Rick Novak
The author of The Doctor and Mr. Dylan, Doctor Vita, and Call From the Jailhouse works as a clinical anesthesiologist, medical director, and expert witness in Northern California.
Rick was born in Hibbing, Minnesota, to a welding foreman and a homemaker. His mother read two books per week, and Rick developed the same habit, frequently bicycling the four blocks from their home to the public library to pick out new material. He graduated from Hibbing High School in 1972 and was accepted to Harvard College. For his Harvard application essay Rick penned a short story about God revealing Himself to two drunks in a Minnesota tavern.
Rick declined Harvard and enrolled instead at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he received a degree in Chemistry in 1976. From 1973-1977 Rick worked five summers with United States Steel in the iron ore mines near Hibbing, where he learned to sweat, spit and swear like a blue collar worker. He played on the United States Junior Men's Curling championship teams in 1974 and 1975. Rick then studied medicine at the University of Chicago School, graduated with an MD in 1980, and moved to California the following day to become an intern at Stanford Hospital.
He spent the next forty-plus years at Stanford, where he served as an intern, a resident in internal medicine, a faculty member in the emergency room, an anesthesia resident, as Deputy Chief of the Anesthesia Department, and finally as an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Anesthesia.
Rick's writing career blossomed in the role of Deputy Chief, where he authored a monthly column in the department newsletter. The theme of each essay centered on the differences between the private practice of anesthesia and the university-based teaching practice of anesthesia. He began posting these essays on The Anesthesia Consultant website (http://theanesthesiaconsultant.com) in 2010. Readership grew, and now over 2.8 million readers have clicked on the site.
Beginning in 2001, Dr. Novak developed an interest in anesthesia medical-legal consultation, a role that drew him into the courtroom as an expert witness. The courtroom scenes in The Doctor and Mr. Dylan and Call to the Jailhouse are realistic and compelling because Dr. Novak has been there, sitting in that witness chair. He's experienced the scenes, fielded the questions, and felt the emotions that accompany high-pressure legal cases.
Rick's lifelong dream of creating entertaining fiction led him to publish three novels -The Doctor and Mr. Dylan (2014), Doctor Vita (2019), and Call From the Jailhouse (2023).
For more on Rick, visit https://ricknovak.com
