Interview with thriller author Rudy Mazzocchi

Today's guest interviewee is Rudy A. Mazzocchi. He's doing a virtual book tour for his new medical thriller Equity of Evil. 

Bio:
Rudy is best known as a medical device and biotechnology entrepreneur, inventor, and angel investor, with a history of starting new technology ventures throughout the U.S. and Europe. He’s been privileged to have the opportunity to see the newest innovations in healthcare and work with some of the most brilliant researchers, scientists and physicians in the industry.

Authoring more than 50 patents, he has helped pioneer new companies involved in cardiology, oncology, orthopedics, neurosurgery and even embryonic stem-cell development. Through these efforts, he has become the recipient of many technology and business awards, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Healthcare and the Businessman of the Year Award.

Combining these experiences and opportunities, with thousands of hours of travel and long evenings in hotel rooms, he found the initiative to start writing a collection of medical thrillers based on true events, the first of which is entitled Equity of Evil.

Welcome, Rudy. Please tell us about your current release.
Equity of Evil is a politically compelling, suspenseful and reality-cutting medical thriller that will challenge the reader’s personal views on capitalism, ethics, and the basic morality of his fellow man. It’s about an entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist (Roman Citrano), who takes a risk on funding the creation of a new controversial business, one that intends to optimize the most frequently performed procedure in the world — Abortion. But it turns out that the decision to do so wasn’t really his, but something that he was manipulated into doing because of his unspoken past experiences. The new business venture quickly starts to go bad, but before he can make any attempt to repair or shut it down, he’s pulled deeper into an even darker world of deceit, rape, human trafficking, assassination, and the illicit black market for human organ transplants.

It becomes deeply personal as Roman’s sole love interest secretly uses one of his new abortion services to terminate her untimely pregnancy. When she disappears, his frantic search becomes a hellish nightmare that grows worse by the hour. This bold story is based on true events and involves some of the world’s oldest, most emotional and controversial issues.

What inspired you to write this book?
There were a course of events that unfolded in my personal and professional life that started to “read” like science fiction. I found myself asking two fundamental questions; what if, and why not? The story came together easy enough after I reached a point where the “thrillers” I was reading on a weekly or monthly basis were less exciting than the answers I was providing to those two questions. Make sense?

What exciting story are you working on next?
I’m actually considering writing a trilogy and well into my second novel. The first, Equity of Evil, is based on the harvesting of fetal organs that are obtained from abortions then grown like hydroponic vegetables to feed the world’s expanding need for human organs. The second, which I’m currently calling “EQUITY of PAIN”, is a story that will revolve around an existing technology known as “neuroplasticity” — the scientific manipulation and re-wiring of functional areas of the brain. The third manuscript will include the shocking dark world of euthanasia, called “EQUITY of DEATH”. If successful, I hope these will become known as “The EQUITY Series”!

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I’m still waiting to be considered one. Really! I’ll let others decide if I’m a writer or not. For now, I just think I have a few interesting stories to tell based on true events and life experiences. I’ll keep putting them down on paper and building characters around them until someone tells me to stop.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
No, my day job is being a CEO of an early stage medical technology company, sitting on a few company Boards, and being the best husband and father I can be; (which is the toughest thing I do). My businesses take me all over the U.S., Europe, (and recently) Japan, which provides me dozens of hours each week to work on my manuscripts while on extended flights or in my hotel room after the business day ends. I’m actually writing responses to this interview while in between meetings in Tokyo. I also don’t golf!

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I tend to spend too much time researching and thinking about the names of my characters. However, I find that their name provides me with some insight as to how their character should develop and what they might look like in my own mind. I’ve actually changed the name of a character half way through a story because I wasn’t comfortable with how their image was progressing.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
The simple answer is “an adult”. I couldn’t wait to grown up. In regards to a career, I loved dissecting stuff and had a love for animals, so I always wanted to be a veterinarian. It’s what carried me into my academic career and the fascination with medicine and science.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
The worst part of my day is going to sleep.

Thanks for being here today, Rudy. Your series sounds intriguing.