Dr. Jennifer Delozier describes her life as “small-town girl does good.” She overcame the limitations of childhood poverty to achieve success as a physician and award-winning author of thrillers, mysteries, and science-based fiction. Her fifth book hits stores this month.
“I am a self-made woman,” Delozier says. “Everything I did, I had to work for. I hustled my butt off for the privilege of becoming a doctor.”
Delozier grew up in Jersey Shore, between Lock Haven and Williamsport, and now lives in State College. “I always loved reading and have written short stories since I was twelve. I also loved science and wanted to be an astronomer since I was five.”
Her parents divorced when she was young, leaving her mother impoverished.
“When I was in high school, my mother got sick and was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis,” Delozier says. “I realized I was not going to be able to financially support myself and her as a research astronomist. I thought, how can I use my love of science in a more practical career?”
She decided to become a physician. “I was accepted into an Ivy League school and couldn’t go. I couldn’t afford the tuition or get enough scholarships.
“My mother taught me to always stick my chin out and deal with whatever comes. But this was the only time I saw her cry about being poor.”
Delozier graduated from the six-year B.S./M.D. (Bachelor of Science/Doctor of Medicine) program offered by Penn State. The program is in cooperation with the Sydney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. She specialized in family practice.
“I hustled for every scholarship—anything I could remotely qualify for,” Delozier says.
Her mother was an x-ray technician at Lock Haven Hospital, and one doctor there paid for Delozier’s medical books every year.
“Sometimes it takes a village,” Delozier says. “I’m grateful to this day.”
But she never gave up on writing. “In my B.S./M.D. program, I only had two electives. I chose to take a creative writing class for one of them.
“After my residency, there was a niggle in my brain to write a book,” she says. “It took about a year to write my first, Type and Cross. I never thought I’d be published. I didn’t have aspirations for a writing career at that point. Just wanted to check it off my bucket list.”
Delozier worked full-time as a physician for the State College VA clinic while she wrote her first book.
“It was so much fun,” she says. “I had zero expectations. The only research I did was to read Stephen King’s On Writing. “Friends and family said I should try to get it published. Before that, I’d written a dozen short stories but none were published.”
Type and Cross by J.L. Delozier was a finalist for the 2017 Best First Novel award from International Thriller Writers. The story focuses on a world-wide plague triggered by a bioterrorist and the efforts to stop him by criminal psychologist Persephone Smith and a team of scientists. Delozier used her medical knowledge to make the fictional pandemic plausible.
“They say to write what you know. Before Type and Cross, we hadn’t experienced a blood-born pandemic,” Delozier says. “Writers can’t help but incorporate things with which we’re familiar, and that’s what makes fictional books feel real. In a way, we’re still writing what we know. It could be about space aliens in another galaxy, but the human element—that’s what we know.”
Delozier’s experiences as a disaster physician during hurricanes Katrina, Ike, and Gustave provided the inspiration for her second Persephone Smith thriller, Storm Shelter. Her third novel, Blood Type X, followed Smith’s efforts to stop the next phase of the bioterrorist’s plan.
“I don’t like to be listed as a medical thriller writer like Patricia Cornwall or Robin Cook,” she says. “I think of my writing more like Michael Crichton’s science-based thrillers, not medical thrillers. And mysteries, of course.”
To have more time to write, Delozier joined Mount Nittany Physicians Group as a part-time physician in 2017 and also served as a clinical associate professor of medicine for Penn State College of Medicine. In January 2022, she further reduced her hours by switching to per-diem work and retiring from her associate professorship.
Delozier won a 2019 Omega Award for her science fiction short story, “Dirge in D Minor,” published in Artemis Journal. Con Me Once, her fourth novel, won the 2021 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award for Best Comedic Thriller. It follows the adventures of superhero wannabes as they face a mysterious woman and deadly real-world villains.
October 18 is the official release date for The Photo Thief, Delozier’s fifth novel and first murder mystery. Delozier describes the book as a modern-Gothic mystery with a paranormal edge that would appeal to fans of author Shirley Jackson. Delozier said the story idea came from a National Public Radio program about young thieves stealing photographs from crime victims’ homes and selling them to newspapers during the Great Depression.
“My thought was that these were boys and teens that would become soldiers in World War II,” Delozier says. “What would that combined psychological trauma do to them? I look to the science of psychology for a lot of my books. Generational trauma shows up strongly in The Photo Thief.
“I always try to work a real medical condition into everything I write, even if it’s rare. In The Photo Thief, teenage Cassie has a seizure disorder.”
The story includes elements that could be supernatural.
“I want people to choose what to believe,” Delozier said. “My hope is that some people will argue it’s a ghost story and others will say it’s all a figment of Cassie’s imagination.”
Delozier has a book signing scheduled at the State College Barnes & Noble on October 23 at 2 p.m. “Come tell me what you think—ghosts or no ghosts?” she says with a laugh. “Or invite me to your book club. I could talk about this stuff all day.” T&G
Karen Dabney is a freelance writer who lives in State College.
