A reader recently asked me a question I found myself pondering for quite a while: After so many years as a psychiatrist, what inspired you to make such a dramatic career change into crime fiction writing?
The honest answer surprised even me. I made no decision to “change careers.” After a long stretch in healthcare, witnessing wave after wave of changes to how we consume medical and behavioral services, I found myself in an environment that was ripe for leaving. The decision was really to step away from my career—not to swap it for another.
Following my training years in Minneapolis/St. Paul, I spent time in group private practice before setting up as a solo provider. But when my wife Liz and I decided to
move to Portland, Oregon, I got the notion to leave private practice behind and join a large corporate medical system. After more than two years there, I was a fish out of water. So I left.
Then came the sampling phase. I spent about a year trying on new identities as a “rewired” person: volunteering at Portland’s Center for the Arts (they have five theaters), working with community service agencies, returning to a past passion for golf, and reuniting with old friends.
And then COVID hit.
During lockdown, Liz and I were out on a dog walk. I’d been journaling extensively
while reading Carolyn Myss’s Sacred Contracts—my mind percolating characters for a fictional story as I absorbed her ideas about spiritual archetypes and predetermined destinies. I turned to Liz and asked if she wanted to write a book together. Her immediate response was something along the lines of “Get outta here—forget about it!” After we both stopped laughing, she added her full support for me to do the thing on my own.
So I launched into my first novel, Tangled Darkness. I’ve never looked back. At first, the learning curve was enormous (news flash: I’m still on it). But now I write whenever there’s time, and what I’m really after has crystallized: to entertain and interact with readers.
The inspiration for writing crime fiction specifically comes from a lifelong passion. Crime fiction has been my first love in reading and film since I was a kid watching James Garner as Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe, and even before then. For me, after leaving my “official career,” the loves and passions I had earlier in life—the ones I never had time to truly explore—have become my calling in this rewired phase.
I’d love to hear from you. What passions did you have earlier in life, before your official career consumed all the oxygen? The ones you’d like to return to and develop?
Sometimes the most powerful stories we tell are the ones about our own reinvention.
