Adventure, Addiction, Altruism, and a Trip to Everyone’s Bucket List Course—This Book Has it All
Proceeds of Member Dr. Ryan Deweese’s First Book Go to Charity
A hospitalist at IU Health Arnett Hospital in Lafayette, Indiana, Dr. Ryan Deweese started writing his first book “Where Rainbows Never Die,” before the onset of COVID-19. During the height of the pandemic, he was making a daily, two-hour commute to the hospital from his home in Zionsville to serve on the frontline of the battle against COVID.
“We were putting in 14-hour days pretty consistently,” he says. “When the pandemic was at its worst, we had, like, 98 COVID patients in our hospital at the peak. We’re only a 160-bed hospital.”
When Ryan’s wife, Ellen Fan, asked him how bad things were at the hospital, he told her, half-jokingly, “Well, every day on the way to work, and on the way home, I just pray that I get abducted by aliens.”
“It was, emotionally, pretty bad,” he says. “But it’s improved.”
In mid-2021, after four years of work “and a lot of self-doubt,” Ryan completed his book. He said he found writing to be therapeutic after working long nights treating patients.
“If I got down on myself, I would put the book down and then come back to it a couple of weeks later,” he says. “And every time I came back to it, I would read part of it and just be like, you know, this may not win any awards, but it’s entertaining. So that inspired me to keep after it.”
A Modern Epic
“Where Rainbows Never Die” is about Dr. Beck, who befriends a nine-year-old cancer patient, Emily, and her guardian, Tiffany. Out of options for further chemotherapy, Emily’s only shot at survival is a costly experimental medication.
In an attempt to gather the funds to save Emily’s life, the three set out on an epic adventure seeking a treasure hidden somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. Along the way, Dr. Beck faces his own inner demons with help from his traveling companions and the three grow even closer.
The treasure also contains an ancient Incan bracelet with magical powers. The life of the bracelet is traced throughout the book and the reader gets a glimpse of Incan culture. Through the melding of history, fantasy, action, adventure, medical drama, comedy, and tragedy, the book has something for everyone to enjoy. There’s even a little golf (looking at you, Pine Valley).
“The title basically means, where hope never dies,” Ryan says. “A lot of the book is about having hope when there’s none and finding hope when you’re against all odds.”
While writing the book’s introduction, Ryan sought the help of his two children, Alexandra and Isaac. “I asked Isaac, ‘What’s the definition of a rainbow?’ At age 7, he said, ‘A multi-colored thing in the shape of an arch after a storm that has to do with light and water with a pot of gold on either end defended by a maniac Leprechaun.’ Then I asked Alexandra, my daughter, what is a rainbow. She said, ‘Hope and love.’ That’s Alexandra, aged 10. So that was a couple of quotes, a couple of definitions, to open the book.”
Taking Inspiration from Dad
Ryan says he entered his profession to help people. Growing up working in his father’s pharmacy in southern Indiana, he didn’t enjoy counting pills or weighing medicine, but he did enjoy interacting with the customers and learning their stories. “That’s what led me more towards medicine than pharmacy,” he says.
“Dad was always an athlete,” he says. “He played baseball in college for Oglethorpe [University] in Atlanta. He’s always been a great golfer too. He got me playing early, and he was a scratch golfer when I was growing up—a talented guy.”
Ryan was good enough to play golf as a walk-on freshman at Butler University. “I quickly realized I needed to study more if I wanted to become a doctor,” he said. He later attended medical school at Indiana University.
Pictured: Back of the 1st tee at Victoria National, dinner at the Victoria National clubhouse, and feeding the steers at Briggs Ranch
Art Imitating Life: Both Dr. Beck and Dr. Deweese Play in Their Down Time
Ryan and his family reside about three and a half hours from Victoria National, on the north side of Indianapolis. “I would go down to Victoria and play pretty frequently and I was toying with joining Victoria,” he says. “They called me one day and said, ‘Hey, Dormie Network just bought the club.’
“It’s hard to beat how they treat you at Dormie Network. They treat you like family. When you come to these places and everybody knows your name and you get a hug when you walk in the door, it’s pretty nice.”
“I said OK and I joined that day,” he says.
Today, Ryan said he visits Briggs Ranch Golf Club as much or more than he gets to Victoria National, and he has competed regularly in the uber-competitive Dormie Matches. “When I’m playing a lot, my handicap is about 2. I’ve got it up to about 5 for member-guest season now,” he jokes.
“We love going to all the Dormie courses,” he says. “That’s one of the things I love about Dormie Network, the hospitality. It’s hard to beat how they treat you at Dormie Network. They treat you like family. When you come to these places and everybody knows your name and you get a hug when you walk in the door, it’s pretty nice.
“Everywhere you go, you meet great people from around the country,” he says. “Those Dormie Matches are one of the things I like to put high on my priority list every year. You play against the groups and the pros from all the other clubs, and you get to know the pros from every club pretty well. That makes it special, too.”
Connecting Story to Purpose
Ryan’s interest in writing started in college when he took a few creative writing classes. He said he wrote the book because he wanted to share something that could make the world a better place, channeling his passion into something to help others.
To ensure the book would have its intended impact, he originally dedicated half of all proceeds to the Caroline Symmes Children’s Cancer Endowment. Caroline Symmes was diagnosed with Wilms tumor disease, a type of kidney cancer, in 2008, a month before her fourth birthday.
“At the end of the book, I talked about giving half of the proceeds to the foundation. I’ve since changed my mind. We’re going to end up giving all the money to the charity. They don’t know that yet.”
Even though Wilms tumor disease has a high cure rate, Caroline’s cancer was very aggressive. She died a year after the diagnosis. Her parents, Libby and David Symmes, later founded an endowment in her name that funds research to create better drugs and outcomes for critically ill children.
Ryan met Libby and David more than a decade ago at one of the endowment’s first annual golf fundraisers. After learning more about the family’s story, he was so moved by their efforts that he dedicated “Where Rainbows Never Die” to Caroline.
“At the end of the book, I talked about giving half of the proceeds to the foundation,” he says. “I’ve since changed my mind. We’re going to end up giving all the money to the charity. They don’t know that yet.”
“We’ve sold more than a thousand copies, which I’m really happy with,” he says. “I think those numbers are really good for a first-time, unknown author.”
The book sells for $12.99 and when Ryan sells them at book signings or at work most people give him $20 or more. “They tell me to keep the change, donate the rest of the charity,” he says. “We’ve probably made more money in the donations than book sales, which is the whole point.”
Ryan is proud of the strong female characters he created and hopes they inspire young readers. “In the book, all the female characters are really strong and I think that’s important,” he says. “Similarly, I’m proud of Dormie Network’s engagement and partnership with the LPGA and with women’s golf. I think if you look back at history, probably humanity’s greatest mistake is gender inequality. And I think it’s important to give young girls the gift of confidence and golf.”
Dr. Ryan Deweese and family: wife Ellen Fan, daughter Alexandra, and son Isaac
The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. After reading Ryan’s debut novel, his daughter, Alexandra, said she loved it. “She went upstairs and counted her allowance and decided she was going to donate half of her money to the charity,” he says. “She wrote a 38-page book about her and her cousins going on this crazy adventure. She’s going to sell it and donate half.”
Dr. Ryan Deweese’s 304-page book, “Where Rainbows Never Die,” was published by Lollipop Books. It can be purchased on Amazon and through other book carriers. The money raised from the sale of the book is going toward pediatric cancer research through the Caroline Symmes Children’s Cancer Endowment. Follow Ryan on Twitter @deweeseryan.
