Here are the contents of our July Family Newsletter:

• Family Update
• Work Update
• Broadcast Update
  • Dr. Walt interviewed on Alternative Medicine
  • “28 Days on the Pill” Documentary Features Dr. Walt
• Publication Update
  • Great Review for “The Influenza Bomb”
  • Bryson City books recommended by the Charlotte Observer
• Events of the last month
• Upcoming Events

Family Update
Barb and I have nearly two weeks at home, which we have quite enjoyed. The summer days in Woodmore Forest are cool (in the 70s or 80s) and dry. We love starting our days with coffee and quiet time on the deck, as the birds and squirrels feast on their special feeding area, which we keep stocked for them. Evening meals are taken on the deck usually accompanied by a light breeze and visits from a couple of hummingbirds.
When we’re home for the afternoon, we enjoy some “hammock time,” either for reading or a nap. It’s a glorious time of the year in Colorado and a season we use for rest, relaxation, and recuperation before beginning our fall speaking and traveling.
Work Update
You may remember the joy that Barb and I had from 2008 – 2009 when we worked together at the Mission Medical Clinic in Colorado Springs. And, you may remember the sadness we experienced when the grant under which I had been hired was revoked by the State of Colorado due to budget cutbacks.
Even though this clinic for the uninsured is sponsored by over seventy churches, church budgets did not allow increased giving, so I had to leave a job I dearly loved and found immensely satisfying.
I was blessed, however, to pick up some part-time work with and for my friends Dr. Gary and Dr. Beth Jewell (who co-own Oak Springs Family Medicine) in Colorado Springs and have been blessed to serve them and their patients.
But, there was still a little hole in my heart about being away from Mission Medical Clinic.
Then, just before we left for Italy, I received a call from the CEO of MMC saying that their Medical Director was leaving the position, and wondering if I was interested. Long story short, I’ve accepted the part-time Medical Director position and started back to work there at the beginning of June.
In some ways it feels like I have never left, and it’s a joy to be back with the staff and volunteers who are so committed to serving those who do not have, nor can afford, medical insurance.
Broadcast Update
Dr. Walt interviewed on Alternative Medicine
I was pleased to be interviewed by Drew Mariani for his nationally syndicated radio show on my book Alternative Medicine: The Christian Handbook and the broader topic of alternative medicine.
If you’d like to listen to the interview, you can stream the interview from here.
Or, you can download an MP3 file of the interview here.
“28 Days on the Pill” Documentary Features Dr. Walt
Called, “A raging controversy you may know little or nothing about,” a press release on the documentary says, “A Christian worker, his family, and a nurse friend investigate throughout North America to uncover the truth about the birth control pill.”
They go on to write, “The debate has been raging for a decade and yet so few people know about it. How could this be? How does the pill really work? Can everyday oral contraceptives really cause abortions? Why are so many people uninformed?”
They then tease, “Discover how this could be a deadly silence. Find out what has shocked doctors and nurses.”
You can view the 46 minute video here. Or, you can view a 7-minute preview here.
You can learn more at the “28 Days on the Pill Web site” here.
Publishing Update
Great Review for “The Influenza Bomb”
We’re pleased that my newest book has been receiving positive reviews. Here’s another example:

Those of you who watch all the CSI shows might enjoy this take on crime-scene forensics of sorts: TSI, which stands for “Time Scene Investigators.” TSI folks investigate past medical disasters in order to predict and prevent possible future pandemics. The Influenza Bomb is the second TSI story (the first being TSI: The Gabon Virus) to look into the past history of a great infectious disease to try and stop a present-day apocalypse.

Authors McCusker and Larimore use their extensive bio-med knowledge to draw us into an exciting, fast-paced story involving Nazi terrorism and the 1918 Spanish Flu. Seems the Nazis found a way to weaponize the deadly pandemic bug; now a modern environmental terrorist group known as Return to Earth is taking that knowledge and threatening to unleash all-new “influenza bombs” on major cities across the globe as a way of returning the planet to nature and ridding it of humans.

A group of investigators with backgrounds in law enforcement, virology and epidemics – even terrorism – team up to track down the Return to Earth lab, located where the Nazis built their notorious underground experiment facilities. Apparently the Nazis also tested and stockpiled the antivirus cure to the influenza bombs, and the team must find that as well to save Earth from a new breed of terrorists.

Led up by Dr. Susan Hutchinson and scientists Mark Carlson and Nora Richards, both of whom appeared in the past TSI novel, this ragtag group of experts head into Siberia, where a new outbreak has occurred, then onto Germany and Austria in search of the enigmatic, notorious laboratories and the even more enigmatic cure, known only as Liebfraumilch.

This high-octane page-turner is chock full of interesting factoids about infectious diseases, most notably the Spanish Flu and variations of H1N1, as well as the history of Nazi involvement in bioterrorism. It is a novel that you cannot – and won’t want to – put down. Although some of the portrayal of the anti-human Return to Earth group gets a bit heavy handed, the story is gripping and scary, a warning of how sometimes the past catches up to the future.

The future of terrorism may be in the realm of the invisible, bombs of viruses that kill billions, in the wrong hands. Heady and hard food for thought.

Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Marie D. Jones, 2010

Bryson City books recommended by the Charlotte Observer
In a 6/18 article titled “Great Towns to Walk,” our home town from 1981-1985, Bryson City, NC is described, along with a surprise and appreciated entry:

BRYSON CITY: Here’s a picture-perfect place about 31/2 hours due west of Charlotte. Main Street is impeccably groomed, a flat and easy walk – and the horizon holds breathtaking mountain views.

Bryson City is the main depot for the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad excursion line. Check out the bluegrass or country played outside the GSMR depot for those waiting for their ride.

Visit Gil’s Book Sale on Main Street: GSMR has Thomas the Tank Engine events periodically, so Gil’s stocks a large inventory of Thomas items.

Also on shelves: the Jan Karon-esque “Bryson City” novels by Dr. Walt Larimore, which are set here.

Details for visiting Bryson City here.

Read more here. And, you can purchase autographed copies of any of the three Bryson City books here.
Alternative Medicine translated in Eastern Europe
We’ve been delighted to learn that one of my best-selling books, Alternative Medicine: The Christian Handbook, has been translated into Hungarian and Croatian. Previously, the book has also been translated into German and Romanian.
Events of the last month
Jun 1-6, Barb and I flew to Washington, DC, where I attended an AMA CPT meeting and Barb visited with dear friends. The meetings did not fill the days, so we enjoyed touring the National Botanical Garden, the National Archives, the Air Space Museum, and the National Portrait Gallery. We also found a terrific gelato store and a wonderful cupcake store. Heavenly.
Jun 13-18, Barb and I volunteered at Young Life’s Crooked Creek Ranch near Frasier, Colorado. We do this each year with our great friends, Boone and Peggy Powell, and enjoyed serving with them once again in this glorious location.
Jun 19, I signed my newest book, TSI: The Influenza Bomb, with my good friend and co-author, Paul McCusker, a the Barnes and Noble in Colorado Springs. It was a very successful event and it was a joy to have so many friends drop by to extend their well wishes. You can order autographed copies here.
Jun 24-27, Barb and I traveled to the Western Hills Resort in Oklahoma for a retreat and resident graduation for the In His Image Family Medicine Residency program. I also helped judge the presentation of research projects by the second year residents. We had great fun with the residents, including the incoming interns, the graduating (and partying outgoing interns, who presented a hilarious skit), and the graduating second years (who did their research presentations). The most meaningful part of the weekend is the graduation, commissioning, and ordination of the graduating third years – most of who have committed to a career of service as medical missionaries. An inspiring group, indeed.
Upcoming Events
I’ve received the edits for my first solo novel, Hazel Creek, from the editor at Howard Books. I think she like it. Here’s part of what she wrote:

I’ve just finished reading the manuscript. Good work! I appreciate your ambition—relating a story from a strictly set time period is a daunting task, and you’ve tackled it with real energy.

I especially enjoyed the mountains’ more unique and creative folk—the Haint and Maddie the healer, for example. And in Abbie I found a character I could respect and sympathize with. She makes a great heroine, someone to root for through the tragedies that befall her family over the two years encompassed here.

Corrie is another fascinating girl—I hope we’ll hear more from her in future books. You’ve got some good bones here—great characters to work with, believable events, a glorious wilderness for people to interact in, and lots of humanity at its best and worst.

She’s suggested a number of minor revisions, which I have to complete on or before July 30.
July 9-16, Barb will fly to Baton Rouge to visit with her family.
July 9-11, I will fly to Orlando to speak for the Florida Academy of Family Physicians. I’m looking forward to seeing old friends. I served as the president of the FAFP from 1995 – 1996.
July 11-16, I will fly to Tulsa to serve the week as a visiting professor at the In His Image Family Medicine Residency program. Although these weeks are always jam-packed with meetings and teaching, they are always a blessing for me.
The rest of the month, I’ll be working on completing the edits for Hazel Creek, which I hope to complete by July 29, when we leave for a short time of vacation with dear friends in Florida.
Past Issues

• June 2010
• May 2010
• April 2010

You can get more information on many of my upcoming events here.