My novel DISSECTION has a PUBLISHER! Bancroft Press has accepted it for publication in September 2022.

Researching and writing the book was the easy part. Finding a traditional publisher was the most difficult accomplishment of my life. It was tougher than Medical School, more challenging than raising 3 children, harder than getting accepted to a Cardiology Fellowship at the age of 48—after 17 years of practicing Internal medicine—more grueling that my 20 years Karate training and the 8-hour-long black belt test. Saving patient’s lives, in comparison, was a walk in the park.

For the first time in 4 years I dare to look at my phone without dread and fear of finding my “rejection du jour.” After approximately 400 agents’/publishers’ rejections my skin rivaled an alligator’s hide, but I could never get used to the hopeless/helpless sinking of my stomach that I experienced in various degrees every time I got yet another bad news.

I read about famous writers’ rejections to seek reassurance that, despite everything I was going through, there was still hope to achieve my goal. I beat them all. Rejections took anywhere from a few hours up to 2 years to pour in. My novel was deemed “too male,” “too political,” “too unrealistic,” “too popular,” “too fast,” “too slow.” Soon, it became obvious that, if I had a magic wand to transform my manuscript to accommodate all suggestions, my book would disappear. The worse rejections started with praise: how my novel was so good in so many ways… BUT sorry, no cigar. Soon my eyes learned to run to the bottom of the email, searching for the three letters deal-shattering, hope-sinking ghastly little word—BUT.

After years spent under the tutelage of writing coaches and editors, after writing 3 unpublished books, and hiring a coach to find an agent, I finally landed an agent. I thought I had it made. My books would sail into the sunset of publication and I would live happily ever after. I didn’t listen to the first thing my agent told me on our first call together: “I’m not sure if I can sell your book. The market is much more difficult than in the old days.” Little did I know I was just on first base…and the home run would take two more eternal years.

I had pictured myself—in the unlikely chance of getting an acceptance email during my office hours—quietly peeling myself off the ceiling, walking to my waiting room, getting down to the floor, and rolling around screaming. That’s not how it happened. Even my “acceptance email” had some BUTs to iron out, which took another week. The process was a roller-coaster of elation and anguish interposed with intolerable, agonizing waiting. At last, I held the SIGNED CONTRACT in my hand. The moment is best summarized by the words of the Italian-American love song That’s Amore: “If you walk in a dream, but you know you’re not dreaming…”

I can honestly say none of this happened by luck. I painstakingly researched, studied, planned, and executed my journey, leaving no stone unturned, in my quest for a publication venue, forcing myself to get up and back into the fight every time a rejection sent me tumbling into the abyss of despair. My family was well aware of my struggle, as testified by the card my daughter gave me a few days ago:

“it had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them, they went out and happened to things.” Leonardo da Vinci

The happiness I feel now permeates every aspect of my life. My book will be out there for people to read. I’ll have the chance to enter my readers’ lives and take them to my world and the world of my characters, stirring their emotions, and entertaining them with my work. Even if something in my daily routine doesn’t go the way I had hoped, immediately my mind responds: “That’s OK, my book is getting published!”