Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I practiced trial and appellate law for thirty years, litigating many high profile cases that had an impact on the protection of fundamental rights. I have written four books. One is a nonfiction sort of autobiography about my love for college football. My first novel “Justice for the Black Knight” has won a number of awards and received great reviews from Kirkus and other literary review magazines and sites. My other two novels “Black and White” and “Choices” are Volumes I and II of My Lincoln County Law Trilogy. This series is highly influenced by my law practice in a rather rural Southern county where I watched changes that took the system and the county from a racist and sexist past to a more tolerant present and hopefully an even better future.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Choices: Volume II of the Lincoln County Law Trilogy” is highly influenced by experiences I had in the cases I litigate. I was appointed to represent a teenager who wanted to exercise her privacy right to obtain an abortion without parental consent, and the case went from the trial court to the United States Supreme court in eighteen days. It was my first high profile case. Wolf Blitzer slept in a motor home in my parking lot while waiting for the case to progress, and it was covered hourly by CNN back when that network was still mainly a series of news reels. It created quite a stir in my small town. There are bits and pieces from other cases I’ve litigated, and of course of the attorneys I worked with and against in all of the story line and characters.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Some times I feel like the words are just channeling through me. I start typing and just go. I’m a serious editor also. I could probably edit a piece forever if it didn’t eventually go to publication.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
The list is endless. I’m a voracious reader. Most definitely, Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” and White’s “The Once and Future King” would be high on the list. The “Red City Review” wrote that my first novel was like a combination of the best of legal thrillers like “The Firm” and works of great literature like Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man.”
What are you working on now?
I’m working on Volume III of the Lincoln County Law Trilogy.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I can almost always make it to a very high rank on Amazon when I schedule a free book day.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
If you have the need to write, follow your heart. However, remember that you have to develop a thick skin and be ready to tackle the huge task of getting your words out there in the public eye.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
When one suffers from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, to thine ownself be true.
What are you reading now?
Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses”
What’s next for you as a writer?
I have to finish the third book in my trilogy and also publish a pile of short stories that I’ve already written. I also have the beginnings of a new novel percolating.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
“The Baghavad Gita,” “Anna Karenina,” “Semi-Tough” by Dan Jenkins(just to make me laugh once in a while), Joyce’s “Ulysses”(a deserted island would be the perfect place to analyze every line), Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”(I know it’s three books, but hey I’m on a desert island), and I could go on.
Author Websites and Profiles
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