I never have a shortage of ideas. In my daily life I interact with a wide variety of people. The diversity in terms of ethnicity, education, geography is very unique. I constantly read current affairs and magazines. Generally I liked to read two or three newspaper a day before the advent of the Internet. Now I read online so I read a large number of sources. I read local newspapers. They often have very interesting stories of human drama and personal failings. I read international news stories that focus on what is happening in the world at large. Frequently this is the source of most of my contemplation, and many new ideas of the way humans interact are introduced. Things that I take for granted in North America or customs that seem obvious may be quite different when you read about how other cultures deal with the same issues. I read a great deal of online magazines and pop culture websites (my guilty pleasure). These almost always make me shake my head and reaffirm the notion “truth is stranger than fiction”. In fact if you were to put some of those stories in a novel, the readers would not believe it, it would seem too fantastical.
I enjoy daydreaming and spend a great deal of time thinking about the world, and how we relate to the events not only in our vicinity but also in a larger context. I spend some time reflecting on my place in the world, and our place in the universe. When I develop an idea for a book, I spend some time thinking about how the book will end, and what I want to say. As soon as these details are concrete in my mind I begin writing.
All of the initial ideas that spur a novel for me just seem to pop into my head. For The Face Transplant, I was driving home one day and thought what a great story could be told about a doctor doing face transplants who ends up on the run. When it was finally written I looked at the book and thought it’s The Fugitive meets Face Off. I am not sure how the ideas come but I have far more ideas than I could translate into novels. As the ideas for this novel popped into my head I thought what would happen if surgeons could perform perfect transplants. Exploring interesting ideas is what forms the basis of all my writing.
BLURB:
Dr. Matthew MacAulay is a Facial Transplant Surgeon at a prestigious New York hospital. His friend and mentor, Tom Grabowski, dies under mysterious circumstances. Matthew is forced to investigate. He uncovers his friend’s secret. A new technique that allows perfect facial transplants. No incisions, no scars. The surgeon is able to transplant one person’s face to another with the perfect result. Tom was able to accomplish this monumental feat with the help of Alice, a supercomputer robot with almost human abilities. While trying to find the people responsible for murdering his friend Tom, Matthew realizes he is the prime suspect. Matthew must flee for his life with the help of Dr. Sarah Larsson, a colleague and reluctant helper who has a secret of her own. Alice helps them make sense of a baffling series of seemingly unrelated events. Matthew is forced to undergo a facial transplant to hide his identity and help to uncover the truth. The clues carry Matthew and Sarah around the world. Matthew stumbles onto a sinister plot of monumental proportions, the real reason Tom was murdered. This discovery leads Matthew all the way to The White House with a dramatic conclusion. Matthew never wavers in his quest for the truth and perseveres against all the odds. He must race to stop a major catastrophe, ratcheting up the excitement until the thrilling conclusion. The Face Transplant is a powerful medical suspense thriller of the first order. The novel was written by a surgeon. The novel has a realism that only a surgeon can bring. The plot weaves politics, medicine and espionage into a tightly paced, intelligent thriller. The novel crescendos page by page to a totally unexpected conclusion.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Robert was born in London, United Kingdom. His early formative years were spent in Toronto Canada. Robert attended the University of Toronto Medical School. After obtaining his Doctor of Medicine degree he completed surgical training in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Toronto and obtained certification from the American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Robert Mounsey practices surgery in private practice in Toronto.
R. Arundel studied Film Studies at Ryerson University, after this he began writing screenplays and novels. The Face Transplant is his debut novel.
R. Arundel is married and lives in Toronto, Canada. When not writing or practicing surgery Robert can be found cycling.
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Excerpt:
It sounded like water draining from a very large bath tub, through a very large hole. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a warm relaxing bath? Sit. Soak. However, in the fraction of a second that it took that thought to go through Matthew’s head, a more powerful thought pierced his mind. I just killed myself. I just killed the patient. Most likely a criminal anyways. He looked down on the operating room table at the very gaunt, greying man. Dr. Matthew MacAulay quickly scanned the operating theater. In his peripheral vision he could clearly see the short, wide man in the observation area. I just killed myself, Lars, and Marcia. Matthew looked across the operating room table at Marcia Lopez, forty-two, an American of Spanish ancestry. She had been his scrub nurse, assisting him in the operating room for the last 3 years. Divorced, one child.
It would take a few more seconds for the monitors to tell everybody what Matthew already knew. Soon the monitors would alarm and all would know. But Marcia already knew. She was right across the table. She saw him use the robotic arm to dissect the vessel and mistakenly cut the large artery in the neck. An operating room nurse of Marcia’s experience has seen it all. When Matthew looked into Marcia’s eyes they flashed ever so quickly an acknowledgement that it was all over. Instead of any words she quietly unclamped the suction. Now a dull hiss filled the air. To the casual observer, or the short wide man holding a 9 mm Glock pistol in his fat stubby hands, nothing really had changed.
