Lydia Kang's Blog, page 14

Hey guys!

Thanks for the comments on the malaria post. (I'm still itching! Where's my hydrocortisone? Where's my mefloquine???)

So today I had this random idea. I have 2900 Twitter followers and would love to break the 3K mark. I used to search out random Twitter people to follow in hopes that they would followme, but I simply don't have time.

So I'm offering some swag to get more followers. I wonder if it will work. So please RT the following, and you'll be entered into the contest! Later on, I'll tell you if it's an effective technique to get more followers. :D

WIN CONTROL bookmarks+stickers+magnets! New followers and RTers are entered & I'll pick FIVE winners. Ends when @lydiaykang hits 3K followers!

So. Have you ever experimented with Twitter or social media like this? Do you actively try to get more Twitter followers, or just let it be?

Hey guys! I wanted to blog about malaria because, well, I've been watching River Monsters and that English chap with the charming accent and bad teeth got a bad case of malaria.

One of my favorite authors, Laura Ingalls Wilder, described getting malaria in her book Little House on the Prairie . (They called it fever 'n ague, and though it came from eating watermelons that grew in the night air. Ma and Pa Ingalls had a huge fight over that little bit of false information.)

When I worked at Bellevue, it wasn't uncommon to get a patient who'd been traveling from Africa with the following symptoms:

shaking chills and fever that cycled every 2-3 daysheadaches and joint painhemolytic anemia (low red blood cell count due to bursting red cells)jaundice, or yellowing of the skin or eyesenlarged spleen (it's job is to clear out the broken red cell bits)Malaria, and parasites in general, are fascinating. We've heard of the "eat or be eaten" survivalist mentality in the wild kingdom, but we don't usually consider the microscopic guys that are trying to use (and sometimes eat) us as well.  The round purple things are red blood cells.
The purple banana thingies are P. falciparum (source: Wikipedia)What is malaria caused by?A microorganism called Plasmodium. Plasmodium falciparum and plasmodium vivax are responsible for most deaths due to malaria in the world. 
How does the parasite infect us?This gal, the female anopheles mosquito. She carries infected blood with the parasites and spreads it around. So generous of her! Not. Anopheles mosquito, drinking so much blood that it's coming out the other end. GROSS.
Also, sorry if this picture just made you itch like mad. (Source: Wikipedia)Can malaria kill you?Yes. The infections in sub-saharan Africa are deadliest; malaria from other parts of the world aren't as deadly. 
Let's say I'm healthy, and I get bit by that THING. What happens?(Warning: biology lesson straight ahead.) The parasites (sporozoite stage) in the mosquito saliva enter your blood. They end up in your liver, where they multiply and turn into the next stage (merozoite stage). Those bust open your liver cells and infect your red blood cells, where more merozoites are made, and some male and female forms (gametocytes). When your red blood cells bust open spilling out more parasites, that's when those shaking chills and fever start to happen. When a mosquito bites the now unhappily-infected-you, the male and female gametocytes get sucked by the mosquito, and they end up making more sporozoites and the whole thing starts over again. 
Man, and that's the watered down version! 
For a more detailed diagram and about 10 more life cycle terms I sorta skipped over, click here. 
How is it diagnosed?Classically, it's diagnosed by looking at a smear of the patient's blood under a microscope. It looks like that picture up above, or you can see the parasites within the actual red blood cells. There are also Rapid Diagnostic Tests available, but not all hospitals around the world have them as they're expensive.
How do you treat it?Back in the 17th century (maybe even as early as the 1500s), it was discovered that the bark of the Cinchona tree could cure malaria.  Cinchona flowers (Source: Wikipedia)The compound in it responsible for this is called quinine. Quinine is so cool--in fact I did a Medical Mondays on quinine! Nowadays, most types of malaria are resistant to quinine, and synthetic versions of it are used (such as mefloquine). 
Another medication, artemisinin, is also used and was used as far back as 200 BC in China for the treatment of malaria. 
Artemisinin plantNowadays, several different medications are used to treat malaria, almost always in combinations. It's hard to keep up with. Here is a nice update on treatment. 
See the skinny, sickle-shaped red blood cell in the center?
One last cool medical factoid: You might have heard of sickle cell anemia. This is a disease in which blood cells turn into a sickle shape, and it causes all sorts of problems. People who have two sets of sickle genes can be quite sick, but those that only have the trait, or one sickle cell gene, are resistant to getting malaria. Traditionally, most people with sickle cell trait live in places where malaria is endemic. So it's believed that mutation occurred and was kept as an evolutionary advantage for people in these areas. (Parasites are less likely to complete their life cycle, because the abnormal red cells are cleared out of the circulation faster). Cool! 
This may be all the malaria you can handle with your monday morning coffee, so I'll stop now. But please stop by the CDC to learn more about prevention, traveling, treatment, and mosquito-y stuff. 
HA! And you thought vampires were bad...

Just a few of them! 
Check out my picks on the League of Extraordinary Writers . 
Thanks for stopping by!

Hey guys! Laura Diamond has been a bloggy friend of mine since waaaay back when. She's a board certified psychiatrist and author of all things young adult paranormal, dystopian, and horror. 
Her Young Adult Paranormal Romance novelette, NEW PRIDE, and novel, SHIFTING PRIDE, debuted late 2012 from Etopia Press. And now, she's releasing Tsavo Pride!   Here’s a teaser trailer on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV15P4JQ2Hk



Rogue shapeshifters, Santamo and Legeny, believe they are kings blessed with the power to shift into lions. Using that strength, they brutally defend their land from the British building the Ugandan Railroad that threatens their way of life. On a particularly ruthless raid, Santamo meets his match—Naserian. He spares the girl’s life, a move that fractures his relationship with Legeny and blurs his visions of cleansing his territory of invaders.
While the pile of bones in Santamo and Legeny’s cave grows, so does Santamo’s attraction to Naserian. When she challenges him to give up his murderous ways, will Santamo stay on the path of death he believes is his duty, or will he choose Naserian, and love?
Purchase on Amazon 
Connect with Laura! Blog Twitter FB GoodReads
Congrats Laura!!! :D

Thanks so much for stopping by on Kerri and Tamera's blog tour last week! I was off on a long-awaiting vacation with my family and caught up on a ton of reading.

*I don't actually read in the ocean. I'm more afraid of dropping precious books in the water, vs being shark baitHere's what I finished:

Infinite Sky , by C.J. Flood (beautiful contemporary; and hey, Dr. Kang makes a cameo!)
ARC of Starglass , by Phoebe North (great space sci-fi with a lot of rich culture built into the story)
Crewel , by Gennifer Albin (a really creative dystopian. I remember Genn from our Querytracker forum days!)
Seraphina , by Rachel Hartman (wow. 10 stars. Seriously!)

I love catching up on my to-read list. It makes me so happy to sink myself into a book for hours on end, which is a time luxury I don't have in my normal week.

What have you read lately? Do you do massive catch-ups on your to-read list on vacation too?

Welcome Kerri!
Kerri is a longtime blogger friend and her new book, DEADLY KISSES, is out! 
Summary:Aiden Grant is seventeen, has a killer kiss, and a boss who used to be President, back in the old days. You see, Aiden is a grim reaper and his kiss welcomes the newly dead. But Aiden’s pleasant grim reaper lifestyle is in jeopardy. And it’s not only because Honest Abe keeps throwing out history lessons with reaping assignments, just to confuse him. It’s because Aiden’s next assignment is to reap the soul of Bee, the only girl he has ever loved.

When Aiden’s kiss of death fails, intertwining their souls, Bee is still very much alive and they are both in trouble. The ancients want Bee, who has special powers of her own, and they’ll do anything to get her.

Some rules are meant to be broken—even if that means Aiden must bargain with his own soul to save Bee. Who knew the afterlife could get so complicated?


Kerri Cuevas was born and raised in Rhode Island. She moved to New Hampshire with her husband, three kids, cats and a rabbit named Hercules in 2005. When she's not writing, she's chasing chickens on her small farm or searching for the ultimate mac-a-cheese recipe.

Kerri went to college for Early Childhood Education but now writes books for young adults full-time. Her storytelling stems from watching too many horror flicks as a teen, but she no longer needs to sleep with the lights on.
Thanks Kerri! The book sounds terrific and the cover is so vibrant!
Find Kerri and her book on:Goodreads Kerri's WebsiteAmazon 

And check out the great swag and book giveaway she's having:a Rafflecopter giveaway

Announcing the release of Inevitable, the newest young adult suspense novel by Tamara Hart Heiner!



Visions of death plague Jayne, who thinks watching her boyfriend die is the worst that could happen to her. But when she witnesses a murder, Jayne finds herself caught up in a dangerous world of intrigue and suspense.

As it turns out, she is not the only one doing the stalking. The killer is on to her, and all of her visions of the dying don't reveal how her life will end. Somehow, she must stop the murderer before he arranges Jayne's own inevitable death.

First page

Available on Amazon.com, Smashwords.com, Barnes & Noble.com, and Kobo.com!

After an awesome ebook launch on Facebook, Tamara's trying hard to top that with the paperback. So here's the plan:

1) For the entire month of March, every comment on Tamara's blog gets entered into a drawing to win a HARD COPY of one of her books. (You get to choose which one!)

2) Leave a comment on THIS BLOG for a chance to win ALL of her young adult ebooks!

3) Enter the Goodreads Giveaway for another chance to win Inevitable.

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Goodreads Book Giveaway Inevitable by Tamara Hart Heiner Giveaway ends April 02, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win 4) If you SPREAD THE NEWS, whether it's on your blog, on Facebook, on Twitter, or just plain word of mouth, you'll be entered into a drawing for a $50 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble gift card. Email Tamara at tamarahartheiner dot com and tell her how many times you did it, and you'll be entered into the drawing that many times!

Are we ready??? Get set! Go!

About the author: I live in Arkansas with my husband and three children, two crazy boys and one pretty little princess. I used to spend a lot of time writing until I had a baby and discovered Facebook. Now you'll often find me on there pretending to have a social life.

I am the author of three young adult suspense novels, PERILOUS, ALTERCATION, and INEVITABLE. You can find out more about what I'm writing and catch deleted scenes from my books on my blog at http://tamarahartheiner.blogspot.com.

Hey guys,

I'm blogging over at the League of Extraordinary Writers on who my sci-fi influences are. I have a major (but obvious) revelation about an author that has definitely influenced me.

Can you guess who it is?

Come find out!

Hey guys! Amber over at Me, Myshelf, and I invited me over to do this super fun post!

Though MMSAI has several bloggers, Amber's been an integral part of swag creation over the last several weeks, helping me design my bookmarks, magnets, and button. She is amazing!

So please check out her work here if you are interested in her mad design skilz.

AND...the winners of the Mega March Author Swag giveaway are below. I'll be contacting you soon to send you your swag!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I only heard about Bridget Zinn a few weeks ago and I had to post this.

Bridget's debut novel, POISON, debuts tomorrow on March 12th. What a dream come true! The story is fantastic, the cover is perfect, and it should be an otherwise celebratory day.

Tragically, Bridget died from cancer in May of 2011. She was only 33 years old. You can read about her story here.

So to honor a fellow writer, please, please spread the word.

And if you can, buy POISON and see for yourself what sort of exquisite story she has created for the world.

Sixteen-year-old Kyra, a highly-skilled potions master, is the only one who knows her kingdom is on the verge of destruction—which means she's the only one who can save it. Faced with no other choice, Kyra decides to do what she does best: poison the kingdom's future ruler, who also happens to be her former best friend.

But, for the first time ever, her poisoned dart… misses.
Now a fugitive instead of a hero, Kyra is caught in a game of hide-and-seek with the king's army and her potioner ex-boyfriend, Hal. At least she's not alone. She's armed with her vital potions, a too-cute pig, and Fred, the charming adventurer she can't stop thinking about. Kyra is determined to get herself a second chance (at murder), but will she be able to find and defeat the princess before Hal and the army find her?
Kyra is not your typical murderer, and she's certainly no damsel-in-distress—she's the lovable and quick-witted hero of this romantic novel that has all the right ingredients to make teen girls swoon.
Purchase on: Amazon Barnes & Noble  IndieBound iTunes Bookstore Powell's Books

Spread the word! Celebrate the release of POISON on March 12th!