She Thinks She's Pretty Clever; a guest blog by Amy Impellizzeri

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: There are a lot of lawyers in crime fiction. Yes, they appear as the characters, but almost as frequently, they're the authors. There are lawyers who are known primarily for being members of the bar, like Scott Turow and John Grisham, Michael Connelly and Lisa Scottolini. Closer to home, we have Kate Flora and Brenda Buchanan, a frequent commenter here. There's yours truly, University of Maine School of Law '90. And our guest today, Amy Impellizzeri.

A lot of ink has been spilled over the question as to why so many attorneys become writers. I always figured it was because smart, wordy people who love reading and writing go to law school. (If we were good at math or science, we would have become engineers or doctors.) 

While thinking over what inspired her first thriller, THE TRUTH ABOUT THEA, Amy had an insight into what really drives  advocates to become authors - and she shares it with us today.

You think you’re pretty clever, don’t you, young lady? Well, we’ll see.

When I heard these words, I was a 28-year old ambitious corporate litigator who had just finished cross-examining the other side’s expert witness – Dr. L - during a trial that had been dragging on for nearly two weeks. The judge called for a short recess after my questioning, and while I stretched my legs in the aisle of the courtroom, Dr. L brushed up alongside me on the way out. He whispered in my ear - his hot breath and hissed words were definitely intended to intimidate me.

I simply smiled up at him in response. 

I had just helped Dr. L look incompetent, unqualified and money hungry with my questioning. He wasn’t too happy about the way his side of the story had been portrayed. I took that as a good sign. 

For thirteen-plus years, I told my clients’ stories. I took the jumbled messes they brought to me – usually in the form of rooms full of non-indexed documents and files, and I pieced them together to tell a story for a judge and jury. I always say that I loved being a lawyer. Until I didn’t. And then I got out. 

I left the law in 2009, and never really looked back. After spending so long telling only my clients’ stories, I remembered something again – I had a different story to tell.

When I found my voice again after leaving the law, my first novel centered around a woman at a crossroad in her life – a woman suddenly questioning everything she had thought she’d known about life and love. Not an entirely surprising theme given that I wrote the novel (Lemongrass Hope) during the first four years of my transition away from corporate law. 

My second novel was about loss and redemption. Reinvention and survival. Secrets of Worry Dolls unraveled the long-held secrets of a 9/11 widow and her estranged daughter following a tragedy in their New York City neighborhood. 

I had the good fortune to have book clubs and other readers discover my first two novels. And a common question emerged – 

Why don’t you write legal fiction? Why don’t you write stories inspired by your lawyer days?

 

I answered honestly. Mostly, I didn’t think my corporate law experience was all that … you know, sexy. It wasn’t the stuff of novels. In fact, for thirteen years, I had spent thousands of hours – tens of thousands of hours– searching through evidence and researching and writing briefs that made brilliant doorstops when they were finished and bound. Sure, I had told stories for a living, but they weren’t my stories. 

And then one day, I remembered Dr. L again. And other similar run-ins with various expert witnesses during my career. If I was a storyteller during my legal career, then those expert witnesses were certainly some colorful characters, and definitely provided more than a few twists and turns in the plots. Maybe there was something there – in all of those dances with expert witnesses throughout my legal career – that would provide meat for a story – for my story.

Thus, the idea for The Truth About Thea – my first legal thriller – was born. Because it felt like such a full circle novel for me following my transition from the law, I decided to open the novel with a trial set in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas - the site of my first jury trial 20 years ago. In The Truth About Thea, Thea Brown is on trial for a high profile crime involving her company, Alibis, which helps create false social media identities for clients with suspect pasts. An expert witness is located who testifies that Thea Brown is actually addicted to social media, and that because of her addiction, she should go to rehab, not jail. The expert witness, along with Thea Brown’s lawyer, sets the stage for a story with plenty of twists and turns. 

And to think, I owe it all to that dishonest, unqualified, money hungry expert witness who brushed up against me in that courtroom many years ago.

You think you’re pretty clever, don’t you, young lady? Well, we’ll see.

I won that trial after cross-examining Dr. L, by the way. I didn’t let him intimidate me and I thought about him often as I built my legal career, and now as I build my career as novelist. And sometimes I wonder if Dr. L still remembers me. I wonder if he’ll pick up a copy of The Truth About Thea one day. I have to admit, I’m tempted to look him up and tell him that yes, I do actually think I’m pretty clever sometimes. And I really don’t care at all if he agrees.

So tell me, Red Readers. Is there someone from your past who is influencing you and motivating you in ways they probably don’t even realize? For good or for bad? Share with me! (By the way, I’ll be selecting two random commenters to win signed copies of The Truth About Thea).

You can find out more on Amy Impellizzeri, her novels and her acclaimed non-fiction at her website. You can chat with her on Twitter as @AmyImpellizzeri, talk books with her on Goodreads, and participate in her online writers community, Tall Poppy Writers.

EVERY DOG HAS HIS DAY by Jenn McKinlay

Life. Art. For me, the line in between frequently gets blurry. Very blurry. 

A Top Pick from RT Magazine and with a Starred Review from Booklist! Don't miss out on the latest romantic comedy in the Bluff Point trilogy! Available TODAY!

When I wrote the book, EVERY DOG HAS HIS DAY, I thought it would be fun to include a foster kitten named Chaos. He was a spunky little critter that enriched the story and the lives of my characters. Fast forward a couple of months and my family and I found ourselves rescuing a two week old kitten, who is now named King George, and is a solid (and spunky) member of our pack. Did writing about Chaos bring George into our life? Hmm.

Chaos

King George

Another plot point in today's release is that my characters are stuck in a blizzard in Maine for three days. Next door neighbors with kids and pets, surviving a brutally cold winter -- great set up for a romance, right? Yeah, sure, and now I'm visiting New England and it looks like they're about to break the record for coldest number of days in a row since 1917 - one hundred years, people! I'm not saying my book brought on the cold snap, but I'm not not saying it either.

A stream in the woods on New Year's Eve

So, if there is a life-art connection happening, I'm thinking in my next book my characters need to find a cupboard full of fresh baked pies or a trunk full of gold, you know, just to see if art really is imitating life. 

What about you, Reds? Have you ever written something and then had it happen to you? Coincidence or...?

For anyone who wants a looksee, here's an excerpt from 
EVERY DOG HAS HIS DAY:

     The blizzard caused power outage continued through three board games, lunch, an arts and crafts project that was supposed to be making snowflakes out of printer paper but turned into an epic fail when Zachary Caine unfolded his and it looked like six knobby penises.

     “Oh, wow, I didn’t see that happening,” he said.

     Jessie Connolly about choked on her own spit from trying not to laugh as Zach tried to hide his pervy snowflake from her girls. He should have known better by now. When he hid it behind his back, they attacked. Five-year-old Maddie wrestled it from his hands while seven-year-old Gracie distracted him by saying she heard someone on the front porch.

     When Maddie unfolded it, she frowned.

     “Why don’t you like it, Zach? It looks like p—“

     “No—“ Zach tried to cut her off to no success.

     “—arrots.”

     “Huh?” He raised one eyebrow at her.

     Gracie glanced over her sister’s shoulder and nodded. “Yeah, parrots. See? Here’s the head—“

     “Got it!” Zach cried.

     Jessie turned away. The urge to laugh was becoming too much and she had to fake a coughing fit to try and contain it. Parrots! Bless her innocent little girls’ hearts.

     “Are you all right, Momma?” Gracie asked.

     “Fine, I’m fine,” Jessie answered. Her voice was strained and she was still facing away from them, because she knew if she looked at Zach or his snowflake, she was going to lose it completely.

     She felt him at her back before he spoke. One arm appeared in front of her, and he leaned close, speaking right into her ear, and said, “So, did you want to hang my bird-like snowflake on the window with the others? The girls seem to think it’s full of peckers.”

     The laugh when it came out of Jessie was something between and guffaw and a wheeze. As she looked at Zach’s phallic snowflake, she doubled-up with laughter. The more she tried to contain it, the worse the giggle fit became.

     “Momma, you shouldn’t laugh at Zach’s snowflake,” Gracie said. “You’ll hurt his feelings.”

     Jessie pressed her lips together and nodded, trying her best.    

     “She’s right,” Zach said. “My feelings will go positively limp.”

     A snort erupted and tears sprang from her eyes. Jessie gave Zach a warning look that was likely ruined by the smile that still curved her lips.

     “Here,” he said. He reached around her, brushing her side with his arm and ripped a piece of tape off of the dispenser. “Let’s hang it right here, shall we?”

     Jessie watched as he taped his snowflake along with the others they had made right in the center of the kitchen window.

     “Oh, that looks good there,” Maddie said. “Don’t you think so, Momma?”

     “It would be hard to find a better place for it,” Jessie said.

     This time it was Zach who hooted with laughter. He didn’t even try to contain it.

     As he walked past her on his way back to his seat, he leaned in close and said, “I feel compelled to say that the parrots on the snowflake are not the actual size.”

     His teasing gaze held hers and Jessie felt her face get hot.

     “Of course not,” Gracie said. “Everyone knows a real parrot is bigger than that.”

     Zach reclaimed his seat at the table and grinned. “Man, I love these kids.”

     Both of her daughters beamed up at him as he began to fold his next piece of paper, and Jessie felt something in her chest shift.  

The R Word

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: January first, 2018. Has there ever been a time when this many people have been so glad to turn the calendar page and start a new year? I don't know about you, but 2017 felt like one long, exposed raw nerve to me. Thank heavens we have the ritual of New Year's Day, a pause in the rush of time, a clean, unmarked sheet of paper. 2017 is done, it's behind us, and we have 365 days waiting, pristine and unopened, to get things right. To do things better. To vote in the midterm elections. (Ha! Sorry, we try to be apolitical here on JRW, but I couldn't resist.)So, Reds, it's time to bring out the "R" word - that's right, Resolutions. I was thinking about the word itself. We're all very big on goals nowadays, but a resolution isn't setting a goal, or saying "I'll aim for x, y, and z." Resolution, according to my American Heritage Dictionary, is "a course of action determined or decided upon." It was the HMS Resolute, not the HMS Goal-Oriented (of course, that didn't stop it from getting trapped in the arctic ice and abandoned.) So what are the course of actions we've determined for the upcoming year?Fortunately for all of us, we didn't do this New Year's Day post last year, and so we are all spared spilling the beans on what we didn't manage to fulfill. (Full disclosure - I achieved NONE of my resolutions and actually reversed one of my 2016 goals by gaining back the twenty pounds I had lost that year!) So what will I tackle in the year to come? Besides trying to lose those twenty pounds for a second time?

I resolve to manage my stress better. I want to make mindful prayer and meditation part of my daily routine. Another part of stress management is regular (joint-friendly) exercise. I will re-up our family membership at the local Y and start swimming again. I may also just keep on watching Hallmark Christmas movies all year - they're soooo soothing and uplifting.

I resolve to not shut myself up in my house and hide. I will try to have lunch, or coffee, or see a movie with friends once a week, especially as the Smithie may be moving out of the house (finally) (Just joking, Smithie, you can stay as long as you like.) (But really, leave.) and Youngest, God willing, will be starting college at the end of August.

I resolve to learn how to do some basic house fix-ups and landscaping chores, and I will buy the tools necessary to do them now I don't have men around. Seriously, I didn't know how I was going to reach the top shelves anymore when my cousin Ron bought me a folding step-stool. It has changed my life.
 
I resolve to write, even if it means scrapping the work-in-progress and starting over. Geez, I hope my agent and editor don't read this.
I resolve to keep making lists, because they are really changing my ability to organize my time! (Evermore not one of my talents.)

How about you, Reds?
 HALLIE EPHRON: Julia, your resolutions are awe-inspiring. Though when you wrote: "Another part of stress management is regular (joint…"
I read: "Another part of stress management is A regular joint…"
which made me think… well, never mind.

JULIA: I do still have quite a bit of the medical marijuana prescribed for Ross. Maybe...?


HALLIE: My resolution is to stay physically active and not become a couch potato. I stopped going to my exercise classes because my joints are wearing and I needed something less bouncey. Hoping gentle yoga is the answer. And regular walks.

FINISH THE DAMNED BOOK! I am aided by the fact that my editor just went out on maternity leave and that gives me an extra month. So no excuses.

Refresh and nurture some relationships that have sadly frayed in the past. And just be less judgmental. Good luck with that. 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, gosh, I don't know.  Jonathan and I were just talking about how easy it is to lose track of friends--everyone is so busy. So we agreed to try harder.

 To realize everything doesn't have to be PERFECT.  That walking might be the solution to everything.  And that even though you might be (briefly) trapped in the ice, that goal-oriented is good.  As long as the goals are flexible.

To be optimistic, and kind, and patient. Patient patient patient. (And not be inwardly critical. Yeah, that'll happen.) And persevere. But book will get written. I don't even have to resolve that, I think. It just will.

And yes, as you said, Julia, we do not do politics here. But every day, I am going to chant: diversity, vulnerable, evidence-based...and etc. Ha.

But I am not going to resolve to cut down on caffeine. Because..why?LUCY BURDETTE: Oh no Julia, please don't scrap the WIP--I feel certain the story is there and we're desperate to read it!

Resolution: Spend less time on social media. Sigh. And put into action the things I really believe in (many have to do with those banned words.) I'm pretty good at exercising, but the stress management part needs work! It's such a waste of good energy to worry things over and over and over...

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Yes, Julia, the JOINT is helpful for stress management, LOL.

I am with you all on most of these resolutions. First, FINISH THE BOOK. Prioritize!!!

To that end:

Take regular walks. Or even bike!  (We got our bikes out a couple of weeks ago and it was so much fun!) 

I'm already spending so much less time on social media that I'm missing keeping up with friends, so it's hard to find a balance there.


Be more organized. Make lists. Structure my time better. Go to bed earlier. Get up earlier. Read more. Make a list of what I HAVE read!

Say "NO" more often!!! (Proud of myself for already turning down half a dozen speaking engagements for next year. I can't write and organize speaking events at the same time.)

Do my bit to improve our situation (vote, contribute) without letting the news distract me from everything that is good in my life and in my community.

Pay attention to what's around me.

Make more time, somehow.

And keep up my journals!!!!

Oh, and become a better cook.

(Um, have I gone overboard, here?)RHYS BOWEN: Oh yes, Debs: learn to say NO more often. How many times have I agreed to go and speak somewhere because it seems rude to say no. Then one day I wake up and realize I have to fly to DALLAS to give a speech at a luncheon. How ridiculous is that?  So I will try to cut back on events this year. Only do things that make sense and bring me joy.

That will be my main resolution: only do things that bring me joy. Life is too short to be stuck with boring and miserable tasks.
Also: make enough time for friends and family.
Take time for myself every day, just to drive to a nice view, walk on a beach, go have a massage, sit alone and drink a coffee.... just to rewind.

Not worry too much about the state of our country and the world. Things will sort themselves out... but encourage everyone I know to vote! 

And most important: do something good every day, even if it's as small as telling the bank teller that you like her necklace or letting another car go first at a stop sign. But also telling my husband and family that I love them... and showing it.

And making sure I laugh at least once a day.

INGRID THOFT: I live in Seattle so a joint isn’t required.  I can just inhale when I walk down the street!

First and foremost: FINISH THE BOOK!  But also, don’t beat myself up about the process of finishing the book.  I’m a “control enthusiast,” as my husband likes to say, and I find it difficult to accept the messy reality of creating something.  The starts and stops, false starts, and detours are part of getting to the final manuscript, but it's a challenge to go with the flow.  I resolve to take the process as it comes. 
 
I’d like to get better at meal planning.  Since I live right by Pike Place Market, I tend to take a European approach to food shopping and planning, but I think it would take less mental energy if I thought about it a week in advance.

And yes, voting.  We all need to resolve to vote!

JENN McKINLAY: Resolutions. I love them. I love New Year's Eve more than any other holiday because I love the idea of the life do-over, plus, champagne and fireworks! My resolutions are pretty simple compared to years past. For the longest time I had two resolutions -- be the best mom I could be and get published. Well, I feel as if I've accomplished those goals. While not perfect in either category, I can honestly say I've done my best. 
 

Now, that the hooligans are older and need me less and I've gotten published and have been encouraged to spread my wings and write whatever I'd like, I want to turn inward, slow down, breathe. The world has had me in a constant state of outrage for so long that it's become my normal state. I don't like it. It taints everything. So, while a walk through Seattle (LOL) would be helpful, I think I am going to try to be more mindful of what I can do - support candidates I believe in, vote, attend town halls and meetings, write letters, etc. - but also make the time to meditate, find joy in the small things, spend time with my family and friends, and to keep living my best life by treating it like the grand adventure that it is. 

JULIA: A grand adventure, indeed,  Jenn. How about you, dear readers? What are your resolutions? Any suggestions for my joint stress management?