Jordyn Redwood has served patients and their families for nearly 20 years and currently works as a pediatric ER nurse. As a self professed medical nerd and trauma junkie, she was drawn to the controlled chaotic environments of critical care and emergency nursing. Her love of teaching developed early and she was among the youngest CPR instructors for the American Red Cross at the age of seventeen. Since then, she has continued to teach advanced resuscitation classes to participants ranging from first responders to
MD’s.
When she discovered she also had a fondness for answering medical questions for authors, this led to the creation of Redwood’s Medical Edge. This blog is devoted to helping contemporary and historical authors write medically accurate fiction.
Jordyn lives in Colorado with her husband, two daughters and one crazy hound dog. In her spare time she also enjoys reading her favorite authors, quilting and cross stitching.
And here's my interview!
I'm going to resist the urge to ask you when you started writing and instead ask you, do you ever stop writing or is something always going on in your head?
Jordyn: Yes, there is always something going on in my head—generally devious plotting for novels. Isn’t that the curse of every suspense author? Everyday situations become the fodder for a future book.
I came home early from work once (early for me is 9:00pm as I usually am scheduled until 11:00pm.) I come inside and my husband and children are gone. The children should be in bed. His car is in the garage. The dog is in his pen. The front door is unlocked—which I hate. No note. No nothing. They are just nowhere to be found. After I discovered where he’d gone with my babies and stopped worrying that something sinister had happened to them, I knew that was going to be an opening for one of my novels. It reminded me of something Linwood Barclay would write.
What draws you to your genre? If that genre was banned and you had to pick only one other, what genre would you pick? Why?
Jordyn: I love putting together puzzles for the reader and threatening the lives of characters along the way. Will this person survive to the end of the book? As an ER nurse, I’m a trauma junkie by nature and love readers to experience that rush of adrenaline as well.
Let me say I hope thriller/suspense novels are never banned as I’d have to go underground to write on the black market. If forced to choose a new legal genre I would probably delve into science fiction/fantasy as you could still write with a suspense element. Is that cheating?
What is the most nerve-racking part of professional writing for you?
Jordyn: The waiting just kills me. Waiting to hear if your book proposal will get a contract. Waiting to hear if the editor likes your novel. Waiting for edits to come back. Waiting to see the final book in print. Waiting for sales data.
So. Much. Waiting.
And then a flurry of activity and needing stuff back on a short deadline.
Just for fun, what is one word you can never remember how to spell? Is there a grammar rule you dread?
Jordyn: The word definitely is a struggle for me. I think just in 2012, I finally figured it out. I am not a grammar girl at all. I dread ALL grammar rules. This is why God made editors and I am very thankful for the editors who have helped make my books shine.
I confess to looking up answers in my daughter’s third grade grammar book—that’s how horrible I am. Evidently, I had a comma usage issue and a freelance editor said to me, “Think of it this way—every time you use a comma an angel dies.” So I think I’ve killed only one angel in this sentence but it got her point across.
Did you pick fiction writing or did it pick you?
Jordyn: It picked me for sure. I’ve written stories from the time I could pen sentences. Now, considering my previous confession, they likely weren’t grammatically correct sentences but I’ve always enjoyed storytelling. I wrote a lot of short stories and “novels” in high school then put most of my writing aside to focus on my nursing career.
It was only when things weren’t working out so well for me as far as advancing in my nursing career that I turned back to writing out of frustration. I think God used that frustration to turn me to what he really wanted me to do.
What typically drives the birth of an idea for your books--the character, the plot or the theme?
Jordyn: Definitely (yes—spelled it right without auto correct!) plot drives my novels. Then theme. I struggle with characterization. That’s one of the hardest areas for me in novel writing.
If you were marooned on a beach with one of your characters, who would you want it to be and why?
What a great question and so hard to choose! I think if I could only pick one I would pick Brett Sawyer. He’s the salty, cynical other half of my detective team in Proof. We may not survive very long but he would be very entertaining and I’d rather live a short life filled with laughter than a long life of boredom.
Is there a certain beverage that fuels your creativity?
Regular Coke but I had to give up caffeine so Caffeine Free Regular Coke. I’ll never turn down a Starbucks iced chai tea latte though as a reserve.
Thank you, Jordyn!
Thanks so much for having me Rene. It’s been great to visit with you and your readers.
