Author: artsmuklermd

Art Smukler, MD was born and raised in Philadelphia, went to college and medical school in Pennsylvania, and completed his psychiatric training at UCLA. He is a board-certified psychiatrist, specializing in the treatment of adults with a subspecialty in adolescents. As a member of the UCLA faculty, he ran an award-winning psychotherapy conference for psychiatric residents and received the coveted “Golden Ear” award. He has published in psychiatric journals, and won the award for excellence in creative writing at The Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Now a full-time author, he applies his deep understanding of the human psyche to the motivations of his fictional characters.

TYING UP THE ROSES, by Art Smukler, MD, author & psychiatrist

by artsmuklermd, posted in Self Examination, World events, a psychological view, Writing

Over forty years ago, back in Yardley, Pennsylvania, a small town about an hour from Philadelphia, my wife and I bought our first house. We borrowed the $10,000 downpayment from a relative and with great trepidation signed all the necessary documents and prepared to become homeowners.

It was six months after I completed my two-years of service in the Air Force as a psychiatrist and my newly minted private practice was doing well. As an important aside, times were very different back then. A $57,000 house was a lot of money. Now, a starter home can be ten or twenty times that depending on where you live.

Anyway, on moving day, we loaded up our station wagon with our two tiny kids and everything else we could squeeze in the back and drove to the house to wait for the movers. It was a lovely one-story home on a small circle with five other homes.

As we approached the house, the Greenstones, an elderly couple, were parked in the driveway. I parked across the street and watched as they stood side-by-side holding hands and gazing at the home that they had lived in for over forty years. They got in their car, drove about ten feet and then backed up to where they started. Mr. Greenstone got out of the car and walked over to three rosebushes on the side of the driveway that looked like they were falling over. He took some twine and a scissors out of his pocket and spent the next ten minutes making sure that the bushes were straight. He stepped back, admired his work, and then got in the car and drove away.

Why you might ask, would someone care if the rosebushes were falling over in a home that they no longer owned? When you listen to the news, the horrendous lies of our former president, the lies that are supported by millions of Americans and publicly elected officials, the lack of ethics and honor in so many people around the world, why is Smukler obsessing about some silly rosebushes.

I’m obsessing about our loss of ethics, honor, and just doing the kind and right thing. Mr. Greenstone had no idea that we were watching him. He quietly and carefully did what he thought was right. That’s the kind of person I want to be, the kind of people I want to be around, the kind of world I want to leave for my grandkids. There’s nothing wrong in dreaming.

Make sure to subscribe to TALES FROM SMUKLER’S COUCH.

Check out PATIENT X and LITTLE ITALY.

#MYSTERIES, #SUSPENSE, #ROMANCE, #ETHICS, #HONOR,

WHY WRITE FICTION? by Art Smukler, MD, author & psychiatrist

by artsmuklermd, posted in Writing

Worldwide there are millions of authors.

Writers who sit in front of their computers and make up stories are a special breed. They devote countless hours searching their souls to find just the right way to portray their imaginary characters, to make them come alive on the page and make their make-believe-lives something that readers will want to devour.

It can’t be just the money. The percentage of Grishams, Cobens, Patchetts etc. are so rare that it’s like a girl who writes songs and aspires to become Taylor Swift. It can obviously happen, it happened to her, but the chances of it happening are minuscule. If you become a rock star or a famous author you can make a fortune, but everyone else is doomed to getting their pittance from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. And obviously, 99% of writers support themselves with a real job, with savings, or with family money.

Is it simply a silly hope that you’ll be the one who breaks through and garners all the money and acclaim? No. Writers aren’t stupid. They’re smart enough to create an imaginary world and they’re smart enough to know that the chances of them making enough money to live off their books is like winning the lottery.

So why? With everything stacked against success, why do very bright people keep persevering?

Lester, one of the detectives on THE WIRE, the TV series that ended 15 years ago, said it so well, when describing why detectives battle the odds to catch and then convict the crooks, ‘It’s the journey, not the destination.’

And for me that’s the answer for writers too. Authors love the journey. They complain, describe the misery and loneliness of writing, how frustrating it is, but in the end they keep doing it. In spite of all the obstacles, the creative process is engaging, exciting, and meaningful. Even if no one else agrees, the author like the determined detective, will not be derailed. The process is too important. Agents and publishers have their opinions and we have ours. And if every so often you lose your impetus just give it a little time. You’ll bounce back.

If we can’t write, we suffer.

Don’t suffer!

Get back to your characters, your plot, and your fantasies.

You never know who your story will touch.

Check out PATIENT X, a mystery. If you think you have a problem as a writer, you’ve got to meet Jake Bennett.

Thanks for reading. If you’re not a subscriber to Tales From Smukler’s Couch, just click away and you can become one.

Art

#authors, #writers, #psychiatrist, #mystery, #suspense, #romance, #JohnGrisham, #HarlanCoben, #AnnPatchett, #TaylorSwift, #amateursleuth

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