Dr. Michelle Smith

A native of the Bay Area of Northern California, Michelle Smith has always had a fascination with intrigue and suspense. But it was her love of the sciences and a desire to assist people in need that led to her choice of medicine as a career. Four years after obtaining a B.A. in Chemistry at Mills College in Oakland, Smith earned her medical degree from the University of Southern California. She subsequently returned to Oakland to complete an internship and residency in Internal Medicine.

While practicing medicine, Dr. Smith was regularly exposed to the darker side of human behavior that reveals itself in addiction and psychopathology. But it was her childhood exposure to mental illness in members of her own family that planted the seeds for riveting story lines and enigmatic characters that merge to create compelling tales of suspense, mystery and drama. While the demands of a full-time medical practice claimed most of Smith's time, a desire to write prose more compelling than entries in a medical chart led to a reduction in her work schedule and the first chapter of her novel, Hide and Seek.

Dr. Smith enrolled in novel mechanics courses and studied the craft of writing with the same intensity she used in preparing for her medical boards. “I knew there were writing skills and techniques I would find useful and, as with all my education, I was committed to doing my best.”

The more she wrote, the more she found her new venture a befitting and stimulating avenue through which she could express her fascination with intrigue yet also utilize her knowledge of medicine. “In my medical practice I emphasized health maintenance and disease prevention, but I was frustrated that I wasn’t reaching a larger segment of my patient population. I found that through writing, I could promote these concepts to larger numbers of people.”

While constructing Hide and Seek—a dark "coming of age" tale about a troubled nine-year-old girl's newfound ability to communicate with spirits that evolves as she and her dysfunctional family struggle with the death of her younger brother—Smith read voraciously about the business of writing and familiarized herself with the publishing industry. She attends writers conferences and welcomes the challenge and excitement of writing both fiction and non-fiction. She also enjoys studying the writing styles of other authors to congeal much of what she has learned about novel writing.

In 2001, the physician-author founded The Ebony Quill, LLC, through which she continues freelance writing for consumer and trade magazines, focusing on subjects ranging from health to travel. But her pet project is her novel, which she believes is a winner. Reviewing certain sections of the story still makes her skin crawl.

“People always ask if Hide and Seek is a medical thriller. My novel has medical scenes in it, but I characterize it as a dark suspense with a bit of mysticism. It seems to have evolved as though it has a mind of its own,” she reflects. “But I’m writing the story that’s inside me.”

Dr. Smith is a member of The Authors Guild, the National Writers Union, The National League of American Pen Women and the Central Coast Writers Branch of the California Writers Club (www.centralcoastwriters.org). She is completing the final revision of Hide and Seek.