Bruce Borgos - Medical Ethics, Hard Life Choices and Desperation

Bruce Borgos - Medical Ethics, Hard Life Choices and Desperation
Bruce Borgos

Bruce Borgos (1959 - ) lives and writes from the Nevada desert. A near lifelong resident of the southwest, he combs his dusty newspaper daily looking for interesting topics to turn into great stories. As our Author of the Day, Borgos tells us more about his latest novel, Life Strings, a story about medical ethics, hard life choices and desperate circumstances.

Please give us a short introduction to what Life Strings is about.

The back cover of my book really says it best: "LIFE STRINGS is a story of a mother willing to put her son in harm’s way in order to save them both, and of another who discovers the inescapable bonds of blood." It's about medical ethics, the choices people make in life, and desperate, desperate circumstances.

What inspired you to write a story about DNA tests, politics and more?

I started seeing newspaper and magazine articles a few years ago on women who were selling their eggs to help pay off school or other debt, and the money was big! That intrigued me. So I started thinking, "What if..." At the same time, I kept seeing stories of violence and desperation in South Sudan, of refugees and the politics of foreign aid. I thought the two story lines could work well together, and if the initial reviews are correct, I succeeded there.

Ethics play an important role in this book. Why?

Because ethics are everything when you think about it. They determine how we relate to each other, what we value in this life, even how we love each other. These advancements in technology and science come faster than our ethics can sometimes keep up. Whenever you can present your characters with ethical dilemmas, everything becomes more interesting - because we can all relate.

Readers report that you had them glued to the pages. How did you pull this off?

It's a high energy story, and the pace picks up quickly. As a reader, you know you're heading into dangerous territory, and you really want to know what's going to happen to these characters you've come to pull for. LIFE STRINGS is also what is sometimes called "child-in-jeopardy" lit. We all love stories about a parent willing do anything to save his or her child. It's what makes us human.

How did you manage to make your characters so relatable? Are any of them based on real people?

As opposed to my first novel, none of the characters in this book are based on specific individuals. Rather, I constructed them from extensive research on the major ideas of the story and what people dealing with those issues have actually experienced in real life. We relate to characters that are believable, people who are flawed but brave, striving to be better. If a character is a perfect person already, there's nothing to care about.

Do you consider yourself a disciplined writer? Do you have a schedule that you stick to, or is it more in the moment?

Yes, I'm pretty disciplined. I strive to crank out 1,000 words or so a day. Good, bad, or ugly. There's always time to edit later.

Have you always known you wanted to be a writer? What inspired your debut?

I've always loved creating something out of nothing. Finding an idea, building on it, and bringing people to life from scratch is a wonderful pursuit. Like most authors, I think I got my inspiration to be a writer from being a reader first. You can't be a writer if you don't love reading. That's where it starts.

When working on a new book, what’s the first thing you do?

Write down ideas/subjects I'm interested in and ask myself "What hasn't been done yet?" Then I start constructing character outlines and outlining the book in depth. That's an over-generalization, but it's the process in a nutshell.

What was your greatest challenge when writing this book?

My greatest challenge was learning about and researching events on the ground in South Sudan, classified (at least at the time I wrote this) by the State Department as the most dangerous country on earth.

What are you working on right now?

An espionage story...'cause I want to see if I can do it.

Where can our readers discover more of your work or interact with you?

Reviews on Amazon are a great way for me to get your feedback. From there, you can also visit my website at https://www.bruceborgos.com/. I love to interact with my readers and like to alert them when my next novel is coming out!

This deal has ended but you can read more about the book here.
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