What inspired you to become a veterinarian?

As a child, I loved animals, geeked out about science, and enjoyed the natural world. One of my brothers got a subscription to the Time-Life World War II series; I got a subscription to Safari Cards. My other brother played Little League baseball; I did obedience training with our family dogs. My high school classmates worked minimum wage after school jobs at McDonald’s or 7-Eleven; I cleaned kennels at a nearby animal hospital. For Christmas one year, I got a microscope, and I delighted in poking myself in the finger and looking at my own red blood cells. On weekends, you could find me at the local stable, grooming horses and mucking out stalls in exchange for riding lessons.

I was also an avid reader, and the books by James Herriot were among my favorites: All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Things Wise and Wonderful. His nostalgic depictions of life as a country vet in pre-War England awakened a dream within me, and I followed it. Modern veterinary medicine in America is almost nothing like what he described, but it certainly has its moments of charm. I often quip that it’s Dr. Herriot’s fault I became a veterinarian!

How did you decide to become an author?

When I was a child, in the 1970s and early 80s, the only home entertainments were TV, books & magazines, tabletop games, and free play—whatever our imaginations could devise. I often turned to books, and became a voracious reader. I read everything: story books, history books, science books, how-to books.

One result of reading so much was that I developed a real ear for language and a heart for compelling stories. When I wasn’t examining drops of pond water under my microscope, I was crafting fiction. My early efforts were childish, naturally, but when I went away to college I pursued veterinary medicine as a career and creative writing as a passion.

You could say that I didn’t “decide” to become an author. In a way, I felt like I had no choice! The stories are there, so many ideas I practically trip over them in the morning when I get up! I want to write them down and see them come to life!

Do you get story ideas from things that happen to you in day-to-day veterinary practice?

Absolutely. A pet owner has a heart-breaking story or a really quirky appearance. Someone gives their cat or dog an unforgettable name. I muse about all the strange things animals eat…

Sometimes an unusual case will inspire an idea for an entire story, but more often than not the actual daily work of being a veterinarian forms only the background of the larger story. Why? Because, to be honest, most of what veterinarians do all day is not the stuff of high adventure or peril.

Which is a perfect segue to the next question:

Your novel, The Keys of Death, is called a “veterinary medical thriller.” What does that mean?

I’m a small animal veterinarian who works exclusively on pet dogs and cats in a non-emergency setting. This kind of veterinary practice has its moments of interest, excitement, and pathos, but usually it’s just a solid, stable, workaday career. We’re on our feet all day and it can be grueling, but “thrilling” is not necessarily a word I would use to describe it.

Here’s where the imagination comes in:

What if a veterinarian discovered that one of his employees had been running a narcotics smuggling ring out of the practice’s pharmacy? What if a veterinarian tended to an injured dog, only to learn that the owners had been the ones who caused the injury? What if a racetrack veterinarian stumbled upon an organized crime ring that was fixing races by drugging some of the horses?

Suddenly, our Everyman veterinarian becomes entangled in a caper, a crime, or a conspiracy.

The veterinary medical thriller is an offshoot of the medical thriller, popularized by great authors like Robin Cook, Michael Palmer, Tess Gerritsen, and Michael Crichton. The hallmark of the genre is that a medical professional—doctor, nurse, medical student—through no fault of his or her own, falls headlong into mystery and mayhem. The kind of mayhem for which our Everyman medical professional is woefully ill-prepared.

And that is what transforms our Everyman into a Hero.

The Hero of The Keys of Death is actually a Heroine: Michaela Collins, a small animal veterinarian who gets mixed up in a whistle-blowing scheme against a giant biotech corporation. My forthcoming second novel, Lonely River, is also a veterinary medical thriller and features a veterinarian who learns the hard way not to get involved in politics!

You’ve also written urban fantasy. What exactly is that?

Urban fantasy is a story in which supernatural elements exist in The Real World, but only a few people know about, acknowledge, or have any contact with those elements.

Examples:

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Dracula by Bram Stoker

The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher

Running with the Demon by Terry Brooks

Neverwhere and other books in the London Below series by Neil Gaiman.

The Harry Potter stories of J. K. Rowling have elements of urban fantasy: it takes place in the Real World, but most of the people in the Real World—Muggles—have no inkling of the existence of the Magical World.

The television shows The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

One of the stories my collection, Startling Figures, is urban fantasy. It’s called “Tooth and Nail.” The main character of that story also happens to be a veterinarian, so I guess I inadvertently wrote a cross-genre tale of suspense!