K.C. Gillis - A Fast-Paced, Thrilling Medical Mystery

K.C. (Kevin) Gillis is the author of the Jordan Reed mystery series. Despite being a lifelong lover of stories and books, writing took a distant back seat as his professional career travelled through the Canadian Air Force, a decade as a chemist, followed by a long and continuing run in corporate America. With writing no longer in the back seat (but not quite yet in the front seat), Kevin has the initial novels (plus one novella) in the Jordan Reed series well underway. His personal interests focus on endurance and water sports, and obviously a lot of reading!. Having grown up in the Canadian Maritimes, he now lives in the US northeast. As our Author of the Day, Kevin tells us all about his book, Toxic Deception.

Please give us a short introduction to what Toxic Deception is about.

To start, it’s my first novel. That only happens once for a writer, so for me, Toxic Deception is my debut. More importantly, it’s the first book in a series and I have the next three books at different stages of preparation and production, as well as a prequel, available through my website, for anyone interested in joining my email list.

Considering the actual story, the lead character, Jordan Reed, is a young reporter at a Boston newspaper. Still very junior and a bit naïve, she gets drawn into investigating the death of an employee at a biotech company. Without giving too much away, let’s just say that the real story is much more than the employee's death, that the biotech company is behind something terrible. Maybe even be something infectious. With the help of a couple of friends, Jordan pieces together seemingly unconnected bits of information to figure out the truth. For sure there is some danger, some seriously tense confrontations, and a couple of truly distasteful characters. I tried to keep the pace quick and share just enough science to make sense.

What inspired you to write about a reporter who is focused on hunting down corruption?

For me, I hate corruption. It is one of those things that really gets under my skin, especially when people think they can get away with it and do whatever they want. So telling a story with some pretty corrupt characters, attractive in their own way, was appealing. As was figuring out how they could be taken down. As for my protagonist, Jordan Reed, when I considered what profession or occupation I thought would offer me a lot of variety for future stories, a reporter was one of just a few that came to mind. After a fair bit of consideration and research, I concluded that a young reporter would work well. Introducing her near the beginning of her career gives her some runway for the future.

Was there anything in particular, an incident or something you read, that made you want to tackle this?

I used to be a scientist many years ago, so stories with an important science or tech element are fun for me. I’m also someone who reads a lot about infectious disease and am fascinated by how we live with the threat of some new infection that could be very dangerous to humanity. The infectious disease angle to Toxic Deception made it very fun to write. I should also add that before I settled on a corruption-focused story with an infectious disease angle, I was considering a pandemic-based post-apocalyptic story. I just couldn’t quite come up with a premise that I thought could be the beginning of a series, which as an indie author is important. I still have that story concept fleshed out a bit and hope to get back to it in the future.

Tell us more about Jordan Reed.  What makes her tick?

I loved working up Jordan Reed as a character. As a consumer of stories (reading included!) I still notice a relative lack of strong female lead characters, especially in action stories. I personally enjoy female leads, especially ones with some edge. Maybe not as dangerous as a Jack Reacher, but similarly motivated to do the right thing and cross some lines. I created a fairly full back story for her, some of which is revealed in a free prequel available on my website (www.kcgillis.com). Other elements of her back story will come out as the series moves along. As for what makes her tick, she has a bit of “me” in her. She hates corruption. She hates people who abuse power and authority. When she sees that, she wants nothing more than to take them down. But she’s challenged by a lack of respect for authority (i.e., her news editor) and a quick-to-react impulsiveness that often backfires. So she’s not perfect! I should also mention that as a father of a daughter, having a strong female lead was particularly appealing in case she becomes a fan of this genre of story.

Toxic Deception is part of a series. Can it be read as a standalone?  How does it tie in with the other books in the series?

So, Toxic Deception is the first book in the series, so for sure it is a standalone story. As I mentioned earlier, a prequel is an optional lead-in to Toxic Deception, but it is absolutely not essential to be able to follow the story. In terms of the series, Book 2 is 100% complete. I’m literally reviewing the final narration audio files right now. It will be available in May and can be read standalone, though there are a few references to Toxic Deception. None of the references are critical to the story, but knowing them will certainly add more connection to the story. Book 3 is written and is at the second major editing stage (out of three). It’s on track for a late summer release. Book 4 is 75% written and should be ready for the holiday season. All of the boos will be able to be read standalone, but really, why not read them all?

Besides writing, what other secret skills do you have?

I don’t know about secret skills, but in my non-writing life, I have been in the Canadian Air Force, have a Ph.D. in Chemistry and have worked in a Fortune 500 company for almost fifteen years. I spend as much time as I can spare on fitness, having done many marathons and triathlons, though I now prefer shorter competitions since they more easily accommodate writing. Secret skills I wish I really had include drawing and music. I try to dabble in both of them, but honestly don’t have as much time as I’d like to develop them. Maybe one day!

This book focuses a lot on potential corruption in big pharma. How big an issue do you think it is in real life?

Not as bad as you might think if you read my book! If one were to search for examples of corruption in the pharma industry, no doubt a lot of stories could be found. Most of them relate to questionable promotion practices and bribery, but there are a few that relate to some manipulation of clinical trials. In the grand scheme of things, when you consider the size of the industry and the massive scale of clinical trials underway at any given time, the incidence of corrupt activity is very low. But I started with what has been documented and proven and then asked a series of “what if” questions. As I explored potential answers to these questions, a new option of pharma corruption evolved, one driven by extreme greed and a need for power. As a reader, the concept is one I absolutely love, even if it is a bit of a stretch.

I truly hope such an example doesn’t really exist!

What is the hardest thing about being a writer?

There are a few aspects that are challenging, but to be honest, as an indie author with an otherwise full-time career, finding time to write is by far the hardest. I try to get my writing in early in the day (i.e., 5-7 AM), but sometimes this just isn’t possible. Writing late at night doesn’t work well for me since by the time 10 PM rolls around I’m fighting sleep. Along with the time-finding challenge, a related challenge is splitting my “writing time” among writing tasks. Apart from the pure writing of a first draft, there is editing completed manuscripts, storyboarding new stories and a host of production and marketing related activities. For example, so far this year my writing activities have not included pure writing. I have been doing work on already-written books. With Toxic Deception now available and Book 2 pretty much locked down for launch, I hope to get back to pure writing in a couple of weeks.

You write about some heavy themes—things that many of your readers have probably never experienced—yet it's very easy to identify with your characters. How do you make them so relatable?

I’m not sure if my response will actually answer the question, but let me try. I think something that helps my writing and makes the themes and characters relatable is visualization. While I do spend a lot of time outlining my stories and creating a scene flow, before I write a word for any scene, I play it in my head. I pretend I’m watching the scene on a TV or movie scene and critique it as a fan. We’ve all seen great and awful scenes and I use my own “scene barometer” as I play a scene in my head. When I adjust it to the point that I think it would be worth throwing on a screen for real, I begin to write it down. Somehow this process seems to help make my characters and themes relatable.

Do you have a favorite line from the book, and can you explain what that line means to you?

“She realized that, as bad as Neil was, he was just pond scum. The pond was still there.”

The line is a bit hard to understand out of context, but the essence is that corruption is broad and runs deep. Jordan learns that tackling corruption is never as simple as trying to take down just one person.

Did you work out the entire plot of your book before you started to write?

I touched on this earlier and yes, I plot my entire book before I start writing. But I should also say that the book never goes exactly as planned. As I move the story along, some things I plotted don’t fit with the story’s actual evolution. I’ve also learned that plotting the second half of the book with significant detail isn’t really necessary. By the time I get to the midpoint, a lot has changed from the original plot. In fact, I now typically so a replotting somewhere around the midpoint and maybe again at the three-quarter point. I definitely don’t force myself to stick to the original plot if a better telling of the story emerges during writing.

What are you working on right now?

I touched on this above, but from a writing perspective, I’m well into writing Book 4 of the series. I have some concepts for another two series books to get it to at least six books. If it does well by that time I’ll keep it going. I also have a spin-off planned (from Book 3) and want to get Book 1 of that series out this year. Separate from all things Jordan Reed, I have a few other concepts in development. One is a pandemic-based post-apoc story. I also have a different post-apoc concept I really like. I may do either of these as a serial. I also have a historical fiction story set around World War II in development. No real details on timing, but I’m happy I have lots of ideas in the hopper.

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

Right, very important! My website is www.kcgillis.com. From there, readers can join my newsletter and find links to my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. I use them all. I’m also active on GoodReads, so this is a good place to check me out. I am recruiting for a launch team for the Jordan Reed Mysteries, details of which are on my website and are also pushed out via email. I will run this team through a Facebook Group and the team will obviously get early copies of my booms and have the opportunity to interact with me directly and regularly. My books are available on all major sites and readers should expect to see my books available as ebooks, paperbacks, and audiobooks.