Fascinating People

The image of a writer used to be (and in some circles still is) a highbrow in a tweed jacket, smoking a pipe and discussing the literary scene with professors in literary salons. Yet after selling eighty novels, I still don’t own a tweed jacket and the only salon I frequent is the one where I get my hair cut.

On the other hand, as a writer, I do encounter fascinating people. For example, last Saturday, at a meeting of the Orange County Chapter of Romance Writers of America (www.occrwa.org), I ran into an old friend, D.P. Lyle, M.D., who was our guest speaker.

Doug is the author of several suspense novels and a number of nonfiction works. He wrote Forensics for Dummies and maintains a Web site that addresses medical matters of interest to writers (http://www.dplylemd.com/).

A practicing cardiologist, Doug gleefully tackles even the most obscure – and sometimes gruesome – details of true crime cases and fictional supposition. For instance, on the subject of DNA, he told us that the recipient of a bone marrow transplant would have the donor’s DNA in his or her blood cells (white cells only, he noted; the red ones don’t contain DNA). The person’s teeth, skin and other organs contain the original DNA.

How does a cardiologist get interested in forensics? Doug said that, at parties, just as the general public buttonholes physicians to ask about medical ills, writers cornered him – as a doctor and novelist -- to ask about forensics situations in their novels.

He began researching the subject and taking notes, and became so immersed that after a while he decided he had the makings of a book. Thus was a second – or, actually, a third -- career born.

Doug’s latest book is Forensics: A Guide for Writers, published by Writers Digest Books. I’m sure you’ll find his work as fascinating as I do.

(By the way, sorrow for the messed-up partial post below. Blogger hiccuped this morning and I can't figure out how to delete it)