#RealLife - a doctor's story

Hello, lovely readers!

I haven't blogged in a while. Because, well...real life. Kids: three. Husband: one. Day job: ah, the day job. That's where things got tricky.


I started my medical career in private practice. Over the past decade or so, changes in the medical marketplace have forced more and more physicians to joined larger organizations in order to stay afloat. Our group joined a large academic center, and for a while things were good.

But bureaucracy is like a huge boa constrictor. It squeezes tighter and tighter. First you can't move. Then you can't breathe. Then you're done. Buh-bye.

We became cogs in a big system, forced to check "meaningful use" boxes that had nothing to do with patient care. When we went the extra mile to help our patients, we'd get reprimanded for not following the rules. It was all about the system. The liability. The bottom line.


This year, we decided: enough. 


We left Big Medicine and went back to private practice. A smaller, leaner group for sure. Age, illness, and the desire for a steady paycheck whittled down our numbers. Some doctors retired. Others decided to remain in the university hospital setting. The rest of us embarked on an exciting new venture, hoping to rediscover the joys of practicing medicine.

Are we there yet? No. 

I'm working harder than ever, trying to organize everything while still seeing patients. There are new offices to set up, new staff to train, new workflows to design, new computer systems, new equipment, new...well, you get the picture. It's a process, with a steep learning curve.

But those patients who followed us on this grand adventure already appreciate the difference. More personalized care. Smiling, friendly staff. Doctors who can and do go that extra mile.


Which brings me back to where I started: real life has a way of messing with the best intentions. My New Year's resolution to write more (or at least more regularly) gave way to other priorities. I'm getting back on track now, and hope to finish my next book soon.

Thanks for sticking with me, and stay tuned for The Burnout Cure. Art imitating life, but with a happy ending. Guaranteed.

Hugs,

Jill

#BookTrailer: A Matter of Trust

Don't Give Up ~ Guest Post by Author Susan Barton

My book, Emotional Paramedics, comes in at just about two hundred pages, yet it took me almost five years to finish and finally publish it. There were several reasons why it took me so long and I’d be lying if I said procrastination wasn’t one of them. As a book marketer/book reviewer, I find myself living the life of a shoemaker. I’m sure you’ve heard it…the shoemaker spends so much time making shoes for everyone in the village that his own family goes shoeless. In other words, I was so busy helping other authors publish and market their books, I had little time to concentrate on my own writing.

A couple of other things had me at a standstill with my latest book. Emotional Paramedics is unlike anything I’ve written before. I’ve also written three children’s books and three non-fiction books and, as proud as I am of them all, a coming of age novel was an ambitious undertaking for me. I struggled with the content and dialogue. The book deals with some very serious social issues and uses strong language at times. Although any strong language in the book is most definitely not gratuitous, I’d seen the scathing reviews where readers condemned a book after a couple of pages simply because they didn’t like the language used. The truth of the matter is that some subjects are just gritty and real, which means they warrant some gritty and real language. Emotional Paramedics is (at times) one of those books. Yet, it’s not all doom, gloom and swearing. Not by any means.

At the heart of the book is a young girl, August, who struggles to overcome some truly awful life experiences, while trying hard not to let the world change her into something she wasn’t meant to be. It’s about a young girl who is determined not to give up and who believes there is something better just around the corner.

I also wondered if anyone else would be as invested in my main character as I was. Would people enjoy the book? Or would they groan and say, “ugh, not another book about a kid with a bad childhood.” Or would they accept it for the story that it truly is – a story of hope, courage and perseverance?

Maybe you’ve been considering writing a book and are filled with the same concerns and doubts that I was when I first began writing Emotional Paramedics. I’d like to encourage you to continue writing. Do it for yourself and then share your story with everyone you know. Be like August and don’t give up!

Wishing you much success and happiness in all you do!

Susan Barton

August Gallagher is a sweet and intelligent Brooklyn girl just trying to find her place in the world during the turbulent 1960s. Unfortunately, her mother Alis doesn't make things easy for her. Bad choices, poor parenting and abusive men create chaos at every turn. Yet, through it all, August reluctantly remains a devoted daughter and continues to be Alis's emotional paramedic.

Along the way, August finds friendship, romance and makes a few dangerous enemies. When Alis hits rock bottom, August is forced to come to terms with the fact that it's finally time to cut the dysfunctional cord to save herself from Alis's emotional grasp. This is a wonderful coming-of-age story that will appeal to a wide variety of readers.

*This book deals with serious social issues. It includes some strong language and mature situations. It is recommended for readers 17 and up.*

PURCHASE EMOTIONAL PARAMEDICS ON AMAZON.COM

 ABOUT SUSAN BARTON:

Susan Barton is an author, book promoter, marketer and coach. Susan has written several non-fiction and fiction books with several more books in the works. She currently resides in North Texas with her husband and their two dogs. She invites readers to connect with her via her website and on social media:

WEBSITE

AMAZONAUTHOR PAGE

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

LINKEDIN

INSTAGRAM

PINTEREST

#NewRelease Short Story Anthology: Single Chicas

I love short stories. They come in quick, easy-to-read packages that I can fit in between the hundred and one things I need to do each day. In some ways, short fiction is harder to write than longer works, because it requires that a writer distill the very essence of a story into as few words as possible. Each word has to matter. Think John Updike, Irwin Shaw, Raymond Carver, Alice Munro. They could conjure up entire worlds in a few short lines. By necessity, short stories tend to focus on pivotal moments in characters’ lives—and that’s what makes them so interesting.

To those who claim that short fiction is dead, I’d like to introduce an up-and-coming writer, Sandra Lopez. I recently had the opportunity to read her collection of stories, Single Chicas, and I can assure you that the art of story-writing is alive and well.

Single Chicas is about women either searching for or rejecting love. The characters are often snarky, impatient, and some are even a little mean. Mostly, though, they’re recognizable: these are the people you meet every day in school, at work, at the store, on the street, or even in your own home.

The stories are linked together by several themes. One is culture. As the title implies, the women who populate these tales are Latina women living in the U.S. This comes through strongly with descriptions of generational conflict: younger chicas rebelling against their mothers’ and grandmothers’ expectations that they will marry young and have children. The narrator of “My Big Fat Fake Marriage” goes to extreme lengths to avoid this very fate, pretending to have a fake boyfriend to appease her family, then going so far as to fake a marriage and later divorce, before finally escaping by physically moving to another country.

This type of rebellion, and rejection of even the possibility of love, motivates a number of the young women in these pages. Many of them prefer being single. Marriage is perceived as evil, or a dead-end, cutting women off from opportunities to pursue their education, careers, and dreams. This sentiment runs deep, threading through conversations between an older woman and her younger counterpart (“Old Maid”), or in the machinations of an older sister trying to dissuade her brother from walking down the aisle (“My Brother’s Funeral”). There are examples of marriages dissolving, either mentioned in passing as part of a character’s backstory, or told from the standpoint of a bystander who gets reluctantly drawn into the drama (“The Marriage Assistant”).

Regret is another recurring theme. We see it clearly in “Virgin Mary,” a story about two cousins growing up together. One is part of the popular crowd (the narrator), sneering and pitying the other, who is an introverted loner. Gradually, they reverse roles, with the loner working hard and succeeding in life, while the narrator ends up bitter and envious, a single mom in a dead-end job, struggling to make ends meet.

My two favorite stories offer a fresh, optimistic outlook. “The Ball Drop” puts a clever spin on the idea of an arranged match. “The Distraction” presents a chance encounter in which a woman might actually have the opportunity to educate a clueless man about what women really want.

The best part? I hear there’s a Single Chicas 2 in the works!

Single Chicas is available on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2diEvFC

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

#NewRelease ~ Contemporary Romance

Read the exciting conclusion of The Silicon Beach Trilogy...

Release date: November 7, 2016

Pre-order your copy HERE

A Matter of Trust

Venture capitalist Vlad Snezhinsky excels at two things: making money and being a dad. Still recovering from a failed marriage, he has zero interest in starting a new relationship. That is, until he meets Klara Lazarev.

Klara doesn’t have time for romance. She’s too busy forging her own path in life: scrambling to finish her senior thesis, applying to grad school, writing innovative software in her spare time.  Besides, she’s been burned before. She refuses to let it happen again—especially with a man who seems to have trouble remembering their first disastrous encounter a few years ago.

But when a shocking murder throws their world—and their hearts—into chaos, discovering the truth becomes more than a matter of trust…

(Please note: each book in this trilogy can be read as a stand-alone.)

The Silicon Beach Trilogy books 1 & 2 in are available on Amazon. Click on the book cover to get your copy today!

When venture capitalist Ethan Talbot offers to pay top students to drop out of school, math professor Anna Lazarev goes on the warpath. But their battle over education takes an unexpected turn, thanks to a mutual attraction that’s impossible to ignore. Leo Kogan is a successful orthopedist with great friends and a loving family. All that’s missing is the perfect woman: Becca Markham. But can a man who always played it safe win the heart of a woman who’s determined to take risks?

Want to be notified about upcoming releases?

Sign up HERE