Author Interview: Timothy Cagle

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing amazing! Today, I am ecstatic to present an author’s interview of Timothy aka Tim Cagle, the author of the very enthralling Legal Thrillers – Class of Two, Whispers From The Silence & Unexpected Enemy. Oh! A little fact? He happens to be my favorite Legal Thriller author!

Shreya Vijay: Hello Tim! It is a pleasure to have you here with us today! First of all, congratulations on releasing three books and thank you for being here.

Tim Cagle: Thank you so much, Shreya. I am happy to be here too.

Shreya Vijay: Great! So Tim, why don’t we start off with you telling us something about your books? I am sure our audience would love to get to know how yu come up with such amazing ideas.

Tim Cagle: I was lucky enough to have three books traditionally published since 2017. My first was “WHISPERS FROM THE SILENCE” about country singers and songwriters. That was followed by my first medical/legal thriller,“UNEXPECTED ENEMY” about a woman who gets the WRONG SPERM at a clinic.

My third book “CLASS OF TWO” is the story of two lawyers, one black & one white, college roommates & football All-Americans, who go to trial against the country’s premier heart surgeon.

Maybe that’s why my favorite question from readers is why I’m a Boston malpractice lawyer, but I wrote my first book about Nashville songwriters. I always say it’s because people love books about goddess women, hot guys & sizzling music but would beg for a lethal injection if I wrote about hearsay!

Shreya: Wow Tim! I am sure you must get it a lot why you wrote about songwriters first but let me just say that your legal thrillers are beyond amazing! Which brings me to my next question. What was your inspiration behind writing these flawlessly penned books?

Tim: My education, training and experience have given me an insight into writing for this genre.

During my career, I have cross-examined numerous doctors, and watched them explode in anger because they were being called to account for their actions in front of a jury. I have also looked into countless numbers of eyes of patients who will never be the same after their bungled medical treatment. Patients such as the 38 year old vice president of a bank, who had just lost her second breast and would soon lose her life, because her doctor told her she had fibro-cystic disease, not cancer, and not to worry. Or, the 39 year old who presented with blood in his stool and was told not to worry, it was only hemorrhoids, until five years later he was diagnosed with stage IV adeno-carcinoma, and would soon leave a wife and two daughters under ten years old, without a husband and father. Or, the parents of a two month old boy, who went in for surgery on a tortioned testicle, and left the operating room as a eunuch, because the surgeon used the electro-cautery to compromise the blood supply to his only functioning testicle, causing it to die, and leaving him in a state of castration.

Shreya: Oh my God. It gives me chills even thinking about it and you have fought cases. hats off to you! You are a Lawyer and yet you write books. What pushed you to become an auhor?

Tim: I spent decades as a malpractice attorney and represented many clients with catastrophic damages. I decided to start writing as a tribute to those clients I could not help because the law and/or the facts were against us.

Writing seemed to be a natural outlet because of the empathy I felt for my clients whose lives were changed forever by medical mistakes.

Shreya: Wow! You truly are a gem of a person, Tim. I am pretty sure your clients appreciate and love your books. Over to less serious topics, what off the scene tid-bits in your life might surprise your readers the most?

Tim: I have been a Country singer and songwriter for many years. In fact, “WHISPERS FROM THE SILENCE”, my first book, is based on the time I shut my law practice down right after I passed the bar and went to Nashville to write songs. It’s also a tribute to songwriting and all the nights I wrote songs by staying up all night waiting for the sunrise, while gulping stale coffee and watching coals die in a fire, as I stared at the shadows on the wall while begging the silence to whisper the lyrics to me. That’s why I have written over 350 songs, even though most of them suck worse than a turbo-charged Hoover upright.

Unfortunately, when I was in Nashville, my big break never broke and I learned I would always be a songwriter trapped in a lawyer’s body. That’s also why I believe that every situation in life can be explained by a song title or lyric. This belief was enhanced when I was cross-examining an expert witness at trial and he told me he believed the defendant had no choice but to treat the patient, my client, exactly the way he did. That was when a vision of Elvis popped into my mind and I asked the doctor, “are you saying he was caught in a trap and couldn’t walk out?”

Shreya: What was the most difficult part of writing this book?

Tim: Editing. To quote one of my favorite songwritrers, Bob Seger, who said in the hit song, “AGAINST THE WIND”, “what to leave in, what to leave out.”

Shreya: Ahaan! I like your philosophy. Anyway, are your characters mere fragments of your imagination or they hold some relevance to real life?

Tim: My main characters are based on myself and the events in my life during various stages.

For example, J. W. Steele, my main character in “WHISPERS FROM THE SILENCE” is
me as a young man (sometime during the late 1800’s, I think).

Jake Skylar, the co-protagonist in “CLASS OF TWO” is also based on my career as a medical malpractice trial lawyer, while Aubrey (Ace) Evans, his law partner and former teammate and roommate, is a composite character of football teammates and United States Army comrades. I also went to college during the 1960’s and witnessed firsthand many of the events of racism and discrimination that I described in “CLASS OF TWO”. It was a turbulent time to be certain, and today, every time I think we have made some progress in equality and race relations, I also feel the stark realization that we still have, as Robert Frost once said, “Miles to go before we sleep.”

Shreya: Ahh! I have got to admit, this lin of Robert Frost happens to be one of my favorites. Tim, you write a lot, so do you ever experience writer’s block?

Tim: I have never experienced writer’s block. Maybe, it’s because I suffer from lawyer’s disease, in that I like to listen to myself speak. If I ever do feel blocked, I would bet my life savings that the cure is the same one many of us use for other maladies, scotch!

Shreya: Haha, good one. So how would you describe your writing environment?

Tim: I wrote my first book “WHISPERS FROM THE SILENCE” on my laptop in my easy chair. It was about country music so naturally, I listened to Mozart, Chopin, Vivaldi and Beethoven while I wrote.

I wrote my medical/legal thrillers in my office while sitting behind my desk. It seemed like the most appropriate venue as I could almost relive client conferences, pre-trial strategizing and blistering depositions. Of course, while writing, I was comforted by the songs of country icons Merle Haggard, George Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Garth Brooks.

Shreya: Yeah, that seems fair. Okay, random question. Books or movies?

Tim: Books because they reveal what is in the author’s mind, without relying on an actor’s interpretation of a character.

Shreya: What book is currently on your bedside table?

Tim: I have just finished “STRINGS-BOOK TWO-ATONEMENT” by Andrea Rendon and “DOGGONE DEAD” by Dane McCaslin. Both were excellent reads by two terrific authors.

Shreya: Is there something you would like to say to your readers?

Mandi: Thank you for picking my books. I know you have more choices today than ever before and I am extremely grateful that you chose my novels.

Also, as some of my favorite songwriters/singers might say, I hope that “WHISPERS FROM THE SILENCE” helps you “PUT SOME DRIVE IN YOUR COUNTRY.” AND I also hope that my thrillers, “UNEXPECTED ENEMY” and “CLASS OF TWO”, fill up your senses like night in a forest or a walk in the rain.

Finally, I have two works in progress simultaneously. One is about a 70’s/80’s band who reunites after their business careers enter their twilight. The other is about a Viet Nam era plastic surgeon who is accused of identity theft and murder.

So, as one of my all-time favorite groups, ABBA, once said, I hope that if all my readers
have to do the same again, they will, my friend, “TAKE A CHANCE ON ME.”

Shreya: Ahh Tim! I love how our practically speak in songs. Finally, where can the readers find you and interact with you?

Tim: My website it www.TimCagleAuthor.com . They can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Linked In by my name.

BOOK LINKS:
“WHISPERS FROM THE SILENCE”: https://goo.gl/EVvYQZ
“UNEXPECTED ENEMY” : https://goo.gl/joxZLH
“CLASS OF TWO” : https://tinyurl.com/y2bsfgktMy 

Shreya: Thank you so much for being here with us today, Tim! It was wonderful to get to know you. It was a really fun session. I wish you all the very best for your future.