Note: I'm stepping aside today to invite Janet Greger to share some of her insights. Please welcome her!
Janet Greger:
I love
to travel to interesting places. It’s
hard to explain what makes a place interesting, but I’ll try. Maybe I’m a
bit of an adrenaline junkie, but locations that were once forbidden (i.e. China Lebanon,
and Cuba) are interesting. Places with history (e.g. London, Paris, Berlin, Beijing,
and Washington, D.C.) and/or that still exhibit a unique “culture,” (such as Chiang
Mai in Thailand, New Orleans, and Taos in New Mexico) are interesting.
Then
sometimes in my travels I discover a place that didn’t make any of my lists,
but which fascinated me. Bolivia is such
a place.
Bolivia
is somewhat isolated because much of it is at such a high altitude, i.e. more
than 10,000 feet, and it is landlocked. The net result is the indigenous people
have retained a distinctive culture. Bolivia’s rich history includes the silver
mines near Potosí, which were the richest source of silver in the New World
Spanish Empire. Bolivia is a sore point in US foreign policy now because it is
the third largest producer of coca (the raw material for cocaine), and its
current President Evo Morales is believed to be a coca grower.
Locations can add zest to novels. I decided to add a new twist to my third
medical thriller Ignore the Pain by sending my heroine Sara Almquist to an
exotic location – Bolivia.
The problems in Bolivia are real. Over 6% of the children born in Bolivia die
before five years of age. That’s a big improvement; in 1990, 12.5% died before
five years of age. Hence, I have Sara serving as an epidemiologist on a team
sent to assess factors influencing childhood mortality and morbidity in
Bolivia. (Yes, I have served a science consultant overseas.)
Instead
of reciting statistics about the grinding poverty in Bolivia, I had Sara relate
a story to her colleague Lew in Ignore the Pain. Sara’s story is
based on the explanation an artist in the La Paz area gave me for a picture
seen everywhere in Bolivia in 2006.
“This
picture was emblazoned on all sorts of items in the markets of La Paz during my
previous trip to Bolivia. When I visited a studio by the Valley of the Moon, an
artist claimed he knew the story behind this drawing.”
Lew
stopped shuffling papers and cocked his head. Sara continued. “He said when
poor women in rural areas have twins, they give the smaller infant to the
mountain gods. Supposedly this picture depicts the sad scene of a mother and
her female relatives walking up the mountain to make their sacrifice.”
“Wouldn’t
happen. Bolivia is a Catholic country.”
“That’s
what I said. The artist laughed at me and claimed the women in the rural
villages knew from experience they couldn’t produce enough milk for two
children. And one healthy child was better than two dead ones.” Sara paused,
“Don’t know if the story is true, but it would be interesting to collect data
on perinatal mortality and the incidence of multiple births. We might be
surprised by the results.”
There are lots of things to do in Bolivia. In Ignore the Pain, you get a guided
tour of attractions in Bolivia, like the Witches’ Market of La Paz. You’ll not
only see native women in black bowler hats and layers of brightly covers skirts
sell llama fetuses for offerings to the gods, but also smell the aromas of the
city. (Not all are pleasant.) You’ll also travel across the austere, almost
Mars-like landscape of the Altiplano to see the exotic stone columns in the
Valley of the Moon and the shores of Lake
Poopó, long a summer nesting spot for flamingos and now polluted by mining runoff.
Sara is your guide. Of course, her view of Iglesia
de San Francisco in La Paz might be a little different that that of the average
tourist. Someone determined to kill her is chasing her across the church’s
roof. The description of the roof is realistic – I’ve been there.
Unlike
Sara, you won’t be exposed to danger. For example, the mountain Cerro Rico near
Potosí is so riddled by five hundred years of silver mining that it is
literally getting shorter. Sara and her friends are caught in a cave-in.
You’ll
wish you were sampling juicy chicken salteñas,
locro (potato stew), and quinoa with
Sara and her colleagues, but be glad you missed the greasy stews made of cuy
(guinea pig) and llama.
Although you may decide Bolivia is not their
idea of a relaxing vacation, you’ll be thrilled by it vicariously in Ignore the
Pain. I
P.S. The
cover represents the red, yellow, green stripes of the Bolivian flag across the
woman’s face.
Blurb:
In Ignore the Pain, Sara Almquist
couldn’t say no when invited to be the epidemiologist on a public health
mission to assess children’s health in Bolivia. Soon someone from her past is
chasing her through the Witches’ Market and churches of La Paz. Unfortunately,
she can’t decide which of her new colleagues, especially the unsavory Xave
Zack, to trust as she learns more about coca production and the god Tio of the
silver mines of Potosí than she ever wanted to know.
Bio:
For more on me, check out my
website: www.jlgreger.com and blog: http://www.jlgregerblog.blogspot.com.
Here are thumbnail sketches of my two other medical
thriller/mysteries. Learn whether the Philippine flu or a drug kingpin caught
in a quarantine is more deadly in Coming Flu. Discover whether an ambitious young “diet doctor”
or old-timers with buried secrets are killers in Murder: A New Way to
Lose Weight.
My
novels are available in paperback and Kindle formats from Amazon.
Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight: http://www.amazon.com/Murder-New-Lose-Weight-ebook/dp/B00DFCC3IM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1372715439&sr=1-1&keywords=Murder%3A+A+New+Way+to+Lose+Weight
Ignore the Pain: http://www.amazon.com/Ignore-Pain-J-L-Greger-ebook/dp/B00HOODVTW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390779199&sr=8-1&keywords=ebook+Ignore+the+Pain
