Five Insider Details from Jenna Kernan’s new release, The Adoption
The heroine of my May release, The Adoption, is a woman suffering from the after effect of a traumatic brain injury that resulted in a condition commonly called Face Blindness. This sent me down a rabbit hole of research on brain injuries and psychiatric hospitals. The particulars of my research are woven into my story but here are a few insider details …
1. What is Prosopagnosia?
I needed a way to keep the heroine from recognizing her tormentor and found it in a book written by Oliver Sacks, a physician, brain researcher, author, and man suffering from prosopagnosia. Prosopagnosia, or face blindness, is a rare condition that may result from a head injury, stroke or it can be innate. Dr Sachs claimed to suffer from this condition and wrote about the frustrations he experienced in The Mind’s Eye, describing seeing what he believed to be his reflection in a window while seated at an outside café table. He then preceded to groom his beard, and suddenly grasped this was not his reflection, but a very confused patron seated on the opposite side of the glass. This anecdote inspired the mirror scene in my story.
2. People with face blindness use coping strategies.
Professor Sarah Bates has a very helpful website on strategies to deal with the challenges experienced with face blindness. You can find it here. I had Dani Sutton, my protagonist, use Professor Bates’ suggestion to memorize distinguishing facial features and extra-facial cues, such as tattoos, jewelry, glasses and so on. Dani uses all of these with varying degrees of success throughout the story. Her psychiatrist, Dr. Allen, for example, has curly red hair (physical feature clues) and often wears glasses with clear frames, a scarf and red lipstick (extra-facial clues), making her easier for Dani to recognize.
The challenges of not recognizing faces
Photo by Jeremy Budiman on Unsplash
3. Challenges when Writing about Face Blindness.
Funny, but it was easy to forget that my heroine suffered from prosopagnosia all the time, not just when it was convenient to turn the plot. Sometimes I’d describe her recognizing a neighbor or friend on sight. My copy editor pointed this out more than once, sending me back to add the sort of extra-facial details she might use to make such identifications.
4. Boutique, Concierge Facility
After my online research handed me a small concierge psychiatric facility housed in a former hotel, I started searching for boutique hotel images to inspire this location. In a design article for long corridors, I discovered a photo of a bright red-orange entrance door behind a large white dog statue. It’s the kind of entrance that you would not overlook or forget. Perfect for an elite psych center. The large room numbers came from a photo in the same article. Since then, I saw a news story about an assisted living facility photographing the doors of their resident’s former homes and overlaying them on the entrance to their new doors to help them find their way. That seems like a great idea to me.
5. Psychiatric Hospital Design
Little details add greatly to a book. I was very happy to find a PDF online about the common mistakes in psychiatric hospital design, which included levels of care and an example room that would minimize the risks of self-harm. It was here that I discovered the open cubbies, fixed furniture, and the need for different levels of observation.
I hope you will pick up a copy of my May release, a twisty domestic thriller, The Adoption, about new parents whose bliss over their new baby is shattered by a dark secret and a menacing stranger.
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Article by Jenna Kernan first appeared in CrimeSpreeMagazine, May 2022.