One evening at supper as I was regaling my family with what I thought was a fascinating historical tidbit, my son threw up his hands and said, "Dad, enough. Write a book!" So I did. I liked the process and wrote another. And another. And another. Help, I'm writing and I can't stop!

My latest effort, The Republic of Jack, is a political satire inspired years ago by an elderly man who approached me after a book talk to say, "Texas has the constitutional right to secede." My own opinion is that this question was forever answered by the bloodiest war in American history, but then I began wondering, what if?

The Republic of Jack is a whimsical imagining of a world in which modern Texas secessionists get their way, only to learn that Aesop was right so many years when he wrote, "Be careful what you wish for."

As if inflicting five books upon the world wasn't enough, I have also co-written and co-produced two films, one a documentary, the other a psychological thriller (one of my favorite genres).

In what I call "real life" I have been a practicing pediatric neurologist for over thirty years. Did I mention I have a very patient and tolerant wife? Because I do.