“We came [to Omaha] because my husband got a job here, and I was looking for a part-time position,” author and doctor Lydia Kang said. “I didn’t know then that I was going to be writing, it’s just that we were working really hard in New York, and the schedule was crazy. This gave us an opportunity for a better job, better hours and more time with our children. We made the jump and never looked back.”

Kang has been living here for 9 years; the city has influenced her writing. Omaha is the setting for Kang’s novel “Control.”

“Control” is the first book, preceding the sequel “Catalyst.” These fiction novels intertwine Kang’s passion for science and writing.

In the third grade, Kang had the urge to write.

“I was a veracious reader. While I was reading these books, I kept thinking, ‘I would really love to write one of these,’ but I didn’t know how. I had a great idea for a story… but I didn’t know how I was supposed to fill up 200 pages worth of stuff. I figured [being an author] wasn’t going to happen,” Kang said.

However, later on in high school, she began reading a lot more. She was also encouraged by an English teacher to begin journaling.

“I wrote about all the weirdness of school, the boring things, homework, crushes that I had and fights that I was getting into, not fist-fights but drama fights. I wrote diaries for years and years—all the way through college. This was teaching me how to get what was in [my head] onto paper, even if it was messy,” Kang said.

At the same time as Kang was realizing her passion for writing, her passion for science ignited alongside it. Kang refers to herself as a “science geek,” fond of everything ranging from physics to biology.

“They were like a second language to me. It was easy for me to get A’s,” Kang said.

Since science came so easy to her, and because careers in science ran in the family, Kang decided to pursue this subject as a career. Kang attended Columbia University and received her medical degree at New York City University Medical School.

Even though Kang was being worn down by the demands of college, she did not lose her passion for writing. She ended up minoring in English.

After college, and before medical school, she had a year to research and conduct various experiments, while at the same time continuing to write.

“One of [my friends] during this year off told me about this short fiction contest that she was going to enter. She was in the English world, and I was in the science world. When she told me about this contest I was like, ‘Can I do that, too?’ and she gave me a look saying, ‘This is not for you,” Kang said.

After pestering her friend long enough, she got the information and entered the contest.

“I thought, ‘This is great. I am actually trying to do something I’ve always wanted to do my whole life.’ However, I did not win the contest. In a way my friend was telling me, ‘I was right, you were wrong, you are not really meant to do this. Why do you keep trying?’” Kang said.

After medical school, she received another opportunity to pursue writing.

Kang, at the time an attending physician, was taking care of a young patient dying from cancer. He had a very emotional effect on Kang, especially because they were so close in age.

“I ended up waking up in the middle of the night writing an essay about [him], because I couldn’t keep it inside. I had to put it down somehow. I ended up submitting it to a medical journal, and it got accepted. This was the first time I had gotten something printed that people actually wanted to read,” Kang said.

Overjoyed at this milestone in her writing career, Kang decided to continue to submit work to other journals. However, they kept getting rejected.

Unsure of what to do next, Kang decided to go ahead and try out writing fiction.

“I was a big fan of young adult, and I thought, ‘Maybe I could just try.’ I kept on thinking, ‘I don’t have a degree in English, and I don’t have a degree in creative writing, so I am not allowed to do this, right?’ But then I found out there were other authors out there that didn’t have a degree, so I thought that I was just going to try,” Kang said.

Her first novel took one month to write. The writing process was very exciting for Kang, but also resulted in many sleepless nights.

Kang reached out to many literary agents in attempt to publish her book.

“At the end of my first process trying to get a literary agent, I got 155 rejections. It was really painful, because in medicine, when you’re trying to become a doctor, it’s all about ‘if you study hard enough, you’ll get a good grade.’ You know exactly how to do it. But with writing a book and getting it published, there was no path. I didn’t realize you could get so many rejections,” Kang said.

However, Kang did not give up her passion because of these rejections. Blogging online aided Kang, in a similar manner that her journals did to further develop her writing skills.

“I learned how to create characters, create worlds…,” Kang said.

Kang decided she wanted to give back to the bloggers that had helped enhance her writing. On Kang’s blog, she began giving out medical advice to various authors needing assistance with complex and scientific plot lines.

Never losing the inspiration to write, Kang wrote her second novel. However, after she sent it out among literary agents, she was faced with the same response as with her first novel. Kang stopped after 55 rejections, knowing that something was not right with this piece of her writing.

She knew what she had to fix, so when she attempted her third novel, “Control,” it was finally a success.

“I thought, ‘I am going to do something that I am really good at, which is science and making up stories,’” Kang said.

Publishing “Control” was Kang’s last stepping stone in finally doing what she had always wanted to do: have a dual career. Part time doctor of maternal medicine and part time author, Kang describes it as something that has “affected my life in a very good way.”

If Kang has learned anything from her experiences, it is to never give up.

“For everyone who is going towards a path of something they really, really want, you are inevitably going to hit some doors that are shut,” Kang said. “The thing that you need to remember is that these doors are not necessarily shut, they are just pointing you in a different direction.”