Ja Man

JG Nair (writing previously under the Ja Man pseudonym) is a pediatrician and writer living in Nashville, Tennessee. After college, he studied cell biology at Yale University during which he worked as an unwitting model for the futuristic “genetic tailors” in his graphic novel Gezlinger’s Knot. After a brief stint teaching at University of Maryland Baltimore County, he abandoned the laboratory to work as a farmhand in New Zealand.

Unable to withstand the gravitational pull of a "responsible life," JGN reluctantly left his idyllic agricultural existence in NZ and returned to the U.S. where he stumbled into medicine and the unexpected realization that he was destined to torment children (in a good way). He completed a pediatrics residency at Vanderbilt University.

Gezlinger’s Knot is JGN’s third book and first graphic novel (illustrated by J. William Myers). His first novel, The Healer Book 1: The Phantom Limb (written as Ja Man) launched in 2009. The Healer Book 2: The Tree of Pain will launch in 2012. Currently, he is writing Gezlinger’s Knot Book 2: The Subtracted Man, the third book in his Healer series, and working on a new sci-fi crime series called Invisible Sun. In addition to his fiction writing, JGN has coauthored twelve scientific papers ranging in scope from studies of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis to prey tracking in mantis shrimp.

Influences/Inspirations:

All of the families and children I have had the honor of helping to take care of during my residency and practice as a pediatrician. My mother -- my greatest inspiration.

Favorite Writers and Artists:

Joseph Conrad, Hemingway, Edgar Allen Poe, Steinbeck, Chekhov, Michael Ondaatje, Andre Norton, Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury

Current Projects:

The Healer Book 2: The Tree of Pain;

Gezlinger's Knot - the first in a series of post-apocalyptic graphic novels

short essays on medicine

Interests:

road biking, mountain biking, hiking and camping, playing the didgeridoo

Contact Information:

mhorse@mutanthorse.com