Is PROGNOSIS: GUARDED (PG) a prequel to FLATBELLIES?

No. Although PG was written much earlier (first draft 1977) than FLATBELLIES, the story in PG is unrelated to FLATBELLIES, published in 2001. That said, Part One in this “new” PG is the true story of a 17-year effort to get PG published, to no avail. Ordinarily, such an account would be ho-hum, as literary rejection is far more common than literary acceptance. But there’s a difference here — the original PG was pegged as a literary blockbuster “soon to be a major motion picture.” The story of what happened after that first draft in 1977 was a life-changing experience for the 29 y/o author (me). And, the collapse of the original PG led to a major switch in genres on my part, dropping the medical thriller plans and adopting coming-of-age fiction. Thus, Part One of the “new” PG is an “origin story,” explaining the emergence of FLATBELLIES. Part Two is the medical thriller that caused all the controversy and confusion, in print for the first time.

What is the book’s cover trying to show?

The famous Hollywood sign is disappearing, and at the base of the sign is a cemetery. The cover is representing both Part One and Part Two. Part One of PG is the death of a Hollywood dream. Part Two of PG is the novel that deals with orchestrated medical murders of the rich and famous of Hollywood. (In some of the printings, the cemetery at the base of the Hollywood sign is dark and hard to see.)

Is the story of PROGNOSIS: GUARDED pure fiction?

Yes. It’s the only one of my six novels that did not borrow from actual events.

Why isn’t PROGNOSIS: GUARDED available at my local bookstore?

Long story, but I felt that combining Part One and Part Two into a single book (one non-fiction and the other fiction) was going to make traditional publishers squeamish. So, I went the route of publishing through an Amazon resource that gave me full editorial control, but also requires sales to come through Amazon. Depending on how it goes, I might make arrangements with booksellers in OKC to sell PG, as we are ramping up for a 25th anniversary edition of FLATBELLIES, and PG is the start of that process by telling the origin story first. So, if we release the special edition of FLATBELLIES next year, it would likely be sold side by side with PG at bookstores.

What’s best way to purchase the book then?

Online purchase of softcover print ($17): https://store.bookbaby.com/book/prognosis-guarded1

Kindle purchase per Amazon, or however you are accustomed to buying ebooks.

Do you still speak at book clubs?

Yes. I attend any book club within a 2-3 hour driving radius of OKC. Anything beyond that, I do online. Also, some clubs are not specifically book clubs (social clubs, study clubs, etc.), yet they will ask me to speak about writing and publishing in general, or to discuss one of my novels from the past (see http://www.johnalbedo.com). Or, there is great interest in my one true crime story covering the 1923 murder of my grandfather (see http://www.killingalbertberch.com). Contact me through Facebook Messaging to schedule. Or, email alanhollingsworth@cox.net.

I read COMA when it first came out, and now that I’ve read PROGNOSIS: GUARDED, I don’t think the two books are that much alike. What gives?

Recall from Part One that I don’t have a copy of the original 1977 manuscript, which was virtually identical to COMA, complete with suspended human bodies. Several New York publishers (most notably St. Martins Press) asked me to change my version as much as possible to allow publication as an original story. The 1980-81 version I found in the attic (the published version) was the end product of that effort, taking away the science fiction component and transferring the genre to a medical murder mystery. I thought the changes were adequate, but publishers still ruled it “too much like COMA.” This was likely due to the fact that the “medical thriller” was still a new concept, so my revised version was compared to the only other successful thriller at the time — COMA. Had there been 100 medical thrillers on the market, I think PG would have had no trouble falling into that pool. (Remember this from Part One — when Random House rejected my book as “too much like COMA,” the Senior Editor called PROGNOSIS: GUARDED a “hospital intrigue story.”)