Originally from New Jersey, I now live with my wonderful wife, and LeeLoo the lovable labradoodle in Clayton, North Carolina, where I write, maintain an extensive bonsai tree collection, and exercise. We have three terrific sons and six lovely grandchildren.
In 2013, I retired from the world of oral & maxillofacial surgery, where I’d worked in ‘The Trenches’ of Humanity-vs-disease. My prior writing experience has been in my profession’s journal: International Journal of Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, and Oral Pathology, and for a hobbyist’s newsletter: Triangle Bonsai Society. I’m a member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network, Triangle East Writers, and International Thriller Writers (ITW).
I enjoy fantasy series by Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files), Patrick Rothfuss (The Kingkiller Chronicle), Brian McClellan, and Brandon Sanderson, as well as thrillers by Daniel Suarez (Daemon and Freedom). My writing fits more into the speculative thriller genres like those of Michael Crichton and Robin Cook. I write within an environment I know well, while infusing it with healthy doses of the paranormal. I imagine if Stephen King collaborated with Robin Cook, they might birth Double Blind, my debut novel. Don’t I wish.
Writing Double Blind made me reflect on my lifetime involvement with cancer. No, thank God I haven’t lost any of my family to it, except for my maternal grandfather who died in the 1940’s from leukemia; supposedly, I’m his ‘spitting image’. That’s not to say that we haven’t had our share of scares.
Dental school training taught me how to screen for oral cancer. This extended into my oral & maxillofacial surgery residency where I participated in tumor board conferences, took biopsies, did initial readings of pathology slides, and participated in oral management, repair, and reconstruction during and after cancer treatment. In my private practice, I often made the presumptive cancer diagnosis and was the one giving the good, or not-so-good, news based on the biopsy results. I lost many a night’s sleep imagining how the anxious patient would deal with the terrible news. Strangely, they took it far better than I dreaded. Maybe that was because it was presented along with an immediate appointment with the best oncology team on the East coast. The patient could take prompt steps in their treatment.
Early in my practice I was very athletic and healthy, with a wife, a young son, and twins on the way. When I began experiencing significant fatigue, I went to my internist who drew routine blood work. A few days later, he called and insisted that I immediately meet an oncologist friend of his in the nearby ER for a stat bone marrow biopsy. That degree of worry was contagious. The results were indeterminate, which necessitated a bone scan. I can definitely relate to that stage of cancer fears. It turned out that my bone marrow had been damaged by tainted tryptophan nutritional supplements (People died from it). No cancer, and I luckily recovered.
At forty, I elected to run in the New York City Marathon, collecting donations on behalf of the Leukemia Society, and in the name of my grandfather and all those who suffer from the disorder; I almost died during the race, but that’s a totally different story. My wife and I have been long-term donors to St. Jude’s Hospital.
I’ve worn many, but thankfully not all the, hats involved with cancer; it’s allowed me a close enough vantage point to empathize with, and wholeheartedly support the organizations, researchers, caretakers, and those coping with cancer by both my words and deeds.
I am a member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network, Triangle East Writers, and the International Thriller Writers (ITW).
Also, I’ve been creating bonsai since 2000, designing, maintaining, and teaching the Japanese art of ‘little ancient trees in pots’.
