Kwei Quartey's Blog, page 9

A DETECTIVE TO REMEMBER–Creating an unforgettable sleuth

A memorable detective in crime fiction stays with the reader long after the novel is completed, no matter to which one of the four archetypes the sleuth belongs:

The amateur (Miss Marple, Easy Rawlins): Not officially within the criminal investigation system, but having knowledge, curiosity, desire for justice, etc.
The private investigator (Holmes, Marlow, Poirot, Wolfe, Millhone): Working professionally in criminal investigations, but outside the official criminal justice system.
The police investigator (Dalgliesh, Morse, Wallander): Part of an official investigative body charged with solving crimes.
The forensic specialist (Scarpetta, Thorndyke): Contributing specialized forensic knowledge rather than solving the crime as a whole.

There may be some overlap, particularly the amateur and the PI. The examples above obviously don’t comprise an exhaustive list, but they are some of the most recognizable detective characters in crime literature over the decades and centuries. There is nothing new under the sun. Incorporating characteristics or features of these famous detectives into one’s own is not so much stealing as it is learning by emulation.

But one’s emulation must fit your creation. Agatha Christie‘s Miss Marple and Walter Mosley‘s Easy Rawlins are both indomitable in their quests for truth and justice, but they are radically different characters. In The Murder at the Vicarage, someone describes Marple as “a white-haired old lady with a gentle appealing manner,” while another condemns her as always knowing “everything that happens and draws the worst inferences.” Marple is somehow present even when she doesn’t appear to be, and that so-called “gentle appealing manner” belies her remarkable ability to dig up the truth. She solves mysteries within the rather stuffy confines of manners and modesty expected in the docile English village of St. Mary Mead.

Easy Rawlins, on the other hand, operates in the gritty environment of 1940s to 1960s Los Angeles. Mosley’s novels practically crackle with tension on every page, and we fear that the next time Rawlins turns down an alley off Slauson Avenue, he will run into either a cop with a grudge against him, or an equally unsavory gangster who would prefer Rawlins dead. But don’t fear too much. Easy is a tough customer as well.

Washington as Easy Rawlins (Photo: maximumfun.org)

Just because your crime fiction is set in Iceland or Ghana doesn’t mean Rawlins or Marple are irrelevant to you. From Christie, you can learn the art of misdirection if you’re writing the classic mystery rather than a thriller (more about the distinction in an upcoming blog), and how to manipulate time and alibi in relation to the murder. With Mosley’s novels, study his tense style and the ability to weave multiple characters into a progressively tangled world of crime and corruption. If your detective is an amateur, notice how Easy believably knows many people, both honest and crooked, who can help him out. This is your chance to create a bunch of scary, creepy, slimy, or dangerous folks encountered along the way. Easy Rawlins is charismatic enough to have been played in film by Denzel Washington. When your character gets portrayed in the movies, you are probably doing well.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle‘s Sherlock Holmes is a transcendent and influential figure among detectives. He’s a singular creation, challenging enough to have been played on screen by multiple actors over decades. In the literary version, because he’s seen through the eyes of his companion Watson, who we sense does not always altogether understand Holmes, we as readers don’t ever get inside the great detective’s head or heart–well, rarely, at least. He is only what Watson reveals to us, and that makes Holmes wondrous in many ways. We want to follow him and his magical set of characteristics: an eerie ability to make deductions from keen observation, a nervous, excitable energy on the one hand, and a predisposition to depression and drug abuse on the other. He solves mysteries through logical, scientific reasoning and doesn’t go by gut feeling. “I never guess,” he says. “It is a shocking habit,—destructive to the logical faculty.”

Benedict Cumberbatch as the modern Holmes

Sometimes, his inferences can be a little improbable–as when, in The Sign of the Four, he deduced that his companion Watson had been to the post office that morning because Watson’s shoe had a speck of reddish mud found only opposite that post office, where the sidewalk was being dug up–but we are willing to accept these deductions and even marvel at them, no matter how implausible. That is Sherlock Holmes. In many instances, Holmes’s attention to detail foreshadows modern forensics (e.g. as in trace evidence), and it’s interesting that a BBC TV series has successfully portrayed a present-day Holmes.

Your detective can emulate some of Holmes’s powers of observation and deduction, or be as methodical (or not), or perhaps have some of his physical characteristics (unexpected strength for his thin physique), or failings like drug abuse and depression, but even if you use nothing Sherlockian at all, remember one vital principle from the master himself as he declared in The Sign of the Four: “Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth.” Here is the character giving advice to the mystery writer. Perhaps author Raymond Chandler once saw this powerful reflection and took it to heart, because he made a remarkably similar pronouncement in Casual Notes on the Mystery Novel, 1949: “The solution, once revealed, must seem to have been inevitable. At least half of all the mystery novels published violate this law.”

Ouch, Raymond.

Next up: some more remarkable detectives in fiction.

 

 

 

 

NOW WHAT?–How to conquer post publication depression (PPD)

The Syndrome

In his satirical article, Timothy Hurley describes a syndrome he calls Post Publication Depression (PPD). I love this kind of tongue-in-cheek “report,” but in fact Post Publication Depression does exist. I give a small but not over-serious nod to its passing resemblance to Postpartum Depression (i.e. publication is the birth of the author’s “baby,”) which takes the same acronym.

Post Publication Depression sets up like this:

Months or years of working on the book (let’s assume nonfiction.)
The author’s eager anticipation and that of his/her friends, family and associates.
Palpable excitement as the pub date draws near.
Tremendous buildup to the date with social media notifications and announcements, sometimes even pre-pub radio, TV, online or podcast interviews.
Euphoria on the release date with more social media buzz, resounding congratulations from friends, family, indie bookstores, and so on.

What follows is a feverish period of two to several weeks (the “incubation period,” as Hurley describes it), during which the author may enjoy good reviews, awesome sales, and well-attended appearances. Then, with time (this varies by author), congratulations begin to thin out and it seems the rest of the world has moved on and left the author behind. All that happiness is replaced with letdown, which can vary from mild despondency to wretched gloom. A period of self-doubt and second guessing of oneself may ensue. Post publication exhilaration and depression are both particularly pronounced with first novels.

In his Guide to Publishers, Editors & Literary Agents, Jeff Herman writes, “No one directly discusses or recognizes this genuine condition [PPD] because newly published authors are expected to be overjoyed and grateful . . . In reality, people who reach the pinnacle of success in any field of endeavor will often feel an emotional letdown in the wake of their accomplishment . . . Writers are especially prone to wallowing alone, as theirs is a solitary process by design . . .”

What to do about PPD

This advice is not intended to get anyone down. Its purpose is to prevent or at least soften a potential crash landing:

By all means enjoy the experience of your book release (especially the first), but keep it in perspective–unless you’re James Patterson or JK, in which case you can think or do whatever the hell you please.
Expect much of the attention from your editor/publisher to shift away from you after four to six weeks or so. You’re not their only author and they really do have to move on.
Remember that “I can’t wait to read it” doesn’t necessarily mean that exactly. It’s just something people say.
At book fairs and book panels, high attendance doesn’t necessarily translate to book sales, unless you’re . . . well, you get the picture.
Some authors read all or most of their reviews, while others don’t. My advice is, read the ones that matter and forget about the rest. IMHO, dissecting every Amazon.com review is not healthy.

Now, here’s the best part:

Before you are close to wrapping up the current novel, begin to think about the next one, and start writing it as soon as you can. When the current novel is released, you should be working on the next. This is your best defense against a void being created as the present excitement dies down. Sure, carry on the necessary appearances and interviews for the just-published novel, but partially detaching yourself from it and projecting yourself into the future and onto the next work is healthy.

“I CAN’T PUBLISH THIS!”–And other reasons why you should keep on writing

In 1929, when William Faulkner submitted an early version of his novel Sanctuary, the publisher wrote back, “Good God, I can’t publish this. We’d both be in jail.” He was referring to rape themes in the novel, which even today might have caused some controversy–particularly the scene with a corncob . Faulkner put the manuscript aside and forgot about it. But to his surprise two years later, he received the galley copies and the novel went on to be published.

Faulkner was not the only acclaimed author to receive a strongly-worded rejection. Rudyard Kipling was told, “I’m sorry Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language.” Through history and up to the present day, authors of note have gone on to do very well after a rebuff or two or more:

“I do not see anything in this to convince me you can write either narrative or fiction,” Harper’s editor told Zane Grey, who eventually had 250 million copies of his books in print.

To Dan Brown, an initial publisher declared, “It is so badly written.” So Brown went to Doubleday instead, and The Da Vinci Code sold 80 million.

Margaret Mitchell received thirty-eight rejections from publishers before finding one to publish her novel Gone With The Wind, which sold 30 million copies.

After fourteen consecutive agency rejections Stephenie Meyer‘s Twilight went on to sell 17 million copies and spend 91 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

A personal story: just before the turn of the century (anyone remember Y2K?) when I was trying to get Wife of the God represented, a British literary agent told me in a know-it-all tone, “There are two areas of the world no one wants to read about: Afghanistan, and Africa.”

But four years later, that declaration proved mistaken. Just after the 9/11 attacks when Americans were looking for something to take their minds off the terrible events, they discovered Alexander McCall Smith and his soft and comforting No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Set where? In Botswana, southern Africa. Then, in 2003 The Kite Runner was published. Written by Khaled Hosseini (a physician by training), the story took place in Afghanistan, and became an international blockbuster, selling some 7 million copies and retaining its position on the New York Times bestseller list for months.

Had I listened to this particular literary agent, I might have stopped writing. No question, a snooty or harsh rejection letter (more likely an email nowadays) can be painful, but remember that it is really only an individual opinion. There is little objectivity in an agent/publisher’s decision to take on a novel or not. The best thing to do on receiving a rejection is to move on to your next plan, because even the best of the best get rejections. Ask the phenomenally successful J.K. Rowling and she’ll tell you all about it. Among the publishers who turned her down, there may be still much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

One exceptional type of rejection email that you might not want to delete from your computer (and your mind) is the thoughtfully written one. Although these may be rare, they do happen. The publisher/editor in this case may say “no,” but she may also make a suggestion on how to improve the work. If so, ask if she would be willing to take a second look after the changes are made. Even if the answer to that is still no, the suggestions offered may be worth considering. One agent told me she would love to be able to take on Wife of the Gods, but she doubted it would sell. She did make a suggestion on how to improve it, however, and I took her advice. It ultimately proved to be the right move. The revised version didn’t go back to her, however. By that time, I had moved on.

A couple other suggestions to preempt a spiral into crushing depression when that “unpublishable” notification arrives:

1) Nothing wrong with confidence about yourself, but keep it in perspective: if you expect to become the next Dan Brown overnight, you’re probably going to be disappointed.

2) Consider using the services of a freelance editor before submitting your work for consideration. I can’t tell you how much a clean, typo-free manuscript is appreciated by editors. All authors need editing, by the way–even Raymond Chandler, who was peeved when his editor told him he was splitting infinitives.

3) Be open to tossing out and/or rewriting large or small segments of your novel. The saying goes, “Authors don’t write, they just rewrite . . . and rewrite . . . and rewrite . . .”

WHAT IS IT ABOUT CRIME FICTION?

Mystery, thriller and crime novels are the most read fiction genre, and have been for some time. However one source says that romance novels make more money. If both statements are true, it must mean that romance readers buy a whole lot more books per person than do mystery readers.

Whatever the case, I believe mystery writers and readers have something in common: they’re trying to understand, get a grip on, or gain insight into human behavior. What drives people? The most extreme of human motives–jealousy, greed, hatred, subterfuge, revenge, psychosis–and the subsequent extreme act of deliberately killing another person, bring human behavior into sharp relief. Perhaps we use these extremes as a way of understanding the wider world–or even the much smaller world of our own lives. Have you ever observed another person’s actions and thought, “Why on earth would he/she do something like that?” Murder is the ultimate questioner of motive. At the end of a murder mystery, it’s not only the satisfaction of finding out who- or howdunit that we all relish, it’s the fascination with why, because with a sudden flash of insight, we understand something about someone that we had never realized before.

Some readers like the game of figuring out who, among the suspects, committed the murder, and they are really good at it, which is fine. A mystery writer loves to hear that he/she kept the readers guessing, but someone is going to figure out whodunit, and that’s okay. I always joked that you could figure out the murderer in an Agatha Christie novel, but you’ll never guess the motive, which Dame Agatha will deliver in a five-page dissertation that will have your head spinning by the time she’s done. Wait, run that by again (frantically back-paging), whose uncle did what, when, with which inheritance?

I’m both a physician and mystery writer, and have explored the curious historical relationship between the two elsewhere. Admittedly, as a writer, I perhaps read mystery novels with too much of an analytical eye, which could prevent me from enjoying them more completely.

What are some of the reasons you  read mysteries/crime fiction/thrillers–beyond just pure enjoyment? Or maybe that’s your only reason, which is good enough.

PARCHED CALIFORNIA: AN AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE

No doubt, there’s drought

California Governor Jerry Brown has declared that his state’s four-year drought has reached a state of emergency, and he has issued an executive order mandating a 25 percent reduction in the state’s water usage over the coming year. To get an idea of the seriousness of the drought, take a look at these graphic before and after drought photos.

Drought is caused not only by high temperatures with a lack of precipitation, but by overuse and overpopulation. So, in Southern California, when the owner of a drought-resistant, water-conserving  garden like this. . .

Photo: Kwei Quartey

sees a lush lawn like this . . .

Beautifully manicured lawn in Pasadena, California (Photo: Kwei Quartey)

. . . or sprinklers going like this:

Another luxuriant lawn (Photo: Kwei Quartey)

. . .he or she might feel just a little irked. Maintaining a lawn that green requires gallons and gallons of water. That techniques such as mulching or soil enrichment can reduce the amount necessary is usually small comfort to water conservers.

Africa: a radically different problem (or is it?)

While Californians take clean, running tap water and gushing sprinklers for granted, the same can’t be said of most of sub-Saharan Africa. In rural areas particularly, time and energy is spent fetching water from streams, rivers or community bore holes. This task falls largely on women, who carry water on their heads in buckets, pans, and other containers, bearing loads of up to forty pounds or more (a gallon weighs approximately eight pounds, and African women like those shown in the image below can handle 5-gallon buckets or more). That’s only ten pounds short of the airlines’ checked bag allowance. Head-carrying your luggage on your next trip is not recommended.

Head carrying buckets of water without spilling a drop (Photo: pixshark.com)

As a result, these women often suffer from severe headaches, neck and back pains, but they have no choice. They have to get water home for washing, bathing and cooking. According to a United Nations study, women in sub-Saharan Africa spend forty billion hours a year collecting water.

Californians aren’t likely to end up carrying water home on their heads, but we could benefit from some of the water conservation techniques that are second nature to many Africans. When I was growing up in Ghana, I often saw my father turn on the tap to fill his cupped right hand, turn off the tap, and then wet the left hand with the water from the right. With both hands wet now, he lathered up. For rinsing, he would apply the same tap on, tap off technique. Try this at home and you’ll find you don’t need as much water to lather your hands as you thought, and you only need to turn on the tap again when you’re ready to rinse. Most of us idly run the tap while we’re lathering.

In Ghana, I also learned to turn off the shower while soaping and shampooing, a common Ghanaian practice Californians should adopt. Here’s a little experiment you can do at home. Leave the shower on while you’re soaping up, but this time collect it in a bucket (this works best if you have a handheld shower head.) You’ll be surprised how much water you’ve just saved.

Another bad habit we have is running the water while waiting for it to get hot (particularly in winter). Recently, I measured how much is wasted this way by running the “heating-up” water into a six-quart pot first thing in the morning after a cold night. I collected about eight quarts, which is two gallons. That amount daily comes to 728 gallons a year for me alone. Let’s extend that more widely to Los Angeles, the population of which is about four million. According to one study, 72 percent of Americans shower once a day. Assuming it takes the same amount of time for everyone’s tap water to heat up and we all use the same rate of flow (big assumptions, obviously), Los Angelenos could potentially save two billion gallons of water a year by catching the runoff as they wait for their running water to turn from cold to hot.

As the California’s drought crisis has intensified, I have personally added water- conservation methods within the home. I collect the “heating up” water from the tap and shower and use it for the toilet tank. Others use the runoff for the garden, but it could also be used in the kitchen for dishwashing. Sometimes I have a backlog of a couple of buckets, which is quite reminiscent of bathrooms in Ghana, where the water supply might be erratic or the pressure too low. There, one collects water when it’s available in anticipation of dry spells, and by necessity, a bucket of water is used to bathe instead of a shower. Buckets in the bathroom may not be the height of indoor decoration, but they serve a purpose. Actually, taking a bucket bath (using a largish plastic bowl as a dipper) can be surprisingly satisfying. Try it one day.

African mothers bathe their children with a firm hand (Photo: Shutterstock)

African kids learn conservation very early on. A 5-gallon bucket of water is sufficient for a full bath, but a practiced African can do it with half that much. In comparison, a modern American shower head delivers 2.5 gallons/min, or 25 gallons in a ten-minute shower. Californians are being asked to take 5-minute showers, but it would be even better if we turned off the water while lathering.

The water shortages of sub-Saharan African may seem distant and unrelated to us in the States, and bathing with a bucket of water may be considered infra dig. But California and many other states may have to take a leaf out of Africa’s book. Like it or not,  water shortages are coming. Already, California farmers and cities are drilling into the precious groundwater supply, some of it established over the centuries. With increasingly stringent regulations on water use, maybe those bucket baths aren’t so implausible after all.

 

CRIME FICTION WORLD TOUR: G is for GHANA

Ghana is located on the coast of West Africa. Its southernmost tip, Cape Three Points, is closest to zero than any other world land mass in three aspects: zero latitude (Equator), zero longitude (Greenwich Meridian), and zero sea level.

(From gowestafrica.org)

In 1957, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan country to gain its independence, from Britain. After topsy-turvy years of one military regime after the next, Ghana transitioned to democratic rule in 1992 and has been a thriving democracy ever since. Besides that, the country is the world’s second-highest producer of cacao (from which we get chocolate), and has a wealth of natural resources such as gold and aluminum ore, not to mention sizable deposits of crude oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Guinea.

What Ghana does not have a lot of is crime fiction, but in sub-Saharan Africa, that isn’t a characteristic peculiar to Ghana alone. In her article African Crime Fiction: The World As It Is or the World As We Would Like It to Be, Karen Ferreira-Myers observes that crime fiction was for a long time not well received in Africa. Crime fiction in Francophone countries like Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Benin, Senegal, Mali, etc., was not regarded as “true” literature and the African intelligentsia took it as “bourgeois entertainment.” No, seriously? Nevertheless, crime fiction from French-speaking African writers such as Senegalese Abasse Ndione (La Vie en Spirale) and Malian Moussa Konate (Meurtre a Timbouctou) have been around now for decades.

According to Cheryl Dash, a reference in Ferreira-Myers’s article, the origin of the African crime novel in English can be found in Fella’s Choice (1974) by Nigerian Kole Omotoso, about the adventures of a James Bond-like character. Although southern Africa has been blazing the trail of crime fiction for some time now, West Africa may catch up at some point. The founding of Cassava Republic Press, a Nigerian publishing house with a crime division, is exciting. In Ghana, Afram Publishers is relatively new to crime fiction with the novella Death at the Voyager Hotel. 

The Indiana African Crime Fiction Project lists four crime novelists of Ghanaian origin:

1. Yaba Badoe (True Murder).

2. Benjamin Kwakye (The Sun by Night)

3. Peggy Oppong (The Lemon Suitcase) and The Shark. (The Lemon Suitcase could be out of print.)

4. Kwei Quartey (Wife of the Gods, Children of the Street, Murder at Cape Three Points, and coming up, Gold of the Fathers, Death by His Grace, and Off the Rails.)

 

True Crime in Ghana

The US Department of State lists Ghana as a “high” crime threat to visitors and residents alike. Most are crimes of opportunity, such as pickpocketing, petty theft, robbery and burglary. The word opportunity is key here: don’t make the opportunity available. Wearing flashy necklaces and bracelets, dangling a purse in clear view so it can be easily snatched, and wandering into dodgy areas of town without accompanying security are just a few examples. Almost all residences of any worth are protected by a high wall with razor wire or electric fencing. Nocturnal travel on dark roads is a no-no and simply an invitation to armed robbers, who are not a pleasant bunch. Of note also are fraud and Internet scams, which of course extend far outside Ghana’s borders.

Intentional homicide rates for Ghana vary widely, depending on the website. Gunpolicy.org has a dated figure of 1.71 per 100,000 in 2011. United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) gives a 2012 figure of 6.1 per 100,000 population of Ghana, compared with 4.7 for USA, 0.2 for Singapore, 0.6 for Switzerland (which has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world) and 90.4 for Honduras. Caution must be exercised when comparing two or more countries because factors such as reliability of record-keeping and access to medical care in a particular country affect the numbers. For example, you are more likely to survive multiple stab wounds in the USA (where you might get to an ER in minutes) than you are in Ghana where EMS is not well developed, medical resources are often limited, etc.

According to GunPolicy.org, 2012 estimated firearm possession rate, both legal and illicit, is 2 per 100 Ghanaians, compared to 101 per 100 in the United States. Estimated rate of illicit firearm ownership is 0.6 per 100. Most illegal weapons are made by local artisans who traditionally design firearms for hunting. They may be unreliable in operation. There is continued concern over the gun-related crimes in Ghana.

The kind of murders in the Darko Dawson series are probably a lot more creative than most that occur in Ghana. However, art does sometimes imitate life in that regard. Just recently, in the death of a man ostensibly hit by a train, the police suspect foul play, which sounds to me like the opening chapter to a Darko murder mystery. Too late, mystery writers! I saw it first.

 

TEN MURPHY’S LAW THINGS ABOUT WHEELCHAIRS YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE KNOWN

Having recently undergone a minor orthopedic procedure, I’m at home on temporary disability staying off my feet (and writing), and I’ve become quite adept at zipping around the house in a wheelchair (manual) and using a walker to transfer. But it’s not all sweetness and light. I have discovered some wheelchair phenomena that are as profound as  Newton’s laws of motion.

1. You cannot use the words “comfortable” and “wheelchair” in the same sentence. If you think the average wheelchair is created with the comfort of the user in mind, you are mistaken.

2. Related to this, most wheelchair cushions do not live up to their claims of comfort–memory foams, gels and what have you. In the end, they are all a pain in the ass.

3. Most wheelchairs are ugly. They will not match the decor of your home unless perhaps you are into goth. My wheelchair doesn’t look anything like this.

4. Unless you live in Downton Abbey (which series of that name, by the way, will likely end in 2015) there will always be a tight corner or more in your house that you must navigate in order to enter a room, and you will invariably crash into the doorjamb. Entry must then be continued by brute force. Watch your fingers.

5. Regardless of how expert you are at maneuvering around the house, the wheelchair will somehow clip the corner of your best rosewood table.

6. Similar to #5, if you push the footrests aside for any reason, they will snag on random items of furniture and try to pull them along.

7. Similar to #6, various projecting pieces on the footrest will attempt to ensnare the hem of your flannel pajamas as you get up and send you crashing to the floor.

8. If you have to use both a walker and wheelchair, be aware that these two items do not like each other. Try to keep them as far apart from each as possible. The notion that they can be used in tandem is only half true. When they get too close, they grab onto each other’s arms, legs, wheels, and the infamous tennis balls on the two rear feet of the walker, and chaos ensues.

9. One front wheel will eventually start to diverge from the general direction of the chair, similar to a grocery store cart.

10. The wheelchair will collect objects such as the sock you dropped yesterday and didn’t bother to pick up. This will wrap around the wheel shaft in some way, causing a mysterious scraping noise and a pull of the chair to one side. Also, the bottom of the jacket you’re wearing will get tangled up with one of the wheels.

But in the end, what can you do? You need the damn chair.

This was poking fun of course, but for many of our elderly, medically affected and our veterans disabled by the viciousness of war, wheelchairs are essential for daily life. For an interesting read on the history of wheelchairs, see here and here. 

Modern powered versions and sleek, sophisticated machines adapted for athletic competition and the Paralympic Games have come along as well.

Clearly, not all wheelchairs are equal!

SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION (OR LESS?): REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING AND DARKO DAWSON

According to  (don’t panic–the pronunciation is simple: “Oh-Yellow-Woe”) who plays Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the current film Selma, it was through divine intervention that he got the role. Since he mentioned Oprah Winfrey in almost the same breath, I thought the point he was trying to make, which many of us have known for quite some time, was that actually, Oprah is God. Turns out, no, he wasn’t quite saying that, but close enough. Having met Oprah Winfrey on the set of The Butler, where the two quickly became friends, the story goes that Oyelowo passionately told her how much he had always wanted to play Dr. King on screen. And God–I mean, Oprah–looked upon the demo tape Oyelowo had made in the role of Martin Luther King, and lo, She saw that it was good. And God–Oprah–decided that it shall come to pass that such a film be made with Oyelowo playing the role of the civil rights giant.

It took some seven years for the final product to materialize, however. This Christmas week saw the release of Selma, a portrayal of the violent, horrific and soul-stirring events surrounding King’s 1965 voting rights marches from Selma, Alabama to state capital Montgomery, which ultimately resulted in President Lyndon Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law. Directed by , Selma is Hollywood’s first and only major feature in the half century since his assassination in which Dr. King is the central figure, and/or in which the civil rights era is portrayed from the perspective of a black person. What that says about Hollywood probably isn’t good.

Oyelowo is one courageous man. It must be daunting to play a larger-than-life figure such as Dr. King, but the British actor, who has lived in Africa, Europe and the United States, has pulled it off. There is only a passing resemblance between King and the actor portraying him, but one forgets that as one watches Oyelowo reflect some of the bone-deep weariness and sadness that the civil rights leader’s eyes often betrayed.

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING; OYELOWO IN THE ROLE (Photo: eonline.com)

Oyelowo’s strength, perhaps out of the British tradition of understatement in performance, plays a nuanced Dr. King. It is a breakout role, something that will move Oyelowo from a mere “I’ve seen him in a lot of movies” class to the rarified club of Oscar contenders. Very important and “heavy” roles are now likely to come his way.

Selma is not a biopic in the manner such narratives are often presented in a linear and sometimes plodding fashion. Instead, Duvernay has taken an event or series of events at the center of which King and his personality–pensive, smart, dogged and sometimes brooding–is highlighted along with the attendant backdrops of King’s life, particularly his marital issues. He suffered his share of despondency and despair, and sometimes appeared close to giving up.

Selma portrays antagonism between King and President Lyndon B. Johnson, but the screenwriters may have bitten off quite a large chunk of creative license here. Joseph A. Califano Jr. (Johnson’s top assistant for domestic affairs from 1965 to 1969) argues that Johnson was on the same side of the issue as King.

But back to the title of the blog, what is the connection between Dr. Martin King, Jr. and Murder at Cape Three Points‘ Inspector Darko Dawson?

Dr. King is played by Oyelowo in the movie Selma.
Oyewolo is friends with Oprah
Oprah owns Oprah.com (actually, she owns most things)
Oprah.com reviewed Murder at Cape Three Points (“MAC3P”), and their blurb is on the jacket of the paperback version due out Feb 17, 2015
MAC3P is the third in the series featuring Detective Inspector Darko Dawson (soon to be Detective Chief Inspector, by the way.)

They are separated by fewer than six connections. Not bad, right?

 

GETTING ALONG WITH YOUR DOCTOR: TEN TIPS

Doctors are expected to display and cultivate a good “bedside manner,” but you as the patient can also take certain measures to help make your doctor visit(s) successful and productive.

1) If possible, schedule your visit early in the day. If a first appointment is available, grab it! Your doctor is likely to be fresher, sharper and more pleasant in the earlier morning hours.

OKAY, MAYBE NOT THAT HAPPY
(Shutterstock)

By the way, if you are visiting an urgent care center, do not wait until the last half hour before closing time in the expectation that “the place will be empty” and that you will be in and out in no time. When you arrive, you will find that everyone else seems to have had exactly the same idea. Rushed urgent care doctors make more mistakes and take more potentially jeopardizing shortcuts at closing time. This is when diagnoses get missed and a brain hemorrhage is called a migraine, or an appendicitis is diagnosed as gastroenteritis.

2) Be on time for your appointment! Yes, I know doctors often keep you waiting, but it’s seldom, if ever, deliberate. Some doctor offices have a policy that if you are 15 or 30 minutes late, you become a “no-show.” Trust me, there is nothing more anguishing than arriving late only to be told that your visit has been canceled and the doctor will not see you. If you’re running late, call the office, give the staff your  ETA and ask them if it’s okay. Chances are they will give you a break.

3) If you aren’t feeling too ill to smile at your doctor and say hello as he or she comes into the room, it will be much appreciated. Believe it or not, doctors like pleasant patients as much as patients like them to be pleasant and open. You don’t need to be over-chatty, but affable is good. If you’re not getting a warm vibe back from the doctor, give it a few minutes, s/he may come around. Doctors are human too.

4) State what your visit is about at the very start. “The reason I’m here, doc, is that I’ve had a pain in my right side for the past two weeks.” Saying something snarky like, “Isn’t it all in the record?” is a really bad way to start. I’ll let you into a secret: Even if you spent 30 minutes in the waiting area filling out what seemed to have been endless questions about your previous history, the doctor may glance at it but probably won’t spend that much time reading it in depth. He or she will want to hear everything from you again.

5) If you have more than one issue, say so: “I’m here about two things that have been bothering me, Doctor,” and lay them down at the start. What drives doctors up the wall is the “Columbo Syndrome,” from the Lieutenant Columbo detective series in which Columbo is famous for saying, “Oh, just one more thing,” just when the murder suspect thinks the interview is over.

THE INIMITABLE COLUMBO
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Doctors’ stomachs sink if as the visit is concluding, you say, “Oh, I forgot to mention one thing–I’ve been having some chest pain recently.” You do yourself a disservice, because now the doc is focused on moving on to the next patient, and s/he may not give this “new” symptom full attention. In fact, you may get a brushoff.

6) While discussing your symptoms, avoid telling the doctor that you believe you have disease x or y because that’s what your brother/sister/wife/husband/nephew/cousin or the Internet said. Doctors are simply nonplussed when a patient comes for a consultation and seems to have more confidence in what a layperson has declared about their illness than in what the doctor’s diagnosis is.

7) In the same way, doctors have issues with statements like, “I need an antibiotic for my sore throat.” Even worse is, “My other doctor always gives me an antibiotic for my sore throat and it takes it away.” Worst is, “My sister gave me some of her antibiotics and I got better, so I want some more.”

8)Doctors love it when a patient brings a written summary of your past illnesses (or that of your dependent), past surgeries/hospitalizations with the dates all nicely noted down. The physician can then easily write it into the clinical record later on.

9) On the other hand, oddly enough, doctors cringe when a patient brings in a long list of symptoms and reads each item off one by one.

10) It might surprise you how much a doctor appreciates a simple “thank you.”

 

Foreign Policy In Focus columnist Kwei Quartey M.D. is a crime novelist and physician who grew up in Ghana. He is now based in Los Angeles. His fourth novel, Gold of the Fathers, will be published in February 2016. Follow him at @Kwei_Quartey.

 

THE EBOLA PLAGUE: African heroes and martyrs

Dr Stella Ameyo Adadevoh

During the height of the Ebola panic, nurse Kacie Hickox, who cared for Ebola victims in Sierra Leone, was forcibly quarantined in New Jersey on her return to the United States. Said a friend and former classmate, “She’s really concerned about her colleagues coming back to the U.S. after her. These are heroes, not criminals, and they shouldn’t be treated as such.” [Italics added.] Indeed, it takes extraordinary courage—and yes, heroism—to put one’s life in jeopardy to take care of patients suffering from one of the most infectious agents on earth.

Americans may have had the impression that the heroes of Ebola are only physicians and medical staff from the United States and organizations such as the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders. But scores of African healthcare workers have made the “ultimate sacrifice” in their heroic care of Ebola victims.

A Resolute Woman of Distinguished Pedigree

An African physician who died in the line of duty was senior consultant endocrinologist Stella Ameyo Adadevoh. Born October 1956, she was the descendant of Nigerian nationalist and founder Herbert Macauley. Adadevoh had been working in Nigeria for 21 years at the First Consultant Hospital in Obalende on Lagos Island when Nigeria’s index case (the initial patient an epidemiological investigation) for Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) arrived at the hospital on July 20, 2014.

His name was Patrick Sawyer, a 40-year-old naturalized United States citizen who was public health manager for multinational steel company ArcelorMittal in Liberia. On July 9, 2014, he reported to his employer that he had been exposed to his Ebola-infected sister, who had died from the disease two days prior. He was instructed to stay away from the worksite until the incubation period of 21 days had passed, and he was referred to Liberia’s Ministry of Health.

Although he was supposedly under the supervision of the ministry, Sawyer managed to get out of the country with permission of the Ministry of Finance, flying to Nigeria as a member of the Liberian delegation to an ECOWAS conference. By the time he was en route, he had become severely ill, collapsing once he reached Lagos. When he was rushed to First Consultant Hospital, he did not report his exposure to his Ebola-infected sister, and in fact denied any high-risk Ebola contact whatsoever.

In hospital, Sawyer tested positive for malaria, but he failed to respond to appropriate treatment, and as he manifested increasingly hemorrhagic signs, Dr Adadevoh’s suspicions that he had EVD rose sharply. In medical practice, this combination of wariness and questioning is called “having a high index of suspicion,” and in this instance, Dr. Adadevoh had it. The repercussions of its absence have been amply demonstrated in the now-infamous Ebola case in Texas.

 Putting the Patrick Sawyer in isolation presented tremendous and varied challenges for Adadevoh and her team. Highly placed government officials and the ECOWAS conference organizers pressured Adadevoh and the hospital administration to release Sawyer, which she vehemently refused to do. Ultimately it was the steadfastness of her character that prevailed, and Sawyer stayed right where he was in isolation.

His behavior became violent and troubling. On his being told that his Ebola test had returned positive, he reportedly flew into a rage, pulled out his intravenous catheter, splattered his blood around, removed his pants and attempted to urinate on his caregivers. Although Sawyer’s actions may have appeared deliberately malicious, it is possible that by then he was afflicted with a poorly understood Ebola encephalitis that causes erratic behavior and confusion.

Adadevoh stood up to these bureaucratic and medical clashes and stayed true to her profession and to principles of public health. No doubt she visualized any number of catastrophic outcomes had Sawyer been released from hospital. Ebola could then have spread like wildfire, potentially affecting thousands. As it was, Nigeria suffered only eight deaths and was declared Ebola-free on October 20, 2014, after acting quickly and aggressively to trace and isolate contacts.

A friend said of Stella Adadevoh that she could be “martial with care and sweeping in her command,” bringing to mind a decisive and confident woman who “was at home discussing experimental physics, molecular biology, public health [or] lipstick.” On August 19, 2014, she succumbed to the EVD she had contracted from Mr. Sawyer. She is survived by her husband and only son. Three other staff members at First Consultant Hospital also died.

Tribute to this singular physician does not ignore the dedicated work of present physicians, support staff, and grave diggers, but like Dr. Sheik Umar Khan of Sierra Leone, who died of EVD on July 29, 2014, Dr. Adadevoh gave her life at a time when the world health machinery had barely got in gear. She very likely saved Nigeria from a nightmarish spread of Ebola that could have impacted other countries far beyond the borders of West Africa’s most populous nation.

Kwei Quartey M.D. is a crime novelist and physician who grew up in Ghana. He is now based in Los Angeles. An episodic columnist at Foreign Policy in Focus and a contributor to The Huffington Post, he travels frequently to Ghana. His fourth novel, GOLD OF THE FATHERS, will be published in February 2016. Follow him at @Kwei_Quartey.