Today I will . . . our paths cross. Congratulations, Peter.

Does anyone remember the post “Other Dreamers–Life Changes  I did way back in April 2013? I never mentioned the video blogger by name. Today I will. Because ou see this year our paths crossed. I will publish my first story this year and today. . . today he graduated from medical school.

Meet Peter Wingfield MD  .

Peter Michael Wingfield M.D. 
University of Vermont College of Medicine
May 17, 2015



I guess I could  just respond to his tweet. I know he will at some point today. Maybe when he comes down from his high. I know he’ll have that, too.

But one hundred and forty characters are simply not enough when words want to spill out and over the restricted space. Peter Wingfield has been one of my favorite actors for a long time, even if I've only been an "official" fan for less than five years. With rare exception I always liked what he acted in and, even in that rare exception, enjoyed his performances. In 2011, he upped  my respect for him by re-entering medical school at the age of 48. Yes, a brave man.

I’m an experienced RN and have primarily worked in true teaching hospitals, the ones where you can watch confused, nervous med students and residents turn into confident practitioners. It’s a marvelous thing to watch. It’s also stressful, heart-breaking, and maddening.

Yes, I wrote this in his freshman/sophomore year of med school. I knew he was going to do it, you see. Never a doubt in my mind.

Residency is coming, I know, July 1st – a red letter day in almost all teaching hospitals with flocks of new long white coats invading the hallways. Oh, the memories the date evokes. Eager, enthusiastic, stoic, bewildered, anxious. The facial expressions run the gamit. "Excuse me, how do I page this person?" "How do I get to radiology from here?" In some ways, it reminds me of a gaggle of puppies.

I almost wish I could be the nurse on his first rotation who goes up to him and says, “Doctor, I’m concerned about. . .”, just to see if he will look quickly over his shoulder to see who I am talking to, then realize he’s the doctor I’m talking to! I’ve seen that double-take. . . so many times and it never failed to make me smile. Will he react that way? I actually don’t believe he will but I think he’ll feel the moment. I wonder, Peter, if you will share some of that inner dialogue with us? Perhaps not, it’s time to fly.

 I have been told Peter would like to continue meeting up with fans but I think we will see even less of him, if at all. Medical school is not a walk in the park but residency is grueling almost to the point of brutal. Peter isn’t going into general surgery or any of its sub-specialties where I have most of my experience but . . . no. Other things must come first: his training, his family, his health. The prediction makes me a little sad, I must be honest, but when I think of this warm, compassionate man out in the world as a physician I can only give an enthusiastic arm-pump and say, “YES!”

 

Well done, Peter. . . Well Done.

And my most sincere congratulations to the entire 2015 graduating class of  the University of Vermont College of Medicine.

 

Peeking at Other Bookshelves

I am heading out to get ready for DFW Writers Conference today. Pre-conference workshops tonight! I thought I would share something I thought was awesome. Do you find yourself studying other people's bookshelves at parties? What would your bookcase look like?

The Perfect Question

I subscribe to a lot of blogs and writing sites. One of them I particularly like is Writers Write. Every day in my mailbox I find a writing-related comic, the latest blog posting,  a literary birthday,  a writing-related quote, and a writing prompt. All of them make me smile, think, and sometimes laugh out loud. The only thing I don't like--- they're in South Africa and when they send me an announcement about an upcoming class I growl. "I can't come! You're in South Africa!" Yes, I talk back to my computer screen, don't you?

I really like some of the prompts, though I don't really need them right now to get me writing,  Just as an example I'll share a few.

• List the gifts your protagonist received on his or her birthday. Which one did your hero like best?
• Make a list of five things your protagonist does not want to do.
• Write about missing a plane.
• Your hero and villain are on a train. Where are they going?

Sometimes one intrigues me to the point I want to use it so I do and end up stuffing it into a character's dossier. Today I'm going to take that up a notch and do a posting with a recent prompt. I thought I would apply it to each project just for fun. So here goes.

What is the perfect question to use as the opening line of your novel?

1. Rain: Cheryl's here at the club?

2. Snow: Get placed again in that trice-cursed area of the female psyche known as friend? Not only no but hell no!

3. Dani's Song: What do you suppose the story would be like if the Beauty was a king and the Beast his bride?

4. Troika: Didn't she know she was too small to be lifting weights like that without a spotter?

5. Familiar Strangers: What in the hell did she think she was doing waiting beside Buckingham Fountain in December for a man she had never met?

It's more difficult than it sounds. Only the question for Familiar Strangers and Troika come close to being acceptable. I cheated on Snow by adding Aaron's answer and the question for Dani's Song is in the old narrative voice which I am re-doing for the revision. All of them hold true to the beginning of the story though. Interesting.

Other Dreamers--Life Changes

Some weeks ago on Facebook there was a video posting from someone I follow. I can't say I'm actually a "friend" or acquaintance; we’ve actually never met (and I seriously doubt my name is even known) but I enjoy his postings. Heck, they make me laugh out loud and/or spurt coffee through my nose if I'm not careful. I look forward to them, knowing I'm going to smile or laugh and getting to know him just a little bit better. I like the last part, too. I'm always curious about people.

We have something in common. Both of us have had reasonably successful careers then decided to go back to something we loved but did not complete or follow up on. What makes it ironic, to me anyway, is that what we are changing to. I’m going from a health care profession to a more expressive one---fiction writing ; he is going from an expressive one in the performing arts to--- a health care profession. One of the most demanding ones, too. It is a 180 degree turn for the both of us, from the highly competitive to the highly sought after for him and vice versa for me. I cannot help but wonder at the stories we could tell each other as we pass each other on that road. I know the ones I would tell him if I could.

Some folks might describe such career or life changes as a mid-life crisis but I really  hate the term ‘crisis’.  The term is such a negative one, associated with fear, unexpected change, and other negatives. Pshaw! Yes, it’s scary; I suspect it is for both of us but I don’t think the change came slamming down on us like a full blown code at the change of  shift (a simile from my old profession).  No,  I think completely otherwise.

For myself it wasn’t a sudden, wake-up-in-the-morning kind of thing. I wrote in junior high and high school, even if my teachers didn’t see the half of it. Through first love and marriage to this day I have kept a poetry journal. Little stories made their way into my letters and I was always scribbling first paragraphs.  There are hundreds of nurses who declare they hate to write narrative notes--- I was never one of them. I hated the fact I had to fight for the time to write them. And, yes, I got excited when one of my doctors actually referred to (or complimented me on) one of my notes. You noticed? You read it? Thank you! Would you like my first born or will cookies do?

After my husband died in the early 90’s I started another first paragraph which was followed by another paragraph then another. The next thing I realized  I was writing a story. I also realized it was one of the most satisfying things I had ever done. Oh, I can tell stories about similar satisfaction about specific patients I worked with but it was very different. Several chapters later I had to return to work and the book was shelved under the pressure of everyday life. But it was not forgotten. The rest of that particular story is in the very first entry of this blog.

My Internet ‘acquaintance’? I don’t know if the decision was slow in forming or not but knowing him to be both intelligent and thoughtful I am fairly certain it was not a sudden one. It’s a question I would dearly love to ask. But a mid-life crisis? Bah! I don't think so.
 

Perhaps some day I will have an opportunity to ask that question. Perhaps there will be an opportunity to exchange stories. I would like that. Life is full of possibilities, is it not?