Before becoming a full-time author, Robert Tell was a hospital CEO, a hospital/health planning agency COO, and the owner of a health care human resources consulting firm. His graduate education in Public Health at Columbia University, and his years in hospital management, have influenced his novels, several of his short stories, and some unique, medically oriented poetry. Much of his fiction reflects his inside knowledge of the worlds of hospitals, doctors, nurses, and patients. As an undergraduate in English Literature, he discovered and admired the great British poets like Keats, Coleridge, Shelley, Burns, Blake, Donne, Wordsworth and, of course, Shakespeare. As a young writer, he began writing poetry in a (futile) attempt to produce work of similar quality. He did get some of it published and he even won some poetry awards but, in recent years, he has focused more on fiction. He thoroughly enjoys creating the colorful characters for his novels and stories. More importantly, Robert Tell loves hearing from his readers and fans about his work.