In Patricia Gussin's latest thriller, The Test, a father structures his will to require his six children to pass a "test" before they can inherit their portion of his two billion dollar estate. But what begins as a dream to inspire his children to give back to society and embrace a code of moral values, quickly turns into a nightmare in which the six siblings have to face their personal demons to defeat the evil influence that could claim one of their own.
Gussin has been praised for her "smart plotting, top-notch characters, and intense action." Publishers Weekly compared The Test to Sidney Sheldon. Below, this busy author (she's also a medical doctor and mother of seven) takes a few minutes to discuss her new release, her writing goals, and her unique road to publication.
The premise of The Test is quite interesting and unique. How did you come up with the idea for the novel?
My husband and I have a neighbor who is obsessive about fairness when it comes to distributing his considerable wealth. One day after a conversation with this guy, we looked at each other and said simultaneously, "He wants to manage from the grave." Thus The Test, was born. We have a billionaire making a desperate attempt to create a lasting legacy. Six children, six agendas, six dramatically different walks of life, but more than six terrifying twists and turns as a psychopath inserts himself in their midst.
You describe all of your books as thrillers, but with underlying social, family, and ethical issues. Do the underlying issues arise organically as you write and develop your story, or do you start with the intention of working a particular issue into the plot? Is it important to you that your novels have these underlying issues, and if so, why?
Like most authors, I started writing about "what I knew." For me that was family and medicine and the tough balancing act for a professional mom. My first thriller, Shadow of Death, dealt with a medical student with four kids in the epicenter of the Detroit riots. My second, Twisted Justice, explores the destruction of a family when murder and betrayal, past and present choices collide. The Test exposes an array of family values overwhelmed by the greed of a psychopath. It is important to me that each story represents an ethical or moral dilemma over which I can layer the plot and the twists and turns.
You are an author of now three novels, but you are also a medical doctor and the mother of seven children. How do you find time to write? Do you have a set writing schedule?
My kids are launched now, but I've always juggled many roles. I had two children when I started medical school and four when I graduated four years later and eventually ended up with seven. I've always worked so I've always been doing the time balance thing. My schedule is too erratic to set a particular time to write, but I grab every hour I can.
What made you go from medicine to writing? Do you still actively practice medicine?
I started writing when I was Worldwide Vice President for Johnson & Johnson Consumer Pharmaceuticals. That meant a lot of Asian travel, and that's when I pulled out my pen and paper and started. What a nightmare that created. Imagine having to decipher a stack of notebooks full of scribbles. I love medicine and I love writing. My medical practice now is all volunteer - primary care at a low income senior clinic.
Tell us about your journey to getting published. How long did it take? What was the biggest surprise? Is there anything you know now that you wished you'd known then?
I was fortunate enough to get an agent early on and I started to go to writers' conferences where I met many wonderful fellow writers. I convinced my husband to go to one of these meetings. The big surprise: at the end of the meeting he said, "I'm going to start a publishing company." He did, Oceanview Publishing, now a very successful independent publisher. Guess what? He bought my book, and it ended up a finalist for ITW's Best First Novel.
You and your husband, also a medical doctor, own vineyards in New Zealand. I understand your very next book, which is non-fiction and co-authored with your husband, explores (among other things) how this came to be. Can you give us a shorthand version? What made you, a doctor and an author, decide to buy a vineyard? And in New Zealand! Do you have family there?
No family in New Zealand, but the Kiwi's are truly the most hospitable people we've ever met. And there's nothing like walking in the vineyards, touching the grapes, tasting them. Our book, What's Next... For You, which will be published in February, 2010, tells the story of our transition from medicine and research to wine and books. It's been a journey of "thoughtful impulsiveness." We're doing things we'd never have dreamt we could. We like to think that the book is a bit inspirational, but we also hope that readers will find it humorous. Example: Bob's thoughts when I first told him I was writing a book!
And what were those thoughts . . . ?
Bob said the second scariest moment of his life was when he learned I was going to write a novel. He thought, "Everyone wants to write a book. How do you tell your wife not to quit her day job?" When I handed him a sheaf of about twenty handwritten pages to review, he said he would prefer that I wait until I'd written 100 to 150 pages rather than give him short snippets. He reasoned I'd never get that far. He thought I'd get immersed in other things and give up on my crazy idea.
Later, he said the scariest day was when I handed him those pages.
You also have another thriller in the works. Tell us about it, if you will. Is it a stand-alone, or will we see more of the characters from The Test?
My next novel, And Then There Was One, is a stand alone. The publication date is Fall, 2010. The story is about two of three identical nine-year-old triplets who never come out of a movie theatre in a mall outside Detroit. The story is a thriller, but it explores the impact on the remaining triplet. The mom is a pediatric forensic psychiatrist and the dad a former professional baseball player. Family, medicine, an emotional rollercoaster, and dangerous twists and turns, at least that's my goal.
What books are on your nightstand right now? What authors do you like to read?
Although I read mostly thrillers, there are a couple of authors whom I have always admired. Wilbur Smith is so prolific, yet I keep The Burning Shore nearby. I consider Barbara Taylor Bradford the queen of family sagas, and A Woman of Substance has impacted me in so many ways. My other favorites, which I do keep on my nightstand, are too many to mention. But one that I will mention is Sidney Sheldon's Master of the Game. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when the Publishers Weekly review compared The Test to Sidney Sheldon. Having said that, I absolutely love all of Oceanview Publishing's authors. There are too many to list, so I'll mention only the first, The Perfect Assassin, by Ward Larsen and the last, Collision of Evil, by John LeBeau, September, 2009.
Julie Compton, originally hails from St. Louis, Missouri, the setting for her debut novel and legal thriller TELL NO LIES. An attorney by profession, Julie most recently worked as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice in Wilmington, Delaware, but stopped practicing when she moved to Florida with her husband and two daughters. She now writes full time.
