Lydia Kang's Blog, page 7

Boy, it's been a while since I did a Medical Mondays. I've been continuing to get medical questions from writers, but finally have a chance to breathe and blog about one of them. 

Here's one from a blogging friend many of you know, the talented Jessica Bell!  Jessica is author to several books, including Bitter like Orange Peel and String Bridge, as well as the Writing in a Nutshell series, and is an editor of Vine Leaves Literary Journal. 

Jessica asks:

"One of my characters shoots himself in the head to commit suicide. Is there anywhere he can point the gun and still survive? I also need him to be in a coma for 8 months, (I can make it less if need be). Is it possible he could wake up from that and still have full brain function?"


Great question, Jessica (but a sad one!) A person can definitely suffer from a GSW to the head and survive, but the odds are generally slim. The majority of GSW to the head result in death (90% or so). So for this scenario to work, there are a few details that would have to happen.
1. Brain structures to hit and miss. The less brain tissue the bullet encounters, the less damage. There is some duplication between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, so ideally the bullet should not pass through both sides of the brain, only one side. Also, it would be important to miss certain structures, like the brainstem (responsible for your heart beating, breathing) and other central structures, like the basal ganglia and thalamus. The bullet should miss the ventricles, which are fluid-filled structures inside the brain. Damage to those might cause excessive fluid to build up in the brain. So, an ideal bullet trajectory in this scenario might be going from the left forehead through the top of the left skull, missing those important structures and "skimming" the top of only one hemisphere.
2. The bullet. It should be small caliber and have a low velocity. The more energy a bullet has, the more energy is imparted to the brain tissues as it passes through, causing more destruction. Smaller bullets and slower bullets cause less damage. So Jessica's character would need to be shot with a low caliber handgun as opposed to a high powered weapon. 
3. Complications. Since Jessica needs the patient to be in a coma for a long time, but have minimal long term damage to the brain, she may have to build in several complications to keep him sick in the neuro ICU.  Any GSW will cause brain swelling, so a coma makes sense for a while if there is a lot of swelling. Add in more problems, like a brain infection, or extra fluid building into the brain that needs a drain (ventricular drain, shunt, or temporary removal of a piece of skull), or a later brain bleed that needs an extra surgery to stop the bleeding. 
Below are several articles that highlight the issues that occur in head GWS, as well as info on those rare survivors. Sadly, this scenario was very much in the consciousness of Americans when Representative Gabrielle Giffords survived an assassination attempt. 

What does it take to survive a bullet to the brain? By LiveScience 
Surviving a gunshot wound to the head, by MedicineNet 
Q&A with a neurosurgeon on the status of Gabrielle Giffords 
Living Miracles: Survivors of Gunshots to the Head 

Thank you Jessica for a fascinating question. Good luck on your WIP (and good luck to your character!)

So my trip to St. Louis was wonderful!

I got to meet Cole Gibsen, an old friend on QueryTracker, and Antony John, who shares the same publisher with me (Dial/Penguin.) He also has a delightful English accent!

I make weird faces when I'm talking.And here is Sarah Bromley, who is also an old QT friend! Our QT names are Senshi (Cole), Magpie (Sarah) and MeddyK (me).
Add captionAntony's books are the Elemental series, and Firebrand is his latest!


Cole's new book just came out! It's the third in her Katana series.


And Sarah's book, A Murder of Magpies, comes out in September with Month9Books. I saw the cover and it is fantastic! It was so cool to chat with Sarah and Cole, after being on QT for a few years!

On Friday, I did a few talks for the students at Hazelwood West High school for their Writer's Week and it went great. Even though speaking to this group was a little intimidating:

Yep, the Principal and Superintendent were in the front row!I'm relieved it all went well. I only had one bad coughing fit on stage, gah!

I hope you all are doing well. Got any plans for this lovely spring weather we're having? 

Hi guys!

Well, that "walking-cold" turned into a "lying-facedown-cold" within a day of writing that last blog post. Man, it's not fun being hit sideways with a bad virus. Luckily, this helped make me feel a little better:


Really, I think seeing this image last night during the Oscars was the reason why I've turned the corner. Also, seeing Lupita Nyong'o winning Best Actress and hearing Cate Blanchett emphasize that movies with women protagonists were not "niche movies." YES.

Also, there was the butchering of
 Oy vey. I think he called her "Adele Dazeem?" Man. The dude needs to get some glasses, or the teleprompter person needs to be fired. Well, also, John needs to be fired. I mean, is it that hard to memorize a well known performer's name before you introduce her on live television? At the OSCARS? *shakes head*

ANYWHO.

So this Thursday, March 6th I'll be at the St. Charles Public Library (Kisker Road Branch) doing a book signing with Cole Gibsen and Antony John.

On Friday, March 7th I'll be at Hazelwood West Writers Week presenting to crowds of teens and teachers, maybe my biggest yet (200? 500? Yipes!)

Let's hope this cold is kicked to the curb for good before I go. If you're in St. Louis, please stop by! I'd love to see you!

Happy Monday everyone! Did you watch the Oscars? What was the most memorable part for you?

So I'm sick. I have this nasty cold, laryngitis, cough, nose-faucet and it just sucks. You've heard of walking pneumonia, right? Well this is a walking cold. Not bad enough that I need to be in bed all day, but bad enough that I feel like my brain's been stuffed with cotton.

Anyway, just wanted to let you all know that I'm trying to keep up with blogging (if trying means thinking about it every day, and not necessarily putting finger to keyboard.) But my schedule has been getting more crammed since my book came out and something's gotta give.

So I'll be trying to blog weekly (unless hit by a walking cold, in which case I'll blog on a random Friday. Hello!) I have a great Medical Mondays coming up soon, as well as updates on my future bookish travels.

But I just wanted to wave my tissue-laden hands and say "HI!" to all of you. I miss you guys. I know your lives are super busy so if you do stop by, thank you, thank you.

*Squishy germ-filled hugs from Lydia*

Also, one last word of advice--Nyquil makes you do bad things. Like eat BBQ chips in bed. Just a word of advice. Don't do anything on Nyquil except SLEEP. Ha.

Hey guys! So I was really lucky to get an early read on Elana Johnson's contemporary YA novel in verse, ELEVATED.

Here's the blurb:
The last person seventeen-year-old Eleanor Livingston wants to see on the elevator—let alone get stuck with—is her ex-boyfriend Travis, the guy she's been avoiding for five months.

Plagued with the belief that when she speaks the truth, bad things happen, Elly hasn’t told Trav anything. Not why she broke up with him and cut off all contact. Not what happened the day her father returned from his deployment to Afghanistan. And certainly not that she misses him and still thinks about him everyday.

But with nowhere to hide and Travis so close it hurts, Elly’s worried she won’t be able to contain her secrets for long. She’s terrified of finally revealing the truth, because she can’t bear to watch a tragedy befall the boy she still loves.

I love poetry, and I'm a fan of contemporary fiction (thought I'm too chicken to write it myself). ELEVATED was the best of everything I like. With novels in verse, there is so much you can't write down. There is no luxury of taking 70,000 words to depict the story and emotions.  So with that economy of words and so much to express, it's really such an intense, amazing read. 

Here are some excerpts:

The promise of laundry detergent
Brown sugar,
Oranges
Teases my nose.

His scent.

It hides in every crevice of the elevator,
A permanent passenger.

Here's another: 

The only time I don't feel twisted inside out
Like my skin is on wrong
Is when Travis is holding my hand. 

I hope you guys get a chance to read this. But I warn you, it'll go by very fast for all the right reasons. :)  Enjoy every verse! 

Hi guys!

Well, this year is going to be ripe with a lot of new experiences. Last week, I went to my first school visit with the awesome students from Drauden Point Middle School in Plainfield Illinois!

Look what they made to welcome me!


Look at those helices! It is pure awesomeness. They even decorated the snack table with black jellybeans, as homage to one of my Aureus characters, Ren!

And after my presentation, they presented me with a gift for coming to visit:


They purposefully picked something a little edgy, and the D and Z are the initials to the two sisters in the book, Dylia and Zelia. I may wear it forever!

I did learn a few things on this visit.
Prezi.com is an awesome way to do a vivid, interesting visual slide presentation that's way less boring than PowerPoint. Thanks to author Kelly Fiore for the tip!Make the presentation interactive if possible. I asked a lot of questions to the audience throughout, and I think it helped keep the energy level up.Pick a presentation topic that is related to your book, but isn't all about your book. My topic was "Fiction that's not Fiction" and I spoke about all sorts of random things that seem like they're not real, but can be, like immortality and cyborgs.Having an enthusiastic teacher/librarian behind the scenes is so important. A few kids were encouraged to give book reports on CONTROL before I came, and word spread. Since lots of kids read my book before I arrived, they were more invested in my visit, which made it so, so special.Make sure that you have a few different ways to do your presentation. As in, have it on a USB, and easily accessible via online or email means. I sort of befuddled my way through this part, but luckily Prezi can be accessed online. Bring swag! I should have brought more! They loved the buttons, stickers and bookmarks. Build in time for unforeseen traffic. I was a little bit late, but it would have been worse if there wasn't a big time buffer built into the travel time.Later that day, I had a wonderful book signing with Rachel Caine at Anderson's Bookshops (Two Doors East) in Naperville, Illinois. 
Rachel is a gifted and gracious (and prolific!) author whom I met at the Vegas Valley Book Festival. She was signing her new book, Prince of Shadows:

It's a retelling of Romeo and Juliet from the perspective of Benvolio, Romeo's cousin. I haven't been able to put it down all weekend! Her ability to weave readable, Shakespearean dialogue with a rich and tautly woven story that feels familiar, yet wholly new is amazing. Highly recommended! 
And finally, here was the icing on the cake of a great day...
I got to meet Kelly Polark ! I've known Kelly for years now as a fellow blogger. She drove 90 minutes to come to my signing and I think I actually squealed when I saw that legendary smile of hers! Hooray for bloggy friends! 

It's been cold here. As in, freeze-your-tukas-off cold. After weeks and weeks of occasionally sub-zero weather, we got a few inches of snow. 
I found these in the fresh, morning snow:

Now, we know footprints at our house. We've got a few references to how to identify prints. Even scat. (No, I'm not going to show pictures, because I know you're probably eating breakfast.)
Usually, the prints show things like tail markings, or claw prints, or stuff like that. I can tell you that these are about 2 inches across, with a 7 inch stride. No tail markings. No long paw prints, like we see with the cottontail rabbits. It's too big to be a squirrel, and it's no four legged creature either, like a cat or dog or raccoon (usually you see the grouped front and back paw prints.) And they don't seem to be turkey prints, since they usually leave telltale three-toed marks.
Nope. This thing is bi-pedal. Walks upright. It's got narrow hips and, if I must say, a bit of a swagger.
My conclusion? The rare Nebraskan Miniature Yeti. Looks like this:

Okay, so my drawing skills have gotten a little rusty. And my Yeti looks like a furry tooth with questionable grooming habits and a piece of lint for a tail. And he looks mentally unstable, but in a happy way. But look at those dainty feet! 
Well, if you see the same tracks in your yard, beware people! It's on the loose!
Haha.
Meanwhile, in the non-Yeti universe...some updates in the world of CONTROL!
I'll be in Chicago on Friday, February 7th for a school visit and evening book signing with Rachel Caine (yes, THAT Rachel Caine, of the NYT Bestselling Morganville Vampire series!) at Anderson's Bookshop (Two Doors East) in Naperville. 
I just found out I'm going to be on two YA panels at C2E2! (Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo), which will be in April 25-27th! So psyched for this!
Glitter Magazine included CONTROL in their Books that Rock: Winter Reading list! Click here to download PDF.
And finally...I finished my revision of Control's sequel, tentatively titled CODE! Woot! That was a long, hard six weeks, y'all. So glad it's closer to be finished!
Hope you are all surviving the cold! Don't let the Yeti's get ya. :)

This past Saturday, I had my first book signing at my local bookstore, the Bookworm Omaha! It was part terrifying and part wonderful, but 100% amazing!

I had a local bakery, Jones Brothers, make a few dozen book-themed cupcakes. There were none left at the end. I guess nobody obeyed the command written on the icing. ;)

And here I am reading a passage from my book and trying desperately not to stumble over my words. Eep. I was also dorky enough to wear a dress that matched the cover of my book, because I'm a little nutters like that. 

I was so nervous about writing typos in the books when I was signing and forgetting names...I mean, SO nervous. Even though there were a sea of friendly faces, with several of my old writing friends from the Seven Doctors Project there, as well as new writing friends (Rainbow Rowell, a fellow Omaha author, stopped by too. So sweet!) 
But at the end, it went pretty smoothly. Thanks so much to Ellen Scott, the children's department manager who made everything run so nicely!
A few things to mention since my last week. Bear with me! Debut month is a bit crazy, and in some ways, these blog posts are like a diary for me. :)
I wrote a post in the Diversity in YA blog about the difficulty I've had in writing diversity in my books, as a person of color. If you've already read it, thank you so much for your support. It was a tough one for me to write.
Mochi Mag featured me on their website this week. :) Thanks to Catherine Zaw!
The fantastic Elana Johnson interviewed me on the League of Extraordinary Writers. Thanks Elana!
I did a brief NPR interview at our local KIOS station this week. Here's proof:
It should also say "I shamelessly take buttons from nonprofit organizations"That was fun! Steve Langan (a fine poet and the founder of our writing group, The Seven Doctors Project) and I were discussing the project and the upcoming reading and fundraiser. Michael Lyon, our local NPR radio host has a voice like...how shall I put this...butter that's been melting ever so slightly on a sunny English countryside...which sort of made it hard to concentrate. :) 
So if you're in Omaha on Tuesday January 21st, stop by the Slow Down at 7 PM. The most recent students in the group will be reading their work. I'll also be reading from my book as well as a little teaser from CODE (Control #2), and selling books to help benefit the writing group, which is now has nonprofit status! 
On that morning of the 21st at 9:15 AM, Steve and I will be on the KMTV's the Morning Blend discussing the Seven Doctor's Project as well. My first TV appearance!
And at around 5:30 PM, we'll be on the Tom Becka show on AM 1290 KIOL. Busy day!
And finally, my book was reviewed in the Omaha World Herald on Sunday!  The review is seriously, radioactively, adverb-necessitatingly glowing (thank you Carol Bicek for reviewing and supporting YA fiction!) And as an aside, care to see a godawful picture of me? I mean, like, "I'm eating rotten worms" bad? Check it out on the link above. Now I never need to worry about bad photos of me being published on the internet, because IT'S ALREADY HAPPENED. Oh joy.
But honestly, I don't actually care that much because wow. What a fantastic review.

And finally, I just have to admit that I wrote this post while watching The Empty Hearse (for the third time) — Season 3, Episode 1 of Sherlock. Yes, I'm unabashedly SHERLOCKED. Watson isn't so bad, either. I'm hooked, people. It is the only show I'm watching right now. I've no heart and no time for anything else.  Especially when I should be revising, not watching the tele. So...are you Sherlocked too? For those that are, here are the otter/Sherlock/hedgehog/Watson photos, because they always deserve to be shown again. 

Have a happy Monday everyone! So...if you're not Sherlocked, then what's your entertainment poison these days?

No, I'm not guest posting about cyanide, nor doing a guest blog posting involving cyanide.

I was watching Skyfall recently (I can't get enough of Adele's theme song!) and was troubled about the scene when Javier Bardem takes a prosthetic out of his cheek and claims that hydrogen cyanide corroded his face away, without killing him. My Medical Mondays alarm bells went off, and after a quick google search, found the truth:

The Science of Cyanide in Skyfall and other Spy Flicks

Oh Those Movie Spies and Their Cyanide Pills

It's nice to see people set the record straight about whether this plot hold was microscopic or the size of a pancake. A very large pancake.

Anyway!

Today I'm guest posting over on the League of Extraordinary Writers on my writing rituals.

Last week, the lovely Jessica Spotswood hosted me for one of her Thrice Interviews.

Also, if you haven't read it, Jessica did an extremely eye-opening and honest blog post about managing expectations. What happens when you get a huge (as in, eye-bulging huge) deal for a book series and it doesn't hit the NY Times bestseller list? It's a very honest blog post worth reading.

I was featured in the Breaking In section of Writer's Digest!


So how is your January going? Still sticking to your resolutions so far? Do you tend to pick apart plot holes in the movies you watch, or just brush aside belief for the sake of the experience?

Hey everyone!

Wow, what crazy few weeks I've had. There was family over, and snow, and winter holidays with the kids...oh, and a minor event of my book being released on December 26th.

So what does a debut author do on the day that her book releases?

Well, have a debauchery-filled party, complete with gnomes, champagne, Senators in pink wigs, and lots of wild turkeys running around, of course! Also visiting every bookstore in a 100 mile radius and taking tongue-wagging photos next to them and asking strangers to buy them!

Yes. I'm kidding. 

Being the day after Christmas, I opted to hang out with my family and parents. I did have some champagne. :)  But I didn't even visit a bookstore, because honestly? I was so nervous about it! So I sent my hubby and Dad. And they verified that yes, my book was in the bookstore. and Yes, people were actually buying it.

A few days later, I went in to the Bookworm (our local Indie) to sign a few books I'd promised to those that had preordered, and I saw this:


Yes, I almost yelped for joy when I saw this! (Rainbow is a fellow Omaha author.)

So now it's January, and I should be super relaxed right?

Well, erm, no. I actually have a huge revision deadline by the end of the month and it's been a lot of work. So I'll be blogging sporadically and doing a few posts over at the League of Extraordinary Writers. But if you see me in person and I look like I'm still in my pajamas, you'll know why.

Here are some events coming up, in case you're in Omaha:

Launch/signing/party at the Bookworm on January 18th between 2-5 PM. I'd love to see you there!

Poetry reading and book selling/signing at the Slowdown on January 21st at 7 PM for the Seven Doctors Projects.

Book reading and selling/signing at Metropolitan Community College, January 30th at 7 PM.

Have a great January, guys! And thank you again for your support with CONTROL!