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You're listening to The Nocturnous Conversations. I'm Emily Silverman.

Over the last couple of years, we've had a lot of physician authors on this podcast, but usually their books are nonfiction books, which cover a certain topic or a theme in healthcare. Today's guest is a physician author of fiction, which I'm so

excited about because lately I've been so hungry for physician-authored fiction.

And she's here to talk about her debut novel, On Rotation.

Her name is Shirlene Abobey, and she's a Ghanaian-American physician, cartoonist, and author who grew up in Chicago, Illinois, Hot Springs, Arkansas, and the Woodlands, Texas.

When she's not in the hospital, and let's be honest, even when she's in it, she can be found

drawing comics, writing on her phone, and obsessing over her three cats.

She currently lives in Chicago, where she's completing her cardiology fellowship, and her

debut novel on rotation has been

featured on national outlets such as Teen Vogue, The Washington Post, and Good Morning

America. Charlene and I had a wonderful conversation in which we explored her creative process,

the joys of writing about love, the joys of writing black women physician characters,

her decision-making process about how much of the narrative to keep inside the hospital versus

outside of it, and finally, what work she is excited to be reading these days.

I am just blown away by Charlene's energy and creative drive and loved every minute of this conversation, and I hope you do too.

But first, here is Charlene reading an excerpt from her novel, on rotation.

It had been two and a half months since my last meeting with Dr. Wallace.

A short interim for an audience with someone of her station.

...