Hey guys! Today I present you a guest post from CJ Lyons, author of Broken which sounds absolutely amazing!
What is it like working in an ER?
Becoming a doctor was amazing—I come from a small town in
Pennsylvania and worked three jobs to put myself through medical school—but
becoming a writer was a dream I'd had all my life, so being able to make it
come true has been fantastic beyond words.
My writing career hasn't been smooth sailing, in many ways
it's as hard as being a doctor (I actually work longer hours now!) but it has
been fulfilling in so many ways.
As a doctor the greatest rush came from those rare moments
when I actually saved a life. As a writer I get the chance to touch hundreds of
thousands of lives—and I can't begin to describe the feeling I get when I hear
from fans about how my stories have done more than provide entertainment but
have inspired or empowered them. Talk about your dreams come true!
But real life in the ER isn’t always that exciting—and
definitely not as glamorous as they portray it on TV. For instance, the popular
TV show Grey's Anatomy has interns, who'd be maybe 25 years old, sleeping with
"world renown" surgical attendings…well, to be a "world
renown" neurosurgeon you'd have to have 12 years of primary education, 4
years of college, 4 years of medical school, 7 years of residency, probably
another 3 year fellowship, and then be in practice a long time, at least 5-10
years…so the 25 year old intern's love interest would be old enough to be her
father! Gross!
Not only that, a surgical intern doesn't have time to sleep
or bathe (interns eat on the run) so sex isn't the first thing you think of
doing when you finally do make it to a call room.
Don't even get me started on stories where a
"doctor" can do everything from take x-rays (99.9% of us wouldn't
even know where the "on" button is) to diagnose rare diseases from
glancing into a microscope to doing brain surgery one minute and heart surgery
the next…while I love the idea of doctors being heroes, let's at least make us
human.
Oh, and I've only met two physicians who drove Porsches,
both orthopedic surgeons, freshly divorced and shopping for new wives. At the
community pediatric practice where I worked, the guys who plowed the snow were
paid more than we were. So just because a character is a doctor doesn't mean
they're rich.
Real life in the ER is a lot of hard, hard work—and it’s
teamwork that counts. The ER is a crucible that exposes the worst and best in
people. My seventeen years of practicing medicine gave me the chance to witness
courage first hand and really see what it takes for ordinary people to step up
and become heroes. I owe so much to my patients and their families for teaching
me the true meaning of courage, love, faith, and strength.
Those years also gave me the opportunity to work alongside
men and women who became my heroes: police officers, firefighters, paramedics,
doctors, nurses, social workers, prosecutors…As well as a chance to come face
to face with evil, whether in the form of sociopaths, sexual predators, even
killers.
All of these experiences have influenced my writing and are
why I chose to write what I call Thrillers with Heart. Fast paced novels that
aren't about the car chases and explosions as much as they are about the people
and their relationships while focusing on a truth I discovered for myself
during my time as an ER doctor: Heroes are born everyday.
Broken Synopsis
The only thing fifteen-year-old Scarlet Killian has ever wanted is a chance at a normal life. Diagnosed with a rare and untreatable heart condition, she has never taken the school bus. Or giggled with friends during lunch. Or spied on a crush out of the corner of her eye. So when her parents offer her three days to prove she can survive high school, Scarlet knows her time is now... or never. Scarlet can feel her heart beating out of control with every slammed locker and every sideways glance in the hallway. But this high school is far from normal. And finding out the truth might just kill Scarlet before her heart does.
Author Bio
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of
twenty-one novels, former pediatric ER doctor CJ Lyons has lived the life she
writes about in her cutting edge Thrillers with Heart.
Winner
of the International Thriller Writers’ coveted Thriller Award, CJ has been
called a "master within the genre" (Pittsburgh Magazine) and her work
has been praised as "breathtakingly fast-paced" and
"riveting" (Publishers Weekly) with "characters with beating
hearts and three dimensions" (Newsday).
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