ABOUT GEORGE COLLINS

In a poetic and prescient twist, Collins’s original story centered on a husband whose life is radically reshuffled after a seismic event. In the years that followed, Collins’s own life underwent a profound transformation. He moved from a successful career in private equity to balancing an internationally acclaimed songwriting career with life as a homemaker dad.

“My day begins at 6:30 a.m., getting the kids out to school. I work on writing and songwriting until the afternoon, then do shopping and errands before I pick up the girls from school and take them to ballet. Every night we have a family dinner, and from 9:00 p.m. to midnight I talk to music supervisors, producers, editors, and work on various creative endeavors,” says the Prague-based author. “While I’m working just as hard, it’s a very different life from the 70- to 80-hour weeks I worked for two decades.”

It is a very different existence indeed, but Collins’s journey has always been defined by restless exploration. Born in Washington, D.C., he was educated at the University of Virginia, where he earned degrees in English Literature, Music, Business, and Law. He has lived internationally for much of his life, including several years in Tehran and London, and now Prague. He may be the only person who can say he played in a band with two founding members of the Dave Matthews Band while also serving as a founding partner of one of the largest private equity investment funds in Central and Eastern Europe.

“I could never figure out if I wanted to be Ernest Hemingway, Eric Clapton, or the Secretary of State,” Collins says with a laugh.

After retiring from finance at 50, Collins returned to music and quickly built an impressive DIY career as a singer-songwriter, releasing four albums with the George Collins Band in five years. Now, he is finally circling back to fulfill his literary aspirations with PLAYING THE CHANGES.

The novel follows Dr. Raymond Stark, one of the top neurosurgeons in the United States. He lives inside his own head—and inside the heads of his patients—but has little understanding of the emotional world around him, including his own family. His carefully controlled existence comes crashing down after an unfathomable loss, delivering the coup de grâce to an already failing marriage.

Shattered by loss, Ray returns to his early love of jazz saxophone and discovers a soulful path toward redemption. As he reconnects with his heart and humanity, he makes a valiant attempt to win back his estranged wife, Cathy. His journey becomes an anthemic story of self-evolution and a deeply human love story, populated by richly drawn characters. Cathy undergoes a powerful transformation of her own, moving from grief through a profound crisis of faith that ultimately leads to an embrace of her own youthful passion for the arts.

Many people assume that Ray’s reinvention as a jazz musician mirrors Collins’s own creative renaissance. It doesn’t. When Collins retired from finance, it was because he couldn’t envision himself still doing the same work at 60. “I didn’t want to be flying around Eastern Europe to negotiate with oligarchs about buying their factories,” he explains. “I had a great run in finance, but I reached a point where I wanted time to spend being a dad, and my literary and music urges were percolating.”

PLAYING THE CHANGES is meticulously researched, drawing on the many years Collins spent immersing himself in the worlds of brain surgery and jazz saxophone. The surgical sequences have a visceral authenticity, while jazz aficionados will find poetic passages inspired by Coltrane’s “Giant Steps,” Coleman Hawkins’s epiphanic soloing on “Body and Soul,” and other musical Easter eggs woven throughout the novel.

The book’s 18-year gestation was partly the result of Collins continuing to work full-time in finance for many years. But he also speaks candidly about the daunting challenge of writing a novel. Despite holding a master’s degree in English Literature, a law degree, and possessing a natural facility with language, Collins found the process humbling.

“I quickly learned that I had seriously underestimated how different creative writing is from academic or legal writing, and how dramatically I would have to change my style of writing—which also demanded a change in my way of thinking,” he says.

The screenplay adaptation of PLAYING THE CHANGES has won several prestigious international script competitions and is attracting interest from Hollywood producers. The novel was also workshopped alongside award-winning author Jay Parini, who says, “This novel – a remarkable debut by George Collins – is about one man's journey into deep understanding and humanity."

Joe Lovano, the Grammy Award-winning jazz saxophonist and composer, describes PLAYING THE CHANGES as “A heartwarming and inspiring story about the healing power of music.”

Next, Collins is pivoting back to music, with two new singles scheduled for release around the publication of PLAYING THE CHANGES. But he won’t be away from the literary world for long: A draft of his next novel is already staring down at him from his office bookshelf. Reflecting on the journey, Collins says, “Writing PLAYING THE CHANGES has made me a more open and empathic person. When I catch myself being distant or self-absorbed, I think of Dr. Ray Stark. Family always comes first.”