Interview by Michelle Lau
Photo courtesy of Pocket Books
May 17, 1999

Joan Brady, RN, spent 22 years as a nurse before launching a successful career as an author. She’s had three books published, God on a Harley, Heaven in High Gear, and I Don’t Need a Baby to Be Who I Am, and is now working on her fourth, which will be a love story.

Brady attributes much of her success to her experience as a nurse. God on a Harley, which features a burned out nurse from New Jersey, has made the USA Today best seller list. In fact, the book, published by Simon & Schuster in 1995, is being made into a movie.

Joan Brady, RN

Brady, who writes from her home in San Diego, also spends her time speaking to nursing audiences about burnout.

Q: Why did you leave nursing and turn to writing?
A: I knew I had to get out of nursing. I was burnt out. I was of no use to myself or to anyone else in the profession. I just felt stifled in my job. I saw that there were so many things that were wrong in the healthcare system. Actually, that’s what got me writing. I would write it down—what I was frustrated about and the solutions I thought were needed. Then I realized, Hey! This is pretty good. I sent it to some of the nursing journals, and I began getting published. I had discovered a way to empower myself. People were interested in my opinion. It had value; they were paying for it. Once I started writing, it felt really good.

Q: What really jump-started your writing career?

A: Ten years ago I became a traveling nurse. I went all over the United States and worked in all different specialties. I had gone back to New Jersey—my home state—after traveling for six years. I was 42, and I had written my first novel, God on a Harley. It had been rejected—no one wanted it. One day I decided I wasn’t going to be that unhappy [with my career on top of everything else]. So I packed up my car. I thought I was going to Los Angeles because I’d been there before, and I liked it a lot. I was on this highway in Arizona, where you have to decide whether you’re going to San Diego or to Los Angeles. I was trying to get into the right-hand lane to get to Los Angeles, but this man in that lane would not let me in. Before I knew it, I was on Interstate 8 going to San Diego. I just thought, All right. I’ve never been to San Diego. I’ll just go there. It just turned out to be a serendipitous experience. Once I got here, I found an agent. I was unemployed and a week away from being evicted. I had no money. Then the agent called me and said, "You’re not going to believe this. Simon & Schuster just offered a $250,000 advance." That’s when it all changed.

Q: How did nursing prepare you for your life as a novelist?

A: As a nurse, I’ve gone through the most traumatic times with people, seeing their deepest emotions. You can experience every emotion there is in one eight-hour shift as a nurse. For me, the emotions had to go somewhere. I would write them and put them into stories. Working as a nurse gave me such great material to work with that was real. If I had to choose anything that nursing really contributed to my writing, I would say it was the ability to put myself into somebody else’s situation. I had to in order to be a good nurse. I had to understand what they were feeling, if they were scared, and what was behind their fear. That’s really helped me to slip in and out of my characters’ minds. I needed to understand my patients to treat them, and I need to understand my characters to write them.

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