I’m Making Plans

        There is an old Vince Gill number from his “Here Today” bluegrass album called “I’m Making Plans.”  I remember it well, ’cause it was one of the first vocal duets I worked up with Darrell.  I remember sitting in the car at the Middle School waiting on my kids (I always picked them up on my day off- it was my only shot at it)  and he and I worked on my part singing while we listened to the cassette player in my old Scout.  (I always made good use of any down time.) 

        Right now I am making a lot of plans, and I wanted to share my direction with you.  To some degree, I’m asking for forgiveness, ’cause I know the next few months are gonna lean more towards the medical.  (Don’t worry though, the music is so intertwined in my life it won’t all be a bore.)

        I am in hard medical study right now, though, and will finish a project called Core Content Review around the first of August.  IMHO (bluegrass for in my humble opinion) this is the premier Family Doc update in the country.  It is hard to read about the differential diagnosis of fever of undetermined etiology by night and not bore you to tears with my writing by day, so if I do that, I hope you will let me know.  (If you don’t my agent will- what a tough cat he is.)

        I guess you might wonder why an old guy like me still reads so hard, and it is just pure old pride and habit.  I want to be my best till the bitter end.  Some prize fighters wait too long, and get in the ring one time too many.  So, I want to leave the fight game when the time is right, but hope everyone will say, “Tommy could have hung in there a few more rounds, I know he coulda.”  So I study on.  I guess I don’t want the young folks to get ahead of me.  Like Satchel Paige said, “Don’t look over your shoulder, someone might be gaining on you.”

        That ain’t the end of my plans, though.  After August, I’m gonna reverse field.  Oh, I’ll study every day, but I’m gonna change my mix.  It’ll be a half hour on the mandolin, one hour on the Doctor books, and three at the keyboard.  (About the opposite of my current routine.)  Come Jan. 1, 2009, I plan to have the first rough draft of my book to my agent.  He says if I am lucky, it might see the light of day eighteen months later.

        Now, I have no illusions.  I did two bluegrass CDs.  They were both an artistic success, and even sold a few thousand copies.  One of our boys was disappointed, but the lady we worked with in Nashville put it in perspective in a hurry.  She’d seen many of these self-titled released piled up for all time in a closet.  To make a profit is a small phenomenon.

        By the same token, I have similar aspirations for my books.  If they are an artistic success, ie if I get to say what I set out to say, and the first one sells well enough to interest my agent in a second project, they by definition are a success to me.  I know I ain’t the next Grisham, and I’d be lost in New York (can you imagine Tommy Bibey on Oprah?  I’ll never be on that kind of radar screen.)  So, I’ll just have to be what I am.  I do worry a bit about how well received they might not be.  But, I have no interest to modify what I want to say just to appeal to pop culture and try to sell a bunch of extra copies. 

        Still, I hold on to hope.  I want to write to let folks without a medical background in on what I believe to be the truth about modern medical practice.  And I want to let people inside the world of bluegrass music I love so. 

        I realize it will not appeal to all.  As far as the power players in the medical industry, it will even invoke some anger, and I wonder at times if they will want it banned!  On the other hand, I have found my readers to be a bright, inquisitive lot.  My agent always says to trust your readers; they are out there, so I’m gonna do just that.

        Well, now y’all know I’m making plans.  If I get published, I hope you’ll tell your friends and neighbors to buy a copy- a run of 2,000 or so will convince my agent to try again, and I have a series of three planned.  For now, though, I gotta go back to studying doctoring.  Someone might be gaining on me, and I ain’t looking back except to tell all the old war stories I’ve accumulated from a lifetime in the ring.

        Y’all wish me luck.  I’m gonna need it. 

Dr. B    

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