At the time, Rachel and her buddies didn't know about Tourette's Syndrome. "Later, when I grew up and went to medical school, I learned that The Duck Lady probably had Tourette's, and I felt terrible that we poked fun at her," Rachel says. "I also realized how intensely alone she must have felt. It wasn't something we knew about back then. We just considered her crazy."

A few weeks ago, Dr. Callaghan, now retired from 21 years in medicine and the author of almost five novels, turned to the internet. With the help of her daughter and husband, she created a website and is publishing her murder mystery, chapter by chapter.

The hero of the book, entitled "Babydolls," is Detective Harvey Cohen, who suffers from Tourette's Syndrome. However, with medication, the disease is kept pretty much under control, so he can function and live a fairly normal life.

Rachel's understanding of the physical symptoms and emotional concerns and fears of her hero come directly from her medical career as an internist. Her morgue scenes and descriptins of the victims also ring true, due to her first-hand experience as a doctor.

"The only thing that's about me is the characters' love of coffee," she. "It's all made up out of my head. I know it's not real."

Rachel chose the mystery genre after researching what people read and enjoy most. "Many bestsellers seem to be detective and serial killer stories," Rachel says. "Once I got started, the characters took on a life of their own, and it turned out to be more than just a mystery."

Her story not only portrays an understanding of Tourette's disease, but weaves around issues of racial tolerance, since the lead characters are a Jewish and a black detective. There's also a teenage boy who makes fun of Detective Cohen and shows how people, especially teenagers, don't like people who are different.

Dr. Callaghan, who says she worked 80 to 100 hours a week as an internist, is serious about writing. She is putting Detective Harvey Cohen's feelings and experiences on the World Wide Web while hunting for an agent. Two years ago, she sent out seven query letters and got a positive response from two agents--which her writing friends say is highly unusual and encouraging.

"But," Rachel explains, "I had a less than satisfactory experience with the agent I selected, and I stayed with him way too long--against the advice of my friends. It was kind of unnerving and depressing to think of starting again, so I turned to the internet to get the book out there."

In the meantime, Rachel has written a sequel to "Babydolls," which takes place in the Colorado ski town in which she lives.

Admitting she doesn't know "diddly squat" about computers or the internet, Rachel asked her 22-year- old daughter, Leah Reich, for help. Leah works for The Total Entertainment Network, a firm for interactive gaming on the internet. "She works with a great group of people who helped her with the design, and she did the HTML programming," Rachel explains. "My husband has a server, so with family help I was able to use the internet."

She says her main goal is to get the book read. "I want people to read it," she says. "I'd love to hear people's opinions and suggestions."

Already, almost 100 people have read her first few chapters of "Babydolls" on the internet. Readers can reply and react to her novel at www.govlink.com/books.