“Slick and Intelligent, Not For Profit is a thrill ride of a debut that whisks the reader around the globe. I had a hard time putting it down.”
– Layton Green, Kindle Bestselling Author of The Dominic Grey Novels
“Not For Profit draws the reader in with terrifying details plotted with surgical accuracy. The surprises keep on coming, one barrage after the other.”
– Dr. Ross Pennie, Author of the award-winning Zol Szabo mystery series in which murder is contagious.
“NOT FOR PROFIT is a thriller that unfolds at a break-neck speed and with real medical authenticity. A fun read that’s not for the faint of heart.”
– Daniel Kalla, best-selling author of PANDEMIC and THE FAR SIDE OF THE SKY
A prominent surgeon accused of murder and terrorism…
A corrupt healthcare administrator hell-bent on bloody revenge…
A mysterious seductress whose secrets could free the doctor and kill thousands…
A terrorist cell with missiles aimed at a leading hospital in America’s Bible Belt…
Not for Profit takes you on an action-packed thrill ride that will have you questioning suspects, motives, and outcomes until the very last page.
Renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Scott James is charged with murder after two bodies are found at his surgery center. Just weeks before the start of his capital murder trial, Dr. James is approached by a beautiful woman claiming she can help him gain information that would prove his innocence.
As James hunts down the evidence that might free him, he faces a barrage of threats to his life and liberty–and makes one chilling discovery after another: Corporate corruption. A conspiracy to frame him for murder and for terrorist acts. A secret drone-control operation that takes out targets in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The true identity and intent of his beautiful ally. And a plot to blow up the local hospital and surrounding community.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Glenn Shepard was raised on a farm in eastern Virginia. He attended the University of Virginia on an academic scholarship and majored in psychology. As an undergraduate, he lettered in wrestling for three years in a row. Then, he went on to become the only person in UVA history to letter in wrestling again in his sophomore year in medical school.
After completion of med school at UVA, he went to Vanderbilt where he completed his residency in general and cardiovascular surgery. He spent two years in the Army at the Ft. Gordon Army Hospital in Augusta, Georgia and The Second Surgical Hospital in An Khe, Vietnam.
While in Vietnam, he wrote his first work of fiction, Surge, which is on his back burner of works to dig out of the attic and publish, with major revisions, in the future.
He trained in plastic surgery at Duke University, becoming board certified in General Surgery and Plastic surgery. He opened his own Surgery Center in Eastern Virginia, where he worked for 23 years, mostly in a solo practice, before joining a large, plastic surgery group.
For 28 years, he founded and directed The Peninsula Cranio-Facial deformities clinic that was staffed by volunteer medical, dental, social services, psychology, and speech pathology experts. The group treated over five hundred patients with cleft lips and palates, as well as a variety of deformities of the face and hand.
Shepard founded, funded, and directed the Riverside Microvascular Research Lab, in which he studied the basic science of wound healing, the development of of cleft palates, new techniques in palatal repair, and the regeneration of injured fingernails. He published numerous scientific publications on his work in the lab and clinic.
After the massive Earthquake in Haiti in January, 2010, Dr. Shepard emerged from retirement and joined the Notre Dame Hospital unit in Leogane, Haiti for a 10 day rotation. His empathy for the people and their problems as well as his admiration for the contributions of time and talent from medical personnel from all over the world greatly inspired his second novel, Relief Aid, Haiti.
All his adult life, he has studied and collected American Art of the Hudson River genre. Also, he collects paintings of the prominent Virginia artist, Barclay Sheaks. Currently, he’s writing the authorized biography of the artist.
For six years, he worked with two high school wrestling programs, one that was a perpetual state champion, and the other, a perpetual runner-up in the state meet. He wisely quit after a heavy weight wrestler broke three of his ribs.
Apart from gaining pleasure from writing as his primary hobby for the past twelve years, he is an avid fly fisherman, spending much of his free time fishing on the Chesapeake Bay and at his farm near Williamsburg. There he enjoys nature hikes, observing and photographing the abundant deer population, and always searching for new bird species that might wander off their migratory paths into his view.
Dr. Shepard has also become involved in aquaculture and raises hybrid rock fish, rainbow trout, and fresh water shrimp. While this is not yet a profitable enterprise, it provides a delicious seafood addition to his annual Bluegrass and Barbecue Party. While he has been known to play a mean banjo, he prefers to provide himself as an audience for the many and more talented singers and pickers in his area.
An Interview with Author Glenn Shepard
a.) How did you get into writing?
Writing has become a form of relaxation for me. My busy and mostly solo plastic surgery practice was very demanding, keeping me up late every night. During the day, I found it relaxing to create fictitious scenarios that could be solved. It was an outreach of my medical research, where I’d invest time and money in a hypothesis that could not always be proven by the scientific method. Rather than seeking a “journal of negative results” in which to publish, I found it relaxing and therapeutic to write fiction, where any story line could be altered to fit any conclusion.
b.) How long have you been writing?
I started writing in 1986, completing a 1000 page action thriller entitled, The Hart Virus. It told of the beginnings of the AIDS problem and offered insight into the nature of the virus, its mutations which made it difficult to cure, and the social stigma associated with the disease. I thought it was a novel “ahead of its time” and it did project the direction AIDS eventually took as well as the method necessary for a successful vaccine. However, the burdens of a busy plastic surgery practice did not allow the time to pursue publication, and as the years passed, the concept of the book became outdated. Yet, I had caught the writing bug and kept at it. I continued exploring fiction and completed six mystery novels of the next twenty years, and again, made no attempt to publish any of them until four years ago when I started my current novel, Not For Profit.
c.) What’s your novel about?
Not For Profit is a thriller about a conscientious plastic surgeon, Dr. Scott James, who tangles with an ambitious hospital administrator, Herb Waters, who siphons large sums of money from a non-profit hospital into his own pockets. Two men are murdered in James’s surgery center and the doctor is charged with the crimes. In trying to prove his innocence, Dr. James discovers a terrorist attack planned against a mysterious drone operator who moves his base of operations from the Middle East to the doctor’s home town. A beautiful computer genius, Ethel Keyes, comes to assist him as he tries to free himself from the capital murder charges.
d.) Is it the first book in a series?
Yes, Not For Profit is the first book in an action thriller series involving Dr. Scott James, the terrorist, and the beautiful computer geek. In the second novel, Relief Aid Haiti, the good doctor, Scott James, goes to Haiti to assist an old surgical colleague with a backlog of surgery caused by the Haitian earthquake. Terrorists have seized the $5 billion Relief Aid Fund given by a multitude of foreign nations. The hospital ship James works on is hijacked and the terrorists seek not only destruction of major cities in the US, but want revenge for the blow James gave to the terrorists in Not For Profit. Book Three, A Funeral In Texas, again uses the special talents of Dr. James in tracking down a Nazi physician who committed crimes in WWII and is now seemingly immortal and practicing in Texas.
e.) Where can people buy your books?
In the next few weeks, the first book, NFP, will be available both as a softcover and an e-book on Kindle from Amazon.com.
f.) How do you compare being a writer to being a doctor?
Nothing compares to the thrill of surgery. I loved every minute of my surgical practice, and as excited as I get about creating situations and solutions in books, I’d go back to operating in a heartbeat if I had the physical stamina that I had in my younger year… Ahh, to be young again…
g.) What parts of your new book are based upon real life events?
The events that inspired Not For Profit occurred on a distant planet, far away, and in the distant future. Throughout the novel, I became involved, as a participant in the action, and realized that revenge from a rich and powerful hospital can cripple an individual with average means, as happened with Dr. James. It would take another powerful corporation to stand toe to toe with the hospital giants. Let somebody else blow whistles. I just want to write my novels and enjoy the good life that brings. All fiction is real life and all real life is fiction. I could not be a novelist without the life experiences that show weaknesses in our great, but tainted network of health care delivery.
h.) Tell me about your hero?
Dr. Scott James is part me, part colleagues I have known and worked with, and part total make-believe. However, over the course of the writing, James became a real person, at least to me. So real, I lived his trials and triumphs. When he was hurt, I suffered from agitation and sleep loss, just as he did. The depression he endured to the point of suicide, I endured as well. From his experiences, I know what it’s like to be suicidal. I know what it’s like to experience depression. And, I know the joys of surviving. The love Ethel Keyes gave to him, she gave to me. That love made me strong. The long nights I spent writing the book gave me strength, just as they were also a source of strength for Dr. James.
i.) Tell me about the next book in the series?
The trauma of divorce and the loss of Dr. James’ surgical practice in Not For Profit have depressed him so that he begins to use tobacco and alcohol as crutches. He is looking for an escape, so he interrupts his job as a hospital administrator to go to Haiti to operate. And recover. Only once there, he becomes involved in terrorist activities even more dangerous and deadly than the ones he faced in Not For Profit. The odds are stacked against him. Is he strong enough to survive?
I’ll tell you when I finalize that book. 🙂
Reading Renee 