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Readers > James D. Priest
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When asked how he got into writing, James Priest, M.D., responded as
follows: "I decided to do some writing not related to medicine. I have
always had a good imagination. When I was a small, I told stories to
the other children on the school bus, and later to my children when
they were young. I have enjoyed reading science fiction and fantasy,
especially Tolkien. So, I decided to write a fantasy. But to challenge
myself, I set the tale in today’s world rather than in Middle-Earth,
or on the moon, or in the year 2025.
"As a child I collected miniatures, and I have always liked little
things. Therefore, I made the characters and their world small. I
created a race of magical beings one foot tall. They are kirins. In
the distant past they lived in peace and harmony with humans. But a
major divergence occurred between the two races, and kirins had to
separate themselves from us. They invoked a spell that makes them
invisible, and have long since been forgotten.
"It took a few weeks to set ground rules for a kirin civilization, to
make things fit properly and work. Then I sat down and began to write,
and the story flowed. I had no occasions of writer’s block.
"I was practicing medicine full-time when I wrote the trilogy, and it
took four years to complete. I wrote early in the morning, at night,
on week-ends, and on holidays. It became work only if I spent too long
in front of the computer. Otherwise it was the most pleasurable thing
I have ever done. Someone asked my wife how many hours a week I wrote.
Her answer surprised even me. Forty, she said. I never kept track of
the time, except to know when I had to quit. I was enthusiastic about
the undertaking from beginning to end, and was fortunate to find what
has become a second career."
You can visit the kirins at: KirinBooks.com
James D. Priest, M.D., majored in English at Carleton College in
Northfield, Minnesota. He studied English in the masters program and
received a Doctor of Medicine degree at the University of Minnesota.
He spent three years in Japan as a physician in the Army of the United
States caring for casualties from Viet Nam, and four years in
orthopedic residency at Stanford University. He practiced orthopedics
in Minneapolis for twenty-one years. He has authored or co-authored
approximately thirty medical articles, and received the Minnesota
Medicine Outstanding Writing Award.
His book for the layperson, Beating Prostate Cancer without Surgery,
was published by Fairview Press in September 2005. Nine reviews of the
book on Amazon.com average five out of five stars.
He has written for two Internet travel sites, as a contributing editor
for America Online’s Bonjour Paris (http://www.bonjourparis.com), and
a senior correspondent for Victoria Brooks’ Greatest Escapes Travel
Webzine (http://www.greatestescapes.com). In total he has written over
thirty travel-related essays.
He has completed a fourth fantasy novel (a sequel to the KIRINS
trilogy), and started fifth and sixth books in the series. He and his
wife, Ilka, and their dog, Muffin, divide their time between
Minneapolis and Hawaii.
Minneapolis, MN
Muffin and Hachiko
My family and I lived in Japan for three years, and the name of one of the dogs pictured above (the larger one) relates to that stay. I describe how we got the name in an article in Victoria Brooks Greatest Escapes Travel Webzine. The article, titled "The Hounds of the Boulevards," is about our blond dog and the dogs of Paris. It can be read by clicking here.
The name we gave to our blond puppy was Hachiko. Roughly translated from Japanese, it means honey child, and at the time we got him it described him perfectly. He was also named after a famous Japanese dog. A bronze statue of this dog, named Hachiko, immortalizes him at Tokyo's Shibuya subway station. We passed by it often when we lived in Japan.
It is said that this Hachiko would go to the station with his master in the morning, and when his master returned, trot home beside him. One day his master did not return. He had died at work. But the dog waited at the station. He waited for his master for ten or eleven years, becoming a symbol of patience and loyalty. The bronze statue was erected to honor his faithfulness.
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