The Designed by Kate Tailor

The Designed by Kate Tailor
(The Designed Series #1)
Publication date: January 26th 2015
Genres: New Adult, Science Fiction

What if the next new drug was you? Raleigh’s body produces a drug that could define the future of medicine if the dangerous world surrounding it doesn’t kill her first.
Eighteen-year old Raleigh Groves can sense disease in others and is suffering from her own unexplained illness as well. After years and dozens of doctor visits, she has given up hope of ever finding a cure, let alone a diagnosis. Then she meets a man who explains that her talent and curse are linked. Her body produces a drug, Lucidin, which allows her to sense others. She’s rare, and the drug she makes is coveted.
Rho has spent the last few years on the run. The Lucidin that is racing through his system makes him a target. Surrounded by addicts and dealers on one side and scientists and doctors on the other, he has to rely on his wits and his team to stay one step ahead. So far he has stayed afloat, but some of his brothers haven’t been as lucky.
As Rho and Raleigh collide they must face the perilous world of Lucidin together. Nothing is black-and-white and Raleigh must decide where her alliances lie. Sometimes the hardest heart to sense is your own.
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I asked Kate: You have a background in molecular biology and pharmacology. How do you integrate that into your writing? 

My background in biology and pharmacology had a huge influence in the creation of this book. I like to consider my writing medical science fiction and wanted to do for medicine what AI sci-fi has done for computers. The idea of a drug that could only be created naturally by the human body and not synthetically came to me while I was in a pharmacy school lecture. We get certain drugs from animals (like horses) and I wondered what it would be like if only humans made a specific drug. From there I ran with the idea. I had a lot of fun creating a drug that worked uniquely in the human body. With my background I was able to give it some very real qualities—for example only certain people respond to the drug and at variable amounts due to receptor volume. I also made the drug addictive and presented some ethical questions about the risk vs benefit to society. The drug, Lucidin or “Lucid,” is just as much of a character as any of the more traditional ones. Most of my medical friends wanted me to make the book more technical, but as it is new adult, and I wanted more people to enjoy it, I scaled back a lot of the technical terms. It think the end product blends the science and the story nicely in a way that a lot of people can understand. The main character, Raleigh, is also unique in the way that her main goal is to successfully overcome and manage her illness, her body’s overproduction of Lucidin. So often books have female characters who are focused on getting the guy. Raleigh’s main dilemmas are understanding her place in the world of Lucidin, and lucidin’s place in the world. I think that my background has been my biggest asset as a writer. It inspires me with non-traditional stories and characters that are off the beaten path. I hope that people who read my book consider it to be something they haven’t read before, something that surprised them, and something that they enjoyed. 

Kate Tailor lives in Boulder, Colorado. She has a background in molecular biology and pharmacology. Writing has been a passion of hers since she was young.
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