Hi, everybody!
I hope everyone in the northern hemisphere is having a nice summer so far. If it's way too hot where you're at, hope you stay cool. No matter what you're doing, make sure you are having fun.
Other than that, I thought I'd take the time to share some exciting news about my work as a novelist and other cool stuff. Let's dive right in.
What's New:
Manuscript of Fourth Medical Thriller Done!
Believe it or not, I have completed the manuscript for my fourth novel of the Dr. Mark Lin Medical Thrillers series. The process involved five drafts over the course of a little over five months, if you exclude the several weeks in June that I took off. I think I am much more proficient with writing than ever, given how this manuscript has been completed ahead of schedule. I had originally expected a manuscript completion date of August 2026, not July 2026.
If I were to identify one challenging aspect of writing this novel, it's the effort I put into ensuring factual accuracy. The story incorporates not only medicine but also specific elements of law and business. Given that my background has been in medicine, it was definitely a stretch for me to look up legal and business terminology and procedures and make sure they are not flat-out wrong in my story. That's not to say the medical facts were totally easy to pull from memory. I still researched specific medical conditions portrayed in this book to make sure that they are also grounded in reality.
At this point, I feel I have done my best with the factual content of the novel and the overall story.
Coming Up:
Remaining Steps for Fourth Novel, Plus Initial Steps for Fifth Novel
At this point, here is a rundown of the remaining steps for me to take for my fourth novel:
1. Wait for my editor to fully review and edit my manuscript
2. Record the audiobook version of the novel
3. Work with my cover designer to produce the cover
4. Starting around December 2026, announce the book, make it available for presale, and solicit early reviews of the book
5. Officially release the book on March 6, 2027
As for my fifth medical thriller novel, I will begin brainstorming and outlining it shortly and hope to finish that by August 2026. I will wait until January 2027 to start writing the first draft.
The Medical Files of Dr. Mark Lin:
Pharmaceutical Company Expenses
In my novel Poison Pill, one of the real-life notions that I brought into the story is how pharmaceutical companies seem to spend more money on marketing of their drugs than the research and development behind them, which supposedly drives up the cost of drugs. While I continue to feel that such a phenomenon may still be happening, I am aware of a sensible counterpoint: drugs are expensive simply because research and development are costly to begin with, especially if failures at any point in the process push back the timeline for the commercial release of the drug. If you're interested, you can read about that argument in the following two articles I found at random.
R&D World:
https://www.rdworldonline.com/how-much-does-the-pharma-industry-spend-on-rd-anyway-probably-more-than-you-thought
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA):
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2820562
Inside the Mind of Anthony Lee:
References to Real-Life Figures
Once in a while, I will reference a real-life person in a novel I write, and I will do so without mentioning them by name.
The first time I did this was in Toxic Minds. One part of the story mentions key facts about two notable British physicians. One is Edward Jenner, who pioneered vaccines. The other is Andrew Wakefield, the now-former doctor who had spread the false notion that vaccines cause autism. I did not explicitly state the names of these two real-life figures, even if the facts about them that I wrote easily identify them. The reason was that I did not want the mention of Wakefield's name to be any kind of emotional trigger for readers. From there, this became an author trademark for me.
I say all of this because I do this again in my upcoming fourth novel. In certain moments where real-life events are summarized, I do not mention the names of the people involved, even though readers who know about them will easily recognize who I am referencing.
Other than that, this rule doesn't apply to companies. I do not have any issues with referencing real-life businesses in my novels, whether they have done good or bad.
Fun Stuff:
FIFA World Cup
As of this post, the FIFA World Cup is wrapping up. Spain has made it to the World Cup final and will face either England or Argentina. I may not be one of those die-hard soccer fans watching an entire World Cup from start to finish, but I did get to experience a World Cup game live. Many months ago, I paid for a ticket package for a Round of 32 game on July 1 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, CA (temporarily named the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium for the World Cup). At the time, it didn't matter which countries were playing, because I simply wanted the experience of seeing a FIFA World Cup game live. To my pleasant surprise, my home country of the United States would be one of the teams playing. Bosnia and Herzegovina would be the other. Overall, it was fun to sit in a cushioned suite seat with access to good food in a room right behind it. The game itself was great, with USA scoring two goals to beat Bosnia and Herzegovina by a score of 2-0. It was really good that I went to this game, as this would be the last game in this year's World Cup that USA wins. They would get knocked out after their next game against Belgium.
Well, that's it for this month's newsletter (assuming I have nothing additional to suddenly announce over the next two weeks). Thanks for reading. Keep enjoying your summer. :-)
Anthony Lee
anthonyleebooks.com |