The Militant Genome

Braxton can’t lay claim to wanting to be a writer all his life, although his mother and seventh grade English teacher were convinced he had what it would take. He went to Duke University, earned a Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Engineering with a major in Bio-Medical Engineering, and found his way into medical school at the University of Cincinnati. Following a residency in Emergency Medicine at Madigan Army Medical Center, he served tours as the Chief, Emergency Medical Services at Fort Campbell, KY and as a research Flight Surgeon at Fort Rucker, AL. Who had time to write? By the late 1990’s, his professional and family life had settled down, somewhat, and his mother once again took up her mantra, ＂Write a book. You’re a good writer.＂ Yet, with no experience in writing anything other than technical articles, he hesitated to try his hand at fiction. That changed in 1997 when the local newspaper held a writing contest for Valentine’s Day. Out of 1100 entries, he made it to the top five finalists and realized that maybe he could write fiction after all. The next ten years saw him learning the craft of writing through local writers’ groups, seminars, critique groups and more. His first three completed novels, tucked safely away in their digital prison, are unlikely to ever grace a page of e-ink or paper, mostly because the stories are dated. ＂The Militant Genome＂ ((c)July 2012) marks his first formal publication. Following the growing trend toward electronic publishing, the book is being released in the e-book formats first, followed by paperback. Soon to follow are two additional novels, ＂Indebted＂ and ＂Identity.＂ He is busy writing the sequel to ＂Identity＂ now (July 2012). Fifteen years after that first hesitant start, he can’t find enough time to write as much as he’d like. He now lives in Missouri with his wife, Paula. Their two children are grown and with three grandchildren nearby, ＂Papa＂ wears a number of hats.