Richard Mabry Interview

Q: Let me start with asking you to tell us a little bit about yourself.

A:  I’m a retired physician (26 years in solo private practice of ear, nose, and throat, then 10 years a professor at UT Southwestern Medical School). I had no idea of writing beyond the textbooks and professional papers I was fortunate enough to write, but God apparently had other ideas. My wife and I have four grown children and five grandchildren. We live in north Texas, where I’ve been unsuccessful in convincing her that sitting at my desk staring into space is really work.

Q: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

A:  After the death of my first wife, I looked in vain for a book that would help me with the pain I felt, one that wasn’t over my head theologically or too saccharine-sweet. Not finding one, I decided to take my journal entries and turn them into a book myself. At the first Christian writers’ conference I attended, two authors challenged me to try my hand at fiction. I was retiring from medicine, so I accepted that challenge. My book, The Tender Scar: Life After The Death Of A Spouse, has been out for ten years, and along the way I’ve managed to have eleven novels and four novellas published in the fiction area.

Q: Do you find certain themes reoccurring in your books? If so, what are they and why? If not, what is the theme in your current release?

A:  After some fits and starts (it took four years and forty rejections before I got my first fiction contract), I found that, because of my experience, I could write medical mysteries with a hint of romance. So that’s why I’ve stayed in that genre. The theme? I suppose it’s that all of us—the Believer, the Seeker, the Scoffer— have a relationship with God, and (without preaching) I try to show how it affects our lives.

Q: Would you tell us about your current book release, Surgeon’s Choice?

A: Dr. Ben Merrick and his fiancé, Rachel Gardner, can’t get her divorced parents to stay in the same room, much less attend their wedding.  He is already looking over his shoulder expecting more trouble from a very senior surgeon who has shown he is still smarting from a previous dust-up, but Ben doesn’t know if a series of mishaps and accidents are caused by a disgruntled patient’s relatives or represent more from the older surgeon.

Then his prospective father-in-law approaches him, needing money for reasons Ben can’t fathom. Rachel has an idea, but she doesn’t want to accept it. Then, when people start dying, Ben and Rachel wonder if they can escape unscathed…and alive.

Q: Where did the idea for this story come from?

A:  The current drug epidemic has become a national problem, and drug usage—and addiction—is growing. I combined that with my thoughts about doctors who, for one reason or another, have let their practice capabilities slip to produce a novella that emphasizes both problems.

Q: Who/what has influenced your writing career the most?

A:  Along the way, I’ve benefitted from the advice and encouragement of a number of authors, beginning with James Scott Bell and Gayle Roper and continuing to encouragement and suggestions from numerous other writers. In addition, the editors with whom I’ve been privileged to work have taught me a lot along the way, and my agent, Rachelle Gardner, has helped with advice about my career and my writing. Although I didn’t plan my journey this way, I’m grateful to God for this opportunity to continue to witness..

Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now?

A:  The publication of my novella, Surgeon’s Choice, will be followed by the release of my novel, Guarded Prognosis. In addition to edits on that one, I’m working on a “winter/Christmas” novella, Emergency Call, which should be published next winter. It begins with a doctor who backs out of her garage and finds a body blocking her driveway.

Q:  If you were a dessert, what would it be and why?

A: I’d like to say I’d be something healthy, but in my heart I know I’d like to be something gooey and wonderful like a chocolate bread pudding with lots of sauce—because I like to make people smile.

Q: Is there something about you most people wouldn’t know?

A:  My past includes stints as minister of music (both while in the service and afterward), a helicopter rescue while in the Air Force (although I’m afraid of heights), and the fact that I almost pushed my current wife off an elephant in Thailand while I was lecturing there on our honeymoon.

Q: Is there a place you have always wanted to visit? A vacation spot, historical monument, overseas, etc?

A:  I’ve been fortunate to travel to a number of spots at home and overseas, and I’ve enjoyed them all. However, I think Nolan Ryan said it best. “Anyone who thinks travel is glamorous hasn’t done enough of it.” Now almost all our trips are those we can make by auto. There are still a lot of places in the US we haven’t seen, and that’s the kind of visit that’s on our bucket list.