According to the Oxford Dictionary, “Standing Tall” means: “Be proud and confident.” To behave in a brave, or unyielding manner, without retreating from confrontation, danger, or adversity. It implies that our spirits are strong, that we have not given up.

The idea of writing a book had been lurking for a very long time, but it started really to take form in the last three years. The literary theme originally was Love, but it definitely changed to a mixture of Love, Courage and Perseverance as the story developed.

From the beginning, I knew only very few things about the story: It would have a strong female protagonist. She would care for people, such as a healthcare provider, or would be a scientist, a researcher in the medical field. My mind was set on that, because as a dentist, I can identify with that field. In addition, it would be much easier to write about a subject that is familiar to me.

Her name would be Cecilia. I like the name and it was the name of my great-grandmother.

The story would be set in Buenos Aires. I love that city, I have been there three times and one of my stays was for thirty days. The architecture, the history and the culture of the capital of Argentina always fascinated me.

I knew I would be a happy camper by reading, learning and especially writing about the city that once was considered the Paris of South America.

Therefore, one day I finally decided to start writing. Cecilia was a physician, living in St. Petersburg, Florida. She was a faculty member at University of South Florida, she was successful, but she had those distraught dreams about a distant past. A past that partially happened in Buenos Aires.

That was as far as I got in my mind. I had no plot; I was already worried about setting the characters in the current time and location. I found extremely hard to create a fiction story line, keeping the set and the environment true for the readers. In addition, what would be the arc of the story? What would be new, unique about this book? When I asked myself those questions, what I was thinking was not unique or compelling at all. I needed to do something different, but I did not know what and where to start. I stopped, closed my notebook and partially forgot about it.

Until I started reading the novel The Air You Breath, by Frances de Pontes Peebles, which portraits a deep, complicated friendship between two very different women who grew up on a sugar-cane plantation in Northern Brazil, and their passion for music, samba.

The story is partially inspired by the lives of Carmen Miranda and the songwriter Chavela Vargas, tracing the history of Brazil from the 1930s to the 1950s as well as Hollywood’s prevailing attitudes toward foreign and female artists. The sensitive, poetic writing evokes Brazil’s rough beauty and the sensual lure of the music that shapes the protagonists lives. This is a gorgeous, immersive novel about a strong bond, and this book had a profound impact on me.

One morning, while driving to work, the idea suddenly stroke me: What if you write about the first female doctor in Argentina? I google voice “First female physician in Argentina” and that was when Cecilia Grierson showed up.

From that point on, I had a complete story, in a perfect time – the turn of the twenty century, in a perfect location, Buenos Aires. I could not believe how things aligned perfectly. There were few good references about Dr. Grierson’s life. She was a strong woman, an advocator for women and children’s right. She was an art lover, a freethinker, very outspoken. A daughter of Scottish and Irish immigrants, Cecilia fought with persistence for her rights to attend Medical School and practice medicine, while founded the School of Nurses in Argentina and organized the association of that profession. She was not only a physician, but a teacher and a leader. She was the perfect inspiration for my book, and yet, there was little revealed about her personal life, her victories and struggles. To me, she was an unknown heroine, calling me to be “discovered”.

A friend of mine in California said that sometimes, the story and characters find you when you least expect. And that is in a nutshell how this exciting new book just happened. Cheers to a New Year, Cheers to a New Book. Cheers to a New You and Me!!!Standing TallStanding Tall