A Blue Christmas in July by Melissa Yi

 

At the end of Grand Rounds, I ran up to speak to the emergency doctor who'd presented a case of a family that had collapsed after an ordinary meal.

I was an M.D. studying emergency medicine myself, but I'd never seen a case like this, with two men vomiting and a woman unconscious, their faces cyanotic, or blue from lack of oxygen—and when the police checked their apartment afterward, it looked like the family had been deliberately poisoned.

I asked the presenting doctor so many questions that he told me to read about the case in a journal. It wasn't one he'd seen himself, but read about: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5129a2.htm

I subconsciously mulled over that case for over a decade before writing "Blue Christmas" .

Originally, I wrote it as part of my medical thriller, Human Remains , set at a research lab. Then I realized it was a story complete unto itself and slowly, painfully excised the story.

Luckily, "Blue Christmas" was published in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and is one of my favourite stories starring Hope Sze, the resident doctor who solves murders.

The advantage of writing the novel was that I could see the people so clearly in my mind: the cheerful head of the lab, the dudes who'd rather drink and smoke but have to put in an appearance, the beautiful half-Asian and half-white research assistant dancing to "Uptown Funk," Dr. Wen who'd have his own lab if he'd stayed in China but is very proud of his article recently published in Cell about the Nogo-66 receptor, and the host who keeps name dropping the Banting and Best fellowship he'd won.

Two graduate students told me that I depicted lab personalities very accurately. No mean feat since I never did a Master's or Ph.D. myself. At least not yet …

For now, I'm happy with an M.D. and with weaving as many stories as possible. Merry Christmas in July!

Here's a bonus pic of me and my friend, Nathalie Gamache, gin-ecologist who made a custom gin for my novel, White Lightning .

 

Cheers,

Melissa YI

  

 

Reading and Eating, Eating and Reading by Melissa Yi

I love to eat!

And I love to read!

So I wrote a book that combines both these things in Mr. Chef and Ms. Librarian, which is part of of the wonderful Holiday Book Contest!

Where did Mr. Chef come from? I met a good-looking man named Tariq, and I took an Indian cooking class in our tiny Canadian town where I was starving for good ethnic food. I also had Muslim friends dating people outside their religion, and I wanted to explore that. So I dreamed up a chef named Tariq.

I'm not sure exactly why I concocted Ivy, the British librarian. Except I do love libraries—free books for everyone! If I'm travelling and I need to drink some water or use the bathroom, or just hang out in silence, I go to the library. As for her British roots and the fact that she's estranged from her family, maybe I was subconsciously thinking about "home for the holidays." What does that mean if if you can't go home, or don't have a real home because you're an immigrant like Ivy?

And is it possible to weave a happily ever after when you come from different cultures and have different points a view?

It's a romance, so I think you know the answer. Yes! Happily ever after.

Melissa Yi

But I do like to raise some questions. For example, a single mother wants to leave her children at the library with Ivy to supervise them. Ivy is willing, but a coworker insists on following the rules, which leads to more trouble. But don't fret. Happily ever after for the children too. Abundance, right?

Since our theme this month is abundance, I should mention my privilege. I'm extremely lucky to live in a time and a place with a family that taught me to read and I can afford to eat. Most people in the world aren't so lucky. So I do try and share some of my abundance by donating to charity and treating my friends and accepting treats from them too, especially during tough times.

I welcome everyone, one and all, to our Virtual Speakeasy at the Cornwall, Canada, library  ( on December 1^st at 7:30 pm Eastern Time. We'll celebrate my new Prohibition-inspired Hope Sze medical thriller, White Lightning. Come rest your gams with the other cool cats and learn how to mix a special cocktail, the Corpse Reviver #2, with artisan distiller Nathalie Gamache.

Eat. Read. Love.    ~Melissa

Medical Thrillers by Melissa Yi

CODE BLUES

"Are you going to write about the pandemic? There's so much material!" a few readers asked me.

I smiled. "I will. Later. When it's entertaining instead of scary."

Yes, we're all living through a real-life medical thriller. The most frightening thing, as an emergency doctor, was watching people die in China, Iran, Italy, Spain, the UK, and the US, including medical personnel with inadequate equipment and vulnerable members of the population, knowing that SARS-Cov-2 was marching its way to Canada, and only our relative geographic isolation was buying us time. I frantically tried to educate myself, establish rational policies for our hospital, and advocate nationally for protective equipment and other measures (over 200,000 people signed our petition http://change.org/COVID19frontline.

Right now, Canada is cautiously reopening and encouraging people to keep wearing masks, washing their hands, and isolating themselves when possible. We're crossing our fingers to avoid more fatal surges as much as possible.

And I'm trying to write before the second wave hits.

GRAVEYARD SHIFT

In the seventh Hope Sze thriller, GRAVEYARD SHIFT, Hope politely interviews her first patient, who tries to strangle her with her own stethoscope—and it deteriorates from there. So it's not a cuddly read, but a page-turner that offers us some flesh and blood villains that we can see and fight and convict.

"This is the book I wanted you to write! I wanted to know about your work," said Rhonda, the head of our local book club.

"Well, it's not exactly a typical shift," I hedged.

"I like that Hope was able to solve it on her own, without her men," said my friend Jessica firmly. Although Hope's current boyfriend Tucker shows up in GRAVEYARD SHIFT, her ex-boyfriend, Ryan, has disappeared, and Tucker decides to find him because Hope is tethered to the hospital. So there is a love story, but an unconventional one.

Now I'm working on the eighth Hope Sze crime novel (tentatively titled DEATH STALKER), where Hope and Tucker travel to Egypt. Last year, I took a cruise down the Nile and holidayed on the Red Sea. I'm still learning so much about Egyptian history and culture and trying to pack it into this book.

It's Hope and Tucker's first adventure outside of North America, which Tucker envisions as an idyllic pre-wedding honeymoon. Spoiler: OF COURSE IT IS NOT. First Hope gets sprayed by an airport toilet (this actually happened to me), their travel representative doesn't show up, and then … da da da DAH! Chaos ensues.

NOTORIOUS D.O.C.

Maybe I sound too lighthearted to you.

I know many writers who are blocked and struggling right now. It's hard to write when you are or are close to people who are fighting for their lives, or who've lost their jobs.

I lost at least a month of writing to COVID-19. I concentrated on working at the hospital and speaking to the media about how best to protect our health. But in the end, for my own mental health and well-being, I need to write again. So now I'm back in the saddle, lightly nudging my writing horse to stay on the trail and finish DEATH STALKER before the end of 2020.

I wish the same for you. May we all stay home, wear masks, and wash hands to protect our most vulnerable. May we work on the front lines and behind the lines as best as we can. And may we create and consume stories that buoy our spirits through sacrifice and hardship.

THE ITALIAN SCHOOL
FOR ASSASSINS

Bio: Melissa Yi is an emergency physician and award-winning writer. Her Dr. Hope Sze medical thrillers, written as Melissa Yi, have been recommended by Publishers Weekly, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, the CBC, and The Globe and Mail, and have been transformed into audio books by Kobo Originals. Yi was shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Award for the best crime story in Canada and the Derringer Award for the best short mystery in the English language. 

Under the name Melissa Yuan-Innes, she has also won awards for speculative fiction, poetry, and children’s literature. 

Socials:

http://www.melissayuaninnes.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/dr_sassy

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/melissa.yuaninnes

https://www.facebook.com/MelissaYiYuanInnes/

Instagram: melissa.yuaninnes

Emergency Physician and Award-Winning Author Dr. Melissa YI

DR. MELISSA YI

Melissa Yi is an emergency physician and award-winning writer. In her newest romantic crime novel, DEATH FLIGHT, Dr. Hope Sze battles murder on an airplane. Previous Hope Sze volumes were recommended by the Globe and Mail and CBC Books as best suspense novels of the season. We asked Melissa to tell us what she likes in a Medical Romance and what authors sometimes get wrong.

I’m an emergency doctor, so I’ll sum it up first in case we get pulled away from each other.

I’m a book slut. I’ll read pretty much anything, as long as it’s good. So my rules for medical romances are my rules for everything. Hook me with people I care about, a clever plot, a fascinating setting, goosebump-worthy emotion, intricate language or humour—preferably all of the above—and I’m yours. I love reading. The more books, the better. Who’s with me?

However! Medical romances can be a tougher sell for me because medicine is my day/night job. I don’t find reading about medicine relaxing when I could be perusing journal articles or, you know, playing with my children. So if you get the details wrong, I’m out. 

DR. HOPE SZE BOOK 1

Now, I’m probably pickier than most medical romance readers. But if you’re a writer, I expect you to do the research out of respect for your readers and your own craft. If you make mistakes and tell a good enough story, I’ll stay with you. But you’d better tell a rollicking good story.

My next beef would be ridiculous plots that try to ratchet up the adrenaline by starting off with Hollywood bang—say, a gunshot or a bomb—and escalating to Mount Everest levels of implausibility.

What? Now they have to deal with nuclear war, zombies with bubonic plague, AND sentient dental plaque? After a certain point, it seems more ludicrous than dangerous. I close the book. (Although I kind of like the sentient dental plaque. I write fantasy and science fiction under my real name, Melissa Yuan-Innes. I may have to run with that one.)

Plus, if the characters and setting feel too generic for me, I have nothing to hold on to and no reason to care. Goombye, as one of my high school friends used to say.

TERMINALLY ILL RELEASE PARTY

I probably sound harsh. Give me everything! seems to be my battle cry. But as a matter of fact, I like reading good medical romances. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, paramedics, orderlies, secretaries, custodial staff—as far as I’m concerned, we’re a band of heroes, brothers and sisters and partners, working nights, days, weekdays and weekends, literally 24/7, in order to save lives. Everyone matters. Everyone goes full tilt in the ER, around the clock. I welcome books about us, in every discipline. I, personally, don’t usually read billionaire novels because I love ordinary people in the trenches, doing extraordinary things. And if they get to fall in love and score a happily ever after, even more yes!

On one night shift, not one, not two, but three nurses mentioned how their first husbands had mistreated them. One RN was left penniless with two little ones on Christmas Day after her ne’er do well cleaned out their bank account. Two of them had gone on to find their Prince Charmings, and the third had made a good life independently.

If they can do it, so can we. In fiction and in real life.

So please write and read a treasure trove of medical romances, and I will follow you to the ends of the earth!

Want to check if I can walk the walk? My medical romances star Dr. Hope Sze, a Montreal family medicine resident who battles death, disease, outright murder—and an attraction to two different men.

DR. HOPE SZE BOOK 6 DEBUTS  9/6/18!!!

Ryan Wu is her first love, her first lover, and a gorgeous engineer. They broke up partly because she was accepted to medical school on the opposite side of the province and partly because he’s religious and she’s not, but otherwise, he’s exactly Hope’s cup of hot, hot chocolate. They struggle to keep their hands off each other.

Dr. John Tucker is a blond resident with a big mouth who’s hyper and makes bad jokes, not as good-looking as Ryan, and much more erratic, but he loves Hope right down to his bone marrow. To be honest, I thought Tucker was annoying when I started writing Code Blues, the first book, but he caught my eye, and I thought, Wait. He’s…interesting. Flawed but honest, real, and passionate.

The love triangle takes a serious twist in Death Flight, the sixth book, which debuts September 6^th. Come fly with me!
Facebook Launch Party on 9/6/18  7-8pm EDT; 4-5pm PDT

DEATH FLIGHT trailer link

DEATH FLIGHT

Doctor-wise, Melissa has worked as far north as Ivujivik, Quebec (Inuktitut: ᐃᕗᔨᕕᒃ, north of 60; also the northernmost village in a Canadian province). Nowadays she stays closer to home, running codes in Eastern Ontario. She’s cheerfully married to her high school sweetheart, with two loud and loveable children and a Rottweiler shepherd. She loves stories, yoga, blading, sustainable fashion, laughter, intelligence, and random craziness. She hangs out mostly on Facebook, with occasional forays as @dr_sassy on Twitter, and on her website, http://www.melissayuaninnes.com/.

Author of Human Remains, a best Canadian suspense book at the Globe and Mail, a CBC Books top ten mystery and a must-read mystery by CBC Radio's The Next Chapter. Arthur Ellis Award finalist.