CJ Lyons says she let out “a fan girl squeal of delight” when Erin Brockovich, a fan of her books, asked her to co-write Rock Bottom. Since then, their second book, Hot Water, debuted in October with rave notices. CJ’s e-book, Blind Faith, debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list and has been purchased by St. Martin’s Press. This has been an exciting few months for CJ Lyons, a Hilton Head resident, who will be the featured author at the USCB Lunch With Author Series on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 at the Sea Pines Country Club. Lunch is served at noon. The all-inclusive price is $42. Reservations are made at 843-521-4147 or kingsley@uscb.edu.
Brockovich said she and CJ “had an instant connection. I enjoyed her strong female protagonists and how they let nothing stand in their way of doing what was right.” In Rock Bottom, the heroine is AJ Palladino, a spirited single mother who fights to protect her hometown from toxic threats linked to mountaintop removal, a controversial coal-mining method. Ever the activist, Brockovich calls it “a dirty business that wreaks havoc on communities.” In Hot Water, the second book in the AJ Palladino series, the focus centers on a South Carolina nuclear plant.
In turning to CJ Lyons to co-author the books with her, Brockovich said, “I watched how the movie, Erin Brockovich, and how many movies and books have an effect on people,” she says. “The environment is still an issue, and I thought if we could write a novel in a way that was suspenseful but based on some reality that it would have the same impact.” And so it has. According to New York Times bestselling author Lee Child, “Everything a great thriller should be—action packed, authentic, and intense.”
CJ Lyons who was trained in Pediatric Emergency Medicine has assisted police and prosecutors with cases involving child abuse, rape, homicide and Munchausen by Proxy. She has worked in numerous trauma centers, on the Navajo reservation, as a crisis counselor, victim advocate, as well as a flight physician for Life Flight and Stat Medevac.
But writing was CJ’s avocation ever since she was a child.
When a group of professional writers read her first manuscript, they told her she should get published. Despite her heroics in medicine, she was scared to subject her writing to the pros. Then she sold her first novel and opted to pursue a full-time writing career. She realized that stories have power. As much power as medicine…the power to teach, the power to heal, and the power to inspire. Since then she has written 13 novels, including her Angels of Mercy medical thriller series and obviously her medical career has been invaluable in her writing.
