from the Hattiesburg American Sunday, November 25, 2007
Physician and writer of medical thrillers Darden North talks with retired Oak Grove nurse Barbara Hayman at a book signing at Barnes & Noble on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi on Saturday, November 24, 2007.
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/misc?url=/misc/zoom.pbs&Site=DB&Date=20071125&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=711250328&Ref=AR
By Susan Lakes
A customer who happens to be a retired nurse walked up to an author who happens to be a physician at a book signing on the University of Southern Mississippi campus Saturday.
She told the author, "I heard some good things, especially about your second book."
The author, Darden North, smiled, and then told the Oak Grove resident, Barbara Hayman, about the recognition he received for writing that second book.
North, a Jackson-based writer with Columbia ties, recently earned recognition for Southern fiction at a meeting of the Independent Publishers Book Award group for "Points of Origin," his second medical thriller.
The second novel was released in 2006, just a year after "House Call," North's first novel came out. "House Call" is now available in paperback.
North stood inside Barnes & Noble bookstore next to a table with stacks of all his novels Saturday.
He's well into writing a third novel about embryo transplants while he promotes the first two books - and continues working at a large medical clinic in Jackson.
He writes an hour or so every night - in bits and pieces - during time that he used to reserve for homework assistance.
North has two grown children, and his wife, the former Sally Fortenberry, is a Columbia native.
"House Call," "Points of Origin" and the third book that he's calling "Fresh Frozen" complement each other, North said, but are not necessarily a series. They're set in fictitious towns in Mississippi.
He promotes his own work and has sold 12,000 copies of the first two novels.
North offers this advice for beginning writers:
"Sit down and write," he said.
But it's not as easy as it sounds, he said.
"Make a decision to do it," North said. "Understand it really is a difficult thing to get it (a book) out there unless you're already established."
Originally published November 25, 2007 THE HATTIESBURG AMERICAN
Susan Lakes | Hattiesburg American
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