Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Britt Talley Daniel M.D. trained in medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and in Neurology at the Mayo Clinic. He is a member of the American Academy of Neurology, the American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine, and the American Headache Society. He has a migraine blog posted at www.doctormigraine.com where he submits news on migraine and articles on dealing with headache and a Twitter account at btdaniel. He has a literary blog at www.britttalleydanielmd.com where he presents his published works which to date are medical textbooks on Migraine, Transient Global Amnesia, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and Panic Disorder. He has published 3 books of fiction, Titanic: Answer from the Deep and the first in a series of mysteries, And If Thine Eye Offend Thee and The Case of the Organic Chemist which are part of the Mysteries of MacArthur Donne Series.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The third book in the new Mini Neurology Series, Panic Disorder, addresses a common situation in medical practice, the patient with bewildering attacks of dizziness and numbness. The book develops the history of “panic” which comes from the Greek God, Pan, through its entry into the Psychiatric Diagnostic and Statistical Manual’s third edition in 1980. Diagnostic symptoms, associated conditions, and medical treatment are discussed, making the book an up to date quick reference for educated patients and practitioners as well.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I work at night, spare time, weekends. I am a neurologist during the day with a busy practice, plus I have 5 kids, 3 grandchildren, and I am a singer, guitarist.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Tolstoy, Nabokov, Churchill, Augustine.
What are you working on now?
Synopsis The Spanish Flu 1918
The Spanish Flu was a pandemic occurring mainly in the fall of 1918 and affecting most of America and Western Europe. In America it killed 675,000 but in Europe and worldwide 20-40 million souls died from the disease. It killed more persons than all the 20th century wars—World War I and II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and Afghanistan.
Years later with a brilliant idea to find and study the virus, a Mayo Clinic trained pathologist found intact viral tissue in the body of a woman buried in permafrost in Alaska in 1990. He found the tissue that started the search that led to the replication of the terrible virus by doctors at the CDC, The United States Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The researchers spun out the virus by polymerization machines which could take a strand of DNA and reconstruct the whole bloody virus. CDC directors kept this virus strongly locked up in Atlanta in a computerized vault which provided strict control over access, yet mysteriously the deadly, quick killing, horribly infectious virus was accidentally sent to a small secondary lab in Illinois, an absolute, terrible break of containment. Was this an accident, or had there been the hand of a killer, a madman really, masquerading as a benevolent scientist at the CDC?
Dr. MacArthur Donne, a practicing internist in Austin, Texas was a man who, with his friend and sidekick, Jack Robey, liked to solve mysteries. His medical practice consisted of constant mysteries—was his patient’s abdominal pain an ulcer or heartburn? He had to do tests and take a good history and examine the patient carefully to find out, but on occasion he liked to get out of the office and take on something big. Not that he wasn’t busy, because at the time he was in the middle of the second biggest romance in his life with a beautiful woman he had met in London. He was dazzled by her, but she lived far away. Then an old friend he had trained with asked him to come to the CDC and help find the assailant, what could he do?
Mac and Jack went to Atlanta to save the world and find the madman who had taken control of the deadliest virus the world had already seen and buried long ago in the frozen soil of Alaska; which might come back again. To find out what happens read The Spanish Flu 1918.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I haven’t found anything that helpful yet.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write, read, rewrite, persist
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Love one another as I have loved you/
What are you reading now?
Trial of Joan of Arc
Churchill volume 2 on WWII
Churchill’s Toy Box
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m going to write The Mini Neurology Series Volume 4: Benign Tremor, Familial Tremor
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Catholic breviary
Holy Bible
Augustine The Confessions
Author Websites and Profiles
Britt Daniel Website
Britt Daniel Amazon Profile
Britt Daniel’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account