Interview with Mysterybooks.com
1. Your debut has quite the machiavellian plot of revenge, what was your inspiration for this?
A sophisticated villain wouldn't indulge in anything simple. Mimi believes in subtlety -- up to a point.
2. How closely does your portrayal of the medical world, the bureaucracy, egos, ect..., reflect the true world of medicine?
It's dead on. In fact, some of the most gratifying feedback has come from other doctors. They'll say 'This really nails exactly what it's like.' Some have been especially thrilled that the story is built around problem areas that are very real but just not talked about.
2a. How about the medicine itself -- the drugs and physiology?
That too is spot on. That was a necessary pre-condition to anything I was going to write -- it had to be real. Otherwise, no one medical would like it, and everyone knows someone medical. And I'd be peddling more trash, and there's already plenty of that.
3. You're a doctor in "real life", are the situations and characters found in your book based upon any real-life situations and people?
The main characters and events are fabrications, though put together from parts of real situations and real people. They are very real possibilities, the way things go. Otherwise it wouldn't be much of a story. The clinical vignettes -- the sidebars, for lack of a better term -- are all from cases I've seen. If you've been doing this any length of time you don't have to make much up for those parts.
4. Tell us a bit more where your main character Malcolm Ishamail stems from...
A sum of many parts. I traveled and worked small-town ERs a while, as he does, though it was a choice I made. I got the idea for part of his troubles when I watched a surgery resident at my hospital get drummed out of his job. In his case, there were differing opinions of what was wrong, but sex and drugs were not issues. I guess I got Malcolm's idealism from my mother. His bad judgement in whom to date, well, that's good fodder for a story. I've never had that kind of experience.
5. What do you feel are the most important elements of your novel?
Contrary to one reviewer, it's not the sex. That part of the book gets a lot of talk, but really, the uber-theme is what I learned in medical school and residency -- you spend your career trying to do what's best for the patient -- that's what we put our hearts into every day -- and if you find a big gap you fix it. If you aren't willing to do that you should find another job.
6. What inspired you to write your first novel, and how difficult was it?
I've always craved making things. I've done art photography most of my life. My mom taught me to weld so I could make sculpture. I've dabbled in woodworking. Making a story isn't that much different, except that, unlike all the other stuff, you can work on it between cases at the hospital. It took about 16 years to get done.
7. Any favorite authors you'd like to share with us?
John LeCarre, Scott Turow. Really, I read pretty broadly. I don't get to read much, so I have to spread it around. I read Moby Dick a few years ago and followed it with the first Harry Potter. John McPhee, though! If someone asks me how to learn to write I say 'Read John McPhee. Anybody who can make plate tectonics fascinating you can learn from.
8. What does your writing routine entail?
Routine? My OR job runs to 80-hour weeks. When I get a break -- and I do get them -- I put in time where I can. If it's only a half hour I may just putter with one troublesome scene and tighten up a few sentences. When I get a block of time, like summer vacations on a lake in Maine, I get to build the longer-running threads. At least that's what's going on now with Book II. Lord knows when it will get done.
9. And finally, we enjoyed meeting Dr. Ishmail, can we expect to see him again in the future? Or do you have something else up your sleeve?
You'll see more from me, assuming someone will want to publish it. I'm hard into Book II. Malcolm ain't in it, though. I'd like to write a sequel -- someday. I've gotten kind of attached to Malcolm (and my wife wants him to marry Mary Ellen,) but I won't write about them unless I come up with another cracking good story for them.
