8:30 - 9:30 Personal Success Story, Gary Birken, MD
Gary Birken, MD will explain how as a practicing pediatric surgeon he was able to get "his foot in the door" and breakthrough with three successful medical thrillers. Gary will offer practical advice to physician attendees on making their personal breakthrough a reality.

9:30 - 10:15 Planning Your Medical Thriller
Gary will explain the successful formula and process he uses to take the initial idea and develop the story and characters to bring his medical thrillers to life.

10:30 - 11:30 Basics of the Craft of Fiction Writing and
How to Use Your Medical Background Most Effectively. "Learn the Rules Before You Break Them".
A more in depth look at the nuts and bolts of writing a medical thriller. Some of the topics to be addressed: "You already know how to write" - build on that knowledge. "The overdose syndrome" - Adding the right amount of medicine to your medical thriller's recipe. Conveying medical information - talking to your reader in the same way you talk to your patients. The "Do's and Don'ts of fiction writing" - how to avoid the pitfalls. Showing versus telling. Less is usually better. The differences and similarities of how main stream authors approach fiction. Plot development. The beginning, middle, and end. The necessity of creating obstacles for your characters to overcome. Not underestimating your reader's intelligence. Pacing and building the tension.

11:30 - 12:00 How to Use Description in Your Writing. "Too Much or Too Little?"
Using all five senses, avoiding clich�s and too many metaphors, revealing and developing your characters through description and much more.

1:00 - 2:00 Characters and Dialogue - Inventing a Hero/ Heroine Your Readers Will Love
How to create likeable, believable and consistent characters. Creating desire in your characters. The use of recurring characters, etc. Dialogue - possibly the most important element of your manuscript. Follow the rules in this area more than any other.

2:00 - 2:30 Revising Your Manuscript
Good novels are re-written, not written. How to "airbrush" your manuscript for the best possible result. How do you know when it's ready?

2:45 - 3:15 Writing Best Selling Medical Thrillers
Gary's genre is fast paced medical thrillers. In this segment Gary will explain and demonstrate the characteristics and formula for most successful medical thrillers including the "Conspiracy," a young, attractive, intelligent, idealistic, protagonist, setting, short sighted/evil bureaucrats and much more.

3:15 - 3:30 Writing While Practicing Medicine
Gary will explain how he is able to continue his busy and successful medical practice as a pediatric surgeon and still find the time to write medical thrillers. He will discuss where and when to write. If he can do it, so can you.

3:30 - 4:15 Advice From the Trenches: Practical Advice For Aspiring New Physician-Authors
Gary will discuss practical issues such as finding and working with an agent, opinions and assistance from friends and family, manuscript preparation, and the financial and other rewards of getting published.

4:15 - 4:30 Concluding Roundtable Discussion
Gary will make brief concluding remarks and open the floor to any additional questions.

Faculty