Seeking a creative outlet amid intense burnout, a Guelph physician wrote her breakout novel The Wild Beneath
Becoming a published writer, let alone an internationally recognized novelist, wasn't something Dr. Kelly Anderson saw in her future.
So the Guelph, Ont., physician was shocked when her debut novel, The Wild Beneath, was chosen as the August pick for actress Reese Witherspoon’s book club.
“I just folded over and started sobbing out of joy and overwhelm,” says Dr. Anderson, who was working at her HIV clinic when her editor called to share the news.
“And then I tucked it in my pocket and kept seeing patients.”
Dr. Anderson built her career around emergency medicine – completing a fellowship in the specialty and another in HIV. She’s also spent 15 years working in Toronto at the Inner City Family Health Team at St. Michael’s Hospital and is the chief medical officer at Felix Health, a digital health-care and telemedicine platform.
Yet in winter of 2019, as Dr. Anderson was heading out to a shift at the Emergency Department of Georgetown Hospital in Halton Hills, Ont., she was struck by an epiphany.
“I realized I was living in some kind of rinse and repeat cycle,” she says, adding that she was struggling with burnout and juggling an intense workload of clinics and night shifts.
“I kind of woke up,” she says. “I was like, ‘Is this what I'm going to do forever?’ And I saw in my imagination this character in my novel, who undergoes a physical metamorphosis.”
This image became the seed for The Wild Beneath. Released on Aug. 4, the novel follows a woman drawn into a mysterious journey of identity, love and belonging after a devastating tsunami.
“When you get the knock on the door in the middle of your life, you get to decide if you’re going to answer.”
Dr. Anderson did most of her novel work at 5 a.m. before shifts, setting a timer for 25 minutes, writing by hand and teaching herself how to write a novel.
“I am a poster child for having no skill or experience or training at becoming a novelist,” says Dr. Anderson.
She rewrote the manuscript multiple times, initially working with three different writing teachers and then shelving a draft after rewriting the book a third time.
“I could just tell it wasn't working and I hadn't figured out the ending,” she says.
“I honestly thought I was never going to finish it.”
She later decided to revisit it after encouragement from a mentor. The fourth time she rewrote the novel, she did so without working with any writing teachers or coaches.
That was the version that sold – and caught the attention of Reese’s influential book club.
“I think it was the version truest to itself, because I was willing to be true to what I thought the story should say.”
Ultimately, she decided to leave full-time emergency medicine to prioritize writing and her work at Felix Health.
After her novel’s release, Dr. Anderson spent about a month on a book tour, balancing promotional events with her ongoing medical work. She is now working on her second novel.
She says writing has been essential to her ability to sustain a medical career.
She believes creativity is central to wellness and self-connection, noting physicians can be so focused on caring for others that they lose sight of their own interests and aspirations.
“The world is going to tell you no, but it’s your job to listen to yourself,” she says.
“When you get the knock on the door in the middle of your life, you get to decide if you’re going to answer.
“I think as doctors, it can be really hard to hear the knock.”
Visit Dr. Anderson's website to learn more about the author and The Wild Beneath.