“How do you find the time to write one book, let alone five?”
The question above is
one I’m asked on a routine basis, asked by other doctors, nurses, techs,
patients and just about everyone I meet when they learn I’ve written several
books. The answer is that I’m always “writing” something. Writing not in the
sense of sitting down with a pen and paper and scribbling out a story longhand,
although I have done this in the past, nor does it even mean sitting at my
computer and typing my story into Microsoft Word, which is how I actually do
record my words for posterity. “Writing” means thinking of new ideas, recording
them in the recesses of my brain to be transcribed later, and taking existing
ideas and making them better, more detailed and more interesting.
The time I spend driving
between hospitals or lying in bed at night waiting for sleep to overtake my
tired mind and body is spent thinking about whatever project I have on the
table at that moment. I’ve composed entire plotlines or chapters of books in
this way. Sometimes a conversation or discussion in the office or OR will bring
a new idea for a blog article, short story or book. The blog article Jesus was a Wino Like Me came after my assistant
became exasperated during one of our operating room conversations and blurted
those words out.
The first book I ever
wrote, Future Hope: ITP Book One, originated
with a question, actually two questions:
“What would the Garden
of Eden be like if Adam and Eve had never suffered the Fall?”
“What would the world
be like if Satan’s promise of man “becoming like God” was fulfilled?”
The entire story flows
from these two questions and how the various characters respond to the
situations created by these questions. The futuristic, scientific elements of
the plot line were invented by my sometimes bizarre imagination to get the
protagonist, Major David Sanders, from one world to another and create the
contrast that answers the questions.
Joshua
and Aaron: ITP Book Two started with from a much different
perspective: a character, Joshua Smith. Of course, Joshua appears in Future Hope, but he takes center stage
in Joshua and Aaron. A character like
Joshua had been in my head for years. He is someone with extraordinary gifts of
intelligence, insight and reasoning who is called upon to use his skills to
solve problems with life and death consequences. He is a hero who tries to achieve
something without guns, fast cars, explosions, great athletic prowess, or any
special prowess except a remarkable mind. Ultimately, he succeeds, just not in
the way he expects. I always consider
Joshua and Aaron to be one of the best books that almost no one read.
My two books about
surgery were developed from a different angle, less from pure imagination and
more from a desire to educate. The first, Behind
the Mask: The Mystique of Surgery and the Surgeons Who Perform Them, was an
attempt to show the reader what goes through a surgeon’s head; my head anyway,
as patients are treated. Under the
Drapes: More Mystique of Surgery looks at surgery from a different
perspective, much more of a surgeon’s perception of his patients and a bit of a
patient’s view of surgery.
The short story Last Light started with this question:
“What would happen if
nobody was sick?”
From this question
flowed an apocalyptic story that contrasted the second coming of Christ with
modern human nature and desires. The result was not too pretty.
Finally, there is the
soon to be released Minotaur Revisited.
This novel started out as a short story. I hold the opinion that the way things
are presented by the media often has little to do with actual events. Reporting
of “News” seems to be frequently biased and/or outright untruthful. Perhaps my
cynicism is showing, I think I got it from my mother. I asked the following
question:
“What if such bias and
misleading reporting has been around forever?”
Humans have been flawed since Adam and Eve. I
looked at the myth of the Minotaur and turned it around, made the “fierce”
Minotaur noble and Theseus, his slayer, less than heroic. The events, as
reported in the current mythology reflected the biases of the time and lead to a
four thousand year roller coaster ride for this half bull half man beast of
mythology. This short story blossomed into a novel. Quint, the Minotaur,
discovers his freedom and over the years encounters Moses, Jesus, Dracula and
many others.
After the such
formulate in my head I go through the tedium of committing them to paper
(computer anyway) and then read over what I’ve written and smooth it out, then
read it some more and smooth it out more, then do it again and again. Over the
years as a reader I have become pretty good at recognizing writing styles that
flow; that inform with being tiresome. I try to make my writing follow such a
pattern, easy to read, but still a challenge to the reader’s mind. I hope I’ve
accomplished this task.
Look for Minotaur Revisited in the coming weeks.
You won’t be disappointed.
