.
She owns Artisan Galleries, an
art gallery with locations in Harrisonburg and Massanutten. She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of
Virginia with her family and six dogs.
When Judith is not being tossed around in the back of a moving ambulance as she tries to take research notes, she can be found here:
Website: http://JudithLucciwrites.com
Thank you, Judith, for a superb peek behind the curtain at the hard work that goes into writing an authentic thriller novel. Hey, don't you think there should be special interview rooms for novelists at airports? Red Channel, Green channel, Writers channel. You know, somewhere with access to the Internet so we can prove what we do more easily? Just a thought...
Eric @ www.ericjgates.com
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