"Wrongfully Removed" by Braxton Degarmo

What would you do to protect your family? Would you stand up to the government? Sinead O’Malley and her husband, Jameson, fight to reunite their family after the State of Massachusetts tore it apart and ignored their right to due process. Now, as he sits in jail, she has a choice to make. It’s a choice that could lead to losing her eldest daughter forever. Yet, Sinead can no longer watch her daughter, Ruth, deteriorate. She is left with one option, no matter the consequences. When an unexpected storm cell takes down MedAir 724, Amy Gibbs, RN, finds herself rescued at the hands of an “angel of mercy.” But who is this woman? And who is she, along with her handicapped daughter, hiding from? Amy, too, has a choice to make: help the woman who saved her life, or follow the law

Bio : taken from his webpage at www.braxtondegarmo.com

Braxton can’t lay claim to wanting to be a writer all his life, although his mother and seventh grade English teacher were convinced he had what it would take. He went to Duke University, earned a Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Engineering with a major in Bio-Medical Engineering, and followed that with medical school at the University of Cincinnati. After a residency in Emergency Medicine at Madigan Army Medical Center, he served tours as the Chief, Emergency Medical Services at Fort Campbell, KY and as a research Flight Surgeon at Fort Rucker, AL. Who had time to write?

By the late 1990′s, his professional and family life had settled down, somewhat, and his mother once again took up her mantra, “Write a book. You’re a good writer.” Yet, with no experience in writing anything other than technical articles, he hesitated to try his hand at fiction. That changed in 1997 when the local newspaper held a writing contest for Valentine’s Day. Out of 1100 entries, he made it to the top five finalists and realized that maybe he could write fiction after all.

The next ten years saw him learning the craft of writing through local writers’ groups, seminars, critique groups and more. “The Militant Genome” (©July 2012) marked his first formal publication. “Indebted” (©January 2013) has been well received, and his third and fourth novels, “Looks that Deceive” (©May 2013) and “Rescued and Remembered” (©November 2013) began what is now a four book series that includes “The Silenced Shooter” (©July 2014) and “Wrongfully Removed” (©June 2015).

Eighteen years after that first hesitant start, he can’t find enough time to write as much as he’d like. He now lives in Missouri with his wife, Paula. Their two children are grown and with three grandchildren nearby, “Papa” wears a number of hats.

FAQ

1. How do you get your story ideas?

Story ideas are all around you. The initial idea for opening “The Militant Genome” came while I took my own Advanced Trauma Life Support credentialing course. Then, a newspaper article on militias in the Ozarks caught my attention. The two ideas came together to form the skeleton of the novel. A number of articles on the creative process have presented the idea that we are often most creative when most relaxed. I’ve personally found that to be true in that ideas seem to flow more easily while taking a warm shower, or in that near sleep period just prior to waking up. In fact, if I’m really stuck on how to proceed with a story, I usually come up with the solution while lying in bed just before getting up in the morning.

More recently, my ideas have come from news reports on issues that I see as injustices to the victims. Those victims might be young women who are trapped in the human trafficking industry, or families torn apart by the state which takes away children without giving due process to the parent(s). In the latter, most of those parents are never even charged with a crime.

2. Which authors do you personally like?

My wife and I read a lot of different authors, but we are partial to edge-of-the-seat thrillers and good suspense, and tend to enjoy the same authors. Among our favorites, in no particular order, are Tess Gerritsen, Brad Thor, Steve Berry, Lee Child, David Baldacci, Michael Palmer, Daniel Silva, and James Patterson (although not his apprentices so much). And of course, our year wouldn’t be complete without a dose of Janet Evanovich humor with Stephanie Plum.

3. What best describes your writing habits?

Habit might be the wrong word here, at least for now. My writing schedule is totally erratic. Since I still practice medicine, there are days where no writing gets done. Some days I’ll get a page or two written, but if I have a scene (or more) clearly “mapped out” in my head, I might crank out ten to fifteen pages in a day. In the summer, less writing gets done than in the colder months. One factor to keep in mind is that I’m not yet a full-time author and I have no publishing company harping on me to keep to a schedule, so any pressure I feel to write is self-inflicted. Still, I’d like to be able to produce a book a year and I can do that despite my erratic writing schedule.

4. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

It sounds trite, but read a lot and start writing. Often, it’s a matter of overcoming the inertia that has kept you from writing to begin with. Writing well is hard work and requires that you have a level of passion to keep it up, which is easier if you write about things you know. Writing is also a craft and any craft takes time to learn. Go to seminars, join critique groups, and read instructional books to learn the craft.

5. Why did you opt to self-publish electronically, rather than go the traditional route of finding an agent and publisher?

To be honest, I spent years trying to go the “traditional route,” having felt that being accepted by a major publisher somehow validated my work. There was also a stigma attached to self-publishing that implied poor quality. (That stigma is becoming less and less as high quality writing is becoming more common in self-published works.) I diligently sent out queries, filed away the rejections, and kept hoping for ‘that break.’ With “The Militant Genome” I received numerous replies that it was “a great book … but not for us.” My editor believed in the book and bent over backwards to put me in contact with agents he knew. Same replies. As a Christian, I firmly believe God’s Word when He says He’ll bless the work of our hands. I kept wondering why it wasn’t happening. Then, our Pastor said something during a sermon that released me to take the plunge into self-publishing. To paraphrase his comments to my specific situation, who was going to get the ‘glory’ when my book succeeded, a publishing company, or God? I’d been holding Him back by waiting for a publisher to take on my work. It was time to move ahead and give Him the glory.

6. Okay, why the cliffhanger ending in “Looks that Deceive?”

I’ve been asked this several times, and I’ve been hesitant to answer in an open forum without some formal spoiler alert. Let me just say that the cliffhanger was never intended at the beginning of the writing process. I had an idea for a plot. My editor liked the idea and I decided to incorporate it into book 2, “Rescued and Remembered.” The only way it could happen was to have the cliffhanger ending in book 1. Some think it was a marketing ploy, but that was never really a consideration. In fact, in hindsight, it’s been a negative factor in marketing. Yet, it is what it is now.

7. Will we ever learn which guy Amy ends up with?

Sure, at some point. This is a series and not everything is going to resolve in the first few books. Did Castle win over Beckett in the series premiere? Did Harry Potter overcome his parents’ enemy in the first book? So, yes, the love interest will resolve, eventually. No spoilers here.

My Review:
 "Wrongfully Removed"is the 4th book in the(MedAir Series) by Braxton DeGarmo, and like the other three in the series the reader is kept turning the pages to get to the end and when you get there, you want to keep reading.

In " Wrongfully Removed" Braxton DeGarmo tackles the subject of medically kidnapping by the state because two doctors disagree on the best treatments for Ruth. A subject that he took from a real happening in the news. 

This story continues the story line and the characters that started in the first book “Looks that Deceive”, as the other two books with additional characters introduced but that is what makes reading these books so exciting! In this story, Amy is injured when Med Air 724 plane is forced down because of a storm and is rescued by a woman with a child that is in hiding. But what is this woman hiding from and why? 

This story has the reader experiencing many emotions, such as fear, and anger and then sadness and love and disgust and then disbelief. All the elements of a great story. 

The setting is set in a state not far from where this reader lives and some of the places mentioned I have been to. When that happens in a story that you are reading, it makes the story more believable as well as exciting. 

This book has an unexpected ending, and I have to say it was both great and not so great, I encourage you to read "Wrongfully Removed" to find out why I say this. I must warn you that these books are not your typical feel good love story even though it has a love story within the pages.  I feel that you don't have to read the other three books in the series to understand " Wrongfully Removed" but I certainly recommend that you do because all four just build on each one.

"Wrongfully Removed" is a story that shows that the government wants to be in control of everything and that everyone that a person who is supposed to  have best intentions in their line of work doesn't always. "Wrongfully Removed" shows that sometimes we just have to take things in our own hands and not always follow the easy path.  This story shows that love will overcome the odds but it takes courage and determination as Jameson and Sinead O’Malley and their daughter Ruth would tell you if they could tell you their story in their own words.

The author, Braxton DeGarmo has told me that several more books in the series are planned and I say "Great".

I am sure you can tell I am giving "Wrongfully Removed" five stars.

I was given a copy of "Wrongfully Removed" by the author for my honest review!

To buy "Wrongfully Removed" go here http://www.amazon.com/Wrongfully-Removed-MedAir-Book-4-ebook/dp/B00ZGUO70I/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1439234644&sr=1-1&keywords=wrongfully+removed