Growing up in Great
Neck, NY (as my husband says, a “princess from the
Island of Long”), I loved to write and could always be
counted on to take creative license where none was
called for. (To whit, the Ode to Geometry I
foisted on my eighth grade math teacher.) It just never
occurred to me to try to make a living at it. Then,
getting a B minus in a writing class at Cornell proved
to me that the instructor was serious when she said I
was a no-talent hack. So, what was a Jewish only child
to do? Why, go to medical school, of course.
I didn’t write for years (thus sparing my medical school
classmates and instructors Ode to Diseases of the
Bowel). After graduation from George Washington
University Medical School in D.C., I moved with my then
husband to Tucson, AZ. (He wanted to be an archeologist
and put his studies on hold so I could finish my medical
training. In return, I told him I’d do my residency
wherever he chose to get his Ph.D., not for one moment
thinking he’d pick a city with no Nordstrom.) We
divorced soon after and I vowed not to marry again for a
long, long while.
A year later, Tim (a fellow psychiatric resident),
tricked me into going on a date. We’ve been together
ever since, progressing through the all important M’s --
Monogamy, Moving in, Mortgage and Matrimony. And now,
unfortunately, Motor home. But, I’m getting ahead of
myself.
We moved to Boulder, CO in 1993 and several years later,
my first book, I Know You Really Love Me, on
stalking, was published. It won the Colorado Author’s
League Top Hand Award for Nonfiction and became a
bestseller on Amazon. I made numerous appearances in the
media as a psychiatric expert including Larry King
Live, 48 Hours, Good Morning America,
The Discovery Channel, People Magazine,
The New York Times, NPR and many others. I
also traveled around the country for speaking
engagements to forensic and law enforcement groups.
Since all this exposure involved beefing up my wardrobe,
I was happy to do it. Still, to this day, I count among
my greatest accomplishments that our bus was featured as
the centerfold of Bus Conversions magazine, thus
fulfilling my lifelong ambition of becoming a Miss
September. But, I’m getting ahead of myself, again.
My literary agent suggested I write a screenplay based
on I Know You Really Love Me and I found that I
immensely liked that form, so much so, I wrote many more
and even had a few optioned. I cut down on my practice
to write. I was quite content. Tim, still practicing
psychiatry 60 hours a week, was not. His solution was to
take a midlife career break (who knew my husband was
such a trend-setter?) and live in a converted bus for a
year, traveling the country.
“Why can’t you be like a normal husband in a midlife
crisis and have an affair or buy a Corvette?” I
demanded. “I will never, ever, EVER live in a bus.”
He’s obviously the better shrink.
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