James V. Pagano was born in San Francisco and now resides in Los Angeles where he earns his living as an ER doctor. Over the course of his medical career he has worked in a number of emergency departments in the greater L.A. area, including major trauma centers as well as smaller community hospitals. He has been the medical director of one ER or another for many years. The Drain is a work of fiction about the business of hospital based medicine. Though none of the characters are real their personalities and the situations in which they find themselves have been drawn from experience. The somewhat dark humor that permeates the book derives from the practice of emergency medicine, and from the author's own wry sense of what, exactly, is funny. The book picks up a little over a year after the end his first novel, The Bleed. Many of the core characters return, with the addition a few new and interesting ones. In addition to practicing medicine and writing novels the author is also an accomplished musician. He has recorded two CD's of acoustic guitar instrumentals, PS1 by Pagano and Saslow, and Hopeless Romantic, by Jimmy Pagano. He has also composed and recorded music for motion pictures.