My whole life I was intimidated by doctors. So when I recently launched a series of private remote writing and publishing courses, I was stunned to find among my students several physicians, the same profession as my father. During the pandemic, I wound up teaching a nephrologist, neurologist, internist, neonatologist, pediatrician, several psychiatrists and gynecologists — all who aspired to be authors too. Whenever someone mentioned their medical background, I'd think: I have to call Dad to tell him. Each time it crushed me to remember I couldn't.
Reared in a big Michigan family with three brilliant loud science brain brothers, I'd always felt left out by their Disease Game at dinner, where Dad threw out cases for my siblings to diagnose.
