Writing thrillers with a medical theme sound somewhat daring. Reading them allows you to flirt on the edge from the safety of your own home. Today I speak to Sue Russel who has written a thriller with a medical theme. Find out how she went about it and how you can too.
Writing thrillers with a medical theme sound somewhat daring. Reading them allows you to flirt on the edge from the safety of your own home. Today I speak to Sue Russel who has written a thriller with a medical theme. Find out how she went about it and how you can too.
spk_0: 0:02
Hi and welcome to the writing and marketing show brought to you by authorWendy H. Jones this show does exactly what it says on the tin, it's jam packed with interviews, advice, hints, tips and news to help you with the business of writing. It's all wrapped up in one lively broadcast, so it's time to get on with the show
spk_1: 0:23
and welcome to Episode 16 of the Writing and Marketing Show with author entrepreneur Wendy H. Jones. I can't believe we're at Episode 16 already, especially since we're in the middle of the Corona virus crisis in May 2020 as I record this, and we've pretty much being hearing about this since I started the podcast 16 weeks ago. But I'm glad we've got to Episode 16 and I'm glad I'm able to bring you this throughout the entire crisis to help you move your writing and your marketing forward. On this week, I'm going to be talking to Sue Russell, who writes as S L. Russell. I'm going to be talking to her about writing medical thrillers because she's written a fabulous thriller with a medical theme as its background. So that's later in the show. In the meantime, what's been happening in my life? Well, again, I'm still stuck indoors like everybody else. I'm staying home, staying safe and saving the NHS as they say and that's a good thing. I'm happy to be doing that until we get out of this current situation. If you're listening to this in the future, I hope you don't know anything about what this is I'm talking about. But in the meantime, it gives me a chance to write, and I'm almost finished my updated marketing book. I'm writing a new marketing book because marketing moves forward exponentially, as they say. It's called Marketing Matters, and I'm hoping it will be out by the end of May. So that's the exciting news in my life as an author. Normally, things just trickle on. I'm doing a lot of zoom meetings with people, and I'm keeping up to date. I'm having a zoom meeting tonight with the Scottish Association of Writers Committee, and we're going to be looking at various things for the Scottish Association of Writers. Before I talk about Sue, and I'm looking forward to getting on to tell you about her, I would like to say, I love bringing you this podcast, and it's my pleasure to help you in this way. It does, however, take a lot of time out of my writing. You can support this time by going to Patreon.com/wendyhjones and signing up for only $3 per month. That's the price of a coffee or, as I'm British, tea. This will pay for my time in creating the show and you will get extra benefits, and that's always a good thing. So what about Sue? As I say, Sue Russell writes as S. L. Russell. She was educated at Rochester Drama School and Durham University, where she studied history. She says she's done a few things in her life, played the piano in a ballet school, worked in Woolworth's, scrubbed steps in hospitals and taught English in Indonesia, among many others. Before leaving to raise two daughters, who are now adults, for 12 years, she taught Children with special educational needs and says she enjoyed it immensely. At the same time, she spent 17 years as a Samaritan volunteer where she received more than she gave. She learned a lot, not least how privileged her life was, and indeed, is. Even as a child, she knew she wanted to write. At around 12 she had a clutch of rejection slips, and she said she was quite proud of them in a perverse kind of way. But life tends to interrupt everything and all she ever did was sigh and complain until some friends challenged her to get on and write the novel before her 50th birthday. The result was Leviathan with a Fishhook in 2009. By the last page, it was clear that the story wasn't over on. The first book became two The Monster behemoth in 2010, and two became three, The Land of Nimrod in 2011.. So a trilogy no less. A standalone called A Shed in a Cucumber Field came out in 2014 followed in 2016 by An Iron Yolk and in 2017 by a Vision of Locusts and that was published by Instant Apostle. The genre is contemporary drama from a Christian world view. She writes, without apology for the greater glory of God. but the stories are neither preachy or pious but realistic, with characters that have patchwork histories, doubts, flaws and failures rather than halos. Just like her and, I'm sure, just like me. She lives in Kent with her husband and Rosie, her dog, her other love is music. She sings,, plays the flute and is a church organist. What a multi talented lady. Her website is www.slrussel.net, and she also has a blog suerusselblogger.blogspot.co.uk I will repeat that again later, and it will be in the show notes If you want to take a look. So, without further ado, let's get on with the show and peak to Sue.
spk_0: 5:25
Hi, Sue. Welcome. It's lovely to have you here.
spk_0: 5:29
Well, thank you for inviting me, Wendy. It's lovely to be here.
spk_0: 5:32
Well, it really is good to have you. And we've had a bit of a triall getting here. Haven't we? There's been a bit of a a bit of an issue, including my gardener this morning. That was very funny. It was.. Just as we were about to start, the gardener turned up the lawn mower, an electrical lawn mower. I can't compete with that. Well, the reason I'm saying that is I'm just listen. It means that us writers, no matter how famous we are, we still have the same issues as everyone else, the same amount of noise. This is very true. Anyway, We're not here to talk about my gardener, that's for sure. Much as he would love him. And his lovely dog Oscar would love us to talk about him. That's not what we're here for. So I've asked you along today because you've written a cracking medical thriller or what I think is a medical thriller. Tell us about your book.
spk_0: 6:24
No, I'm reluctant to call it that a. Well, the reason for that is that it had some reactions from early reviewers and two or three of them were surprised, having looked at the cover and the blurb, they were surprised at what they read. Most of them were very happy. One of them was disgruntled at the beginning because she thought she was getting a medical thriller of a certain type and obviously didn't get what what she was expecting. In the end, she liked it, but she complained that she felt that she had been in some way. I don't know, deceived or disappointed or whatever. And the reason I mentioned that is because although it is indeed about a surgeon, and I hope it's just thrilling as anybody would wish it to be, it's, um it's not really in that genre, I don't really write in genres as such and every single book of mine is different. I just get an idea and if I I like it, I'll pursue it. And this one just happens to be about a doctor.
spk_0: 7:26
Well, I have to say it. You're right. That is a medical setting. But it's not your medical thriller like who was it, Robin Cook, that wrote coma, was it? And that was done. His books are definitely set in hospitals, but this one does have a medical theme. Well, does I think it's, you know, I like medical thrillers and I thought it was excellent. So you know, it's definitely a thriller, and it's definitely got medical theme. So hey, we'll run more medical thriller.
spk_0: 7:54
Fair enough
spk_0: 7:54
. What do you think it is about medical settings that lend themselves to thrillers?
spk_0: 8:03
Well, l think it's because there's so much life and death in there, you know? Know what? The outcome's going to be.. Um, you know, hospitals are very fertile material aren't they?. They're very good seed beds for what's gonna happen next, because life is very chancy. And when you're unwell or needing surgery or whatever, you're in somebody else's hands and anything could go wrong.
spk_0: 8:29
Well, that's for sure. You're right, you know, and you're right. Hospitals do lend themselves to it, I think. I mean, I was a nurse by background. And trust me, there were some doctors that I could have quite cheerfully polished off at times. Saying that in order to be fair, there were probably many doctors who thought they would like to polish me off. Very glad they didn't though because we're here chatting today. Otherwise it would have been a disaster for everybody. With good. It would have been more thrilling than anybody wanted. Really?
spk_0: 9:01
Well, here I am, talking to the corpse of Wendy Jones.
spk_0: 9:04
It would lend itself to something different, that's for sure,
spk_0: 9:07
But not what we were thinking about today.
spk_0: 9:10
Yeah. So what made you want to write a book? I've said a medical setting. But as we've said, it's not really a medical setting, but with a medical background. What made you want to write that type of book?
spk_0: 9:23
I'll tell you where it came from. And its many things start with very tiny, tiny germs and seeds don't they and this actually started many years ago. The writing group that I belong to, We all used to have to write homework, and I still belong to it and I never do the homework. Which is very, very bad of me. Um, but we had something to write, and I can't remember what it what the setting was because it was such a long time ago and I wrote a very tiny little story called No Safety and it's probably no more than about 500 words. It was very small. And I remembered that, and it was about somebody, some kind of a medical person who was being pursued by a lunatic relative, and it just sprang from that. To be honest, I could make something of this, and it kind of grew
spk_0: 10:11
Well, you know, And that's the thing, isn't it that you do get a germ of an idea on. Do you think that'll make a nice flash fiction? Or maybe it would make a nice short story. And before you know where it is, it's 150,000 word novel.
spk_0: 10:25
That does happen. . It says the character's development as their backstory to collect in your mind as you're thinking about it. And then you think, What if I'm gonna make something of this? I really need to know something a bit more than I do. Yeah, that's that's where it starts to grow.
spk_0: 10:38
Yes, absolutely. You mentioned your writing group. And I mean we are all in writing. groups. Most people are in writing groups we started in writing groups. Why don't we give the a shoutout to your group and what's their name?
spk_0: 10:50
Oh, it's called the Write idea. Oh, W r I t e, of course. Yes, belong to it for many, many years. It's a very mixed group of some of the people in it. I've never I don't know. Years beyond count, and we're like a family, actually, but we do have new members popping in from time to time as well. We meet on once a month generally speaking at the moment we're trying to do zoom meetings which some of our members are really quite elderly as well, which is great because they're also taking the technology on. And it is marvellous, so yeah, we help each other a lot. We critique each other's work. Um, and we're battling on still, after all these years.
spk_0: 11:30
Excellent. Where did where it where in the country, is it you meet?
spk_0: 11:35
Well, I'm in Kent, and people come from various places, but mostly locally there in a couple of people who have moved away and can't come because they're too far away. But we still meet them virtually at times, and they still sometimes submit work. But it is in North Kent, North Kent.
spk_0: 11:53
Okay, so if anybody wants to join Hey, you can sure you can get in touch with Sue via her website.
spk_0: 11:58
Yeah, absolutely. Do, do so. If they wanted to, they would be very welcome. People are very welcoming in the group. We'd like to have new members.
spk_0: 12:05
Anyway, we've wandered away from this interview It's great. I think it's a good thing because we want to support writers as well
spk_0: 12:12
Gosh, of course yes. And I would say in apropos of that it doesn't matter what stage of your your writing aspirations you are. Whether you just got vague ideas or whether you're, you know, sort of a multi published person. Or done anything in between, it really doesn't matter. And people are there to support each other.
spk_0: 12:32
Yeah, that is really good, actually. Anyway, moving back to talking about our medical thrillers, whether they are medical thrillers or may not be medical thrillers. I think it is, I think it is. Yeah. What? How did you go about researching the medical aspects of your book? Well, obviously there was a great deal that I didn't know. In fact, most of it I didn't know. Yeah, I knew nothing more than what the ordinary member of the public would know that, you know, And probably much too that we've been wrong. So I did a huge amount of research. I got books. I got research on the internet and did research with threw up stuff that I didn't think I would need. And if I didn't need I think you probably know yourself that you do a great deal of research, and a lot of it never appears on the page. In fact the majority doesn't appear on the page, and what it does do is inform your mind so that in some instances you will know that something is right or wrong. There's books and articles and some were very, very helpful. And also, of course, most of these are on the Internet. Articles would have been very up to date, and I tried to. I try to choose books that were as up to date as possible, bearing in mind that the action takes place in 2012 or the chief action. Yeah, and also I got some very useful books, like for example, there was one that was written more than one written work by female surgeons so that they would gave that aspect of things again. And I said I did a lot of a lot of research saying that what isn't used, for example, I just got very interested in it, and I started looking up all sorts of peculiar syndromes that we very rarely see now because a medical research and interventions have come along so far that you very rarely now see a blue baby, for example. Yeah, Yeah, all those heart congenital heart conditions have bean hugely helped by surgery in utero, for example, And also, of course, by scans which in those days, when more Children like that, were born with these awful heart conditions which limited their lives so much both in terms of how long they lived and how full their lives could be. In those days, there were no such things as ultrasound scans. So I learned a lot of that stuff. Of course, it doesn't appear anywhere, but it was really interesting.
spk_0: 15:01
Yes. Now is when you can get both down in the research, can't you because you go off on you can.
spk_0: 15:09
But I knew that stuff would never would not appear. But I just thought, you know, that it doesn't hurt to know about these things. And some of those syndromes had the most wonderful titles. They were named after a sort of conglomerate of surgeons or someone. Um, a group of people would have been responsible for that. Identify this particular thing. You get these great long titles with these syndromes.
spk_0: 15:35
I know. I used to know this has got nothing to do with anything. But I did. My Children's nurse training at Great Ormond Street Hospital. And seriously, I heard about I nursed Children with syndromes that it was only three in the world. You know. You know, I can't believe it and you could never pronounc them, you're right.
spk_0: 15:55
When you see the diagrams, it's absolutely tortures. You see, diagrams of Children who were born with the heart wrongly figured and you think, goodness, me, however, did anybody fix this? You know, they did get it. Absolutely.
spk_0: 16:09
So yeah, the medical details are very good in your book, and I enjoyed that. So how important is it that you get the medical details correct? Can you use some measure of poetic licence?
spk_0: 16:22
I don't think you can. I think you must get them right. What was always I've got my reader in mind. And I'm also thinking when I do something like this about where I am a rank amateur, I if I if I can't get it right or I'm not sure I will leave it out if I can, because somebody who's reading this, that is this is a medic and most of them won't be of course, that would destroy my credibility immediately. If I got something wrong, it would. It would. It would smack of carelessness, wouldn't it? Yes, it's very important. I think if you're gonna use a particular background, you've got to get it right. If you can't get it right and you can leave it out, leave it out.
spk_0: 17:00
Yeah, I think that's a very that's a very good point, actually, because you don't want to upset the readers if they have some measure of insight. I mean, what if when I was 18 before I was 18 because I started my nurse training then andI was reading a medical thriller that could have said anything, I wouldn't know whether it was right a wrong. But obviously, once you got some insight than you know, you'll go mind you, I have to say, If you watch Holby City or Casualty, there's a lot of things they get wrong on that. But hey,
spk_0: 17:31
yeah, I would never, ever base anything on the TV programme because they get things wrong all the time and you see why they do. They do it for the purpose of the drama. I would rather have the drama in place and that on the accuracy in place at the same time.
spk_0: 17:46
But books are different. You're right. But you'vel got to get it correct because you there's less. You don't need to rely on the visual stuff, you know you have to set the scene. Yeah?
spk_0: 17:57
but also there's a certain amount where people expect things to be a little bit inaccurate on the on TV programmes because that's not what they're there for is that is that they're there for the drama.
spk_0: 18:07
But they're just to entertain, you know?
spk_0: 18:09
Yeah, yeah, sure.
spk_0: 18:12
We've talked about. I've just said something about setting the scene and your first line in the book, which is totally brilliant, I have to say, death is everywhere, and it makes me angry ,that sets the scene really well. It gives a flavour of your character, gives a flavour of the book. How important is the first line in a medical novel, or indeed, any novel?
spk_0: 18:31
Well, I think it probably is quite important, that is, we are certainly told that is important. I'm a very patient reader. I can cope with all sorts of lengthy descriptions prologue this background, but I understand that most people know off the ilk when they're reading. So I suspect that the first line is that if people pick up a book or they look at something on a book on Amazon or something like that, they will. They will look at certain things. First I looked at the blurb then, Look at the cover. Maybe they'll open it up and look at the first line in the first place. So that I guess that is very important to get that right. And certainly I've been told it is so with the book that I've just finished in draftt. I've tried to do something similar. Whether it succeeds, I don't know. But yeah, I guess it is. These days, people apparently have a much more of a sort of a small attention span and possibly because they're much more visually orientated, were so into our screens, only 101 or another. Um, I think I grew up in a world where I didn't have any screens in total, and we didn't even have a TV till I was 18 on DH. No, Well, except for a very brief period, but its primary school got a second hand one, but only lasted two weeks. Unfortunately, we're watching. The Lone Ranger on the Lone Ranger galloped up the side of the screen. Disappeared was seen them Or that was it. I had a had a childhood devoid of screens, and I think then and now I'm totally avid, a voracious reader. And I didn't mind any amount of stuff at the beginning, although I now notice it. Um, I don't know if you've noticed that the very popular and a deservedly popular Stig Lassen trilogy remember how it really is, but that the beginning of that is incredibly long winded and gives you all sorts of information about, you know, Swedish financial history. I read it very patiently, but something I thought I thought to myself. Where was the editor here?
spk_0: 20:26
Well, to be honest, he struggled to get it published because the first 10 chapters of the first book is a bit tedious as you say. The only reason I got into it was because I went on a holiday in Wales with my family and it was bucketing down with rain and I mean bucketing down.. I managed to get all three books in a second hand bookshop. I thought I'll give this another go. Thank goodness I carried on Yep. There were points at which I thought worth his editor. I mean, absolutely loved it when I when I got into, and I did get into it quite quickly.
spk_0: 21:12
Yeah. I think there were points at which he really did need his editor more. For example, we got an awful lot of trucking around in Stockholm. Uphill and down, down and naming all the streets. And every time you make a cup of coffee, you tell you tell your reader, what sort of coffee maker you've got? Well, I don't think that's really very. But what he's got, of course, is the most wonderful protagonist. I mean, she's fabulous.
spk_0: 21:32
Yeah, that is actually Yeah, that takes it. Just flows beautifully on to our next. My next question, actually, because characterisation is so important as well. And your right Stig Larson, his character is just brilliant.
spk_0: 21:47
Yeah, unforgettable. Totally unforgettable. Yeah, and you're rooting for her the whole time, especially when she's being frankly clever and changing her appearance and changing her identity and fooling everybody with her financial wizardry. And she's just just rooted for he the whole time.
spk_0: 22:02
Yes, Fantastic. And your main character, Rachel. She's fighting a war on death, which I think is quite a brilliant background for her, but she's quite an intense character. How did you go about writing out and what was it important that you got right? You?
spk_0: 22:19
Well, I think it's the same as your next question, actually, where you say, How did I get writing about Eva? I think the same. The same answer is, Is there is that you get to know the character really well. But you you get to know them what they look like, how they walk, and especially their life history, because again a lot that doesn't appear on the page in any detail. But it is what informs them what she's fighting a war against death in her working life. But she's also fighting a war against the death of her father, which had such a huge impact on her on her life and and the sort of person she becomes on that background is really important to understand. But I think it is with every one of us. Wait, What? What we've been through in our lives where we come from, who we were born to, what their life was like before we hit this little point. Absolutely vital to know so, I know Rachel very, very well. Yeah, and I think that's really what I know how she would talk. What she would think, how she would respond to certain things.
spk_0: 23:22
Yeah, and that comes across actually on. Equally as you say, your antagonist. Eve Rollins is a woman on, or even over, the edge. Grief has turned her into someone, you wouldn't want to meet on a dark night, Let's face it, she's completely
spk_0: 23:37
She is, But she's also a very, very complex character because she's only that monstrous character. Visibly, Rachel, if she's with someone else, she isn't. She has genuine friends who love her. Absolutely. She has supporters. We don't hear much about them, but we know they're there. She's obviously was a very good mother. Even though it all started off very badly for her so I think we know that we know she's a She's monstrous, but only in relation to Rachel. Yes, and what she does to her and obviously what she does to her is terrible and she knows that herself in the end, because I mustn't give too much away. We want people to read it that way. But you know, so she is. She is the same thing applied to her. I've got a whole background for her. Some of what you do get on the page, I think, which I hope allows the reader to have some sympathy with her.
spk_0: 24:34
Yeah, but you do, because I should say she is in respect to Rachel. She's completely off the planet. Really? It's, you know, she blames Rachel for everything . Again I don't want to Give it away. But and but she does have people who love her. And there are people who in her background that she's perfectly normal with and That's good, because it makes it a well rounded character. And I think that's well,
spk_0: 25:01
yeah, yeah, I think we have to do that. I mean, you can't have any sympathy with people if they're just cardboard, and this is one of the things that I have objections to some, some books that I've read that I think I put the book down and think to yourself, Well if I don't care about the character I don't want to read about what happens to them.
spk_0: 25:17
Yeah, yeah, that's true. Really? Yeah, because to be honest, if you've got somebody who's completely evil and I mean even if they love kittens, you know, I mean, it's something, but if you've got something that's completely evil, nobody actually cares. They just want them to get caught and shot, and that's it they're gone.
spk_0: 25:34
And it's the same thing with your protagonist as well, because even if though you may be rooting for them, you may also see their faults and failings and things that they do wrong and mistakes that they make. But because they are a human being,
spk_0: 25:46
yeah, and that that's the point you need to make them human. So that's a very good way of putting it, really. If one of my listeners wanted to start writing a medical thriller. Where would you advise them to start?
spk_0: 26:02
I think as with any story you would have. You would want to start with a strong plot. Yeah. And you would obviously have some kind of idea that it would be is situated Not necessarily in a medical setting, like a hospital, but with some kind of input. From from that, that angle on you would you would base the drama on that would be very easy to do. Because, as I said before, you know, medical things are absolutely replete with drama. Somebody goes into the operating theatre. And what the heck is going to happen? What they're gonna find what they're gonna be able to do all those things. And And medical staff. Obviously, they're involved with the worst things. They're involved with life and death. But they also have lives of their own out side of their work. So there's a lot going on there. Obviously you'd do just as you would with any story you would follow. The same thing is, but with that background. Yeah. And do your research?
spk_0: 27:02
No, that that That's a good point. Really. I think you've covered my next question. Which would be your top three tips for anyone wanting to write a medical thriller. But I think you've given us them, haven't you?
spk_0: 27:15
Well, I think probably over the course of our chat I think we probably have covered a lot of those things. And that is quite difficult to think of the top three because I can think of quite so many things. I mean, one thing's something's applied to all kinds of books, you know, kind of fiction. It needs to hang together. It needs to have very believable and relatable characters. It needs to have a trajectory from beginning to end so that from the beginning to the end, the characters change. Whether for the better or worse. We don't know. Yeah. Andiresearch. Get your research right. Get your background right.
spk_0: 27:49
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Going back the previous question. I'm just going to be a bit facetious here? But when People ask me, where would you start writing anything I feel like saying with a pen and paper or a computer And a word processing programme.
spk_0: 28:03
Yeah, well, yes, that's true. Where do you start something you start. It started earlier that it starts within your dancing grey cells cells
spk_0: 28:11
Itdoes. You know I don't want to talk about my books. We're not here to talk about my books, but my Cass Claymore books the entire series started when I was at slimming world. Somebody was there and they said, Oh, your name's Cass And I thought, I would love to write a book about character called Cass and I just come from this series.
spk_0: 28:36
It can start so small, can't it. I mean that in a previous previous book of mine, I think it was number five, it started just with a sort of image, simply an image of a woman who was a woman murdered in her wheelchair. And that's all grew from there.
spk_0: 28:53
What's that called? I want to read that well,
spk_0: 28:56
Good, because it has a Scottish background.
spk_0: 28:58
Marvellous What's it called?
spk_0: 29:00
An Iron Yolk It's about the Scottish background of two Children, two motherless Children with their crazy father in the castle.
spk_0: 29:11
My goodness was called and I in the oak, and
spk_0: 29:14
No, Know, An Iron Yolk,It's a quotation
spk_0: 29:18
An Iron Yolk . Yeah, sorry, I haven't got my hearing aids in and I'm not being facetious when I say that.
spk_0: 29:25
But if you look, if you look at my stuff on Amazon, it's the one with the black cover,
spk_0: 29:29
Right? I might actually have that, Sue now that we say that.
spk_0: 29:33
it very likely is very you might.
spk_0: 29:37
Well, I'm going to get it out as I haven't read it yet. I believe you're writing another book. What's that going to be?
spk_0: 29:46
Well it's written in draft, and funnily enough, today is the day I'm due to deliver it to the publisher. I haven't done so yet because I'm waiting to hear from them about something else. But I have actually written it and it is finished in the sense that I have edited it, and I've had I've had experts input because again it had a background of which I was only very, very sketchily acquainted. The protagonist is this time a barrister, a female barrister. Goodness. So there's a big legal background there and I was fortunate enough to find someone who is a a barrister, what, working at this moment and he I've never met this gentleman, but he's been hugely helpful putting me right when I got things wrong , although I did a lot of research with that as well. Again.Books and a lot of background that I will never use some of the books covered in the era that is gone. Um, articles on the Internet and this gentleman has put me right in some details, which was very, very helpful. But it's it is. The other thing about this one is that when I wrote The Healing Knife that the publisher wanted me to do another one with the same characters. But I'd written it is a stand alone and I said I didn't want to do that. But then a friend of mine who is my book buddy, as well as a friend suggested that I drew some of the characters from The Healing Knife into this new one. So what I've done is included not as protagonists, but included them as part of this story. So if you read the new one, Rachel will still be there. Ah, that's good. And that she becomes a very good friend off my new protagonist, who has a moral conundrum to solve because of the because of the sort of work she does.
spk_0: 31:31
I like the sound of it.
spk_0: 31:34
It's also a thriller is very is, but it's also a very dramatic and quite exciting story as well.
spk_0: 31:40
I can't wait Sue
spk_0: 31:41
Again. You see, the thing is really in with medical things drama is inherent. And so it is with the law. Yeah. Isn't it. because you've got your up against all sorts of people, doing some wicked things and making terrible mistakes. But I simply write about these things because they interest me, that's all. I just hope they interest other people and by interesting. Then we'll come through. And I think that's also important. Because if somebody's writing something and you get the impression they're really bored by this subject and so the reader's going to be.
spk_0: 32:15
Yeah, that's true. Yeah.
spk_0: 32:17
You know, I can't guarantee that people are gonna be interested in what I'm interested in, but at least they will catch my enthusiasm.
spk_0: 32:23
That's a great way of putting it. Where can my listeners find out more about you and your books.
spk_0: 32:30
Well, they can visit my website, which is a sort of shop window. Doesn't change very much. Basically because my daughter fixes it for me and she no longer lives at home and that's that's www.slrussell.net. Yeah, and other than that, that I'm right there on the Internet. You just look up any one of my books or me and, you'll find all of Them there.
spk_0: 32:51
Yeah, I have to say we usually say anywhere good bookshops or good books are sold, but that's a bit tricky at the moment, isn't it?
spk_0: 33:00
Well, it is, and I'm I'm not so sure that you would find many of my books on the shelves, But you could certainly order one. If you went into a bookshop, they would have t You can gem on their list
spk_0: 33:09
You can them online on all the usual places.
spk_0: 33:11
Easily, easily, easily. But I would say actually shop around because many of them are available in, you know, in used formats and can save quite a bit of money that way. And also you can download them to your ereader, which is usually cheaper.
spk_0: 33:23
You have been very generous, Sue.
spk_0: 33:26
It doesn't make a lot of difference to me, actually.
spk_0: 33:30
Well, thank you very much for spending time with us today. It's been an absolute pleasure having you here.
spk_0: 33:36
Thank you. I've enjoyed talking to you, Wendy. Yeah.
spk_0: 33:39
Hey, I've enjoyed it and. I wish you all the best with the next book, which I'm hoping will come out next year. And I can read it.
spk_0: 33:47
It will be May. 2021 is the plan.
spk_0: 33:50
My goodness, that's another year yet they're not. This is the trouble with traditional publishers. They're not speedy here. You can't write them and bring out next week which I would never advise anybody to do anyway. Well, could I?
spk_0: 34:02
No. No, that would be so much could happen. And it will be undergoing many, many edits.
spk_0: 34:07
Absolutely. Well, thank you. Once again and have a fantastic day.
spk_0: 34:12
Thank you. And same to you, Wendy,
spk_1: 34:16
That brings us to the end of another show. Thanks, Sue, for joining us and sharing your wisdom with us today. If you would like to support my time in creating this show, then please go to patreon.com/wendyhjones. You can support me for just $3 a month, which is the price of a tea or a coffee and would help me enormously, as they say, I'm Wendy H. Jones and you can find me at wendyhjones.com And I'm Wendy H. Jones on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Thank you for joining me today, and I hope you found it both useful and interesting. Join me next week when I will have another fabulous guest for you. Have a great week and keep on keep writing.