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Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2009 > August > 24 > Entry
Dayton’s best known author?
Martha Moody has written stories since she was a child. After she became a doctor, she began writing fiction during her medical residency, but she didn’t consider getting published.
Moody practiced medicine in Dayton and kept writing. Eight years ago, she published her first novel, “Best Friends.” It really took off when it came out in paperback. “Best Friends” has sold more than 600,000 copies.
While she still practices medicine part time, mostly in a volunteer capacity, she has become a writer. Her second novel, “The Office of Desire,” takes place in a small medical office. Moody told me that “I ended up using two narrators — one of the doctors and the receptionist. That was fun to have two separate narrators in this closed environment.”
Her third novel, “Sometimes Mine,” was just released. She describes it as the story of “a very driven female cardiologist. She’s divorced, incredibly busy, overwhelmed by her patients and her work life. Her one little release is her weekly affair with a married college basketball coach who is also quite busy in his own way.”
Genie Toledo is the doctor. Mick Crabbe is the coach. She’s single in Ohio. He is a renowned, coach in West Virginia. She tortures herself by watching him on television whenever his nationally ranked basketball team is playing. She analyzes his body language and demeanor to try to realize what stresses he might be undergoing.
Early on, Genie asks Mick, “Does your wife have any idea?” Mick recalled that “the night we met, you asked if certain players made me feel like they were coaching me. I can’t tell you, this electric bolt went through me. Twenty years I’ve been with my wife and she’s never seen this. That moment I thought, I need this woman around to talk to.”
Things change and evolve over the course of their relationship. Genie becomes acquainted with Mick’s family. Moody’s descriptions of the lovers’ cascading emotions as they veer from passion to companionship to resolution is deeply moving.
Genie is crushed when she recognizes, “It hit me that the very thing that kept me going — my own will — was what had brought me down. I’d never enjoyed the moment as it happened, I’d always been preparing for the next thing. Even with Mick: all my Thursdays lying next to him. I dreamed of the days we’d be together all the time. Now I doubted we’d ever be together. The best lay behind us, not ahead.”
“Sometimes Mine” reveals a writer in the process of taking her craft to the next level. Moody resides in Washington Twp. with her husband and four sons. Her status as a best-selling author hasn’t altered her approach. She’s working on a new novel.
Jennifer Weiner, a best-selling novelist in her own right, just published “Best Friends Forever.” Can the similarity to Moody’s title be sheer coincidence? I’m reminded of the old saying, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Martha Moody will be autographing copies of “Sometimes Mine” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 25, at Books&Co. at The Greene in Beavercreek.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: confessions of a galley slave
Comments
By vick
August 24, 2009 2:02 PM | Link to this
Katrina Kittle is certainly one of the Dayton area’s better known writers. Martha Moody is well known nationally because her book “Best Friends” has sold over 600,000 copies and it continues to sell…By MD
August 24, 2009 1:10 PM | Link to this
Don’t forget Katrina Kittle.By vick
August 24, 2009 12:30 PM | Link to this
Thanks, Flipper. Erma Bombeck was certainly one of the best known authors in the Dayton area. Who is the best known author who currently resides in our area? Martha Moody may not be that well known yet locally but she is certainly becoming well known nationally…By flipper
August 24, 2009 12:07 PM | Link to this
Best known is Erma Bombeck.