Virulence received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Ellis Johnson.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
Virulence, the second book in the Dr. Sean Nolan series was published in November 2020.
What’s the book’s first line?
It had been over five months since the discovery of the toxic waste site in Woodhaven, Washington.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
With a growing reputation as an investigator, Dr. Nolan is recruited by the CDC to review their failed search for the source of a deadly Legionnaires’ outbreak in southern California. What he uncovers during his inquiry is much more lethal than a simple bacteria, and the potential victims number in the thousands.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
I was sick to death of cartoonish super heroes specializing in martial arts and mass casualty gun battles. The real heroes are just regular people who refuse to accept the unacceptable. My intent was to create three dimensional characters that were authentic, including their flaws. More simply, their stories are a throwback to the weekly westerns I watched on television as a child. The good guys wore white hats, the bad guys wore black hats and there were very few gray areas in between.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
Each book is crafted around the center stage of a current social or behavioral problem that we face on a daily basis. The fun of the stories is how the cast of characters work together to make certain that justice usually prevails, even though the journey may often follow a winding and chaotic path.
Dr. Sean Nolan, a small town physician, a widower raising two teenage daughters, becomes a novice detective only as a reluctant last resort. Faced with an exploding rate of cancer cases in his own practice, he sets out to find answers, allowing nothing to stand in the way of solving the mystery. His use of humor, often self-deprecating, his empathy and fierce devotion to his staff and patients are what define him. What sets him apart is his willingness to rewrite any rules that threaten to block his path.
If they made your book into a movie, who would you like to see play the main character(s)?
Ryan Reynolds…this gifted actor would commend the Dr. Nolan character, equally balancing the humor and drama that are needed to preserve his sanity in an insane world.
When did you first decide to become an author?
Age five. While not financially successful, my first attempt at rhyming poetry were greatly admired by my mother. I could hear and feel the music hidden in the words.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
My first attempt at a novel came during summer vacation at the age of fifteen. It was a formless rant against the evils and inequities of a cruel world distorted by the hands of man. Set loose from the shallow depths of a teenage mind, it was nothing more than an emotional outburst that borrowed little from knowledge, and less from wisdom. But…it was a beginning.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
After practicing medicine full time and writing part time for thirty four years, I retired to Hawaii in late 2018in hopes of reversing the process. I have now completed ten novels in just over two years. Number eleven is nearing the point where the archives of thought can be transferred to paper.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
When the mental gymnastics of creating a book idea reach a calming point, I take my place at the table on the lanai, gather my legal pads, pens, research notes, dictionary, Thesaurus and begin to work. I typically write from 8:00 PM until 2:00 AM, seven days a week until I reach the end. When a book begins, that is where I live. I am inside the story, the characters are real people, and I can actually hear their voices. They do not leave me in peace until their story is finished.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
The greatest advantage of the indie world is expediency. I wanted my work, for better or worse, to be read. The sheer waste of time trying to connect with the “right” literary agent was more than I could bear. Fearing I would die from old age, two books in the Dr. Nolan series are already in print. The third will be released by March. The truly difficult challenge of being an indie, is promotion and advertising. Starting at a level somewhere between moron and nitwit, I am on an improving slope in the realm of self- marketing. I have even phoned Oprah on a daily basis for the past two months to break into her book club, but she has not returned my calls. I’m beginning to think this may be intentional.
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
Tell a good story, entertain and resist the urge to sermonize.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
Yes! I would switch to traditional publishing, simply to be free of the marketing. I prefer to spend my time writing and editing, not working as a salesman.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
By constructing the main theme of each novel around a topical framework, I am able to gently educate the reader inside the flow of the story. I gave up the idea of trying to save the world many decades ago, but I still deeply believe I can help salvage a few bits and pieces. If that ultimately proves a delusion, at least it offers some measure of comfort.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
Mark Twain
Which book do you wish you could have written?
To Kill a Mockingbird. The characters are richly textured and indelible, the topic is real and the human failings and triumphs are on full display. It is as close to a perfect book as any I have ever held in my hands.