LYNN — Dr. Howard Grodman self-published his first medical suspense novel, “Genome,” after retiring from a career in pediatric oncology. 

The adult science fiction story blends his expertise from a more than three-decade-long career in medicine to create an experience where the reader learns real science and can’t stop flipping the pages. 

Grodman took on the challenge of not only writing a 474-page story but also including real-life situations people face every day. As a pediatric oncologist, Grodman has seen the toll cancer takes on children and their families. 

Children getting cancer is unusual when compared to adults, Grodman said. “Everybody sort of knows an adult who’s had cancer, but not too many people know kids who’ve had cancer.” 

In oncology, there is a constant reality check that change is inevitable. Grodman brought this into his story, as his protagonist chose a drastic alternative to chemotherapy after being diagnosed with leukemia. 

The 17-year-old boy agrees to an experimental treatment, changing his life in irreversible ways. Grodman said he wanted to bring the reader directly onto the oncology floor, including a lesson many loved ones and cancer patients have learned. 

On one of the first pages, the line “Bad things happen to good people. I don’t know why” appears. Grodman did this to explain how unfair life can be, even to those who don’t deserve it. 

“That’s sort of what I want people to come away with,” he said. “The preciousness of life and how, despite the fragility, there is some tenacity there, and that things can be better.” 

The inspiration for the novel had percolated in Grodman’s mind for years after studying cell mutation and performing bone marrow transplants when chemotherapy failed. 

“It sort of gives us a view into how they’re supposed to work, what happens if they don’t work, what clues there are to how cells divide, why they change, and also how they go so very wrong,” he said. 

Beyond science, he brought his deep, trusting connections with his patients and their families into the story. “Not just the child is your patient, the whole family is your patient, and you develop a rapport and a connection and a (level of) trust,” Grodman said. 

After retirement, Grodman knew he wanted to do something impactful and realized he finally had the time to put his creative imagination on paper. 

“A lot of times, as physicians, people don’t know when to retire because that’s all they do,” Grodman said. “This gave me something to do when I retired, and I was sort of still a doctor and yet not a doctor at the same time.” 

His first draft was fast and furious, but according to Grodman, it later turned difficult. “My first draft took about 6 months… and then I rewrote it like 10 or 12 times, and it was at one point, very long,” he added. “It was over 220,000 words.”

Since publishing the book last month, Grodman said he would like to see it on the shelves of local bookstores. Currently, “Genome” is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle, with hopes of adding a hardcover copy soon, said Grodman.