by Matthew Rehrl MD, MS | Aug 21, 2022 | RAVEN, Writing
The novel I’m working on—The Raven Singularity—has a plot connection to the composer Olivier Messiaen. So to help inspire me during my writing sessions, I am now frequently listening to his music. It’s quite odd, really. Years ago, when I first heard Messiaen, I...
by Matthew Rehrl MD, MS | Aug 15, 2022 | Book Reviews, RAVEN
Some books I read check all of my intellectual boxes. Wednesday is Indigo Blue (by Richard E. Cytowic, M.D. and David M. Eagleman, Ph.D) does just that. It explains the current scientific thinking around the neurological condition of synesthesia. It touches up both...
by Matthew Rehrl MD, MS | Aug 8, 2022 | Philosophy, RAVEN, Writing
There are quite a few sub-genres of thrillers: Psychological thriller.Action thriller.Crime thriller.Political thriller.Mystery thriller.Spy thriller.Legal thriller.Science fiction thriller.Techno-thriller. I wonder of there is room for one more? How about a...
by Matthew Rehrl MD, MS | Aug 7, 2022 | Philosophy, RAVEN
I’ve recently been researching a rare neurological condition called synesthesia, which is defined as “a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.” The most...
by Matthew Rehrl MD, MS | Aug 3, 2022 | Philosophy, RAVEN
I’m not fond of the Brain-Computer Analogy that suggests neurons are like digital circuits and the brain is a complicated computer. Neurons are orders of magnitude more complex than any digital device having a simple binary output of 0s or 1s. Binary...
by Matthew Rehrl MD, MS | Jul 26, 2022 | RAVEN, Writing
As a physician, I’ve often had to give advice to patients that they didn’t want to hear, but needed to hear. As a writer, in a recent conversation with an experienced agent, I found myself with the shoe on the other foot. I received advice about my debut novel that I...
