What was your life like before your author started pulling your strings?
Not many people knew about the life of a homeopathic doctor in the early 20th century. It was gory, messy and physically demanding. Most people thought a woman couldn’t handle it, and that we should go back to the kitchen. I was the first Lady Doctor in areas of Brooklyn, and I was very busy. I treated everything from broken bones to tuberculous, delivered babies and performed surgeries, sometimes all in a single day! We doctors also made house calls — does anyone remember those?
What’s the one trait you like most about yourself?
As a Homeopath MD, I have to be inquisitive and investigate a patient's overall health and state of mind, not only specific symptoms. I ask a lot of questions. This trained me to be a good detective.
What do you like least about yourself?
As a scientist and doctor, I don't take risks. I need to be professional to save lives. But when I become my alter ego, a jazz age flapper or opera star, I become sexy and adventurous.
What is the strangest thing your author has had you do or had happen to you?
The author keeps putting me under the covers with an amorous suitor, and he's sometimes even the murder suspect! Things do get steamy.
In Aconite, Queen of Poisons, I flirt with the tall blue-eyed chief detective who imprisons me, a debonair but villainous, brown-eyed suspect who dances up a storm at the speakeasy, and my black-eyed gorgeous hunk of a chauffeur. Hmmm, which one would you choose?
Each new book takes place in a later decade, and I live a very long life, into my 90’s, with many lovers. I’m looking forward to that!
Do you argue with your author? If so, what do you argue about?
Whether to include passionate sex scenes! It’s a normal bodily function, and hormonally therapeutic for the endocrine system.
What is your greatest fear?
That I can't stop a killer using poison botanicals. in Belladonna, book 2, the world is in danger, so I have to act fast before war starts. Poison flowers should be used by trained homeopaths only — to cure people, not kill them!
What makes you happy?
Reading medical journals and experimenting in my lab. Science was full of new discoveries during my lifetime.
If you could rewrite a part of your story, what would it be? Why?
I'd rewrite how some men gave us women doctors a hard time and were very condescending. They ridiculed us. But I think the author captures this truthfully. In fact, I'd say from my own experience, it was far worse. I’d march more for equality.
Of the other characters in your book, which one bugs you the most? Why?
My fellow students from med school who teased me when I was the only female in class. They’re called the Yorkvillains, named after the Yorkville area where our school was. They’re naughty and also comedians, like the Marx Brothers.
Of the other characters in your book, which one would you love to trade places with? Why?
My patients Maria and Sophie. They’re strong women, and they are married and traditional — very different from me. They love to dress up and put on the Ritz, and encourage me to find romance, too. But can a trailblazing early woman doctor have it all — love and a career?
Tell us a little something about your author. Where can readers find her website/blog?
L.M. Jorden is an award-winning journalist, author, and former professor who has lived on three continents. When not tending her garden, she writes on comparative societies for healthcare, human rights, and the environment. She holds a Master of Science from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and studied medicinal botany.
The Dr. Josephine Plantae Paradoxes is her debut mystery series. You can find L.M. on Facebook and her author page on Amazon.
What's next for you?
My new book in the series. BELLADONNA, Murder at the Opera, is set in the Golden Age 1930’s. Dr. Josephine and her beau are at the Brooklyn Opera when a diva is horribly murdered onstage. Josephine must go undercover as an ensemble singer to discover the links between the opera stars and a Brooklyn fascist group. She and the gang set sail for Italy to try and stop a sinister international plot involving love, politics and poisons. All aboard on the high seas for a new madcap mystery!
A Dr. Josephine Plantae Paradoxes Series, Book 1
A Madcap Murder Mystery - Based on a True Life Story
Booze Blanks? Lady Doctors? Poison Cures? Murder!
It’s the Roaring 20’s New York, and a feisty orphan rises from the Little Italy slums to become a doctor. Josephine Reva, M.D. is a trailblazing woman on a mission -- she's seeking equality in a male-dominated profession. When no Manhattan hospitals will hire a female physician, she puts out her shingle in faraway Brooklyn as the area’s first “Lady Doctor.”
Prohibition forbids drinking, but doctors can prescribe “medicinal” booze. Not surprisingly, Josephine’s patients flock to her, but bootleggers put her on their radar.
When an unexpected invitation arrives to join her peers at a conference, Josephine is surprised. Medicine is at a crossroads -- should she choose Allopathy or Homeopathy? Will Josephine renounce her paradoxical homeopathic “poison cures”?
Murder intrudes when a fellow doctor is found dead at the docks from Aconite, a purple flower known as the “Queen of Poisons.” But Aconite is also a homeopathic remedy, and Josephine realizes she’s being framed.
Chief Detective John O’Malley is a hard-boiled cop who believes poison is a “woman's weapon.” Josephine has no alibi. The two begin a cat and mouse chase along the killer’s trail, meeting some well-known New Yorkers, as the bodies pile up.
With help from her patients, Josephine goes undercover as her alter-ego — a sexy Jazz Age flapper — to a speakeasy to spy on suspicious doctors, quacks, and bootleggers. Pulling Josephine out of trouble is Dominick, her brawny and handsome chauffeur with a mysterious World War past.
Complications arise when Josephine falls for a debonair suspect. Is he friend or foe? Is the budding romance about to get nipped in the bud?
Can Josephine unmask the murderer? Can she unravel her own secrets to follow her heart and her ambition?
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