After growing up in suburban New York, Oristano moved to Texas in 1970 to attend Texas Christian University. A major in Mass Communications, Mark was hired by WFAA-TV in 1973 as a sports reporter, the start of a 30-year career covering the NFL and professional sports.
Mark has worked with notable broadcasters including Verne Lundquist, Oprah Winfrey and as a sportscaster for the Dallas Cowboys Radio Network and Houston Oilers Radio Network. He has covered Super Bowls and other major sports events throughout his career. He was part of Ron Chapman’s legendary morning show on KVIL-FM in Dallas for nearly 20 years.
In 2002 Oristano left broadcasting to pursue his creative interests, starting a portrait photography business and becoming involved in theater including summer productions with Shakespeare Dallas. He follows his daughter Stacey’s film career who has appeared in such shows as Friday Night Lights and Bunheads.
A veteran stage actor in Dallas, Mark Oristano was writer and performer for the acclaimed one-man show “And Crown Thy Good: A True Story of 9/11.”
Oristano authored his first book, A Sportscaster’s Guide to Watching Football: Decoding America’s Favorite Game. A Sportcaster’s Guide offers inside tips about how to watch football, including stories from Oristano’s 30-year NFL career, a look at offense, defense and special teams, and cool things to say during the game to sound like a real fan.
In 2016 Oristano finished his second book, Surgeon’s Story, a true story about a surgeon that takes readers inside the operating room during open heart surgery. His second book is described as a story of dedication, talent, training, caring, resilience, guts and love.
In 1997, Mark began volunteering at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, working in the day surgery recovery room. It was at Children’s that Mark got to know Kristine Guleserian, MD, first to discuss baseball, and later, to learn about the physiology, biology, and mystery of the human heart. That friendship led to a joint book project, Surgeon’s Story, about Kristine’s life and career.
Mark is married and has two adult children and two grandchildren.
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About the Book:
Title:
SURGEON’S STORY
Author: Mark Oristano
Publisher: Authority Publishing
Pages: 190
Genre: Nonfiction Medical
Author: Mark Oristano
Publisher: Authority Publishing
Pages: 190
Genre: Nonfiction Medical
What is it like to hold the beating heart of a two-day old
child in your hand? What is it like to
counsel distraught parents as they make some of the most difficult decisions of
their lives?
Noted
pediatric heart surgeon Dr. Kristine Guleserian has opened up her OR, and her
career, to author Mark Oristano to create Surgeon’s Story - Inside OR-6 With a top
Pediatric Heart Surgeon.
Dr. Guleserian’s life, training and work are discussed in
detail, framed around the incredibly dramatic story of a heart transplant
operation for a two-year old girl whose own heart was rapidly dying. Author Mark Oristano takes readers inside the
operating room to get a first-hand look at pediatric heart surgeries most
doctors in America
would never attempt.
That’s because Dr. Guleserian is recognized as one of the
top pediatric heart surgeons in America,
one of a very few who have performed a transplant on a one-week old baby. Dr.
Guleserian (Goo-liss-AIR-ee-yan) provided her
expertise, and Oristano furnished his writing skills, to produce A
Surgeon’s Story.
As preparation to write this stirring book, Oristano spent
hours inside the operating room at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas watching
Guleserian perform actual surgeries that each day were life or death
experiences. Readers will be with Dr. Guleserian on her rounds, meeting with
parents, or in the Operating Room for a heart transplant.
Oristano is successful sportscaster and photographer and has
made several appearances on stage as an actor. He wrote his first book A
Sportscaster’s Guide to Watching Football: Decoding America’s Favorite Game, and continues to volunteer at Children’s Medical Center.
“We hear a lot about malpractice and failures in medical
care,” says Oristanto, “but I want my readers to know that parts of the
American health care system work brilliantly. And our health care system will
work even better if more young women would enter science and medicine and
experience the type of success Dr. Guleserian has attained.”
Readers will find all the drama, intensity, humor and
compassion that they enjoy in their favorite fictionalized medical TV drama,
but the actual accounts in Surgeon’s Story are even more
compelling. One of the key characters in the book is 2-year-old Rylynn who was
born with an often fatal disorder called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and
was successfully treated by Dr. Guleserian.
Watch the Book Trailer at YouTube.
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What’s inside the mind of a medical non-fiction author?
To find an interesting story and tell it truthfully, in a
page-turning fashion.
What is so great about being an author?
Well, if you like spending a lot of time by yourself, it’s a
great job. The freedom and the artistic quality are my favorite parts.
When do you hate it?
When I have a deadline.
What is a regular writing day like for you?
Up at 9. Newspaper and coffee. Breakfast. NY Times Crossword
Puzzle. Email and other chores. Write from noon
to four. Then do life stuff.
How do you handle negative reviews?
I ignore them.
How do you handle positive reviews?
I ignore them… Reviews are for something that’s already done
and that I can’t change, so I generally don’t pay much attention. This also
goes for my work as a stage actor, which I do in addition to writing.
What is the usual response when you tell a new acquaintance
that you’re an author?
“Oh, really? Have I read any of your stuff?”
What do you do on those days you don’t feel like writing? Do
you force it or take a break?
Never force it. Nothing good comes from that. Go to a movie.
Workout. Anything.
Any writing quirks?
I often listen to piano jazz, Oscar Peterson, etc, while I
write.
What would you do if people around you didn’t take your
writing seriously or see it as a hobby?
Ignore them.
Some authors seem to have a love-hate relationship to
writing. Can you relate?
As somebody once said, “I don’t enjoy writing, I enjoy
having written.”
Do you think success as an author must be linked to money?
Only if you’re crass and shallow.
What has writing taught you?
Accuracy. Truth.
Leave us with some words of wisdom.
Don’t get it right. Get it written.
