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| Richard L. Mabry, M.D. |
In my own case, I was about to happily retire after thirty-six years of medical practice when my wife of forty years suffered a life-ending cerebral hemorrhage. In the depths of my depression that followed, I used journal entries to help me deal with my sorrow. One of my friends read them and encouraged me to “write a book.” Sounds so easy to do, but I knew nothing about the process, and learning it was painful and slow. Nevertheless, eventually I got a contract from Kregel Publishers for the publication of The Tender Scar: Life After The Death Of A Spouse. The book is still in print and has helped multiple thousands who have suffered similar losses. God took the worst event of my life and used it as an instrument of ministry. Lemon? Lemonade.
And He wasn’t through. At the Christian Writers’ Conference where I began learning about writing non-fiction, two writers and an editor (James Scott Bell, Alton Gansky, and Gary Terashita) encouraged me to try my hand at fiction. By that time I was once more considering retirement. God had gifted me with the love of a wonderful woman. Why shouldn’t I devote my remaining time to travel and golf? But I’d been challenged, and challenges to any man rarely go unaccepted.
Writing fiction was something entirely different for me. I’d authored or edited eight medical textbooks and over a hundred professional papers, but none of that prepared me for writing a novel. Over the next four years I wrote/edited/revised/rewrote four different novels that garnered forty rejections. But eventually, through a series of circumstances that scream “Divine Intervention,” I gained representation by a wonderful agent and my work came to the attention of an editor who was getting a fiction line started at Abingdon Press. So I went from the world of medicine to the world of writing. Lemon? Lemonade.
Now, Fatal Trauma, which releases on May 19 from Abingdon, will be my eighth published novel, and there are two more already written and edited, ready for release in the months to follow. I’ve left the world of medical practice behind, a world where I thought I’d made a significant mark. Now God is using me in a whole new way. The path was not easy, but obviously He had a destination in mind, one I couldn’t see.
Tired of writing? Can’t face one more rejection? Not sure if this is what you want to do with your life? Just wait a little longer. You never know what God has in mind. I certainly didn’t. But it turned out to be much more like lemonade than just lemons.
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| About the Author |
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| Fatal Trauma by Richard L. Mabry, M.D. |
Fatal Trauma
While Dr. Mark Baker and nurse Kelly Atkinson are used to dealing with high-stress situations in the ER, they are not used to working at gunpoint. Despite their efforts, they are unable to save the wounded brother of a desperate gunman, and in the ensuing battle a policeman is also killed. It appears that the gunman and his brother are linked to a drug cartel, and now the boss, “El Jefe,” is out for revenge.
Mark soon finds himself a suspect in a murder and the target of a malpractice suit. Although he is a believer, he’s gotten too busy for God. Can Kelly help restore Mark’s faith? And can they solve the mystery of who’s behind the murders before Mark becomes a victim?
