NUTSHELL received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author John Albedo.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
NUTSHELL, published in May 2021
What’s the book’s first line?
Dr. Callaway squeezed the life out of the Packard’s steering wheel, preparing for the danger ahead.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
The unlikely friendship between a chronic mental patient – who has no business in the asylum – and a surgical resident in training – who has no business becoming a surgeon.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
As for the mental patient who is incorrectly labeled as schizophrenic due to her garbled speech pattern, I drew from a patient that I encountered as a psychiatric aide over 50 years ago when I thought I’d become a psychiatrist. As for the surgical resident in training, I drew from the log books I kept all the way through my medical training (and beyond) with the intent to “write about it” someday.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
In addition to the unique relationship between Ivy, (the mental patient who also has a variety of birth defects), and a surgical resident, there is a compelling look inside the darkest of closets when it comes to surgical training and the ‘brotherhood of silence.” Additionally, there is enough ambiguity in the events, such that readers who like to dabble in the faith vs. science debates will be interested in this saga as one can interpret the unusual happenings as metaphysical in origin (e.g., a 13-generation family curse) or plain old coincidence.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
We have two main characters in Nutshell. The most distinctive thing about Ivy Pettibone is how she has maintained sanity while living most of her life among schizophrenics and the chronics with organic brain syndromes. She weaponizes one of her birth defects, allowing her to emerge as top dog at the institution. As for Chase Callaway, the med student then surgery resident, the most distinctive thing is his top rank in the class positioned against his inability to go beyond his father’s level of surgical training, opening the door to self-destruction.
As for reminding me of other characters, I tried my best to introduce new and unique individuals, which I think I’ve done with Ivy Pettibone. Maybe a little Owen Meany in Ivy, but her inability to speak coherently offers a new twist. As for Chase Callaway, I’d have to say Martin Arrowsmith in Sinclair Lewis’s Arrowsmith and Tertius Lydgate, the idealistic physician in Middlemarch.
If they made your book into a movie, who would you like to see play the main character(s)?
Holly Hunter as Ivy Pettibone and Ryan Reynolds as Chase Callaway.
When did you first decide to become an author?
Fifth grade when I wrote a short book called, “Little League Days.” But then, I became very serious about becoming a novelist when I wrote a medical thriller (before the genre existed), without any formal training, and the novel-writing instructor at the University of Oklahoma told me he’d never read a first novel half as good. (he read the manuscript only as a favor to my mother). The way I figured it, if it was that easy, maybe I should drop out of medical training and go full-time as an author. I had my choice of literary agents, and signed with a prominent agent in Hollywood, with the intent of simultaneous book and movie release. Then, COMA was published by Robin Cook. Same story as I’d written…just one of those things. My book – Prognosis: Guarded – was never published. So then, I took writing seriously and began to learn the craft at countless writing conferences offered up and down the west Coast in the 1980s.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
No (see above). When I finally gave up on Prognosis: Guarded, I decided to write a coming-of-age story with no medical plot at all, just to prove I didn’t need to rely on my medical background. In fact, I wanted to de-emphasize plot and develop memorable characters instead, so that no one else could come up with the same exact plot (as had happened with COMA).
The book FLATBELLIES was published in 2001 as a “golf novel” by a small sports publisher. I then enjoyed every writer’s dream – the book took off to Amazon #1 in sports, then became popular as mainstream fiction, picked up and re-released by W.W. Norton & Co., New York, reviewed in USA Today, multiple honors and recognitions, etc. The book was in continuous option for film by 3 major groups in LA over 15 years, though never made it into a movie, which is the only hole in the perfect dream. (That said, I still get an occasional email from 3Arts Entertainment in LA. to see if the property is still available, as occurred a few weeks ago) Norton wanted a sequel in 12 months, and this became UNIVERSITY BOULEVARD.
I then began work on some medical texts, and finally, a true crime book – KILLING ALBERT BERCH, the story of the 1923 murder of my 30 year-old grandfather in rural Oklahoma, killed by a mob for hiring an African American in an all-white sundown town (www.killingalbertberch.com)
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I am a retired physician, breast cancer surgeon, who still consults for biotech companies and also have a part-time job at home as “Clinical Director of Screening Programs” for Aurora Healthcare US Corp, the only maker of breast-dedicated MRI machines.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
4-6 hours a day now that I’m retired. While still working, it was weekends only.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
On the one hand, there is more freedom to write what you want, while on the other, it’s more of a challenge to get your book “out there.”
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
There are so many great avenues today to get published, so study the craft and you will find a home for your book.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
My publisher is more hybrid than straight indie, and I’m enjoying the freedom to write what I want. NUTSHELL is the first book of a trilogy that I’m writing under the pseudonym John Albedo. I’ve been working on this trilogy, on and off, for 18 years, ever since my 2nd novel, University Boulevard, was released in 2003. In fact, I wrote the drafts of all 3 books at the same time. I’m polishing books 2 and 3 now, so I would hope to keep this trilogy under one umbrella at Black Rose using my pseudonym. Book Two is going to be semi-autobiographical, and this makes for confusion if a traditional publisher asks me to cut 50 pages, or to change this or that, perhaps upsetting readers who know me. So, my trilogy is tailor-made for Black Rose Writing.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
Too old to chase fame or fortune. My motivation is based in that mysterious need to tell strangers things about myself that I don’t even share with my family.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
Michael Crichton. In college, circa 1969, someone gave me a copy of Andromeda Strain (before the movie). When I found out Crichton had gone to medical school at Harvard, I was hooked. I wanted to do the same thing….not medical school at Harvard, mind you, but to write books that were so realistic, based in science, that the reader would think “it could really happen.” (Later, after the failure of my first book, Prognosis: Guarded, I abandoned the science fiction genre, though I think readers will see a bit of Crichton sneak into the end of Book Two of my trilogy (working title: Cannibal Club) and in Book Three (Heavenly Blues). Not full-on Crichton, but a just a “touch.”
Which book do you wish you could have written?
Andromeda Strain