World renowned neurosurgeon Jon Ritter is on the verge of a medical breakthrough that will change the world. His groundbreaking surgical treatment, using transplanted non-human stem cells, is set to eradicate the scourge of Alzheimer’s disease and give hope to millions. But when the procedure is slated for testing, it all comes to an abrupt and terrifying halt.
Thanks for asking me to talk about Dead End Deal, a thriller that takes
place in both Seattle and Seoul, South Korea.
What
is your writing ritual? Why is that important and how has being surgeon shaped
it?
For me writing is a difficult process that takes discipline. First
thing I do every morning is pour a cup of coffee and sit down in front of my
computer, the door to the room shut, the blinds drawn. No distractions. Then I
get to work. One to four hours every day, no exceptions. Each day I set a goal
and don’t quit until I reach that goal. If it takes the whole four hours, fine.
If it takes only two hours, even better. But the point is I work at it daily.
So what does this have to do with being a surgeon? Well, surviving
neurosurgical training took a great deal of motivation and self-discipline. It
taught me that I could succeed at a task if I gave it 100% effort. As far as
how my career might flavor my writing, I think being a neurosurgeon given me a
wealth of experience on which to base some pretty interesting stories.
What was the
research behind Dead End Deal?
This is a blitz-pace thriller about a Seattle neurosurgeon who,
while in Korea, is framed for a murder. Now hunted by police he must evade a
professional hit man while trying to find a way back to the United States. I
figure it’s Three Days of The Condor meets Michael Crichton.
I got the idea for the story when I was a guest lecturer at a
medical school in Seoul, South Korea. I was staying at the Walker Hill Sheraton
hotel across the Han River from the hospital. So all the scenes (hotel,
downtown Seoul, and the Korean hospital) were from notes and snapshots I took
while there. (I always travel with a small point and shoot camera in my
pocket). The brief description of the surgical procedure comes from my own
experience.
My neurosurgeon protagonist, Jon Ritter, escapes via a route I
personally took when figuring out how he might return to the United States
without a passport. Again, the scenes were written with the help of snapshots.
So, the short answer to the question is that all the research for the story
came from personal experience. By the way, I find digital photography a great
help when writing. I view a relevant snapshot on the screen as I write. This
help me accurately describe what I’m seeing.
What are the
challenges of writing a medical thriller?
People who read medical thrillers are
usually interested in medical details, just as readers of legal thrillers find
law interesting. What is difficult is adding sufficient medical detail to
satisfy a reader without making descriptions or facts boring. This is one
reason I try to move my stories along at a fast clip. Thrillers are intended to
thrill, not lecture. Fast pace, good plot, interesting characters are the
elements that should be in a medical thriller.
What
made you take the path from neurosurgeon to author and what were your biggest
challenges?
Writing always interested me. Even in grade
school I read like a fiend. So it seemed like a good idea to major in English
instead of the traditional chemistry or zoology when I was taking my pre-med
courses. This caused me considerable grief because it was difficult to get in
all my required credits. But I figured once I got into medical school I’d never
have another shot at the literature courses. And that’s exactly what happened
—medical school and post graduate training consumed all my time. Then one
Saturday, after starting practice, I came home from making rounds at the
hospital and decided to start writing. Just like that. I began a novel that
ended up to be really awful. Then I wrote another one, which was better but
still not ready for prime time. At that point I started trolling for an agent
and finally secured one, but could not sell my work. Years later, I got the
call I’d been waiting for. It was quite a thrill. I guess, in the end, my
biggest challenge was finding enough time to devote to writing. For me the
writing process is difficult and requires a ton of work. I now enjoy the luxury
of having sufficient time to work on my craft. It’s a dream come true.
How
does Alzheimers rank as one of the most pressing diseases in the 21st
century? Why and if it goes unchecked how will it impact our society? (is
there any progress on finding a cure?)
Chances are you know someone among who
either has Alzheimer’s Disease or is directly connected—by relation or care—to
someone who has it. As of this year an
estimated 5.4 million Americans are living with AD. That translates to roughly
one in eight older Americans. That’s a
staggering number, but yet in the public consciousness, AD isn’t as widely
considered (“top of mind”) as the dangerous killer that it is; not like say,
cancer or heart failure. (AD is the
sixth leading cause of death in the US).
The fact is, neurodegenerative diseases
such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease are becoming more prevalent
as the average life span of individuals increase and the more common health
care problems ARE better treated. It’s predicted that by 2020, thanks to drugs
like Lipitor, mortality from heart disease and stroke will be way down, making
Alzheimer’s the leading cause of death in our time. The personal consequences to individuals or
families is devastating, but the general consequence to society as a whole is
great as well. That’s because AD
patients often live a long time, their care is very expensive and will become a
major health issue (both in cost and quality of life) that our society will
have to bear.
There is hope in some novel drugs to treat
AD. Because the disease results from the build up of Amyloid in nerve cells, a
promising approach is to block the production of this protein. In addition,
there is intriguing research into the concept of surgically implanting stem
cells into especially damaged brain areas.
This possible cure is a central element that I used in the plot for my
new novel, Dead End Deal.
Cures and treatments for diseases like AD
are very expensive to develop, (millions upon tens of millions of dollars of
R&D) with the resulting payoff even greater (billions of dollars of revenue
for the “drug” or the “procedure”) often creating entire new branches of
medicine, with thousands upon thousands of new jobs. This high risk / high reward fact of life for
medical researchers and practitioners like me is a natural stage for heroes,
villains and high-stakes drama. I try to
capture that in my Thrillers, but the true high-stakes drama on the medical
treatment / development stage is much more exciting than any fiction; the heroes
are by far much more worthy of praise (though they often go unnoticed). I like to see my books as homage to them, at
least in some small way.
Allen Wyler
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About the Author
Allen Wyler is a renowned neurosurgeon who earned an international reputation for pioneering surgical techniques to record brain activity. He has served on the faculties of both the University of Washington and the University of Tennessee, and in 1992 was recruited by the prestigious Swedish Medical Center to develop a neuroscience institute. Leveraging a love for thrillers since the early 70’s, Wyler devoted himself to fiction writing in earnest, eventually serving as Vice President of theInternational Thriller Writers organization for several years. After publishing his first two medical thrillers Deadly Errors (2005) and Dead Head(2007), he officially retired from medicine to devote himself to writing full time. He and his wife, Lily, divide their time between Seattle and the San Juan Islands. Find out more at his website www.allenwyler.com
