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Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What led you to write Brain Warp?
A: Although I enjoy the practice of medicine, I found that I needed a change of pace. At my wife’s suggestion, I picked up writing a medical thriller that I had begun a number of years earlier. I had given it up because, like so many writers, I felt that I didn’t have the time to write. What I needed was the motivation to find the time.
Q: ? How long did it take to write Brain Warp?
A: It took me four months to research the book and write up a summary and another six months to finish the first draft. I was careful to do most of my writing late at night when my family was asleep and the house was quiet.
Q: How did you decide on the location of the book?
A: During my internship at St. Vincent’s, I came to love Greenwich Village. It was an exciting and fascinating place to live. For the book, I needed a locale with a strong ethnic community in a large city. For my foreign locale I needed a major European nation with political and economic importance and a government in transition. The Village, with nearby Little Ukraine, was perfect.
Q: Fathers and fatherhood have an important place in Brain Warp. Why is that?
A: Although there were important plot-driven reasons to select Ukraine as a locale, my father was born in Ukraine and the deeper I got into the book the more I learned about my roots and my father’s background. In fact, two of the characters are named after the town of my father’s birth. As I wrote, I realized how important his influence had been on me and the book became a journey of self-exploration.
Q: What writers influenced you to start writing?
A: When I began writing, I read about John Gilstrap, a very talented writer and author of Nathan’s Run and a number of other books. I attended several lectures of his on how to get started writing, and he encouraged me to continue.
Q: Have any medical thrillers influenced your book?
A: Surprisingly, although I have read several medical thrillers I tried not to focus on them because I wanted my book to be original.
Q: What led you to write Brain Warp?
A: Although I enjoy the practice of medicine, I found that I needed a change of pace. At my wife’s suggestion, I picked up writing a medical thriller that I had begun a number of years earlier. I had given it up because, like so many writers, I felt that I didn’t have the time to write. What I needed was the motivation to find the time.
Q: ? How long did it take to write Brain Warp?
A: It took me four months to research the book and write up a summary and another six months to finish the first draft. I was careful to do most of my writing late at night when my family was asleep and the house was quiet.
Q: How did you decide on the location of the book?
A: During my internship at St. Vincent’s, I came to love Greenwich Village. It was an exciting and fascinating place to live. For the book, I needed a locale with a strong ethnic community in a large city. For my foreign locale I needed a major European nation with political and economic importance and a government in transition. The Village, with nearby Little Ukraine, was perfect.
Q: Fathers and fatherhood have an important place in Brain Warp. Why is that?
A: Although there were important plot-driven reasons to select Ukraine as a locale, my father was born in Ukraine and the deeper I got into the book the more I learned about my roots and my father’s background. In fact, two of the characters are named after the town of my father’s birth. As I wrote, I realized how important his influence had been on me and the book became a journey of self-exploration.
Q: What writers influenced you to start writing?
A: When I began writing, I read about John Gilstrap, a very talented writer and author of Nathan’s Run and a number of other books. I attended several lectures of his on how to get started writing, and he encouraged me to continue.
Q: Have any medical thrillers influenced your book?
A: Surprisingly, although I have read several medical thrillers I tried not to focus on them because I wanted my book to be original.