Killjoy Isn't Here: Janet Greger Guest Post

It is always a pleasure to have Janet Greger drop by to share some of her wisdom, insights, and book premises with us. In honor of her newly released Murder . . . A Way to Lose Weight, she shares some important nutrition information. You learn a ton when you read her well-researched novels. An engaging story and some scientific info! What more could you ask for? Welcome, Janet!

Who’s the most unwelcome person at a discussion of recipes and food? The constant dieter who snootily says, “I don’t eat high-calorie junk foods.” As a former nutrition professor turned novelist, many expect me to be that person. I’m not a Killjoy. I love foods and cooking and believe you can eat almost anything in moderation.

Why did I write a mystery called Murder…A Way to Lose Weight?  

You might guess because I'm a school marm at heart. No, I got tired of all the preposterous diet ads on TV. I also found a series of scientific articles on a hot area of research. Scientists have found the microflora (bacteria) in the gut changes with weight loss. My creative juices started to flow. The result is my new mystery Murder…A Way to Lose Weight.

In Murder...A Way to Lose Weight, two ambitious diet doctors are testing a new way to lose weight—altering the bacteria in their patients’ guts. They are eager to become rich and famous diet gurus and take “short cuts,” which endanger their patients’ lives. One doctor is killed after she develops a conscious and admits their mistakes. As the police turn up clues, the readers learn a bit about dieting, weird poisons, and the social mores of a medical school. 

I figure you’ll feel cheated if I don’t give a bit of diet advice. So here it is:

1. Decrease the size of your portions. When I was teen (before the introduction of the quarter pounder and supersizing. Oh dear, now you know I'm not young), I might have selected a small cheeseburger (300 calories) and a small fries (230 calories) for lunch. Now I might select a double quarter pounder with cheese (750 calories) and a large fries (500 calories). The difference is 720 calories.

You could lose a pound of weight a week, if you substituted a small cheeseburger and small fries for a quarter pounder with cheese and a large fries for lunch every weekday. Of course, that assumes you will not increase what you eat at other meals and snacks or decrease your activity.

2. Select beverages carefully. Most sweet iced teas, iced coffees, fruit juices, and regular sodas (12 oz.) contain 130-190 calories. Many fruits smoothies provide 200-250 calories, and a yummy pina colada could contain 550 calories. Unsweetened tea, black coffee, and diet sodas contain no calories; a glass (3.5 oz.) of white wine—90 calories.

Beverage choices are particularly important because most of us drink four to six servings of our favorites beverage a day. The calories really add up.

Did you learn anything new on weight control?

Probably not. You know the basics of dieting, but don’t follow the advice. You're not alone. Did you ever notice how many physicians, nurses, and dietitians are overweight or obese?

Here’s one more piece of diet advice. Read Murder… A Way to Lose Weight.

The heroine of the novel, Linda Almquist, lost weight as she discovered clues and helped to identify the murderer. Maybe, it will help you lose weight, too.

Murder…A Way to Lose Weight is available at Amazon: http://amzn.com/1610092392

Bio: J. L. Greger is a biologist and research administrator turned novelist. Her other novels are I Saw You in Beirut, Coming Flu, Ignore the Pain and Malignancy (winner of 2015 Public Safety Writers’ annual contest). To learn more, see her website: http://www.jlgreger.com.

international thrillers—

Guest Post: Edit Until It Hurts by J.L. Greger

I am fortunate to be able to claim Dr. Janet L. Greger as colleague (we both publish with Oak Tree Press) and friend. Janet is smart, droll, witty, and a great person to have as a dinner partner. She is uniquely qualified to write medical thrillers, and I am so happy to host her again today to share how she gets her books ready for print.You can read an earlier post by Janet about diets here.

My thriller Malignancy appeared this month. That means I’ve spent much of the last five months editing the adventures of my heroine epidemiologist Sara Almquist as she tries to escape the clutches of a drug lord and accepts a precarious assignment in Cuba. I guess all Sara’s risky behaviors put me in the mood to be foolish enough to share my editing checklist.

My basic mantra when editing my novels is: edit until it hurts.

The day after I write a chapter, I do a “find and replace mission” that includes the following steps.

1.     Eliminate overused words. My overused words are: that, just, very, really, still, some, perhaps, maybe, and since. Yours may be different. I think the “Find” option in the Window’s Edit list is my best friend during this process.

2.     Convert sentences from a passive into an active voice.

3.     Replace weak verbs with action verbs.

4.     Change run on sentences spliced with a comma into two sentences or one sentence spliced appropriately.

5.     Find “-ing” words and evaluate their usage.

6.     Look for common misspellings missed by Word, such as form for from. 

This process is a humbling experience and keeps me from rhapsodizing about my “beautiful prose.”

After I’ve complete the first draft of the whole novel, I look for gaps in logic.

I start with the easiest task first. I reduce the number of named characters. Any name, mentioned less than ten times in a manuscript, I delete completely or at least eliminate the character’s name. Now I’m a bit contrary on this point. Some authors reduce the number of named characters in their books so much, I know who the villain is after the first thirty pages because he or she is the only extraneous named character. In other words, I like a few “red herrings” in my books.

I check time sequences. I can’t be the only author who discovers Character A knows something before it occurs. At this point, I often delay or reduce clues to sharpen the suspense in my thrillers.

I repeat the find and replace mission (mentioned above) because gremlins creep in and reinsert problems in my writing.

As I do second, third, and fourth edits of the novel, I look at manuscript in different ways. My dog Bug thinks I’m being strange when I read dialog out loud, but it helps me smooth out conversations.

After I think the manuscript looks pretty good, I print it out. I always find hundreds of points that I didn’t notice on the computer screen.

Next I send the manuscript to a professional editor. Then I pray that together we’ll catch all the errors, but know I’ll probably catch more errors when I really the galley for my novel. Somehow errors not obvious in my typed manuscript glare at me from the printed galley.

Now it’s your turn. What do you look for when editing your work? I hope you’ll read Malignancy, and find I did a good job of editing it.

Blurb for Malignancy: Men disguised as police officers shoot at Sara Almquist twice in one day. The real police suspect Jim Mazzone, a drug czar who has tangled with Sara before, will order more hits on Sara. Thus when colleagues in the State Department invite Sara to arrange scientific exchanges between the U.S. and Cuba, she jumps at the chance to get out of town and to see the mysterious Xave Zack, who rescued her in Bolivia. Maybe, she should question their motives.

Malignancy is available from Amazon: http://amzn.com/1610091779 and Oak Tree Press: pressdept@oaktreebooks.com.

Bio: As a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I honed my story-telling skills as I lectured on metabolic pathways to bleary-eyed students at 8:30 in the morning. Students remember chemical reactions better when the instructor attaches stories to the processes. 

Now I have two great passions – my Japanese Chin dog, Bug, and travel. I’ve included both in my novels. You can learn more about me at my website: www.jlgreger.com and blog (JL Greger’s Bugs): www.jlgreger.com. I also answer question directed to: JLGreger@oaktreebooks.com