Listen up.
Podcast host and author Shawn Reilly Simmons and Dr. Frank chat about his fiction and nonfiction writing career, a medical career and how it influences his writing, walking around as your character for a week, leaving good reviews, Stephen King, and Frank’s great advice for writer and for life in general.
No Angels Wept Afterward
I wrote No Angels Wept over the course of nine years. In that time the story went through a series of revisions, the last of which I completed in 2016, when I decided to shelve the idea.
In that version—a dark one, since the book had been inspired by a 2014 NY Times article describing a revolutionary approach to treating veterans suffering with PTSD—I spent several days working on the central character who employed a psychomotor therapy that was neither widely practiced nor supported by clinical studies. Despite my decision to shelve the story, I found myself consumed with notion that in the wrong hands a psychological framework to treat a past trauma could lead to irreparable damage if used for nefarious purposes.
In 2021, I concocted an alternate story. Still employing the same psychological framework plus a new experimental neurocognitive medication, the central character’s main objective was forced gay conversion therapy orchestrated behind the veil of Christianity. Operating under the assumption that men who identify as gay are victims of a suppressed trauma. Once those memories were recovered and reset, these men would no longer see themselves as gay.
But gay conversion therapy is a thing of the past, I argued. A discredited practice just like repressed memory therapy, which Harvard psychologist Richard McNally called “the worst catastrophe to befall the mental-health field since the lobotomy era.” Yet, some right-wing religious groups still promote the concept that individuals can change their sexual orientation even though research on such efforts has disproven these methods and demonstrated the significant harm, particularly among LGBTQ+ youth.
For many reasons, I’m happy with this version of No Angels Wept though I never imagined at the time of its completion that Mike Johnson–the newly elected Speaker of the House–had partnered with an anti-gay conversion therapy group.
Had No Angels Wept been a work-in-progress at the time of Mike Johnson’s nomination, I would have acknowledged the popularity of his right-wing anti-gay agenda as a contributing factor to this story instead of an imaginative artifact inspired by a NY Times article. What I once considered an unbelievable idea now doesn’t seem that far out of the realm of possibilities.
Out the Window
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Out the Window 〰️
What begins as an idea takes shape in my dreams. What sparks creativity is what I see everyday looking out the window.
Many writers have written about how they combat writer's block. Some suggest taking a break, going for a stroll, and even taking up a hobby because the longer you obsess over what to write about, the harder it becomes.
Some find a room with a view too distracting. I don't. In fact, gazing out the window is healthier for your eyes than staring at a blank computer screen. Nothing beats closing weary eyes. What better way is there to give your eyes a much needed rest. But sometimes, I find myself blissfully distracted by the sky, the buildings, and especially, the people below. Even if it's just for a few minutes I can't think of anything better.
Others have written that writing in a location other than the place where you normally write might inspire you. I find that to be true. Sometimes I take notebook to the park and sit on a bench, listening to people's conversations. Yes, I'm that person. Other times, I observe people's interactions. Their mannerisms. Their hand gestures and postures. But nothing, I mean, nothing beats listening to other people's conversations. Sometimes I hear a conversation or a sharp quip, and immediately, I type it as a message to myself on my phone.
Fortunately, there is a park right outside my building. I have the luxury of seeing and visiting it every day. Frankie and I are lucky that way.
Out the Window
The Body Doesn’t Forget
In 2013, Kensington Books published my memoir, Pee-Shy, in which I recounted the years of sexual abuse I endured by my Scoutmaster and the long journey to bring him to justice. Throughout adulthood, I have read many books on trauma. I even contributed a chapter to Richard Gartner’s Understanding the Understanding sexual Betrayal of Boys and Men: The Trauma of Sexual Abuse, published by Routledge in 2017.
A good colleague and best friend suggested I read The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, MD, published by Penguin Publishing Group in 2014 and updated in 2022. Kolk writes that regardless of the type of abuse: sexual, violent, loss of job, loss of loved one or illness, trauma affects all of us.
We have all experienced trauma, having survived the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of us contraced COVID-19. Some, like me, had it twice. Many of us lost dear friends, family and colleagues, not to mention the fear of the unknown and sheltering in place. We will never fully understand the residual trauma imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic until we have had enough distance to look back on it with any objectivity.
“In The Body Keeps the Score, Kolk uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.”
Most importantly, Kolk explores the positive impact of creative outlets like dancing and writing and mindfulness practices like meditation and yoga, which can facilitate brain remodeling to stop the pain.
Early on in my healing journey, I sought the help of a therapist who encouraged me to paint as a way to heal. Later, I found writing as an outlet, and I haven’t stopped since.
Balancing Truth in Fiction Writing: The Struggle is Real
Balancing Truth in Fiction Writing: The Struggle is Real
Currently reading: White Knight by Josh Lanyon.
I was invited to be guest blogger for Josh Lanyon. This is a reprint of the blog I wrote in May.
Before I wrote my first gay romantic thriller entitled, Perfect Flaw, I worked on a memoir entitled, The First Year. A story about a young Italian doctor in New York who lands his dream job, working for a Park Avenue practice, only to become entangled in a murder investigation after a colleague, posing as a physician, kills a patient.
But I struggled writing about my first year in private practice because I did not want to disrespect the death of an innocent woman. Anyway, did I really need to write another memoir? I had already written Pee-Shy, which recounted my history of childhood sexual abuse by my scoutmaster who I brought to justice thirty years later. Writing a memoir is cathartic; it’s also grueling and painful. Reliving those years of abuse, revealing intimate details of my marriage, and exposing my family to that pain again after we had repaired our relationship opened old wounds. Plus, whenever someone I knew read Pee-Shy, they looked at me like I was that abused eleven-year-old boy, not a grown adult. Did I really want to do that to my husband, my family and myself again? No.
So, I put The First Year to rest in a file on my desktop. Years later, I thought, what if I didn’t write it as a memoir? Imagine a story about a young, Italian doctor who becomes ensnared by a seductive colleague and unwittingly makes mistake after mistake so that his life is upended after a woman is found dead? Sounds familiar? Yes, but the similarities to my real life end there.
Perfect Flaw is lifted from the headlines, but once I decided to write it as fiction – in fact, my editor, Nicole Kimberling, encouraged me to write it in the third person – I felt the lock of a metaphorical ball and chain release.
Now, I had license to do whatever I wanted to these characters. My job was not to relate my real experience but to paint my protagonist, Angelo Perrotta, into a corner and then figure a way to get him out of trouble. “Raise the stakes,” is a term I had heard so often by my writer friends, but I hadn’t understood what that meant until I was inventing a story, rather than just relating one. So, I raised the stakes and then kept raising them. I wasn’t so precious about the accuracy of the events because guess what? My book wasn’t a memoir anymore.
Perfect Flaw is based on something that happened in real life, yes, but it’s not about me. It’s about Angelo and his sexy cop boyfriend, Jason.
Still, because I am a doctor in real life, readers believe that much of what goes on in Perfect Flaw is drawn from my life, which took some getting used to. There is no escaping this trap. Readers fill in the blanks with theories about where Frank Spinelli ends, and Angelo Perrotta begins in the same way that I, myself, wondered how much Jack Torrance from The Shining was Stephen King.
We all write partially from personal experience, but also draw from other sources. We draw from our friends, family, and acquaintances. We draw from research and even from other stories to create a whole cast of characters. This is one of the reasons why writing fiction should have nothing to do with the writer’s sex assigned at birth or their gender identity or sexual orientation. Writers create the entire world of the novel, and every single character in it.
Still, now that I’ve moved away from memoir, I’m careful not to include too much of myself in my fiction.
Of course, I can’t help it.
My first rule is that I never include precious personal memories in my fiction because I must save those special moments for myself. Besides making stuff up is way more fun. I can’t think of a better job than creating vivid characters and then throwing them into peril. The second rule is to read while I write. Once I listened to an interview the author Jennifer Egan who said, write what you like and read the genre of what you want to write. No truer words have been spoken when it comes to writing.
A Perfect Year
What a perfect year it has been for me.
February 2022, Blind Eye Books published my first M/M Romantic Thriller, Perfect Flaw. A great experience because I got to collaborate with the editor, Nicole Kimberling. Talk about bad-ass boss. Plus, I got to do something I have never done before: write gay sex scenes. What fun!
Writing has always been therapy for me. I try to write every morning before I begin my real job, but there is an obsessive nature to my writing. The story becomes something I think about all the time. When I go to bed, I try to induce myself into dreaming where I left off, hoping my dreams will provide me with the solution I’m searching for. Crazy as that may sound; it works.
My writing is also based in science. That is critical. Being a doctor, I feel a degree of responsibility to tell stories that are scientifically sound. Much of what happens in Perfect Flaw is based on actual events and real science. There won’t be any fudging the science in any of my books.
Obviously, the science comes naturally to me, having been a physician for twenty years. Writing mystery does not. The best way to become a better writer is to read in the genre you wish to write. That brings me to my February M/M Romance Reads Challenge. One book a week for four weeks. I’m happy to report I read: Strange Medicine by S.C. Wynne, In Search of Saints by Harper Fox, Madison Square Murders by Carroll S. Poe and Renovated to Death by Frank Anthony Polito.
Check them out!
March 23, 2022
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.