In fiction, the reader will make jumps with you. If you can make the reader make that leap with you, it's a thrilling moment for everyone.
— William Lashner
A sense of place is very important in writing.
I like to think I'm writing in the tradition of Raymond Chandler, although I don't ape his style.
People read legal writing differently. When you're at the crux of a legal argument, every step is a step in the argument. The judge will see any holes. If you do that in fiction, it's too long and boring.
I'm going to book-and-author dinners, and I'm the author!
I try to write stories that are thrilling and full of mystery and funny all at the same time, stories that raise moral questions but come up with very few moral answers, stories that emotionally touch readers through the characters.
When I write legally, I try to write very plain, very vanilla, very clear.
I don't trust novels with points, do you? If a novel is only about a point, the writer should just say it in as few words as possible so we can take it in and go back to watching 'The Bachelor' on television.
I write novels with a lawyer as the hero, no matter how oxymoronic that might sound.
