The Face Transplant
by R.
Arundel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Dr.
Matthew MacAulay is a Facial Transplant Surgeon at a prestigious New York
hospital. His friend and mentor, Tom Grabowski, dies under mysterious
circumstances. Matthew is forced to investigate. He uncovers his friend’s
secret. A new technique that allows perfect facial transplants. No incisions,
no scars. The surgeon is able to transplant one person’s face to another with
the perfect result. Tom was able to accomplish this monumental feat with the
help of Alice, a supercomputer robot with almost human abilities. While trying
to find the people responsible for murdering his friend Tom, Matthew realizes
he is the prime suspect. Matthew must flee for his life with the help of Dr.
Sarah Larsson, a colleague and reluctant helper who has a secret of her own.
Alice helps them make sense of a baffling series of seemingly unrelated events.
Matthew is forced to undergo a facial transplant to hide his identity and help
to uncover the truth. The clues carry Matthew and Sarah around the world.
Matthew stumbles onto a sinister plot of monumental proportions, the real
reason Tom was murdered. This discovery leads Matthew all the way to The White
House with a dramatic conclusion. Matthew never wavers in his quest for the
truth and perseveres against all the odds. He must race to stop a major
catastrophe, ratcheting up the excitement until the thrilling conclusion. The
Face Transplant is a powerful medical suspense thriller of the first order. The
novel was written by a surgeon. The novel has a realism that only a surgeon can
bring. The plot weaves politics, medicine and espionage into a tightly paced,
intelligent thriller. The novel crescendos page by page to a totally unexpected
conclusion.
EXCERPT:
The missing face is found
The titanium canister slowly rose from the ground behind the
glass door. When it finally stopped, two beeps were heard. Jason opened the glass
door and took out the canister, a soft cold mist emanated from the canister.
Maybe it was the temperature difference here, Matthew had never seen that when
he brought up his canisters. The white mist slowly rose and then disappeared.
Jason opened the titanium canister. As he had suspected, a red light began to
flash. Matthew realized the canister had been altered. A signal was alerting
someone that they had opened the canister.
Jason, “Don’t worry, I anticipated this, the wall will not
allow the signal to transmit, we’re safe.”
Jason slowly removes the head from the canister. It is
covered in what looks like a thin white cloth and wrapped precisely. Same
technique used for all donor faces in the US. This face was harvested by Tom,
no doubt about it. Slowly they unwrap the face.
Advice for writers
by R Arundel
It's always easy to give advice; much harder to take it, but
here goes.
Write because you have a desire to write and a desire to get
better at the process. Don't write to
try to secure an agent, a book, money or celebrity. Writing is incredibly
difficult and putting these extra pressures on the process guarantees
frustration.
Always keep your target audience in mind and be true to
them (even if the target audience is
yourself). When you start your writing career think of yourself as if you were
a surgeon who just was accepted into medical school. You have an interest in
surgery, you may have done some prep courses, but you really don't know how to
operate. However, over the years someone
will help you (the surgeons who train you) they've been through a lot of the
frustration you will experience and will know how to help you deal with
it. Over time you will get better, you
would not expect to perform brain surgery your first day of medical school. Writing is a craft just like any other. You need guidance; you can seek help from the
many books, associations, and other writers. You also need to gain experience
and over time you will improve, just like the novice surgeon.
Practical advice. Be
very careful about giving up your job to write full time. I was at a large book
conference recently where I met someone who was thinking about giving up his or
her teaching job to write full time. I
think you need a break from writing, especially beginning writers. A beginning
writer is like a beginning surgeon; they cannot do a four-hour procedure. They don't have the muscle memory; they can't
remember all the steps and can't concentrate for that long. Start off with a
20-minute procedure. Over time the
surgeon will be able to do 4 or even 8 hour cases, but not at the start. The beginning writer needs a break, they
can't write quality all day. That break is called a paying job. If you are
positive you have the next great novel, then it may make sense to quit your
job, or if you think your topic is time sensitive and needs to get out
immediately. Carefully examine your motivations for leaving your paying job.
The good thing about writing is there is no objective evidence if you are doing
it very badly, at least not until the book is written. You can daydream reveling in the romantic
notion of being a writer. It may be that you are just bored in your job and
need to find a different occupation. You may just need to find another job. You really may not need to quit your
job. Most people who write are not
fortunate to make a living writing. You
may have the next blockbuster novel. Or then again (based on the odds) you may
have the next self-published book that sells less than ten copies. Follow your dreams but don't follow your
dreams over a cliff. Develop your craft and be patient.
Keep writing.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Robert was
born in London, United Kingdom. His
early formative years were spent in Toronto Canada. Robert attended the University of Toronto
Medical School. After obtaining his
Doctor of Medicine degree he completed surgical training in Otolaryngology-Head
and Neck Surgery at the University of Toronto and obtained certification from
the American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Robert Mounsey
practices surgery in private practice in Toronto.
R. Arundel
studied Film Studies at Ryerson University, after this he began writing
screenplays and novels. The Face Transplant is his debut novel.
R. Arundel is
married and lives in Toronto, Canada. When not writing or practicing surgery
Robert can be found cycling.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Face-Transplant-R-Arundel/dp/0991979907/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405768133&sr=8-1&keywords=the+face+transplant+r.+arundel
www.thefacetransplant.com
@TheFaceTranspla
One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card. Use the link below to enter. You can find his tour schedule at http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2014/07/virtual-book-tour-face-transplant-by-r.html
Rafflecopter link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f288
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteWow great snippet!! face transplants. Nice writing that keep a very tight tension!
ReplyDeleteI tried to keep the sentences short and a little uneven at parts to create a bit of choppiness. I wanted to heighten the tension. I'm glad you like the writing.
ReplyDeleteR. Arundel
Thanks for hosting this event. I look forward to sharing my experiences in writing this book, The Face Transplant. The readers can see what my motivations were in constructing this story.
ReplyDeleteR. Arundel
The part of the story where the head rises in the canister is crucial, the identity of the head swings the story in a totally new direction.
ReplyDeleteR.Arundel
Very thoughtful advice!
ReplyDeleteTrix, vitajex(at)Aol(Dot)com
I like the excerpt
ReplyDeleteNice advice
ReplyDeleteSometimes technology is scary. My mind went to the people that were surgically altered to look like Sadam in Iraq. Very interesting....and scary too. Book sounds like something that will keep you on the edge of your seat and your mind questioning. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteLove the fact that this is written by a doctor.
ReplyDelete