My Inspiration for Dr. Mallory Hayes in Particles in the Air 

My Inspiration for Dr. Mallory Hayes in Particles in the Air 

I drew from many of my own personal experiences– particularly my experiences in medicine– in the formation of Mallory, the lead character in my new medical thriller, Particles in the Air. As is the case in many fields, medicine remains firmly male-dominated. It is my hope that women may find Mallory’s determination and ingenuity inspiring.

It was never a question in my mind that the main character would be a female physician. Much of Mallory’s personality characteristics weren’t consciously planned but written the way that I believed I would respond to a particular set of circumstances. Mallory’s character lived with anxiety and struggled a bit with communication in her relationships. She grew up in a humble, middle-class setting and worked hard to get where she was. Mostly, I wanted to create someone imperfect, like me.  

There were several situations in the book, such as Mallory being labeled a nurse because of her gender, that were based on personal experience. There were a handful of times I was not taken seriously as a doctor because of my gender, even while wearing a white coat and introducing myself as such. I can’t count the number of times that I walked into a patient’s hospital room and was immediately asked what time the doctor was coming in. As Mallory’s character specified in the book, nursing is a noble and rewarding profession. It’s just not the profession that I’ve chosen.  

I’ve been asked how I settled on the name Mallory for my protagonist. I wanted to pick a name that was mildly popular the year Mallory was “born.” In many ways, Mallory reminds me of my two best friends from college—Melanie and Valeria (pronounced Valerie) are both strong, smart women in medicine. We realized later, combining the two names even sounds like Mallory—maybe my subconscious came up with it? I also did a quick poll with a few members of my family. When given a list of three potential names, they all invariably picked Mallory.  

I attended a small, rural high school with no advanced placement classes or ACT prep courses. Working tirelessly in college and getting into medical school was probably my most obvious example of determination. The following anecdote is a less obvious one. When I was in seventh grade, I was known as a voracious reader. Each year, I looked forward to the small school’s annual “Young Author” contest. I spent weeks writing and editing a story on my clunky, used Macintosh with the disproportionately small screen. I printed it out in our school library, careful to leave room for the corresponding drawings, and bound it carefully in a clear folder. 

The next week, the panel met after school to read the top books from each class. I later learned that someone put my book forward as one of their favorites. One of the judges dismissed it right away. Apparently, she seemed confident that it couldn’t have been written by a seventh grader and that it must have been the work of my parents. The others agreed and my book was tossed into the “no” pile. I contemplated standing up for myself, protesting that my parents had merely read the finished product. I decided it wouldn’t be fair if I spoke up because the contest would no longer be anonymous. I vowed to present things differently the next year.  

In eighth grade, I wrote my story with a pencil instead of printing it out. I purposely omitted certain words and simplified the plot. Guess what?  I won. This probably wasn’t the most constructive way to attain my goal, but I was determined. I wanted this resolve to show through in Mallory’s imperfect character. 

Written words have always been a central part of my world. I grew up nurturing my creative side with writing, reading and art. To this day, I read and listen to audiobooks constantly. To me, the question I ask myself is, how did I become an MD? As a child, science was the last thing on my mind. However, after someone close to me became ill, I began to explore medicine as a career. A biochemistry class during college opened my eyes to the complexities of the human body. 

I couldn’t have written Particles in the Air, created Mallory’s character in the way I did, without my medical expertise. Every step of the way, I wanted to be sure that my story had a realistic medical setting with scientifically plausible scenarios. My training gave me the ability to remain true-to-science, from the illness descriptions to lab abnormalities, to the disastrous effects of what a manufactured, contagious virus can do to the human immune system.

As I did with Mallory’s character, when I discuss complex medical ideas with patients, I leave out the professional jargon and explain in a way they will understand. This turned out to be good practice for writing as well. While I don’t have any formal or informal training in creative writing, I’ve read countless thrillers and mysteries. Being essentially “self-taught” has resulted in an uncommon marriage of the right and left sides of the brain. For me, Mallory’s character in Particles really came together and resulted in something that I haven’t read before. The medical details, including the immunodeficiency signs, symptoms, and diagnoses made by Mallory, are wholly unique with real descriptions of medical scenarios woven into the story.

—
Twitter: @JennaPodjasek
Website: https://www.jennapodjasek.com
Instagram: @jennapodjasekauthor

PARTICLES IN THE AIR

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing