Lydia Kang is an author of young adult fiction, adult fiction and non-fiction, and poetry. She graduated from Columbia University and New York University School of Medicine, completing her residency and chief residency at Bellevue Hospital in New York City.
She is a practicing physician who has gained a reputation for helping fellow writers achieve medical accuracy in fiction. Her poetry and non-fiction have been published in JAMA, The Annals of Internal Medicine, Canadian Medical Association Journal, Journal of General Internal Medicine, and Great Weather for Media. She believes in science and knocking on wood, and currently lives in Omaha with her husband and three children.
Her latest book, OPIUM AND ABSINTHE a current bestseller published on July 1.
Book description:
New York City, 1899. Tillie Pembroke’s sister lies dead, her body drained of blood and with two puncture wounds on her neck. Bram Stoker’s new novel, Dracula, has just been published, and Tillie’s imagination leaps to the impossible: the murderer is a vampire. But it can’t be—can it?
A ravenous reader and researcher, Tillie has something of an addiction to truth, and she won’t rest until she unravels the mystery of her sister’s death. Unfortunately, Tillie’s addicted to more than just truth; to ease the pain from a recent injury, she’s taking more and more laudanum…and some in her immediate circle are happy to keep her well supplied.
Tillie can’t bring herself to believe vampires exist. But with the hysteria surrounding her sister’s death, the continued vampiric slayings, and the opium swirling through her body, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for a girl who relies on facts and figures to know what’s real—or whether she can trust those closest to her.
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Show Notes/Links
Authors mentioned during podcast: Jennifer Donnelly, Stephenie Meyer, Suzanne Collins
Books mentioned include: Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice.
We talked about the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 and the similarities between the current pandemic of 2020. A good book on that is The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History.
Information about the devastating wildfires in California of 2020.
We were staying at the foothills of Howell Mountain about seven miles from some of the fires.
If you can, please donate to the Red Cross.
Donate $10 via Text by texting CAWILDFIRES to 90999 to support Disaster Relief efforts with a $10 donation.