Meet the physician who became a medical thriller author [PODCAST]

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How does a physician become a thriller author? Where do his stories come from? How long does it take to go from idea to finished product? How did his experience as a physician influence his books?

John Bishop is a retired orthopedic surgeon.

He shares his story and discusses his transition from physician to medical thriller author.

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Hosted by Kevin Pho, MD, The Podcast by KevinMD shares the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from.

Transcript

Kevin Pho: Hi, welcome to the show, where we share the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from. My name is Kevin Pho, founder and editor of KevinMD. Today on the show, we have John Bishop. He is a retired orthopedic surgeon and a novelist. His latest novel is called Act of Negligence, and there’s an excerpt on KevinMD. John, welcome to the show. So we’ll get into your novelist journey in a little bit, but first off, can you share your story and journey to where you are today?

John Bishop: I got interested in medicine back in college and went to med school, and then I got interested in orthopedic surgery and became an orthopedic surgeon, and I practiced in Houston, Texas, for about 30 years. Somewhere along the line, I got interested in writing and just tried my hand at writing a book, and I kind of enjoyed it. I realized it was a lot harder than it looked. With all the favorite authors that I read, I didn’t appreciate how hard a job they really had. I’ve written four books now. The last one is Act of Negligence, and they’re all about the same central character, Dr. Jim Bob Brady, who also happens to be an orthopedic surgeon who gets involved in mysteries and murders.

Kevin Pho: So tell me about your introduction to writing. So you’re a practicing orthopedic surgeon. Now, did that interest in writing come during your medical career, or have you always had that interest in writing?

John Bishop: I’ve always had some interest in writing. I was an academic orthopedic surgeon in Houston. And so while I had a large practice, I did a lot of speaking and writing medical articles and presentations, and so I got interested in that facet of medicine. And it just kind of morphed into making up stories, making up medical stories, making up mystery stories that related to medicine, inspired by people like Robin Cook and Michael Crichton, who are the best. I started writing when I was in practice but didn’t commit myself fully to it, because, as you know, practicing medicine is a lot of work and it takes a lot of time. I kept after it, and so I was glad I did, because after I retired, it kept me off the golf course every day.

Kevin Pho: How difficult was it to write your first novel?

John Bishop: Well, I’ll tell you what, it’s interesting. I had a colleague whose teenage daughter passed away, and I was such a good friend, and they had fallen apart, so I had to make funeral arrangements and arrangements for everything and for people. It was a very sad time. But at the same time, I sat down one night and started writing a story about a child who gets run over and the grief and anguish that the parents go through. And that’s how the story began.

Kevin Pho: Tell me about your process of writing a book. How long does it take? What exactly goes into writing a novel?

John Bishop: Well, you know, for me, I mean, I just kind of sat down and started typing on the computer and just let the ideas flow. And so once you get the basic structure, then you have millions of details that you have to look up. And so back in that day, back in the ’90s when I started doing the writing, I would have to actually physically go to a library or call the library and have them print things. I’ve noticed over time that the internet has become so valuable that it’s much easier to get the research, but in the old days, it was the hardest thing to do. But you get the research.

Kevin Pho: So now that all this information is accessible online, you never have to leave the computer. Now tell me about your career as an orthopedic surgeon. How has that influenced your writing?

John Bishop: A lot of my stories, and patients shall remain nameless, but a lot of the stories came from actual experiences I had taking care of people, and family relationships, and disasters that occur, and that sort of thing. And that, I think, is the key for me. This was actually 30 years of practicing medicine. That’s where a lot of it comes from.

Kevin Pho: Did you have a lot of consultants that helped you, or is it primarily based on your own medical experience?

John Bishop: Primarily based on my medical experience, although my second novel, well, it had a lot to do with law, legal matters, and malpractice, and so I had to draw in friends of mine who did that for a living to steer me off of the broken path. And so that was quite enlightening, actually. I enjoyed that part of it, getting to know how the lawyers go about their business.

Kevin Pho: Your latest book is titled Act of Negligence. Tell us a little bit more about that book.

John Bishop: Well, I got the idea for that book from some nursing home problems. Some folks that I had taken care of unexpectedly passed away in the hospital after being transferred from a nursing home, and then I sort of had an idea. Well, maybe there’s some malfeasance going on there. Maybe there’s a bad doctor, there’s a bad nursing home, or there’s bad care or whatever. So in Act of Negligence, there is a fellow who’s a physician who runs a nursing home, and he’s doing some experimentation on his patients without their knowledge. That’s how the story begins. It all starts with me having some folks that get admitted to the hospital, transferred from the nursing home. And so then it kind of weaves the tale of bad doings.

Kevin Pho: I noticed a lot of physician authors kind of gravitate towards thriller-style novels. Why do you think that is?

John Bishop: No, I’m not sure. But, you know, Crichton and Cook, there’s nobody better than those two. But I think it’s just the way we think. You have all these years of schooling, you know, all this information that you have to learn, and that in itself is a mystery, and it makes you tend to be inquisitive. And in this particular book, Act of Negligence, I got all involved in acetylcholine and brain neural transmissions and what blocks those, and what causes Alzheimer’s, and how you could fix Alzheimer’s. And that’s one of the main themes of the book.

Kevin Pho: How long does it normally take you to write a book from idea to finished product?

John Bishop: Well, in my experience, I would say to get the basic book done takes about three months or so. There’s a lot of polishing it up, managing it, revamping it, that sort of thing, that probably takes another two months or so. So about five months.

Kevin Pho: We’re talking to John Bishop. He’s a retired orthopedic surgeon and a physician novelist. His latest book is titled Act of Negligence, and there’s an excerpt of that on KevinMD. John, for those other aspiring physician novelists, or doctors who are interested in dabbling in fiction writing, what kind of advice can you share with them from your experience?

John Bishop: Well, I think, don’t quit. You know, sometimes you stare at a blank page and you can’t write fast enough. And sometimes you stare at a blank page and it remains a blank page. Sometimes you just have to learn, you just have to get up and walk away, go do something else, and then come back and see if it’s there. So it’s a process. And sometimes you look at a page and it’s blank and it stays blank. And sometimes you look at a page and you can fill it and you can’t write quick enough. My advice would be, don’t quit. It’s frustrating, and it’s hard sometimes because you’ve totally lost your train of thought. But then you just keep writing. So the key for me is just to keep at it.

Kevin Pho: Now, we have so many options when it comes to publishing. Before, you had to be under the umbrella of a publisher, but now there are so many different ways to self-publish. What’s your recommendation if a physician wants to publish? Do they look for some type of literary house, or would you advise them to self-publish?

John Bishop: I think if you’re going to self-publish, you have to have people around that will give you advice and help you, such as online publicity agents, and they’ve been extremely valuable for me, for example, setting up interviews and doing things like that, publicizing the book. And then you have to have an editor, and you have to have a cover designer around, and it takes a lot of time and a lot of money. On the other hand, you know, if you get an agent early on and you get a publisher early on, and you generate revenue for the publishing company, then they will tend to hang with you and help you along. It’s a mystery how it all works.

Kevin Pho: Now, how did you go about finding a publisher?

John Bishop: I have basically self-published the books, with all these people that are helping me on the side. We looked for an agent early on, but none was to be found. My wife was in that interview process, and we had an agent for a while, and then we couldn’t get any books published. And so then we thought that we would try to do the self-publishing, and obviously, that’s what happened.

Kevin Pho: And my final question: Do you have any take-home messages that you want to leave with my clinician audience?

John Bishop: Well, you know, if you want to write, you just have to keep writing. When you retire, you’re going to have a lot of free time, and so you need to fill that time up with something. If you retire and are looking for something to do, there’s hardly anything better than writing a good story.

Kevin Pho: John, thank you so much for sharing your time and insight. Thanks again for being on the show.

John Bishop: Thank you so much, Kevin. I appreciate it.

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