The Face Transplant

The Face Transplant

by R. Arundel

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GENRE: Medical Suspense Thriller

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BLURB:

The Face Transplant

An epic journey of suspense, murder, and sacrifice

Dr. Matthew MacAulay is a facial transplant surgeon at a prestigious New York hospital. When his friend and mentor, Tom Grabowski, dies under mysterious circumstances, Matthew uncovers his friend’s secret: a new technique that allows perfect facial transplants. No incisions, no scars. 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 Tom, Matthew realizes he is the prime suspect. He must flee for his life with the help of Dr. Sarah Larsson, a colleague and reluctant helper, who has a secret of her own, and Alice, who helps them make sense of a baffling series of seemingly unrelated events. The clues carry Matthew and Sarah around the world. They stumble onto a sinister plot of monumental proportions that leads Matthew all the way to the White House.

The Face Transplant is a powerful medical suspense thriller of the first order. The novel was written by a surgeon who weaves politics, medicine, and espionage into a tightly paced, intelligent thriller.

EXCERPT:

Guaarrr. It sounds like water draining from a very large bathtub, through a very large hole. I just killed myself. I just killed the patient. Dr. Matthew MacAulay looks down on the operating room table at the gaunt, graying man. Matthew quickly scans the operating theater. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see the short wide man in

the observation area.

I just killed myself, Sarah, and Amanda.

They have been hijacked into performing a face transplant. The patient is unknown. Mr. Glock, the short wide man, hovers in the far end of the operating room. He made it clear that if the patient did not survive, the three of them would be following him in short order. The 9 mm Glock with a silencer on the end gave credence to his profanity-laced words of warning.

Matthew looks across the operating room table at Amanda Soto, forty-two, an American of Spanish ancestry. She has been his scrub nurse, assisting him in the operating room for the last three years. Divorced, one child.

It will take a few more seconds for the monitors to tell everybody what Matthew already knows. Amanda already knows. She is right across the table. She saw him use the robotic arm to dissect the vessel and mistakenly cut the large artery in the neck. An operating room nurse of Amanda’s experience has seen it all. When Matthew looks into her eyes, they flash ever so quickly an acknowledgement that it is all over. Instead of any words, she quietly unclamps the suction. Now a dull hiss fills the air. To the casual observer, or the short wide man holding a 9 mm Glock pistol in his fat stubby hands, nothing really has changed. Amanda, anesthetist Dr. Sarah Larsson, and Dr. Matthew MacAulay act as if all is going well.

Matthew cannot help but glance over to the man with the 9 mm Glock. In his mind he names him Mr. Glock. Adrenaline surges through Matthew’s body and time slows. The short wide man, Mr. Glock, has gray eyes. Pale, gray eyes. Very pale, almost tired. Matthew remembers reading somewhere that people with gray eyes have the best visual acuity. They make the best marksmen, the best assassins. He wonders if this was true.

A Word From The Author

How to handle negative criticism

Criticism is part of what every writer must expect. People will read your work and will react to the work in different ways. Much of how someone responds to your work has a great deal to do with his or her background, preconceived notions about you and the book, and their own fixed beliefs about the world. This is important to keep in mind since someone can have a negative reaction to your work but the underlying reasons may have very little to do with the book.

The first thing I do when I receive negative criticism is ask myself very honestly if it was justified. If you wrote a passage and had to dump a great deal of material on the reader, someone may say I didn’t like the book because there was too much info dumping. If the criticism is justified acknowledge it. If you wanted to do the info dump for some reason (i.e. just to get the information out of the way quickly to let the reader get on with understanding the story) just let the reader know. Also give an honest appraisal of whether or not you could have handled it better. Maybe added some dialogue or broken it up.

Negative criticism comes in 2 types. Negative negative criticism and Positive negative criticism. 

Negative negative criticism is meant to belittle, demean, disempower and diminish you. You know it when you see it immediately. It is not an honest appraisal of the book or your writing abilities. When you see it, just ignore it. These are often people who don’t have the courage to put their own work out there but take great pleasure in shredding the careful efforts of others.

Positive negative criticism is criticism that states a real concern in a thoughtful and specific manner. Not just ‘this book sucks’  but  ‘this would have been a good book if there had been more backstory to put the story in context’. This is the type of criticism I learn the most from and always appreciate. This makes you think about your book and possibly makes changes. This type of criticism always make you a better writer. I’ll often send a note back letting the person know that I heard their criticism and made some changes, or I thought about that and this is why I did what I did.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

R. Arundel is a practising surgeon. This experience brings realism to the story. The novel asks what would happen if a surgeon were to develop the perfect face transplant.  This would allow people to have a new face, in essence create a new identity. You can create the perfect double, the perfect Doppelganger.

Contact link: http://www.amazon.com/R-Arundel/e/B00EBCQVEC

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The Face Transplant

The Face Transplant

by R. Arundel

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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

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