Novelist’s Success Is Thriller After 30 Years

Thirty years ago, Dorothy McMillan thought she would never write again. Now, however, the 53-year-old neophyte suspense author is writing with a vengeance, and an array of nice Orange County characters are getting killed off as quickly as McMillan can get her fictional psychopaths and murderers on paper.

Publishers, meanwhile, are doing their best to keep up with her diabolical outpourings--New American Library published her first novel, “Blackbird,” in January, and Medallion Books Inc. will release her second work, “Soul Crossing,” in July.

“I’ve always wanted to write a novel, but there was a time when I thought I’d never be able to,” said McMillan, who was born with upper atrial septal defect, an opening in the upper chambers of the heart. “I feel that even being able to write ‘Blackbird’ is a real coup for me.”

McMillan decided after she had congestive heart failure at the age of 24 to have open-heart surgery. “I was given six months to a year to live without the surgery,” explained the author, who lives in Santa Ana. But the operation itself was quite risky, she said, since open-heart surgery for her birth defect was still in its early stages of development.

After the operation, McMillan discovered she had slight paralysis and nerve damage in her hands as well as aphasia (inability to form words).

“When I sat down to type again the first time, I bawled,” she said. “One of my hands couldn’t feel the keys, and the other hand I couldn’t control. I thought my writing years were over.”

Through therapy, she was able to overcome the paralysis and also reduce the aphasia. “At first I had extensive aphasia,” she recalled. “I couldn’t speak complete sentences--or I would recognize an object but call it by the wrong word. It was extremely painful and frustrating. It was a long process, but I did get better. The aphasia is very mild at this point.”

McMillan still has problems remembering numbers, uses her fingers “like an abacus” when adding or multiplying and employs a professional typist for her final manuscripts. “I still have a bit of a problem,” she said, “but I work around it. I think it’s great that I can make writing my career. It’s never too late to start.”

“Blackbird,” a suspense thriller set in Orange County, was released in paperback by New American Library under its Signet label. “It’s a medical horror novel that’s especially chilling,” commented Kevin Mulroy, McMillan’s editor at New American Library.

The novel was conceived three years ago when McMillan played the role of Aunt Monica in the Newport Theatre Arts Center’s presentation of Maxwell Anderson’s “The Bad Seed.”

“I started thinking about the type of person ‘The Bad Seed’ was about--a little girl who has no sense of what’s right or wrong,” McMillan explained. “Then I started thinking, ‘What if there was someone like the character in the play, but who was very bright and had a very responsible position combined with a really distorted idea of conscience? What would that character be capable of?’ ”

Newspaper Article

While McMillan was contemplating a story based on this type of character, she read a newspaper article about a woman in Italy who, enraged at the marriage of her ex-boyfriend to another woman, poisoned the food at the wedding reception.

“There was a similar case in the U.S.,” McMillan said. “I started thinking, ‘What if this character developed something really powerful and deadly--possibly a type of recombinant DNA (genetically altered DNA) that could be initially mistaken as a new disease?’ I started looking through newspapers, reading any articles about people dying at weddings or other social occasions. And then the character of Pearl started to take form.”

Pearl Bassett is the “bad seed” in “Blackbird,” McMillan said. A brilliant microbiologist specializing in recombinant DNA research, Pearl plots revenge when she learns that her ex-fiance is going to marry someone else. She infects the food at the wedding with a lethal bacteria, then decides to continue what she calls “the experiment” on other people who have caused problems in her life.

“Although Pearl appears childlike and innocent, she is sociopathic and totally amoral,” McMillan said. “She absolutely doesn’t know right from wrong. She distorts everything. This type of person can be very dangerous because (his or her) rationale is so warped.”

Talked With Psychiatrist

In her research, McMillan consulted with Dr. William Courter, an Orange County psychiatrist, about Pearl’s sociopathic disorder. She also asked other medical experts in Orange County about the feasibility of Pearl’s creation of a type of recombinant DNA botulism.

“Ralph Bradshaw, a professor of microbiology at UC Irvine, talked with me at length and reviewed the basic idea of recombinant DNA and whether or not this could be done. I read him pieces and he said, ‘Oh, yes, that’s probable.’ His only criticism was that Pearl probably would have killed herself because (she wasn’t) working in a high-containment (safe) lab. ‘But who knows,’ he said. ‘It’s very possible that with the right type of equipment, she could have developed this type of thing.’ ”

In her search for the best bacteria for her character’s diabolical purposes, McMillan also used the library at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, where she received technical advice from epidemiologist Marya Grier. The FBI, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, and Wally Damerell, a former murder investigator for the state of California, were other sources in her search for just the right touch of realism.

Judging by her friends’ reactions, the research paid off, McMillan said. “I’ve apparently spoiled a lot of food for people. One friend went to a wedding not too long after reading ‘Blackbird’ and passed by the buffet because she just couldn’t eat it. . . . I’ve had quite a few people say to me that they don’t look at buffets the same after reading the book.”

Earlier Attempts

Temporary paralysis and aphasia are not the only obstacles McMillan faced in her desire to publish a novel. Twenty years ago, she wrote two books: one a romantic suspense novel, the other an instruction book on glass bead-making. Both were bought by publishers, but then the fiction publisher folded, and the nonfiction publisher discovered that a sister publication had already printed a similar work.

Her desire to be a published novelist thwarted, McMillan continued to free lance for newspapers and magazines. But she found the work discouraging. “There were some disappointments, and I thought, ‘I’m tired of the free-lance bit. I decided that’s enough. You’ve played with what you like to do, now really get to work.’ ”

It was during her stint doing administrative work for Orange County Transit District that McMillan met science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury, with whom she corresponds. She gives him credit for giving her the incentive to keep writing.

“He (Bradbury) is interested in future transportation planning and was at a number of meetings I was attending for the transit district. Then I later met him at Orange Coast College, where he read a portion of my work and said, ‘You’ve got talent. Keep faith in yourself and keep writing.’ Without those words from somebody along the line, it’s hard to keep on going.”

Theme of Another Novel

McMillan subsequently wrote “Soul Crossing,” an occult novel about an out-of-body experience. Her literary agent, Michael Hamilburg, liked the novel and took it to New American Library.

“The editor there liked the book,” McMillan said. “But the market for that type of novel went dry, and she said, ‘I like it, but I can’t buy it. What else do you have?’ ”

The “what else” that McMillan came up with was the outline and first 50 pages of “Blackbird.”

“So it was really ‘Soul Crossing’ that sold “Blackbird,” McMillan said.

The final “Blackbird” manuscript required little revision, McMillan said, but her editor did want her to clarify where Orange County was.

“When they were looking at the manuscript in New York, they kept saying, ‘Well, isn’t this actually L.A.?’ And I would say, ‘No. It’s an area with 2 million people and has its own distinctive personality.’ To make that clear in the novel, I had to add some description here and there, explaining the specific locations of Orange County cities in relationship to L.A.”

Most Locations Fictional

Although McMillan mentioned such Orange County sites as South Coast Plaza, Zubie’s and Hogue BarMichael’s, she had to use a bit of caution, she said. “Every place in the book actually exists, except those places I thought someone might be upset about. For example, Parker Hospital, where Pearl works, doesn’t exist. Also, I made the place where Pearl lived an old Spanish house somewhere in Santa Ana, but there is actually no such (house).”

“Blackbird,” which was distributed nationwide in January, now is in its second printing with 110,000 copies in circulation.

“I’ve had friends I haven’t heard from in years calling up and saying that they saw my book in Phoenix or Miami and enjoyed reading it,” McMillan said.

Those friends also have questions, she said. “They wonder what my mental state is . . . . Most of them want to know why I picked that type of novel to write. But I like things that are scary and spooky. It’s fun to be scared when it isn’t real. I think being frightened vicariously helps us cope with the problems and frights we have to face in life,” McMillan said.

Silverado Canyon Setting

McMillan said she doesn’t have time these days to sit back and relax. Last month, Medallion Books Inc. purchased “Soul Crossing,” which is set in Orange County’s Silverado Canyon, and she has 45 days to complete the revisions.

While other people her age may be considering retirement, McMillan says she has no such plans. “When I sold ‘Blackbird,’ I had just turned 50. I felt, ‘What a wonderful way to start the second half-century of your life.’ It’s a wonderful thing to finally be able to write instead of thinking about retiring and taking cruises to the Caribbean. As long as I’m living, I hope I can keep on writing.”