Interview with Brandilyn Collins About Over the Edge
“Over the Edge is an excellent mystery … [It] actively portrays the patient with the myriad symptoms seen in acute or chronic Lyme.” –Dr. Nick S. Harris, President/CEO of IGeneX, Inc.
“Over the Edge will draw you in early and keep you glued until the end … This is an excellent fictional portrayal of that frustration felt by so many right now in North America as medical professionals and researchers become pitchmen for corporations who do not have your good health at heart.” —Jim Wilson, President, Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation, www.canlyme.com
Brandilyn Collins on Over the Edge
Lyme-Aware Right now, Lyme Disease and the treatment of it is in the throes of a very heated debate, which most refer to as the “Lyme wars.” Why did you choose to include this in your book? What are your opinions about this controversial topic?
Collins I couldn’t not include the sad truths about the Lyme wars in Over the Edge, because they form the hard reality that Lyme patients often face. It’s bad enough to become terribly sick. But to fight the medical community for adequate treatment and testing of your disease, to be told you don’t even have the disease, is so very hard and cruel. And unnecessary.
Lyme-Aware In what ways was the experience of writing this particular book different than writing your other books?
Collins Well, for one—I lived much of it. Not the suspense or husband-problem part (I happen to have the best husband in the world), but certainly I lived the symptoms of Lyme as my protagonist, Jannie, does. Writing Over the Edge forced me to return to those nightmarish memories of having Lyme and struggling to do such simple things as mount a flight of stairs or open a can of soup.
The second way in which writing this book was different stems from the driving purpose which caused me to write it. I wanted to create a fast-paced suspense story around Lyme. Bottom-line, I am an entertainer. If my novels don’t entertain, readers will put them down without finishing. At the same time, interwoven into the story are truths about Lyme—both what the disease is like and the how patients must fight for adequate testing and treatment.
Lyme-Aware You did a good job of mixing fiction with fact. Was it hard to combine the two?
Collins Not really. As mentioned, I had to focus on writing a tension-filled story. Depicting the symptoms of Lyme rose naturally from scenes showing Jannie struggling to do almost everything. (Even her speech is marred by stuttering.) There are a few scenes that contain quite a bit of information about the Lyme wars. My challenge in those scenes was to keep the tension up while presenting the information. I strove to do this by imparting the facts through Jannie’s eyes as she struggled to learn what was going on—facts that would affect her and her own treatment.
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Lyme-Aware How much research did you have to do and how did it affect the way you wrote this book?
Collins I did a lot of research. Some of it went back to when I was sick with Lyme and was learning about the Lyme wars, just as Jannie does in the story. In preparing to write Over the Edge, I conducted a lot more research. I also had numerous Lyme experts/doctors read the manuscript to vet for any factual mistakes.
Lyme-Aware What was your motivation or the stimulus that started this story?
Collins At the end of Over the Edge I’ve included a rather lengthy Author’s Note that explains why I wrote this story. (It also includes further details about the history and issues of the Lyme wars, plus offers helpful online links for further information.) Here is an excerpt from the Author’s Note that answers your question about how I got the idea for this book:
I remember slumping in the waiting room of my doctor in 2003, so sick I could not remain sitting in the chair. (They had to move me to the doctor’s personal padded armchair with footrest in a private office.) Hanging on the waiting-room wall was a framed newspaper article summarizing the 2001 findings written in The New England Journal of Medicine. (While Brock McNeil’s part in writing those findings is fictional, they are very real.) The newspaper article explained how researchers had once again proved that Lyme was never chronic and was, in fact, very easy to treat with a short-term round of antibiotics. People claiming months or years of crippling symptoms from the disease were just wrong.
What those know-it-alls need, I thought with an admittedly un-Christian attitude, is a real good case of Lyme.
And so the idea for this novel was born. It would take another seven years before I was ready to write it.
Lyme-Aware Did you find it difficult to have the book revolve around this “un-Christian” idea? And why did it take seven years before you could write the story?
Collins The question makes me smile (more like laugh at myself). I call the attitude “un-Christian” because it wishes ill on someone else. Truth is, I’ll bet there are few Lyme patients caught up in the Lyme wars who haven’t had such a thought at one time or another. It’s a natural, human reaction to these doctors’ invalidation of their very real illness. Of course I and other patients wouldn’t really act on that thought. That’s what forms the difference between us and my antagonist. He does act on it.
The biggest challenge in writing Over the Edge rose from the fact that it’s the antagonist—the bad guy—who champions the cause for Lyme patients. Throughout the story I had to show that he was very wrong for what he did, even as his cause is a good and worthy one. Jannie really calls him on this. At one point in the book she says about the man who purposely infected her with Lyme: “He thinks he’s some savior for all Lyme patients. He doesn’t deserve to be a part of the Lyme advocate community. He’s not a helper. He’s a terrorist. His cause may be right, but the way he’s doing it is so wrong. What good person would purposely give someone this disease?”
The reader wants to see the antagonist brought down for what he’s done to Jannie. At the same time the reader is shown why he’s done it—what in his background led him to such a decision. That juxtaposition between bad choices and a slice of empathy for his own grief leads to a more interesting antagonist. No one person is all good or all bad.
As for the seven years it took to write the book—I was involved in contracts for other books that needed to be done first. Plus it was my reinfection with Lyme in 2009 that again turned my mind to the original story idea.
Lyme-Aware Does the character of Jannie reflect your own personal feelings or experiences?
Collins Her symptoms were my own. And, in fact, as I mention in the Author’s Note, the scene in Chapter 1 in which she falls in the kitchen and can’t get up came straight out of my life. It was my introduction to Lyme disease.
Lyme-Aware Are you active in spreading Lyme Disease awareness or other related projects?
Collins Because I’m a novelist, the best way I can help the Lyme community is through the writing of Over the Edge. During interviews about this book on radio and TV, I will not be merely publicizing another novel of mine. I will be telling the nation about the double whammy plight of Lyme patients. That they’re often denied proper testing and diagnosis at early stages of the disease, when it is, indeed, fairly easy to cure. Then, when they’ve had the disease for months or years and are finally diagnosed—and now need long-term antibiotics to fight the infection—they’re denied the treatment because it doesn’t fit the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) criteria. I am really hoping and praying that Over the Edge makes a difference for the Lyme community at large by drawing people’s attention to this ongoing injustice.
I also want to reach out to Lyme patients individually through the book. They will feel validated by reading Over the Edge. They will finally see a novel that depicts their plight—both regarding symptoms and testing/treatment. They can give Over the Edge to friends and family to help them understand what they’re going through. And they can give the book to doctors in their area who continue to be poorly informed about testing and treatment of Lyme. Whereas many people might not pick up a nonfiction book about Lyme, they may well read a suspense for entertainment—yet come away with a whole new understanding of the disease.
Lyme-Aware Where can we find more information about Over the Edge?
Collins Visit my web site to read the prologue of Over the Edge. I also have a link there for more information about Lyme disease—including symptoms to look for, information about the Lyme wars, and how to find a Lyme-literate doctor. Check the Events on my Facebook page to see a list of my upcoming appearances in person and on radio/TV. Buy Over the Edge on Amazon.
See Over the Edge’s book trailer.
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The Big Controversy: Are You Confident You’ll Be Treated Appropriately?
Pearls of Insight: Lyme Event Highlights: