The Inspiration Behind ‘Geniuses’

When I was a young boy, I made up and told stories to my little sisters to help them go to sleep.  One story involved a horse race in the “Blue Grass Shire of Kentuckily”.  (I had heard that a lot of horse racing took place in the Blue Grass State of Kentucky).  The climax of the story was the running of the big race.  Sir Edward of Arcarilo (a reference to Eddie Arcaro, one of the most famous jockeys in history) won the big race, and won the princess’ hand.  My sisters would love this story, and cheer every time I told it.

Later on, I tried my hand at poetry.  It was not great poetry.  I was no Shakespeare or Pushkin.  Here’s a sample:

“A fly has fallen into a teacup,
Its wings are wet; it will never get up.
And yet it tries.
It starts, falls, hits the bottom, and there it lies.
But not for long.  It soon starts another grueling ascent.
But it, too, is merely a vain attempt.
Dauntlessly, our little fly continues to strive.
An hour more, and it will cease to be alive.
Your struggles were in vain, no matter how you did try.
Mine may still be rewarded.  I pity thee poor fly.”
©2014 Neil Flanzraich

My creative writing career ended quickly, perhaps because of the “quality” of my poetry.  For several years after I became a lawyer, I wrote only legal contracts.

My wife and I had two sons, and I found myself reading fairytale books at night to put them to sleep. As they got a little older, and they already knew all the published fairytales, I began to make up new stories for them.

One night I made up a fantastic animal character that looked like a cow, but had a wooly coat, elephant ears, and a very long tail.  I named this character the “Woolymonger”©2014 Neil Flanzraich. It could fly and could speak human languages.  It also had various other amazing powers.  My sons really liked that character, and for a long time I told them a different Woolymonger story every night.

A few years ago with my sons’ encouragement, I read all the Harry Potter books and enjoyed them.  I began to think about writing a novel in a similar genre.  I observed that often the heroes and villains in books and movies are people with extra-normal abilities.  Perhaps it’s because many people fantasize about having special powers.  However, it seemed to me that as readers we care more about such super beings the more human and vulnerable they are.

If I were to write such a book, I thought, I would give my heroes and villains an extraordinary level of our most important distinguishing characteristic, our intelligence.  I thought I could write about brilliant people because I have known and been greatly influenced by quite a few of them. They were relatives, friends and some of the physicians and scientists with whom I’ve worked.

One day when I was on a long flight to Australia on business, I found myself bored with the Robert Ludlum novel I was reading.  I thought I could do better.  I threw down the novel, and pulled out a pad, and began writing a story which I thought my sons would enjoy.  The story I wrote turned into the novel “Geniuses”.