Case study: Peaks Island doctor’s humorous and heartbreaking stories
Go by Boat: Stories of a Maine Island Doctor by Dr Chuck Radis is an immersive life-story read.
It tells how Radis, fresh out of training nearly 40 years ago, moves with his wife and daughter to Peaks Island, Maine.
Next he slowly adapts to a medical practice where x-rays and advanced laboratory testing are available only on the mainland.
So keep reading to find out more about Radis, his book and advice for fellow life-story writers…
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Dr Chuck Radis’s memoir Go by Boat
Life of island tales
I live on Peaks Island in Maine.
Basically we are tucked into the northeast corner of the United States on the border with Canada.
So far I’ve been living on Peaks for 38 years with my wife and family and was the doctor for our island and four other islands years ago.
All in all there are 850 year-round residents on our island and we have a small school, a grocery store and several churches.
Also the interior of our island is wooded and we have deer, raccoons, mink and chipmunks.
Once in a while a moose will swim out to our island from the mainland.
I grew up a half-hour outside of New York City but always liked adventures.
Whereas my wife Sandi grew up on a dairy farm.
We met in college and have two grown children.
What’s more, one of them has returned to Peaks Island with her husband and two children!
Why write Go by Boat?
My original reason for writing Go by Boat was for my children to learn what it was like practicing medicine on an island.
Because they were very young when I first practiced and don’t have memories of what it was like.
For example, I traveled by ferry, my own boat and an emergency police boat to visit the outer islands, which was sometimes hard in the winter.
Certainly being a doctor on Peaks Island was difficult because I didn’t have x-rays or advanced testing.
For the most part I relied on my examination of patients and simple blood work to take care of my patients.
But if they were very sick, I sent them to the mainland on our emergency rescue boat.
Also, if they needed to be hospitalized, I still took care of them, traveling every day to the hospital.
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Writing Go by Boat
How I got started
When I was practicing, I always kept notes of conversations and unusual house calls.
So when it came time to start writing a book about my island medical adventures, I looked back on my notes and was able to remember the entire story.
Nevertheless it took me many years to write Go by Boat but only six months to write my second book, Island Medicine.
What’s more, I now have a third book in the works.
Overcoming difficulties
A hard part of Go by Boat was finding an agent and publisher.
For instance, I sent out over 50 requests for an agent before I found one.
In fact this is often true for a new author.
Now that I have an agent, she’s been very helpful in finding the right publisher for me and helped immensely with contracts.
Therefore to succeed, you’ll need to be persistent.
However, the most difficult part of writing my book was taking constructive criticism.
Of course it’s hard to hear criticism of your work.
But if you let it sit a while and get back to the criticism later, you can find ways to improve your writing.
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Reflecting on Go by Boat
With Go by Boat I reached out to a number of other writers for advice about structure.
For example, some of the best advice I received was to begin the book with a riveting story and then backtrack to the beginning.
Certainly this worked well because readers were often ‘hooked’ after the first story.
The second piece of advice I would give aspiring writers is to constantly put yourself in the shoes of your readers.
Indeed there is an old saying: “Just because it happened to you, doesn’t necessarily make it interesting.”
So try to eliminate or shorten stories that don’t move your story along.
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Final say
Go by Boat: Stories of a Maine Island Doctor by Dr Chuck Radis is about finding respite from contemporary living in hardscrabble conditions.
However it is also a tale of how he and his family are accepted and befriended by a unique cultural community.
So read more by buying a copy from Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Amazon and other online platforms.
Also visit Radis’s website to read the first chapter of his second book Island Medicine.
Happy writing!
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Your say
What was your first job or career? I always love hearing from different people. Drop me an email or leave a reply in the comments section at the end of this article.
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