Robin Cook's Blog, page 3
July 21, 2017
Hello again everyone! Wow, I am surprising myself...
Hello again everyone! Wow, I am surprising myself with so many posts. But I have a very specific reason to be posting today and that is I have been informed of the five winners of the COMA 40th anniversary giveaway: Ryan E., Myrisha L., Catrina J., Yulia F., and Dave K.. Thank you to all who entered the giveaway! If you’re one of the winners, be on the lookout for an email about how to obtain your prizes. I am sorry we couldn't have more winners but the numbers were limited because there are so few of the galleys printed. Five were all that were available and could become a collectors item. I'm also sorry we couldn't have opened the program to my overseas readers. Perhaps in the future it can be arranged. Warm wishes to everyone, and to those who have won, please don't reveal the surprises in the narrative, particularly at the end. All the best, Robin Cook
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July 19, 2017
Hi everyone, my publisher sent me this pic via my...
Hi everyone, my publisher sent me this pic via my literary agents and asked me to provide the links for preordering Charlatans. So many people have been wonderful to take the time to respond to my recent questions in my posts that i am hoping it augurs well for a lot of feedback on Charlatans. The timing is convenient as I am just about to begin the outline on the next book, which might be called CHIMERA. If it turns out that most people like the character heavy emphasis in Charlatans, I'll try to do the same in the new book.
Thank you to Publishers Weekly for the great review of my upcoming book, CHARLATANS. Available August 22nd as evidenced by the quote in the pic. Here are some links for preordering now.
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2oBUCbK
iBooks: http://apple.co/2u4YyRM
B&N: http://bit.ly/2vxWKjD
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2veOC8k
All the best, Robin Cook
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Thank you to Publishers Weekly for the great review of my upcoming book, CHARLATANS. Available August 22nd as evidenced by the quote in the pic. Here are some links for preordering now.
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2oBUCbK
iBooks: http://apple.co/2u4YyRM
B&N: http://bit.ly/2vxWKjD
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2veOC8k
All the best, Robin Cook
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FetchRss)
July 15, 2017
Hello everyone! My creative agency, Trident Media...
Hello everyone! My creative agency, Trident Media Group, created this short video honoring the fortieth anniversary of COMA. I thought it was terrific, and I wanted to share it with you people. Watching the titles flash by certainly joggled my memories of all these books that I have written over these forty years, each being a little like a 'child' in my memory bank and each representing countless hours to come up with the medical issues, the characters, and twists and turns of the narratives. In many ways I am amazed I have been able to do it. When I was in college studying chemistry, math, and physics (I avoided the 'hard' courses like English and literature since I wasn't sure I could get an A, which I needed to get into medical school, no matter how hard I tried. With science, either I knew the material and could get an A, or, if I didn't, I could spend more time studying until I did know it!), I never thought I would end up being a writer. It is amazing the twists and turns one's life takes, especially now-a-days and especially in the USA. We do have opportunity here even if you weren't lucky enough to be born into a family with means. As far as I know, I was the first person in my family on either side to go to college, which opened up a whole new world for me.
The other thing I thought of when all the book titles flashed by as I watched the video is that almost all the issues and problems involving medicine and medical science that I have enumerated in my novels over the years have not gotten better. In fact, sadly enough, some have gotten worse, which says something extremely negative about our healthcare system, especially since one of the biggest factors that made me start writing was to change a system that wasn't serving the general public as well as it could. Maybe I am the only person who benefits in a negative fashion that our healthcare system is so bad. It seems, unfortunately, that our healthcare system is so awful that I will never run out of issues to write about!!!
Another thing that occurred to me as the titles flashed by was how many letters I have gotten over the years from people saying that my novels encouraged them to become doctors, nurses, medical technicians, or bio-medical researchers. I can't tell you how much that has warmed my heart over the years and how proud it has made me feel that I have influenced a career choice involving my profession. Mentioning this reminds me of, perhaps, the most surprising letter I ever received from a reader. I hope I haven't already told this story in a previous post, and if I have, please forgive me for repeating it. But one year I got a thick letter with a bunch of interesting foreign stamps (when I was in the third grade I started a stamp collection). Looking at the stamps and the return address, I was surprised the letter was from Bulgaria. When I opened the letter a number of photos dropped out. All were of a woman in her thirties posing in front of various ancient Egyptian monuments. Mystified, I read the long letter hand written in English which told a surprising story. I cannot remember the woman's name but I have the letter someplace at home since it was so surprising and memorable. She said she had graduated from the University of Sophia, which is located in the capital of Bulgaria (I had visited the city once during a long motorcycle journey I had taken, traveling from Turkey all the way up to Sweden). She said she had originally studied to be an accountant and had been working in the field when she happened to read my book Sphinx in Bulgarian. She wrote that she had been so taken by the story and the main character, Erica Baron (like Coma, the main character in Sphinx is a woman) that she decided to go back to the University of Sophia for a PhD in Egyptology. Not only that but she decided to do her PhD thesis on the exact same aspect of Egyptology that I had created for my fictitious main character!!!!!!!! I know what lot of people must be thinking. He writes fiction and can't help himself. This story of a Bulgarian woman who mimicked his main character has to be fiction. But I am not making this up! It really happened! I was astounded and still am whenever I think about it. It is such an honor to think that I had had such an impact on someone's life to switch their career in a way that a made me a little jealous. When I was in the sixth grade I decided I was going to become an Egyptologist from having spent many a Saturday afternoon in the Egyptian department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Amazing.
Now I have a question for anyone willing to give a specific issue some thought and tell me their ideas. As I have said, I have already done the treatment for my next book, which is going to be about the newest and most exciting advances in genetics. What I want to ask is whether people believe the title I am considering is a good idea or not for a "Cook book!" As everyone can guess, I like single words, especially if they begin with the letter C e.g. Coma, Cell, Contagion, Cure, Crisis, Chromosome 6 etc. Well, what do you readers think of the title CHIMERA?
Now a final point that I have been asked to remind everyone: he COMA giveaway ends today, July 15th !I hope all who wanted to enter has done so and good luck to everyone. Other than that, happy summer! All the best, Robin Cook
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The other thing I thought of when all the book titles flashed by as I watched the video is that almost all the issues and problems involving medicine and medical science that I have enumerated in my novels over the years have not gotten better. In fact, sadly enough, some have gotten worse, which says something extremely negative about our healthcare system, especially since one of the biggest factors that made me start writing was to change a system that wasn't serving the general public as well as it could. Maybe I am the only person who benefits in a negative fashion that our healthcare system is so bad. It seems, unfortunately, that our healthcare system is so awful that I will never run out of issues to write about!!!
Another thing that occurred to me as the titles flashed by was how many letters I have gotten over the years from people saying that my novels encouraged them to become doctors, nurses, medical technicians, or bio-medical researchers. I can't tell you how much that has warmed my heart over the years and how proud it has made me feel that I have influenced a career choice involving my profession. Mentioning this reminds me of, perhaps, the most surprising letter I ever received from a reader. I hope I haven't already told this story in a previous post, and if I have, please forgive me for repeating it. But one year I got a thick letter with a bunch of interesting foreign stamps (when I was in the third grade I started a stamp collection). Looking at the stamps and the return address, I was surprised the letter was from Bulgaria. When I opened the letter a number of photos dropped out. All were of a woman in her thirties posing in front of various ancient Egyptian monuments. Mystified, I read the long letter hand written in English which told a surprising story. I cannot remember the woman's name but I have the letter someplace at home since it was so surprising and memorable. She said she had graduated from the University of Sophia, which is located in the capital of Bulgaria (I had visited the city once during a long motorcycle journey I had taken, traveling from Turkey all the way up to Sweden). She said she had originally studied to be an accountant and had been working in the field when she happened to read my book Sphinx in Bulgarian. She wrote that she had been so taken by the story and the main character, Erica Baron (like Coma, the main character in Sphinx is a woman) that she decided to go back to the University of Sophia for a PhD in Egyptology. Not only that but she decided to do her PhD thesis on the exact same aspect of Egyptology that I had created for my fictitious main character!!!!!!!! I know what lot of people must be thinking. He writes fiction and can't help himself. This story of a Bulgarian woman who mimicked his main character has to be fiction. But I am not making this up! It really happened! I was astounded and still am whenever I think about it. It is such an honor to think that I had had such an impact on someone's life to switch their career in a way that a made me a little jealous. When I was in the sixth grade I decided I was going to become an Egyptologist from having spent many a Saturday afternoon in the Egyptian department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Amazing.
Now I have a question for anyone willing to give a specific issue some thought and tell me their ideas. As I have said, I have already done the treatment for my next book, which is going to be about the newest and most exciting advances in genetics. What I want to ask is whether people believe the title I am considering is a good idea or not for a "Cook book!" As everyone can guess, I like single words, especially if they begin with the letter C e.g. Coma, Cell, Contagion, Cure, Crisis, Chromosome 6 etc. Well, what do you readers think of the title CHIMERA?
Now a final point that I have been asked to remind everyone: he COMA giveaway ends today, July 15th !I hope all who wanted to enter has done so and good luck to everyone. Other than that, happy summer! All the best, Robin Cook
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