After a few false starts, we're giddy to have Dr. Ron Dwinnells swinging by The Book Drop Mic to discuss his new novel, Thirty Days Hath September. This is exactly the kind of storytelling Jason is drawn to, and we think you'll love learning why.
About the book: Wealthy fourth-year medical student Jack is miserable and mean. An elderly patient, seeking her long-lost lover, is about to send him on the journey that will change his life.
Aimless Jack Maizel is a slovenly medical student who is unlikeable, arrogant, and slightly manic. Persuaded by his influential parents to pursue a medical career, he cannot hide his contempt for the profession and even for some of his neediest patients. His classmate, Ahgri, a well-mannered and gentlemanly former Tanzanian mountain guide and coffee plantation worker, is an unlikely best friend.
When Maizel begins a month-long clinical rotation on the first day of September in 1982 with a hospital admission work-up for elderly and soft-spoken Mildred Dixon, he has no intention of doing any more than he has to. As the month goes by, she recounts a tender and passionate romance with a young U.S. Army Air Force lieutenant headed off to bombing runs over Germany. She appeals to Jack for help in her last wish of finding the love of her life again.
As the days run out on September, Mildred and Ahgri’s collective wit and Mildred’s touching plea eventually lead Maizel to a life-altering experience. The astonishing twist that ignites a path for Maizel’s future will leave readers with a poignant lesson on how we learn to live and love. Dwinnells’s memorable characters and his message of hope, kindness, forgiveness, and redemption will appeal to readers across genres.
Ronald Dwinnells is the author of the Axiom Gold Medal-winning leadership book, Don’t Pick Up All the Dog Hairs.
This podcast is brought to you by InkVeins, your source for book publicity, promo, press releases and more. Text 540-212-4095 for more information.
After a few false starts, we're giddy to have Dr. Ron Dwinnells swinging by The Book Drop Mic to discuss his new novel, Thirty Days Hath September. This is exactly the kind of storytelling Jason is drawn to, and we think you'll love learning why.
About the book: Wealthy fourth-year medical student Jack is miserable and mean. An elderly patient, seeking her long-lost lover, is about to send him on the journey that will change his life.
Aimless Jack Maizel is a slovenly medical student who is unlikeable, arrogant, and slightly manic. Persuaded by his influential parents to pursue a medical career, he cannot hide his contempt for the profession and even for some of his neediest patients. His classmate, Ahgri, a well-mannered and gentlemanly former Tanzanian mountain guide and coffee plantation worker, is an unlikely best friend.
When Maizel begins a month-long clinical rotation on the first day of September in 1982 with a hospital admission work-up for elderly and soft-spoken Mildred Dixon, he has no intention of doing any more than he has to. As the month goes by, she recounts a tender and passionate romance with a young U.S. Army Air Force lieutenant headed off to bombing runs over Germany. She appeals to Jack for help in her last wish of finding the love of her life again.
As the days run out on September, Mildred and Ahgri’s collective wit and Mildred’s touching plea eventually lead Maizel to a life-altering experience. The astonishing twist that ignites a path for Maizel’s future will leave readers with a poignant lesson on how we learn to live and love. Dwinnells’s memorable characters and his message of hope, kindness, forgiveness, and redemption will appeal to readers across genres.
Ronald Dwinnells is the author of the Axiom Gold Medal-winning leadership book, Don’t Pick Up All the Dog Hairs.
This podcast is brought to you by InkVeins, your source for book publicity, promo, press releases and more. Text 540-212-4095 for more information.
Speaker 1:
Hello there, friends, welcome to the Book Drop, mike, brought to you as always by Ink Veins. You already know we are your source for book publicity and promotion and press releases and let me tell you I hope that you have not missed any of our recent episodes. We have talked about some just incredible new releases, some great books, fiction and nonfiction and what I noted as I have done the post-production on these episodes is that as much as I love the books we've talked about, I think I love the people even more. These are just great human beings that are generating just some of the finest work I've read in a really long time. So again, the episodes are there forever. Go find them, go listen to them and I think you'll discover a book that you like. So, today's guest, this is great.
Speaker 1:
We have had so many starts and stops trying to get together, including a literal power outage. Last time we attempted about two weeks ago, the power dropped at the very last minute here at my office in cozy little downtown Woodstock, virginia. The power went out and our guest, dr Ron Dwinells, was very patient to let us reschedule. So, dr Ron, how are you? I am doing very well, thanks, I am so glad and I wish the world could see the view, the Zoom. Where are you? It looks like you're in the Garden of Eden.
Speaker 2:
No, I'm in my greenhouse. I have an attached greenhouse to my house, so I had it built about three years ago.
Speaker 1:
Well, who doesn't have an attached greenhouse doctor? Well, it's gorgeous, it's really.
Speaker 2:
It's what a lovely, what a lovely place to work and to recharge and to I just decided to make it into a conservatory, a think area, a writing area, a contemplative area, type of thing. So yeah, so it's, it's comfortable and I like doing everything in here. That's fantastic, even having podcasts.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's, that's fantastic, even having podcasts yeah that's fantastic. Well, before we talk about the book, the reason that we are together today, tell us a little bit more about you. What do we need to know about you to better understand the sorts of books you're writing?
Speaker 2:
Well, my background from an education training point of view is I'm a physician, I am a pediatrician by specialty and I practiced about 10 to 15 years, but the last 25 years I've functioned as a CEO of my organization, so I basically run the organization. I started it actually when I wrote a federal grant proposal, resident in pediatrics, and the clinic was designed as a safety net clinic. So back in the 80s there were still a lot of people who were uninsured, who couldn't get health care from some doctors, just wouldn't take them because they couldn't get paid. Even hospitals would turn patients away. So I created a safety net clinic with some federal dollars and we've been there ever since. So this is our 38th year in operations. We've served well over a million patient visits, uh, and and done a lot of good for the community, I believe so so it was one of those feel-good projects yeah, and you're based in ohio, is that right?
Speaker 2:
yes, northeast ohio, uh, between youngstown and cleveland terrific.
Speaker 1:
So how does that lead into the writing? And then tell us about this, this, tell us about this new book. It's, by the way, 30 Days has September. The link, of course, in the show notes to where people can learn more about the book read reviews. This is an award-winning and extraordinarily well-reviewed novel, ron novel.
Speaker 2:
Ron, thanks. Yeah, I do a lot of, as I said, contemplation, reflection and so forth, and I go back to my roots a lot, my childhood roots, my educational roots and so forth, and I think about things. So, anyway, there was an incident when I was a fourth-year medical student at the University of Kentucky and I admitted a patient from Eastern Kentucky and she had a lump on her belly or in her belly, so we had to figure out what it was. Well, it turned out to be pancreatic cancer, and this was the first day of September that I admitted her, and that part is all true. And then on the very last day, the 30th day of September, she died.
Speaker 2:
And that always stuck with me because I learned a lot from this person in terms of passion, compassion, understanding, listening, all the skills that doctors should have. But we don't learn in the classroom. So in the classroom it's all taken up by, obviously, didactic sessions, understanding the science of medicine and so forth. But once you get out on the floor and see patients like this, you just learn a heck of a lot more about being a doctor. So, anyway, that stuck with me for a long, long time. Well, it still does so.
Speaker 2:
So anyway. That stuck with me for a long, long time. Well, it still does, and and I wanted to write a fictional novel about it. And the basic theme is that this person who in the book, she knows she's dying, she knows her days are limited, but she sees some good in this very belligerent medical student and there were a lot of belligerent medical students when I went to school, and so, anyway, she saw some good and the overarching theme is that Anyone can have a positive influence, can help people through purpose and passion, and that's what this story is about. This elderly woman helps this boy he was a medical student to become a good and better doctor. So that's kind of the theme. It might sound a little hokey, but I think I turned it into a fairly interesting story.
Speaker 1:
Well, these are exactly the kinds of stories that I am drawn to sound a little hokey, but I think I turned it into a fairly interesting story. Well, these are exactly the kinds of stories that I am drawn to. Those listening who have followed my work through the years whether it's the Wednesday Letters or the 17 Second Miracle or even Christmas Jars I love these contemporary feeling stories. I love a novel that feels like this could have happened in my neighborhood, this could be my neighbor, this could be my brother-in-law.
Speaker 1:
I love stories that are so real. In fact, I've had a couple novels that people have expressed condolences to me at, like library events and corporate gigs, like I'm so sorry that you went through this. And I'm like well, you know this is fiction, right? Like even if there's just a kernel of truth at the very beginning of the story, somehow it's all you know, it's all meant to be fiction and I know that's that's obviously how yours reads too. But I think there's something safe about learning through fiction. We get to see the pain that characters go through, we get to experience some of the pain that our characters go through, but we feel safe because we know that it's fiction. But I think that these sort of lesson-driven narratives are really, really popular in the market right now because people just love to learn through what feels real and we're all looking for a little bit of hope and inspiration, and I think fiction is a great way to bring that to people.
Speaker 2:
I completely agree, and you know, as a CEO and doing a lot of other things, I taught leadership classes at the local medical school here, and at the beginning I had no idea what the heck I'm going to talk about in leadership. So I started telling stories about adversities that I experienced as a leader and what did I learn from them and how did I resolve them. And they always had obviously a purpose to the stories and so forth, and people retain those stories much better than if I showed a bunch of data and explained, you know, some of the science behind it and so forth. So, yeah, so that's, and I like telling stories and I think this is this is a pretty good one, because and one of um, one of the things that I teach is about passion and purpose, because passion leads to purpose, um, and and so forth. So, uh, so I talk a lot about that and uh, and that's kind of one of the main themes of this particular book.
Speaker 1:
Well, I love, I love that and I love that the book takes place in a fairly I mean, it looks like there's some flashbacks, but it takes place in a fairly compressed period of time, this idea that we're kind of working our way through the month of September with and anyone who's listening, who's a writer or an aspiring novelist, perhaps you might know the power of that ticking clock where the reader kind of knows that we're moving toward some kind of a climax and what happens when we run out of time, sort of thing. And so I love that.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think it works. I think it works really well for this particular story.
Speaker 1:
There's a twist. How many people tell you that they know the twist is coming? And how many people say you got me 100%, say you got me 0%.
Speaker 2:
wasn't expecting it and that was my intent from the get-go, and so I didn't know if it worked. It worked for me, obviously, because I knew what. I was writing. So since the book's been out, I've asked people hey, you know, what'd you think of the ending? Oh, loved it, loved it, never expected it. So that's 100% so far. And we're only talking about maybe 30 people. So you know it's not hundreds, but yeah.
Speaker 1:
Well, it's 30 people you've heard from. It might be a small sampling of people who've reported, but certainly not a small sampling of people who've read it. I don't normally do this, but just to look at some of the reviews, the reviews on Amazon wonderful story, great ending twist that leaves a smile on your face yeah, a medical student learns viable life lessons and encounters a sick woman who's able to see through his disgruntled exterior. That one's interesting. That one gives a lot of details, but again, conclusion delivers a twist that works very well. There's a thoughtful, heartfelt must-read. A story of resilience and perseverance. Keeps you engaged. You'll have a hard time putting it down.
Speaker 1:
I think as a writer, that might be my favorite compliment when someone tells me In fact, an agent that I have not professionally worked with but have known and has been a friend for a number of years told me that he knows a book is good when he misses his subway stop for a number of years, told me that he knows a book is good when he misses his subway stop, when he's heading home from work in Manhattan and he takes the subway out to Queens and he says well, I know that if I look up and go, oh shoot. I'm three or four or five stops past where I was supposed to get off because he's literally stuck Sometimes on a printed manuscript. He'll have his assistant actually print out the 300 pages and he'll just sit there on the subway and read as he's heading home or other times on this device. But he knows it's good and I love that. I love a compliment like that where someone says I forgot I was reading. I just got so locked into what I was doing.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I agree, is reading some of these comments and reviews and thinking, wow, like me, like I wrote this and people actually like it, and that's a great feeling. You know, that's not my profession I'm a doctor and you know and that's a good feeling. When patients say thank you, and that's kind of what I feel out of this, it's like oh, thank you for writing this, it made me happy or it made me feel good or it made me contemplate and understand certain things in life, and you know so to me that's a huge, huge compliment, same as saying thank you to me is for helping them get better.
Speaker 1:
Well, it's not lost on me, ron, that you have spent a career learning to heal people physically and in training and teaching and inspiring other people to heal through your work with your organization, and that now, through your writing, you're able maybe to offer some spiritual and emotional healing through stories like this.
Speaker 2:
Yes, absolutely. It's a form of outlet for me as well. I am nearing retirement age Well, I'm actually past retirement age, but and I struggle with that because I don't know if I want to retire um, but I think I do need to open another chapter in my life, the, as the cliche goes, and um, and you know, maybe this is it. Maybe I can write things that I really want to tell people and they can learn and understand from it and, you know, feel what I feel. But maybe that's the purpose that I keep talking about, the purpose and passion, but maybe that's it.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, right, right, things that help people feel what you feel. I love that. I love that. Well, what's next for you, dr Ron? Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Well, basically the under the same conversation here. The next book is called Climbing Jacob's Ladder. It's another story that I've experienced.
Speaker 2:
I had a child that I took care of for eight years. He had severe cerebral palsy, could not walk, talk, nothing. He was pretty much a so-called vegetable, if you will, confined to a wheelchair and so forth. But what I wanted to convey in the story in the book is that, despite he having severe disabilities, he still had a positive influence on other people. So even though he's stationary he's sessile, if you will, you know, immobile he still had a positive effect on people.
Speaker 2:
So the story goes um, it tells about some of these positive things he did for different people, and I won't, I won't give it away, in particular in specifics, but um, but anyway, uh. So I have it so that it becomes a metaphor, for at the end the mother does and he dies, OK, and that's why I only had him for eight years, but but at the, the end, and the ladder Jacob's ladder signifies all the people that he influenced in a positive way, and so I don't know if metaphorized is a word, but I use that as a metaphor, and she talks about this in her eulogy for her son.
Speaker 2:
So, it affects her and in real life it did for her son. So, and it affects her and in real life it did. This boy had a positive effect on his mother, who was very timid and shy at the very beginning when I first met her, and then over the years, she became very strong in terms advocating for her son uh, dealing with uh, with the various adversities that comes with this, and so forth. So, uh, so that's the story. A big part of it is metaphorical, but, um, but a lot of it is true. He had an effect on me. I think I became a better doctor because of him. Even though he never talked to me, I had tremendous compassion for him because I felt so bad, and for the mother. So, anyway. So that's the next story. Actually, it's done, I'm just editing it right now.
Speaker 1:
Awesome, yeah, boy, a story. First of all, I'm a customer. For that one, I'm a reader. Sign me up. That sounds terrific. The idea that you could could become a better doctor and a better man ultimately as a result of a relationship with someone that you never had a verbal conversation with, is pretty compelling, isn't it?
Speaker 2:
Yes, it is, it's tremendous. Yeah, I mean, to this day, it's affected me. I, you know, I think about things like that and like, yeah, I'm a better person because I knew him and he existed in this, in this world. So that's the way I, I, I want to convey the story to the reader in that that fashion, because how many times do we see people who are severely disabled and we just talk around them, right? Do they not have, do they not acquire any? Do they not hear anything? Do they not feel anything? And that's one of the other things I bring out in the book is, even though he is like this, um, does he have feelings? Does he, does he love his mother? Can he feel that? Um, and and that's the thing I'm still actually researching Can people, yeah, you know the near death experiences we always hear about?
Speaker 2:
Okay, everybody thinks that they've died, but, um, they, they come back and, uh, and they know everything that's happened and and so forth. You know, can this happen to severely disabled people? Can they feel, can they hear, can they really understand? But just not convey it? Um, I don't know. I don't think any of us know, obviously, and I can't find any research that says yeah, they know or they don't know, but I think that's an interesting and compelling thought process of children and people like this.
Speaker 1:
Well, that sounds like you've got another winner on your hands. I hope you'll come back on the show to talk about that one Again. Folks, in the show notes you'll see links to all of the good things that Dr Ron is doing and, of course, to 30 Days Half September. We're so thankful that you would give us some time on the show. I know you're very busy, so thank you for giving us a little bit of time to talk about the new book and what's coming. And you know, it sounds like the world needs a few more good doctors like this one. Oh, thanks.
Speaker 2:
Well, it was fun. I really appreciate your patience with me as well, so thank you.
Speaker 1:
No, my pleasure, my pleasure. Thanks again, folks, for listening. Don't forget Scar Dakota. My middle grade novel is out. It is on Amazon and in Barnes and Noble. You can pick it up at many of your local independent retail stores. It's also available as an e-book on Amazon and, of course, audible by Kirby Haybourne, who I've talked a lot about. The best narrator I think on the planet has lended his voice to Scar Dakota and you'll absolutely love his performance of the novel. So check out Scar Dakota if you can. And 30 Days Half September from my new friend, dr Ron. Thanks again for joining us, doctor, thanks.
