Tom Combs, author of Insurrection
Genre Fiction Category, sponsored by Macalester College
Each week leading up to the 34th annual Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony, we are featuring exclusive interviews with our 36 finalists. You can also watch the authors in conversation with their fellow category finalists here.
Would you tell us one or two things about your finalist book that you are particularly proud of, and why?
I’m pleased that readers find Insurrection authentic and gripping. I’m thrilled that many say they “couldn’t put the book down”.
The threat of domestic terrorism, violence directed at healthcare workers, problems with the “business” of modern medicine, irresponsible journalism, racism, greed, and other timely issues are addressed. The threats and vulnerabilities are credibly revealed thanks to expert input. Frontline FBI veterans with years of experience battling terrorism, an FBI hostage negotiator, leaders of a major metropolitan emergency medical system, physician colleagues, nurses, medics, police, and multiple other top professionals helped me learn how our country and a directly involved major city would respond to the threat/reality of a mass casualty terrorist event. I’m proud of the incredibly generous and knowledgeable sources who assisted in my research and pleased that my writing reflected their expertise.
I feel good about the characters who people Insurrection. I’ve found that caring, courage, and heroism are independent of wealth, station, or celebrity and reader responses have supported that my cast of characters in Insurrection demonstrate that. I’m excited that readers engaged with and pulled for (or strongly disliked) the characters I created. Reader response is what it is all about for me. I’m truly thrilled and very thankful for every reader who enjoys my work.
What do you hope that your audience learns or takes away from your book?
I’m hopeful that readers will continuing to make their own even-handed assessments about the challenges we face. I’m confident they’ll ignore hateful rhetoric, remain skeptical of media and commercial news outlets, and trust their belief in the right way to treat others.
I hope readers will have an increased appreciation and respect for those in the emergency response, law enforcement, and helping professions. They are there for us whenever needed. Insurrection is fiction but the dedication and commitment the characters display reflect everyday reality.
I hope readers will remain vigilant to the danger of those who suggest their cause, whatever it may be, justifies advancement “by any means necessary”.
I especially hope my audience takes away a sense of intellectual stimulation, great enjoyment, and a ravenous desire to read more of my books. 😊
What advice would you give to an aspiring writer with an interest in your category?
Take advantage of the knowledge and generosity of your local and extended writing community. Most authors are incredibly generous and organizations such as the Loft Literary Center, Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, and other author groups are outstanding resources.
Find an excellent editor.
Honestly assess criticism. Embrace those observations that resonate and do not allow the harsh or off-target commentary to discourage you.
Put yourself in others’ shoes in your daily life. Cultivate empathy.
Study and practice the craft of writing. Learn how to put the words on the page that make the depth of emotion, suspense, and excitement you feel accessible to your readers. The learning never ends.
My last suggestion is pragmatic – get a good day job. Writing is a challenging way to pay your bills. Take payment in engaging your passion to write and the gold of each engaged reader.
Tell us something about yourself that is not widely known.
As part of my training in the specialty of emergency medicine I flew air rescue helicopter missions multiple times. It was known only to the flight nurses and pilots that I was prone to motion sickness. The joke from a receiving nurse on a helicopter landing pad as I, pale and sweating, was offloading a relatively stable patient was “which one of you is the patient?”
Also relatively unknown is the varied work history that paid for my 7 year “misdirected studies program” before I entered med school.
I was a chainsaw operator and laborer on a tree harvesting crew, operated a jack-hammer in road construction, worked as a ‘chain man’ on a twenty-ton crane in a foundry where we poured molten steel, also employed for two years as security guard/supervisor at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (great job setting!). Later I worked as a biochemistry lab teaching assistant, research assistant to the dean of the College of Pharmacognosy (U of M), and a technical/marketing writer for a high tech engineering/manufacturing firm, and more. Every job provided the opportunity to meet great people and learn. Working my way through college helped me identify my interests and ultimately strive toward work as a physician.
The emotional intensity of the world of emergency and critical care is a major element in all my novels. Most don’t know that I have significant experience as both a provider and receiver of medical care. My personal medical experience is such that a physician friend said I’m like the old Timex watch ads – “takes a licking and keeps on ticking.” Those experiences have heightened my appreciation of those who care for others.
Minnesota enjoys a reputation as a place that values literature and reading. If this sentiment rings true for you, what about our home state makes it such a welcoming and conducive place for writers?
For me it is the people. First my family and next my wonderful grade school teachers who instilled a love of reading and encouraged writing from an early age.
Also the support of our magical libraries and our thriving writing community including the Loft Literary Center, my author friends and colleagues, the Sisters in Crime writing group, and our wonderful independent bookstores such as Once Upon a Crime in Minneapolis, Valley Bookseller in Stillwater, and Fitgers in Duluth to name just a few. Also must note media support such as Mary Anne Grossman and her reviews for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and regular features in other newspapers supporting authors both independently and traditionally published.
Most of all it is the readers. We have a vibrant and supportive community of Minnesota book-lovers. We are indeed fortunate.
Since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, virtually everything about our lives has changed in some way. Has COVID-19 (and its fallout) impacted your writing habits and preferences? Has the unique zeitgeist of the past two years influenced your writing output in any other ways that you can pinpoint?
Covid has limited opportunities to meet with readers and fellow authors. I’m so grateful that the Minnesota Book Awards event is able to be an in-person event this year.
The pandemic is terrible. The reality is self-evident. On the positive side the challenges have highlighted how kind and caring so many people are. Covid has pushed to exhaustion the real-life caregivers who share the roles of those in my story. They and all the others who have stepped forward to help us get through these troubled times are truly inspiring.
Tom Combs spent twenty-five years as an emergency physician in level-one trauma centers. He is the author of four books in the Drake Cody series.