On Writing The Fortune Teller’s Prophecy: A Memoir of an Unlikely Doctor

The Fortune Teller’s Prophecy: A Memoir of an Unlikely Doctor: The process.

I’m an action junkie. I love suspense, plot twists, and cliffhangers. As a child, I consumed scores of tales of fantasy, magic, romance, and adventure. As a teenager, I could devour three books in one afternoon and I dreamed about becoming a writer.

But that was not to be, for many moons. Instead, I charted an unusually tortuous path to becoming a physician. As I crammed never-ending medical factoids into my brain, attempts to read for pleasure, or write, were sacrificed—for decades! Don’t get me wrong, I was still writing daily–––I can pen a mean entry into a patient’s chart. But guess what? Charting is not writing.

Ten years back, I trimmed my work schedule to three days a week. With the freed-up hours, it was time to release the tethered writing monster! I began to work on a psychological suspense story. After battling many iterations of the convoluted plot, however, I set it aside. Perhaps, this was too ambitious for my first tremulous foray into writer la-la land.  Friends were quick to chime in, “Write the story of your life. Your setbacks in four continents. You are the quintessential American Dream success story. The world wants hope. They want your story!”

I had mixed feelings. Memoirs were for celebrities, weren’t they? Or perhaps they were for grandparents—focused on creating a memento for the next generation. There was another sticking point. As a psychiatrist, I’d mastered the art of eliciting other people’s journeys, but always kept my own life tightly under wraps––– the blank slate, or tabula rasa. Could I venture into new territory, peeling off multiple layers of protection, to expose my weaknesses and triumphs?

Challenges don’t deter me. I tackled the project with surgical precision. First, I had to collect raw material. I had page-long diary entries that chronicled my life from age thirteen until twenty-one. The next step was to learn the tricks of the trade. I’d taken a creative writing class at the University of California at Davis decades back; hardly good preparation for a floundering fish! 

In the medical setting, we do best when we work as a team. I decided I needed a writing team. This was to be a pivotal decision. My new and exciting getaway, the Davis Writers Salon, immersed me in writing heaven. I religiously attended meetings for two hours each week for the next several years. The sensitivity and fellowship of this new community was like a warm bath. Of course, there were times when scalpels came out, but I gradually developed a thicker skin, and what’s more, my writing improved!

I picked up many subtleties as each ten-page submission was critiqued. I learned about showing not telling. I learned to limit adverbs, adjectives, and gerund phrases. I discovered the art of critique. I became familiar with contests and other writing opportunities. A good pearl I picked up was that I couldn’t please everyone. The same passage might leave some of my fellow writers laughing out loud, but others were unimpressed or even offended. At the start of my writing journey this feedback was priceless. 

I later took advantage of a full-book manuscript critique in unspeakably beautiful Lake Tahoe, California. Perched high in snowclad mountains, we were split into small groups with an expert mentor, a published writer. The entire memoir was now coming under a focused critique from eight pairs of eyes. We had nightly craft discussions. Removed from the daily demands of my work and home life, it was a true privilege to immerse myself in writing nirvana with this brand-new audience.

My memoir was still a beast of tangled memories that required taming. My best work was produced, not in my first or even tenth attempt to lay down the material, but in the process of editing. This was for me the excruciating and painstaking process of figuring out which braids to highlight in my memoir. It required brazen chopping at first, then more gentle final brush strokes. I winced as I “killed my darlings” so that the 130,000-word memoir could be chopped to just over 100,000 words. 

I learned from my critiques. My readers wanted to walk with me. If I revealed too little, the story became as flat and lifeless as cold soup. They wanted to feel my pain, to get into my head and cheer along with me as I made it through each barrier. I had to open myself up to the readers and trust them with my secrets.  

My final splurge was to hire a book coach. Sands Hall was a tremendous teacher, and she transformed my ability to write. Over the course of four months, I learned to think about scenes as if I were writing a play. I improved my ability to use light and color. It was embarrassing to look at earlier writing excerpts. Working with Sands had profoundly and irrevocably improved my writing ability.  

In fall 2022, basking in newfound self-confidence, I applied for a contest: America’s Next Great Author, a TV pilot. Along with hundreds of writers from across the country I flew to New Jersey. To my immense surprise I was picked as one of twenty finalists. At around the same time, my memoir landed a publication deal with She Writes Press, a hybrid publishing company.  

With my husband’s expertise in sound engineering, I narrated the audiobook for my memoir, The Fortune Teller’s Prophecy: A Memoir of an Unlikely Doctor, which is currently available from dozens of distributors.

With the print version of my memoir coming out in April 2024, I’ve picked up my first project again. This novel about a jail psychiatrist who knows too much and faces an ethical conundrum is raw, but holds promise. It’s sorely in need of some… dare I say the word? Editing!

Stay tuned, for I have found my true calling. 

—

Lally has lived in Sri Lanka, Ghana, Wales, England, Pennsylvania, and California.

She is a member of the Davis Writers Salon, the California Writers Club (Sacramento, Fresno) and the Elk Grove Writers Guild.  Her writing has been published in anthologies for the California Literary Review and the Sacramento branch of the California Writers’ Club in 2022.

She received Honorable Mention from Writers Digest in 2022 and in October 2022 she was a finalist in a nationwide talent search for America’s Next Great Author, a TV pilot.

Her article about her recovery from a stroke was published in the Davis Enterprise in May, 2023 and she is an author for Doximity’s Op-Med (an online networking service for medical professionals).

The Fortune Teller’s Prophecy: A Memoir of an Unlikely Doctor

When a military coup in Ghana leads to the abrupt closure of Lally Pia’s medical school, she is left stranded there, thousands of miles away from her family in California, with no educational prospects or money. Adding to her turmoil is her discovery that her American Green Card has been botched, which means she has no country to call home. But a Sri Lankan priest told Lally that she would one day become a “Doctor of Doctors” —and she is intent on proving him right.

This sizzling multicultural roller coaster illustrates the power of self-determination as Lally, a young immigrant with a drive to succeed, takes on obstacle after obstacle—an abusive relationship, the welfare state, and a gruesome job where she has to dismember human bodies—in order to fulfill her dreams. A story that will resonate with anyone who has faced cultural and immigration hardships, The Fortune Teller’s Prophecy is a nail-biting journey across continents, through hardships, and into ultimate triumph.

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Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing