INTERVIEW WITH DR. RICHARD MABRY

Dr. Richard Mabry is a retired physician, now writing “medical mystery with heart.” His novels have garnered critical acclaim and been finalists for ACFW’s Carol Award, both the Romantic Times’ Inspirational Book of the Year and Reviewer’s Choice Awards, the Inspirational Readers Choice, and the Selah Award. He is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, the International Thriller Writers, and Novelists Inc. Bitter Pill is his latest novella.

He and his wife live in north Texas, where he writes, works on being the world’s greatest grandfather, and strives to improve his golf game. You can learn more about him at his website, and via his blog and Facebook page. 

INTERVIEW

If you had to describe yourself in one sentence, what would you say?

A retired doctor who remains puzzled that he’s officially a “writer.” 

What do you do when you’re not writing? Any interesting hobbies?

I find that, as is the case with most retirees, my tasks expand to take up all available time. However, weather permitting, I’ve tried to get away once a week for a round of what my partner and I laughingly call “golf.”

Tell us three things about yourself that might surprise your readers.

I have a background in music, and have served as interim choir director both in the service and in private life.

I love baseball, and have participated as a player, a coach, and a spectator for many, many years.

I can’t whistle with two fingers in my mouth—actually, I can barely make a sound when I try to whistle in the conventional way.

What genre did you start out writing? Have you changed course? Is there another genre you’d like to try someday? What is it?

When I started, the first two novels I wrote seemed to be of no interest to anyone but me. When I finally began writing mysteries (because that’s what I always read), I got a bit better. A trial at cozy mysteries was a terrible flop. Eventually I settled on medical mysteries with a bit of heart (maybe 30% romance in my early ones). As I continued to write for publication, I found myself branching out a bit, and for sometime I’d wanted to write around the tag line, “Things were going along fine until the miracle fouled them up.” So my latest novella has virtually no romance or medicine in it—just a good bit about how God can affect each of us.

If you could go back in time and do something differently at the start of your career, what would it be?

I sort of “backed into” writing via my non-fiction book, The Tender Scar, after the death of my first wife, and everything I’ve learned about writing has been through experience (and making mistakes). However, I don’t know what I’d change about it.

Do you have any writing goals you haven’t met yet? What are they?

When I started in medicine, I thought it would be neat to present a paper before our local medical society. Instead, I ended up lecturing and teaching all over the globe. When I began writing I thought I would have reached the pinnacle of success with the publication of my first book. Now, every step marks another goal reached—a goal I often didn’t know I even had.

What are you working on now?

I interrupted my novel (working title, Doctor’s Decision) to publish my current novella, Bitter Pill. Now I’m back at work on the novel that begins with a doctor picking up a box from her front porch, opening it to reveal a cell phone which rings. When she answers, she’s greeted by name and told her husband has been kidnapped.

What is the most important thing you’d like readers to take away from your books?

God impacts all our lives, if we’ll just let Him.

Anything else you’d like to share?

I appreciate the opportunity to come back to Suspense Sisters and tell the readers a bit about me and my writing. Thanks so much.

BITTER PILL

THINGS WERE GOING ALONG JUST FINE UNTIL THE MIRACLE FOULED THEM UP
 

Brother” Bob Bannister is content with his life and his itinerant healing ministry, until one night he finds that the woman who walks off the stage under her own power isn’t one of his shills. At that point, doubts begin to intrude on his previously untroubled existence.

Dr. Abby Davis is tired of her family practice and at odds with God. Dealing with critically ill and dying patients has crushed her spirit to the point she’s ready to quit. But she soon realizes that there’s more to healing than ministering to the physical body.

Scott Anderson was the oldest graduate of his seminary class. Then again, most of them hadn’t turned away from a medical practice, hoping to atone for past mistakes (including his wife’s death) by ministering to men’s souls. Now he hopes he hasn’t made a colossal mistake in switching careers.

Each of these individuals becomes linked to the other, and each finds that God has a purpose for them—but, as it often does, the lesson comes with discomfort.

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