What genre are you most comfortable writing? Hands down, suspense, capers, and thrillers are my genres. I love reading them, I understand their construction, and I find them a great vehicle to explore serious and complex issues in a non-preachy and entertaining manner.
How did you develop your plot and characters? The characters are based on composites of people I know. My protagonists came to me almost pre-formed. I just knew who they were, their background stories, and their responses to different situations. As to the plot, I knew the beginning and the end, but didn’t outline the full story. Instead, it felt like the characters did their own thing, and I just reported on what they were up to. Only in the last couple of chapters, where everything had to be resolved, did I step in with a detailed list of plot points that needed to be addressed.
Who designed your cover? Christine Van Bree designed my cover (http://christinevanbreedesign.zenfolio.com/). I couldn’t have asked for a more professional, talented or dedicated designer. The only complaint I can think of is that she provided me with too many excellent concept choices and it made picking the winner very difficult!
Can you tell us about your main character? Olga Mueller is a lawyer who’s ready to stop being one. She works for one of the most prestigious law firms in the world, and her area of concentration is pharmaceutical patent litigation. But she has grown tired of putting blinders on and concentrating only on the patent questions, when she knows that the drugs these patents are protecting may be dangerous.
She is smart, impetuous, some say childish in her hope for justice, willful, and craves excitement. A chance encounter with Benedict Vickers, the brother of the scientist who invented the diet drug at the center of the plot, offers her the chance to leave her secure job and experience the thrill ride that she so desperately wants, and she readily takes it.
How did you come up with the title? “Poison pill” is a legal term. It relates to a contract provision that makes an undesirable action by a party so extremely costly that it virtually guarantees that party won’t do it. A poison pill provision plays an important role in the plot of POISON PILL. In addition the book is about a bad diet drug — so POISON PILL seemed like a perfect double entendre title.
What is your greatest strength as a writer? From a technical standpoint, readers comment almost uniformly that they love the dialogue. They say it has authenticity, it’s witty, and the characters’ voices are distinct and consistent.
Personally, I think my greatest strength is describing complex scientific and legal concepts in a way that is accessible to a non-expert, without being condescending or boring. And I should be pretty good at this by now — this is what I do in my day job as a patent litigator.
Did writing this book teach you anything and what was it? Writing POISON PILL taught me the value of committing to a goal and working toward it without having the perfect plan of action or a detailed map. A friend once jokingly said that if there were books on how to cross the street, I’d read all of them before attempting an actual crossing, and she’s probably right. I often use the need to acquire theoretical knowledge as a means to postpone attempting the actual doing of something.
With this novel, I just plunged in. I started writing. Then I started editing. Then I found a writing group to provide critiques. Then I found a professional editor. Each step was a learning process on the go, and brought with it valuable experience. So now I’m far less reticent about doing things and learning from my mistakes.
Do you intent to make writing a career? I consider writing to be a career already. It cannot be a full-time career right now for financial reasons, but I take it just as seriously as I take my work as a lawyer. It is definitely not a hobby.
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Genre – Legal Thriller
Rating – PG
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