John Bishop MD
Author photo by Greg Moredock
John Bishop MD is the author of Act of Murder and Act of Deception. Dr. Bishop has practiced orthopedic surgery in Houston, Texas, for 30 years. His Doc Brady medical thriller series is set in the changing environment of medicine in the 1990s. Drawing on his years of experience as a practicing surgeon, Bishop entertains readers using his unique insights into the medical world with all its challenges, intricacies, and complexities, while at the same time revealing the compassion and dedication of health care professionals. Dr. Bishop and his wife, Joan, reside in the Texas Hill Country.
Is there a genre of music that influences your writing/thinking? Do you listen to music while you write?
While I've been a musician most of my life, I've always preferred what is considered "old music"...that would be for me, old Blues and old Country. The folks who aspired to be musicians wrote songs about the plight they might be in at the time. From the blues originators, and the plantation days, to the old bluegrass tunes that originated in the coal mining areas of Appalachia. The songsters were writing and singing about living conditions at the time. They sang of the underdog, and of a rising up against the “man." I've always been an underdog favorite, influenced by my dear departed dad. I think my character in the Doc Brady novels is an underdog, constantly trying to decipher some mystery where a wrong has been done, and he's there to try and correct it. Just like an old blues or country song.
Favorite non-reading activity?
It's a four-letter word...golf. I took up golf late in life, in the mid-1990s, coincidentally at the same time I started trying to pen novels. I don't know that they are related. Golf tends to be very frustrating, writing tends to be, at least to me, soothing. You can play a nice round of golf one day, stink the next, and feel bad about yourself. At least with writing, you can write a bad sentence, or paragraph, or even a chapter, but it doesn't mean you're an incompetent boob, as it does in golf. Why keep playing? Looking for that perfect shot, that near-perfect round, that hole-in-one.
Have you ever experienced Imposter Syndrome?
I have had this my entire life. It began in earnest when I went away to college after completing a stellar high school career in a very small school. I assumed I would be overshadowed by my peers, who came from large schools in large cities. I overachieved to prove myself worthy. Then, when I went on to medical school and competed with stars from the Ivy League, I was certain that I couldn't measure up, but I did. And so it went for each advancing step of my medical career. Now that I'm retired, I dwell on not being adequate at golfing, playing music, and writing. Looks like those feelings will never end.
Is there another profession you would like to try?
I wanted to be a lawyer, modeled after one of the many erudite attorneys on television in shows like Perry Mason and LA Law, and in movies like A Time To Kill and To Kill A Mockingbird. Problem was the reading of tomes was impossible for me. I just couldn't do it. Perhaps I was too fidgety and needed activity even in my studies. If you couldn't sit through all those classes in law school, and read volumes about case law, and wax eloquently about a passage in a particular case, you just couldn't make the cut. Anyway, being an orthopedic surgeon was perfect for me. Plenty of activity, and only a couple of journals to read to keep me abreast of the times. But when I witness those magnificent oratories on the small and large screen, I have to enjoy the fact that I can only write about it, but I can't live it.
Do you have another artistic outlet in addition to your writing? Do you sew? Paint? Draw? Knit? Dance?
I had Rheumatic Fever at age 12. Prior to that event I played the cornet, a small version of the trumpet. I loved the cornet, except for marching at junior high school football games. The cornet is hard on the teeth. After my bout with Rheumatic Fever, the cardiologist recommended I switch instruments, to avoid the cardiac strain of blowing on the horn. That seemed silly at the time. Imagine how I felt about it after studying the disease in medical school. It was a ploy to get me to play the piano, my mother's dream. I took up the keys, and have played since then, and I must admit that playing the piano has always been therapy for me. Just to sit down at the piano, and play whatever comes into my head is a joy. But Mom, wherever you are, I know your influence was the impetus for the cardiac man to give me some very bad advice. Each time I hear Chris Botti, I get a pang of regret.
What brings you great joy?
When the perfect twist come to my mind while writing a story. I love twists, like in an Alfred Hitchcock movie, or an O. Henry short story, or Edgar Allan Poe’s writing. I can feel an idea tickling my brain, coming and going, then I keep writing, and suddenly, there it is on paper. The Twist. The Hook. The Coup de grâce. There’s nothing better.
