Shrink-ing racism

COEUR d’ALENE — Ever since he was a little lad — hard to imagine this guy was ever little — Eric Heidenreich dreamed of writing a novel.

But first there was growing up to do in Pullman, Wash., followed by small-college football and a biology degree from Whitworth University just up the road in Spokane. For the towering Heidenreich, all 6-foot-5 of him, serious writing would have to wait.

He earned a military scholarship to Dartmouth Medical School, rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Air Force before retiring from active duty in 1997, and launched a 10-year career as chief of inpatient psychiatry in Twin Falls.

There was scant time to write there but Heidenreich somehow managed while he and his wife, Tanya, raised three children.

“When I was in southern Idaho I wrote a book that actually got an editor interested,” he said, “but by then I was too bored with it to finish. It was nonfiction called ‘Your Brain’s A Dangerous Neighborhood: Don’t Go In There Alone.’ Basically, it was about all the stupid things people do on their own.”

When he closed the book on that effort, Heidenreich came to a new conclusion: “Maybe fiction would be more interesting.”

In 2007, the Heidenreich family moved to Coeur d’Alene, where Eric became the first employed physician — the rest were contractors — at what was then Kootenai Medical Center. The demands of management were rigorous, but Heidenreich carved out time to write, often from 9 p.m. until 11 or so.

“That was difficult because I was really tired by then,” he said, “and it’s hard to be creative when you’re tired.”

Still, “Greyhound Therapy” took shape, and the psychiatrist/author began to see the novel’s potential.

“I pulled back from the medical director job a year or so ago because I felt guilty if I was taking time to work on the book when there was a process to complete at the hospital,” he said.

Shifting to early morning writing — he’d get up at 5 a.m. and write for two, two and a half hours — Heidenreich finally finished “Greyhound Therapy,” a label that refers to people who leave a geographic area believing a change of scenery will help them solve their problems.

It doesn’t work that way in real life, and as the good doctor writes, it doesn’t happen that way for James Kingman, the fictitious 35-year-old lawyer whose wife and daughter are killed by a drunk driver in Colorado. Kingman seeks a new life in North Idaho, where his path and fellow attorney Julie Langdon’s happily converge. Not so happily, though, the duo encounter a hate group of white supremacists, and that’s where the plot thickens.

“I thought it was a masterpiece,” Heidenreich said of that first draft. “Well, people were telling me it sucked. I’m exaggerating, but it did suck at first. It did.”

Heidenreich got some literary counseling from Wild Rose Press.

“They were good enough to say, ‘Here’s what’s wrong with it.’ That’s when I realized this does kinda suck.”

To help unsuck “Greyhound Therapy,” Heidenreich made changes and submitted the manuscript to several other sources, including some writing contests that offered critiques. He took all that feedback and “did it again.”

Describing the book as “historical fiction with emphasis on ‘fiction,’ with some suspense and a tad bit of romance thrown in,” Heidenreich said he was inspired by North Idaho’s victory over Richard Butler’s white supremacists.

“A lot of people worked behind the scenes,” he said. “It just doesn’t happen every day that an organization like that gets pushed out of a community. With a few characters you can care about, I thought that would be a good backbone to fit into loose fiction. In the end it’s the people who keep the community whole who say, ‘We’re not going to put up with this.’”

As an author and as a psychiatrist, Heidenreich, 51, doesn’t appear to be a crusader, but he gives credit where it’s due.

“I’m impressed with Coeur d’Alene,” he said. “I think a lot of people don’t realize we passed an ordinance against discrimination. I think freedom’s for everybody, not just for people you’re familiar with. So I think Coeur d’Alene’s doing pretty well in that regard. We don’t have industry that brings in racial diversity just yet, but that’ll come.”

With “Greyhound Therapy” now selling on amazon.com — hardback, soft cover and e-edition — the reviews are popping up positive. But the most important testimonial came from Heidenreich’s eldest daughter, who got so wrapped up in the characters that she peeked at the end of the book to see how it ended before deciding to keep reading.

We won’t give anything away except to say that “Greyhound Therapy” isn’t likely to be the last novel you’ll read from author Eric Heidenreich.

“It was a bucket list kind of thing, but this inpatient psych thing is hard work, and I want something to do when I go part time or get out of psychiatry,” he said. “Writing is something I can fit around retirement. Like my dad, I can’t see myself not working; I just can’t see myself doing psychiatry for another 20 years.”