Blog Archives
Merchant of Justice — Have you been on a Jury?
Every person I have met has the same reaction when the dreaded jury summons letter arrives. Emotions border on hatred and homicidal urges. No one wants to serve on a jury! Cooped up in a room with thirteen other strangers (twelve jury members and two alternates) for possibly days and getting paid a pittance! And to top it off, we have no choice! It is the law! Unless, we can come up with a good reason not to be on a jury. Strategies abound on how to dodge jury duty.
However, recently, my efforts fell on deaf ears and I showed up for jury duty. Within hours of sitting in the dull, oppressive courtroom, I was called in the first twelve potential members of the jury. The next morning after hours of lectures on the process of a jury and a trial and the definitions of murder, I was seated on the jury.
I will never forget the first time I sat in the jury box and studied the “perp” or rather, the accused at the far end of a long table. The prosecution sat at the end of the table closest to the jury. The accused and his attorneys sat at the far end.
Clad in a flannel shirt and wearing black rimmed glasses, the man seemed like an ordinary person I might meet at Starbucks or find sitting behind me in a pew at church. He certainly didn’t look like a murderer. Looks can be deceiving. Skin cannot hide what dwells within the heart of man. See what I did there? I’m a writer!
The trial unfolded swiftly after we were seated. Heartbreaking testimony from the victim’s friends and family. Body camera footage from the police arriving just moments after the shooting. On day two, grim and disturbing photographs of the victim’s body from a pathologist with monotonal delivery. He was far too calm for the carnage exposed on the photographs. I’m a doctor and I found the photos very disturbing, nauseating, dehumanizing. I couldn’t begin to imagine what the other jurors were feeling.
Have you ever served on a jury? If so, have you been part of a murder tria? I had trouble sleeping for about a week after it was all said and done. It is one thing to read about such atrocities. It is another to see it laid out in real time before you while looking the murderer in the eyes!
When the guilty verdict was finally delivered and the courtroom was cleared of everyone but the jury and the judge, my first thought was what if the murderer’s family, friends, or cohorts came after us for this verdict? Were we safe? The patina of apparent safety had been stripped away like pain thinner on the bubbled surface of old wood! No one was safe if this seemingly calm, ordinary man had been capable of the macabre and gruesome murder. I can never look around me now without studying every individual, every movement, every possible intention. Safety is an illusion!
The judge assured us that in the thirty years he had presided over criminal cases, no jury member had every suffered from retribution.
I walked away from that experience a changed man. Here are my thoughts.
First, if I was ever accused of a crime, I would want a jury of reasonable, thinking, willing individuals to objectively assess the evidence against me. I wouldn’t want angry, anxious to be done, uncaring people. I know jury duty is a drag. But it is a necessary duty to keep our society from devolving into chaos.
Second, if I were asked to serve on a jury again, I would do it. Did it waste my time? Yes. Did I get reasonable recompense for my time? No! Was I inconvenienced? Yes. But considering that the victim lost her life and was deprived of a future with her grandchildren and friends, four days in a jury box is nothing! When we are chosen to be on a jury, we become the instruments of justice. Even unwillingly, it is a duty we should, albeit reluctantly, embrace.
Third, the experience taught me a lot about law and what really happens in a courtroom. What we see on television and the movie screen during a tense courtroom drama is NOTHING like experiencing it in real time. This man’s life was in OUR hand! We could with a cavalier attitude put the man away for life! Or we could release a monster out on the streets. At the same time, justice could only be served if we did our job objectively and willingly. The harsh reality of the choices we were called to make puts any fictional drama in its shadow.
Fourth, the experience provided me an opportunity to share with my readers. My second book about Jack Merchant was not intended to feature jury duty. I had another pathway chosen for Dr. Merchant. But circumstances in my practice group and events concerning members of my practice came dangerously close in real life to what I had intended in fiction. I had to back off and come up with another story. For now. My experience on a jury during a murder trail became the central story of “Merchant of Justice”.
So join Dr. Jack Merchant as he reluctantly becomes the “13th juror”.
Merchant of Justice – Is it all real?
Where did you get your setting, your characters, and your story elements? Are you talking about real patients and doctors?
I’ve been rewatching the early seasons of NCIS. Fascinating character creations. In one episode, the geek, Tim McGee, has written a best selling novel based on his NCIS experiences. However, McGee makes the mistake of barely changing the names of the characters from their real life inspirations. And the characters are almost carbon copies of their namesakes.
The inspiration for “Shadow Merchant” and it’s follow up “Merchant of Justice” came many years ago. In the field of medicine, there are many interesting and unique “characters”. There are some challenges in writing a story about the place you work and about the people you work with, no matter how fascinating.
First, all doctors are bound by patient doctor confidentiality to never share their patients’ situation. Every day when I came home from work, my wife would ask me about any interesting cases from that day. I carefully avoided answering her questions directly. I would only talk about a “case” in a more general sense if I felt like I needed her understanding, and sometimes solace, over a “case” that troubled me. In planning these books, I made it a rule to NEVER divulge information about real patients.
Second, because of this restriction, I would use only “interesting” cases as a basis for my fictional patients. The field of medicine is filled with “interesting” cases. At one time, I kept a running list of such cases primarily to follow up their course. In radiology, we see the imaging studies and most of the time never meet the patient behind the images. The only way we can find out what happened with the patients (and, subsequently, if our diagnosis was correct) is to keep track of them to see if they have follow up imaging studies with clinical information. This is not to pry or to snoop, but to have a real sense of closure and to learn from our involvement with the patient. Thus, there are many such “interesting” cases that have very similar outcomes and presentations. In my stories, the fictional patients are always a composite of such “interesting” findings and never based on a real patient.
Third, I had to write about my colleagues. One of the reasons I waited so long to write these stories was to give time for some of my colleagues (both within the field of radiology and out of the field) to retire. It’s very difficult to create a character that does not bear at least some resemblance to real doctors, nurses, and other health care personnel. One of the nurses in our department told me just last week she is reading “Merchant of Justice” and could see the stress I faced everyday in my practice. Did I base Dr. Jack Merchant on myself? Absolutely not! Jack and I are totally different people. I chose Jack’s personality based on a composite of differing personality traits. I would never base a character on myself or a colleague without asking permission. As I stated in earlier blogs, I asked one of my partners to give me permission to base a character almost completely on him. He agreed to and loved the character in the first book. Every other character is purely fictional. Any resemblance is only in the mind of my reader!
Fourth, the setting of my story could not be the place where I currently work. I created a fictional city and hospital system. My readers who live in north Louisiana would recognize bits and pieces of “Talako” and “Bayou City”. The setting just as easily be Shreveport/Bossier City or Monroe/West Monroe or Alexandria/Pineville. Squish them all together and place them close to Ruston and you have the location of my fictional cities. Astute readers will recognize certain landmarks such as colleges, restaurants, and so forth. In my first novel, “The 13th Demon” I mentioned the “Women’s Hospital” based on a local campus of the system I work in. At the time the novel came out, I had to give a deposition regarding my interpretation of imaging studies. During some down time when we were not “on the record” my attorney asked about my book and specifically asked about the location of that campus. The attorney representing the hospital system went ballistic! She was horrified I had mentioned our hospital in a fictional setting! She couldn’t give a good reason but I assured her I would never share hospital based “secrets”!
“Write about what you know.” A suggestion from many successful writers. I am hoping my stories are successful in bringing pleasure to my readers. No hidden agendas. No gossip or secrets revealed. All is fiction. But sometimes, “truth is stranger than fiction”. I wondered about where that saying came from and my every reliable AI search revealed: The quote “Truth is stranger than fiction” is widely attributed to Mark Twain. He is often cited as saying it in the context of his novel Pudd’nhead Wilson, where the character says, “Truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.”.
Having stated all of these restrictions I have placed on my writing, I want the reader to understand how Dr. Jack Merchant and his partners, patients, and colleagues came to be. They exist in a fictional city in North Louisiana in a fictional medical center which gives me great latitude in my story telling. Dr. Jack Merchant is a unique creation with no relationship to a real person. He’s just an “interesting case”!
Merchant of Justice — Background
Someone asked me the question, “Why did you choose a forensic radiologist as your main character?”
I can’t remember exactly where I saw the lecture by Dr. Brogdon. I was an eager learner in medical school and had never heard of the field of radiology. Dr. Brogdon spoke eloquently about the field of forensic radiology — radiology imaging used to help solve crimes. He showed a number of cases and I remember my gut wrenching reaction to seeing these X-rays and CAT scans of murder victims.
One case in particular is forever burned into my memory. A patient reported to the emergency room with blood and water leaking from his nose from the beating he received from his assailant. No matter how hard the physicians tried, they could not stop his nose bleed. He soon died. Post mortem X-rays revealed an astonishing finding. Turns out he did not die from the beating. Rather, he died because of the knife blade in his brain.
Years before, in a similar fight for this “wanna be” gladiator in the Saturday night knife and gun club, he had been stabbed in the top of his head. He escaped from his assailant with only a cut on the top of his head. Or so he thought. The knife blade actually broke away from the hilt and lodged itself right between the frontal lobes of his brain, miraculously inserting itself between brain tissue. Over the years, the blade caused him headaches and unending pain which no doubt contributed to his drug use. Over time, the knife blade migrated downward under the pull of gravity until its tip pierced the roof of his nasal cavity. He had a runny nose for months but the latest fight had dislodged the knife blade causing it to pierce completely into the nasal cavity. He died of a nose bleed!
Years later, when I decided to become a radiologist, I felt the tug and pull of the mystery provided by a set of images. Each patient became a puzzle to be solved. I did not want to miss something as dangerous as a knife blade in the brain! In many cases, the radiologist is the knot at the end of the rope in a physician’s attempt to finding a diagnosis. I recall many such strange cases such as the child who was helping her father with remodeling the house. She pulled a nail from the wall with a claw hammer and somehow, the hammer bounced backwards and downwards and imbedded the nail through her sternum almost into her heart!
In today’s world of forensic medicine, forensic radiology is a growing tool for determining cause of death. Post mortem CAT scans are almost as reliable as an autopsy. Post mortem X-rays have been done for years and now, with the addition of CAT scans and even MRIs, the cause of death can be more reliably determined.
One day while working at one of our hospitals, the ER physician came over from his post in the emergency room to go over CAT scan results on one of his patients. I keep the lights low in the office to remove reflections from the high resolution screens. He stepped into my darkened office and laughed.
“Ah, the shadow merchant at work. Plying the shadows and seeking out truth in the darkness.” He said.
My perplexed look of confusion clued him to the fact I had no idea what he was talking about.
“When I was in the military, we called radiologists shadow merchants.” He said gleefully.
And now you know why my first book was named “Shadow Merchant”. I am intrigued by forensic radiology and like my main character, Dr. Jack Merchant, I want to learn more about the discipline of forensic radiology. I decided to write his story about his journey or discovery. And now, you too can join Dr. Jack Merchant as he plies the shadows and darkness for truth in the first book, “Shadow Merchant” and the follow up newest book, “Merchant of Justice”. Go to www.hopeagainbooks.com for more information.
Merchant of Justice!
Today, the second book in the Jack Merchant Medical Mystery series is avaiable on all platforms in paperback and ebook format.
Much to my dismay, I held in my hands a jury summons. I was surrounded by the destruction of my home at the time. A day before, I had arrived back at my house after a trip to discover a pipe had burst in my ceiling and flooded the entire first floor of my home. There was no way I could show up the next day for jury summons! I sent an urgent message to the jury selection manager and my summons was delayed by six months. I put that date on my calendar, hoping against hope I would not be summoned. That hope was shattered and I appeared for my jury summons on a hot July morning.
Along with the 50 other odd people I sat in an aging courtroom hoping my name would not be called. I was in the first twelve called to the jury box. The experience of being asked personal questions and being told to “always tell the truth” almost threw me into a panic mode. I looked at the witness stand. Over a half a dozen times, I had sat in that very witness stand being grilled in an adversarial fashion by an attorney. Each time, the setting was a malpractice suit in which I was only a witness. But, one time, it became painfully obvious I was being set up to be added to a law suit. That story prompted the opening chapters of “Merchant of Justice”.
Of course I was selected for the jury. I was pulled into a horrific story of unrequited love, greed, and subsequent murder. That experience became the foundation for Dr. Jack Merchant’s next story. In “Shadow Merchant” Dr. Merchant, a local radiologist, is accused of murdering his wife and the story unfolds as he tries to clear his name. In the process he becomes a consultant to the local medical examiner.
In “Merchant of Justice” he has settled into this role rather uncomfortably. His practice partners are not so happy about the prior year when he was recovering from losing his wife. And now, he becomes “the 13th juror” on a murder trial. Reluctantly and not by choice, he fills his roll as an alternate and soon becomes a voting member of the jury. As the trial unfolds, his travails and hardship take second place to a growing realization he may know the perpetrator! Dr. Jack Merchant once again finds his life in danger as he seeks true justice for victims of wrong doing!
“The 2nd Demon: Tales of the Grimvox”
I received an email recently asking if “The 4th Demon” was the last book in “The Chronicles of Jonathan Steel”. It is NOT. The fact is, 2024 has not been a friendly year for my writing. Back in January, 2024 we went to Walt Disney World for the International Art Festival at EPCOT. The week were gone proved to be another “snowmageddon” in our deep south location here in northwest Louisiana. The temperature plummeted to 9 degrees that Tuesday night.
Three years before, a similar event took place and we had a pipe freeze in the attic above our garage. The ensuing flood took out the garage ceiling. We were at the house when it happened and found it promptly. Now, digging through frozen clay, ice, and snow to find the water turnoff valve was a chore but we managed. I had a cut off valve put in the attic to cut off water to that pipe which supplied only one faucet outside.
Well on that night in January, the cut off valve froze! Wednesday about 6 PM I checked out doorbell camera from our room in Disney World to see if we had lost power. Plenty of power but I saw water running across our front porch into the yard! A friend up the street was kind enough to check and we were able to let him into the house. The pipe had burst AGAIN and had taken out the ceiling over my study! Lots of computer equipment and memorabilia, etc. were taken out by the flood. Our entire first floor was flooded.
Read the rest of this entryThe House on Buckner Street
We sat around our dining room table and I listened in amazement at my parents’ stories. The year was 1999 and I had taken my parents many photos and produced an old fashioned slide show for one of their anniversaries. Now, I wanted to hear the stories behind those photographs. I pointed my video camera at the screen as each black and white photo appeared. A carefully placed microphone in the center of the dining room table picked up the running commentary from my mother, father, and my brother as they related their memories.
We passed through photographs from the 1920’s and the 1930’s and arrived at the beginning of the 1940’s. It was at this point, the comments became more serious. My father and mother moved from the tiny country town of Saline, Louisiana to the big, bustling town of Shreveport in 1941. They rented a house “on Buckner Street” with many bedrooms. My father went to work for the post office. My mother worked now and then, children’s needs permitting, at the downtown Sears & Roebuck department store.
Then, December 7, 1941 happened. The world turned upside down and changed forever. What became known as World War II began. My father was slated to be drafted in June, 1942 but a bill by Congress passed restricting the upper age limit for draftees and my father was too old to be drafted. Just thirty days from deployment. And it helped he was a federal employee at an important government entity, the post office.
My many uncles were not so fortunate. Those men whose experiences in life were mainly spent behind the swaying backend of a plowing mule suddenly found themselves sent far away to Europe or to the Pacific. The wives, mothers, and children ended up coming to “the house on Buckner Street” as the war waged on. Sisters would move in to a room at my parents’ house until they found a job and moved into an apartment. My father enclosed the back porch and made two additional bedrooms for more migrant relatives.
The colorful and at times, painful stories all came out at that dining room table. Stories of hardship and sacrifice. Stories of lost loves and missing relatives. Stories of the grit and resolve of “the Greatest Generation”.
These men and women lived through the harsh times of the Great Depression which prepared them for the necessary sacrifices of the years ahead as the world plunged into war. They were ready, prepared having learned how to use everything in the pig but “the oink”. A generation of true patriots who loved God and loved freedom and loved their country.
We will not see their like again, I fear. But they were there when this country needed them.
On this day, December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day I salute my parents’ generation for most of them have gone on to their eternal reward. And they have left us with haunting memories and fading photographs and a legacy we can only begin to appreciate.
That session at the dining room table inspired me to write a play, “The Homecoming Tree” produced in 2005. In 2016, I released my novelization of that play and it is available to purchase at all book sites. I never imagined that simple hour spent around the dining room table would lead to a book that some of my readers say they re-read every Christmas.
Here’s to Lena and Slayton Hennigan and the example they set for me and my generation and generations to come. I love you and miss you. Thank you for your quiet, constant example of hard work, sacrifice, and unconditional love.
Tip #3: MAKE time to write!
Tip #3: You Don’t FIND time to write, you MAKE time to write!
My good friend Marilyn once asked me how I found the time to write. I simply replied, “you don’t find time to write, you make time to write.” This wasn’t a lesson I learned from John Maxwell. This is a lesson self taught. I mentioned in a previous post about being a dreamer versus making your dream come true. As I pondered on HOW I could make a novel come true, I stumbled across NANOWRIMO which begins TODAY.
National Novel Writing Month helps you fulfill that DREAM of finishing a novel in one month. When I first learned of this method, I tried it out. I failed. But, the next July after completing “Conquering Depression” with Mark Sutton in the summer of 1999, I set aside the month of August to write a novel. I started it on day one and finished it on day 31. That novel became “The 13th Demon: Altar of the Spiral Eye”.
Since then, I have learned these powerful lessons:
Make Writing a PRIORITY not only for yourself, but your family unit. Read the rest of this entry
Tip #2: Don’t Be a Dreamer!
TIP #2: DON’T BE A DREAMER!
We all have dreams.
I had a friend years ago who has since passed away, sadly at the age of 38 from lung cancer. He was one of the most creative people I have ever met. Every day, he would call me at work and start off our conversation with:
“Bruce, I have this great idea!” At which point he would share with me what really was an incredible idea! I would get excited about his idea and as the day progressed I would begin to unpack the idea and come up with ways to make the idea a reality. By the time evening came, this idea had become more than a gestating thing for me.
The Perfect Place to Write!
Check out my blog post on Just the Write Charisma about the most inspiring place to write:
http://justthewritecharisma.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-simple-writing-life.html
Don’t forget to check out the adventures of Jonathan Steel at www.steelchronicles.com or 11thdemon.com for book orders.
Why, why, why do I Write?
I am a published author.
It is a dream I have had since I was 13.
My first published work didn’t occur until I was 40.
But, during the intervening years I wrote over 100 plays performed by the drama team at my church.
Now, I have two fiction books published by Realms.
I have a book on depression that has been in circulation since 2001.
There is a possibility my co-author and I will have a new book deal today and possibly a book series to write.
I have tasted rejection too many times to remember. I have a framed letter of rejection signed by Isaac Asimov from a story I submitted to his magazine in 1973.
I have self-published two books.
I have been “released” by my latest publisher.
I have been through two agents and I am now no my third agent.
I have been duped, hornswaggled, conned, ripped off, and taken advantage of by more publishing schemes than I can remember.
But, I still have my day job and I plan on keeping it.
So, I am sitting here on the balcony of a condo overlooking the emerald green waters of the Gulf of Mexico wondering why I keep doing this. Below me, an eager, fresh faced kid has scrawled in the white sand “Don loves Joanne” with the word “loves” represented by the image of a heart pierced by an arrow. Beside those huge words is a fading admonition from another love stricken person, “Bye Retta”. The letters are barely visible having been filled in by the fierce winds of the last three days.
I am very much aware that my work as a writer is much like the latter. It will fade with time and no one will remember a word I have written after I am long gone. Although I am thinking positively, there is the distinct possibility that every word I have ever written will be gone shortly after I am gone. My name may never grace the halls of fame along with Isaac Asimov or Ray Bradbury or Mark Twain.
Why do I keep writing, then? Why do I lose sleep at night constructing the latest story. Why do I watch people and try to discern what makes them tick so I can create a new character? Why do I sit in misery trying to plan my next step now that I have been “released” by my publisher? Why, why, why?
Reason #1 — I realized early in my life that God had given me a gift, or a curse, however you look at it. I can’t not write. And here is the thrust of what God has shown me. I have NEVER been able to be successful as an author by writing the story that I wanted to write. I have only been successful when I wrote the Story that God wants me to write. This has required me to redefine the word “successful”. It’s not about money. It’s not about fame. It has to do with Reason #2.
Reason #2 — At the recent Platform conference, I was pleased to hear over and over again that if a person focuses on changing people’s lives, they will be successful. Touching one person’s life in a positive way can NEVER be reduced to a dollar figure. My good friend Chan told me once, “I don’t always get to be the closer. But, I will put a rock in their shoe.” There are times I get immediate feedback from something I have written and I learn that someone’s life has been altered in a good way. But, I will never see the end result of that tiny alteration. Only God knows how that ripple will change a person’s life way down the line. With our depression book alone, Mark Sutton and I have received countless emails telling us the book “saved my life”. You cannot put an earthly value on that! It has eternal value only. And, my friend, when I realize this, I can only rejoice that God has used something that came out of my brain to change the course of someone’s life. But, that “something” didn’t happen in a vacuum and that brings me to Reason #3.
Reason #3 — Every successful endeavor that has occurred in my life was totally unplanned. In fact, the plans I had for my life have never come true. But, the plans that God has for my life have come true. Over and over and over. Time and time again, doors opened; windows opened; opportunities fell into my lap; “coincidences” happened. And, when I followed the voice of God, my endeavors have always been a success. I never planned on having depression. God turned my experience into a book that has changed lives. I never planned on writing drama. God took those stories and changed people’s lives. I never planned on having such deep doubts about Christianity that I would become an apologist. God has taken my teaching and has changed lives.
Why do I write? Because it is God’s mission for my life. And, as long as I seek to be a part of the Work that God has for me to do Today, then I will continue to be “successful”. Successful, not in the world’s view, but in God’s view. I have always said that a person should seek to be involved in something that will outlast his life; something that will have eternal consequences. I am hoping that one day, when I am sitting at the feet of Jesus in the Beyond someone will put a hand on my shoulder and thank for me that play I wrote or that book I wrote or that blog post. And, there is no earthly reward to even begin to compare to that!
Tell me — Why Do You Write? Why Do You Indulge in Your Passion?
You must be logged in to post a comment.