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 James Chlovechok, M.D., is board-certified in emergency medicine and is currently the medical director of Ohio Sports Medicine Institute, where his practice is devoted to treatment of musculoskeletal pain and injury. His debut medical suspense novel Game Face is available from http://www.amazon.com. He is currently working on other books in both fiction and nonfiction, as well as articles to be posted periodically on this site. Chlovechok also serves on the county board of health and as medical director for Cambridge Open MRI. He served previously as an emergency department director and chairman and worked for over eight years full-time in emergency medicine prior to establishing his own center. He also spent time as a Regional Assistant Medical Director for Ortho Biotech, a Johnson & Johnson Company, where he assisted in developing and implementing clinical research trials. Dr. Chlovechok is also certified by the American Board of Independent Medical Examiners and the Medical Review Officer Certification Council, and is a Member of the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation Disability Evaluators Panel. More on his medical practice can be found at the official site of the Ohio Sports Medicine Institute, http://www.plussportsmed.com. ;void(0)) In sports, Dr. Chlovechok is a team and ringside physician, owner of a private fitness center, and was an Ohio Athletic Commissioner. Chlovechok gave up his commission to climb back in the ring, and is now 6 and 2 as a professional boxer. He is 3 and 0 in 2004, and is looking toward a state title bout this summer.<<<<<< Click photo to enlarge <<<<<< Track world under microscope... British sprinter tested positive for designer steroid undetectable until recently...Name of U.S. runner arises amid steroid scandal...Biggest steroid bust in sports history...100 athletes could be called to testify...White House drug czar's office interested...Senate weighs action...Dozens of top Olympic and professional athletes to testify before a federal grand journey... Reader's will find the plot of Game Face eerily similar to real events that are still unfolding in the news. How was this accomplished? "I heeded the old advice: 'Write what you know,'" Chlovechok explains. "And for me, that meant medicine and sports." The idea of writing medical thrillers was not a sudden or even recent impulse for Chlovechok. He had always wanted to write "...since my undergraduate days," he relates. But a medical career offered a more certain path for a young man from a working-class and often financially insecure background. And as far as writing what you know, Chlovechok admits that in his early twenties, "I didn't know anything. I knew I had a lot to learn. About life. About everything." His journey took him not only to medical school and residency, and eventually a career in emergency medicine. He also spent time in fellowship training in forensic medicine, much like his protagonist in Game Face . He spent months observing autopsies and studying ballistics and death investigation. On returning to clinical practice, Chlovechok was offered a chance to serve on the Ohio Athletic Commission. He also boxed as both an amateur and professional, and was a National Bando Kickboxing Champion. These experiences--along with expert contacts made along the way--contributed invaluably to the novel. A fan of medical suspense, problems he noted with the genre were "...repetitive themes..." and "...a preoccupation with hospital life...," which, he can tell you from experience, "...is nothing like everyday life for most people." The option as he saw it was writing fiction that was realistic, but to whom no one could relate--or creating a fictional world more accessible to the average reader and, therefore, unrealistic. "That's when it dawned on me to step outside--literally--for the first time in years and look around," he says. "People often die in hospitals, but they don't live there. If medicine is to be worthwhile at all, it should allow us to spend more time away from the wards and the ubiquitous scents of wounds and antiseptics." The result is Game Face, which pulls not only from his knowledge of emergency medicine and forensic death investigation, but also from years of athletic training, competition, and regulatory responsibilities. Its theme is identifiable to one and all. It is basic and timeless. Winning and losing. And, yes, life and death. It doesn't get any more basic--or more complicated. In writing this book, Chlovechok discovered characters with whom he can identify outside the medical profession, and he is anxious to visit some of them again. "Expect to see more of Gwen (a hard-charging defense attorney)," he says, "probably as a more central character in the future." Mark, the male lead, may show up as well, "...but may appear more as a member of the supporting cast the next time around." Sports in America are a multi-billion-dollar business, the focus of weekend television and weekday office pools. And the field is wide open for a new author of medical suspense.  
"Incredible. Chlovechok knows athletes." -Dean Chance, Major League Baseball Cy Young Award-Winning Pitcher and International Boxing Association President "...accurate and disturbing." -Fritz Hagerman, Ph.D., Exercise Physiologist for the U.S. Olympic Rowing Team and Consultant to Major League Baseball, NASCAR, and NASA Reviews: • Norm Goldman • John Walsh • Jordan Peterson Book Titles Available | | The BANYON NETWORK | Betty Byers | Whitlow Synopsis | INNER-VIEWS WITH CELEBRITIES | ECLECTIC REVIEWS | BOOK REVIEWER'S CORNER | The NEWS | SHORT STORIES CORNER | | Return Home | GREAT LINKS | WHAT'S NEW? | CONTACT US | |
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