✍The First Page: The Panacea Project by Catherine Devore Johnson

 

 The Panacea Project

by Catherine Devore Johnson

Medical Thriller

Calla Hammond has always been a loner—a product of the foster system and avoided by others because of a skin condition. When doctors discover her immune system holds the key to curing cancer, she struggles to advance lifesaving research in a world that sees her only as a means to an end. Yet along the way, Calla gains the one thing she has always longed for: a chosen family. But when a group of unscrupulous people join forces to sell Calla’s blood to the highest bidder, she has to dig deep to find the strength to retake control of her life, her body, and her story.

Release Date: February 28, 2023

Publisher:  Greenleaf Book Group

Hard Cover: ISBN: 978-0-9858579-9-8; 304 pages; $24.95

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3UlNJW4

 

 

 

 

 

                    

Calla flipped through the book she was supposed to be putting away. She had always
been fascinated by what other people checked out of the library. Her co-workers dreaded
shelving duty, but she loved the time alone—organizing, straightening, reading to her
heart’s content. No one bothered her when she was in the stacks.

Calla blinked a few times as the words on the page slipped out of focus. The blurriness
was getting more frequent. She might need to go back to the doctor. God, she was sick of
doctors. She pushed the thought from her mind and returned to her book—an
introductory text on astrophysics. She was just getting into an early chapter on the birth
of stars when she was interrupted by a rustling sound on the other side of the bookcase.
“Come here.” The voice was quiet, full of need.

A giggle. “Someone will see us!”

“No, they won’t. No one’s here.”

Calla peeked through thin slices of empty space at a man and a woman standing in the
next row. She watched as their bodies—hands, hips, mouths—slowly merged.

A sigh. A soft moan.

Calla spun away, ashamed of herself for spying. She set her book down on the shelving
cart and started to leave, but she couldn’t help stealing one last glance at the intimacy
unfolding only three feet away. What was it like to be that close to another person
without having them recoil from your touch?

Calla didn’t hear the two men approaching.

“Check it out,” one hissed, elbowing his companion. “Get a room, you two!”

The couple broke apart, and before Calla could react, the men walked past her row.
“Enjoying the show?” one of them sneered.

Catherine Devore Johnson is a former attorney turned writer. Her work has won or placed in competitions held by the Houston Writer’s Guild and the Writer’s League of Texas, and she has published an essay in The Houston Chronicle about caring for her mother after two strokes. She works as a writer and editor at a children’s hospital and lives in Houston with her husband and two children. The Panacea Project is her first novel.

Website:  https://www.cdjohnsonauthor.com/

Twitter:   https://twitter.com/cdjohnsonauthor

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/catherinedjohnsonauthor/