In The Well, a virologist and Russian defector steals the world’s deadliest virus to create a universal cure but instead sparks a deadly competition between nations. Where did the idea for this novel come from?

Ever since childhood, when I first realized the threat of nuclear weapons, I have always been concerned about existential threats to humanity. Although I am a cardiologist, I became very interested in the threats of pandemic illness from the SARS and various flu viruses since the early 2000s. But my overwhelming fascination in writing this novel was the posing of the following question:

At the current state of mankind’s moral and ethical development, would a miraculous discovery, controlled by the wealthy and powerful, lead to universal well-being or universal tyranny?

It is also ask myself this question about AI.

Are any of your characters’ dialogues or traits based on people from your own life?

Gia is the combination of 2 Brazilian women, both multilingual, extremely intelligent, beautiful, and ambitious, and of course, extremely sexy.

Popov is in part inspired by a Russian Orthodox priest who taught me Russian for 3 years in high school. The remaining part of Popov is derived from a salty, good-natured, white-haired and bearded, pirate-like, elderly accountant who managed the affairs of my brief solo, private practice in Las Vegas.

It is said that all writing is autobiographical. I see a lot of myself in Rex, particularly the desire to achieve mastership.

How long did it take you to imagine, draft, and write the world your characters live in?

Because of a dream decades ago, I knew how my story would start and how it would end. After my retirement from group practice, I decided to write a first chapter, which to date is largely unchanged, and
presented it to a friend at breakfast in a Bangkok hotel in January 2018. Happening to be a publisher, he loved it and encouraged me to keep writing.

My second pen to paper was on a layover at Shanghai airport traveling to Los Angeles in June 2018. I wrote a penciled outline of the entire story over a couple of hours. I then spent the summer crafting the story into the first draft of a screenplay. Thinking that no one would be interested in a spec screenplay of an unpublished and unknown writer, I turned it into a novel over the course of a year. During the pandemic, I found a great sound guy in Las Vegas and transformed it after many attempts into an unabridged audiobook.

What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?

The next book in The Well series is The Cauldron, the pure golden Chinese pot which can amplify the mystical properties of the waters of The Well. The story explains how The Cauldron in 1728, originally possessed by a murdered Taoist monk, crossed the Pacific from Macau, China in the possession of venomous Portuguese pirates/slavers, who battled and evaded the British Navy. They landed in Spanish-controlled Colombia as slavers with no slaves in the middle of an African colonial slave rebellion.

After escaping the Spaniards with the aid of escaped slaves, they traversed the Andes, staving off malaria, indigenous attacks, and betrayal among themselves. Only one pirate survived, reached the western Amazon, and delivered The Cauldron to “The Unseen”, the miraculous and at times invisible Amazonian tribe, the guardians of the waters of The Well. The story ends in modern times during Popov’s initial Amazonian quest for The Well.

In truth, The Cauldron will have to wait until I finish my ongoing project.

The story is called The Horse. It is a visionary fairy tale for adults, which children will thoroughly enjoy. The outline and screenplay have been written.

In 1947, a young ex-Marine Wyoming rancher, whose wife died in a relocation camp after childbirth, seeks a cure for his 5-year-old Japanese American daughter’s terminal illness based on a calling from a Native American legend.

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