TRI-LAKES AREA — Dr. Sam Taggart inherited his father's storytelling abilities and his mother's caregiving side to become a family doctor and author.
Taggart, 62, of Hot Springs grew up in Augusta on a farm, where his father was a sharecropper. His mother, the youngest of nine siblings, spent her days caring for her older siblings. She also spent her free time reading and took Taggart to the library in third grade to get his first library card.
"By the time I was 16 or 17, I knew I wanted to be a writer," Taggart said. "I just wrote poorly for a long, long time."
Later, after finishing Arkansas State University in January 1969 and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, he took several courses and read books on how to become a better writer.
"I was in my early 40s, and I had to make the decision to stop writing or get better," Taggart said.
Taggart lives in Hot Springs, but spends three days a week at his clinic in Benton.
He said most of his inspiration comes from writers from the Pacific Rim, Central America and the southern United States, such as Garbriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende and Jorge Amado.
"In their stories, the places becomes a characters," Taggart said. "In other books, the place could be anywhere, but in these books you get a real sense of place."
In the early '80s, Taggart had several short story ideas and he began to look for a location for thesestories to take place. That is when he went back to his childhood farm, Gum Ridge. He wrote several stories based in the town and briefly introduced a short-order cook who hears voices.
Taggart took that character, Jack, and wrote his story in his first book, We All Hear Voices. Taggart said the book is centered on Jack's gift of synesthesia, or his ability to hear colors and taste shapes.
"This is a real neurological condition," Taggartsaid. "It's not a disease, but it's more common than you think. In the book, Jack loves to go to fast, stock car races then go back to the cafe and cook a banquet. His restaurant quickly becomes the best eatery in the Delta. If his senses get over-stimulated then he hears voices.
"This book is not about mental illness, but rather about color, reflection and senses. This is a mystery, not a book about mental illness."
Taggart completed his first manuscript of the book in 1997 and started to go through the process of getting the book published soon after.
"I hated [the editing process]," Taggart said. "I didn't want to do it, so I just kept working on it. By the 10th edition, my wife told me if I didn't do something with it, she would. So I tried once more to get it published, and I had a wonderful experience."
Three-thousand copies of the book were published, and Taggart said he has sold most of them through the Internet and local bookstores. Now he is working on four different novels, all a varying levels of completion.
"I've got one that, hopefully, we will start the editing process on in the next few weeks called The Reluctant Spy," he said
"There was always a rumor there was a German spy at the Bauxite plant. In my story there is, and he turns out to be the good guy," Taggart said. Benton figures into the story.
Then in 2008, a small community theater in Mc-Crory, contacted Taggart with an interest in bringing We All Hear Voices to the theater.
"I told them I had already written the play," Taggart said. "So I went down and we read through it and performed in early February. The show sold out six times." Taggart acted in the play as a rice farmer.
"I didn't want to do it, but we didn't have enough men," Taggart said.
Two months later the Royal Theater in Benton contacted Taggart perform the play.
As a volunteer for the Literacy Council of Garland County, Taggart organized another performance at the Malco Theater in Hot Springs that would benefit the council.
Taggart also is working on his next play, which he said is a musical.
"I love entertaining, funny musicals," Taggart said. "That's what gets my juices f lowing. So, for my play I have written the story boards and left the spots open where there should be music. I contacted several composers and arrangers and have told them what I want the music to sound like. For this show I want each town to useits own talent though."
Taggart also found a way to combine his passion for literacy, health and entertainment by working with a local health cooperative.
"The [White River Rural Health Center] has identified 20 towns in the Delta that are losing population," Taggart said.
"They are going to these towns and saying, 'Do you have anything you need health care wise?' Then they go find a way to get it. Then four years ago they redefined illiteracy as a health issue, so we developed a show that will travel to different towns to benefit literacy."
Dr. Sam's Traveling Medicine Show is a variety show feat ur ing hip -hop, oper a, slam poetry, drama and music in all varieties that will travel from town to town to benefit literacy.
"We will do it through White River Rural Health Cooperative in Augusta. When we get around to doing it, the idea is going to be doing it anywhere there is a clinic.
"It won't cost to bring it in," Taggart said. "We just ask the organization to sell tickets and they keep all the proceeds. We really would like each community to create their own show. People in the community are more likely to come out to ashow where they know the performers. We want to create asense of community and we will find a way to do it."matter of
fact
Birth date: Dec. 12, 1946
Occupation: Family doctor/ novelist/playwright/essayist/nar
do-well and pretender.
Family includes: Wife, Annette Enderlin; two sons, Will
and Adam, daughter-in-law, Kerri, two granddaughters,
Charlie and Dakota, and a niece who is like a daughter, Erin
Enderlin.
Hobbies: Endurance sports, marathons; I have run 103
marathons in the past 20 years, triathlons, long-distance
biking and swimming, writing novels, plays, essays and
poems.
Name comes from: Scottish, that's all I know.
Most people don't know that: My life is pretty well an open
book.
Can't live without: My wife and family, everything else is
frosting on the cake.
My favorite memory: Hard to say; I've had a great life.
My favorite book: It's a tie: One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Clove and Cinnamon by
Jorge Amado.
The world would be better if: We could eliminate self
righteousness.
My favorite food: A nice piece of grilled salmon, asparagus,
rice pilaf, salad with blue cheese and a good bottle of wine
(preferably expensive).
Favorite quote: The meaning of life is life itself and the
essence of life is living.
My goals for the future: To spend the rest of my life
focusing on the moment. I sincerely believe that life is
lived close up; to cry over the past for too long for some
unpromised future wastes the moment where life is lived.
Tri-Lakes, Pages 132, 133 on 08/30/2009