DM) How often did you have to call upon your real life experiences
as an attorney in writing the book?
JB) No, no, no. Real life is boring. Writing about law is
much better than practicing it. I can skip all the parts where
you get ready for trial and then it gets re-set to another day.
Or the witness you need is out of town. Instead I can write about
duels of wits, witnesses being murdered during trial, much more
exciting stuff than what happens in the real practice of law.
I only called on my own experience in the details: the details
of what happens during trial, both in the courtroom and during
breaks, the details of the law that allow a lawyer to do certain
things but not other things. Also the details of practicing law
in San Antonio, which is a little different from any place else.
In short, writing about law gives me a nice break from practicing
it. In my books, I can orchestrate everything, and my fictional
trials are much more exciting than any I've ever seen or tried.
DM) What's the one trial you've worked on as a lawyer that
sticks out most in your mind?
JB) I have a problem as a trial lawyer, which is that I tend
to believe anyone who's talking. I just have a hard time believing
someone can sit on the witness stand under oath and lie. But
once I prosecuted an assault case, in which there was a romantic
history between the man I was prosecuting and the woman who was
the victim. He was accused of throwing her over a fence. He testified
that he lifted her gently over the fence, "like a groom
carrying his bride over the threshold." I wanted to throw
up. I've never seen such an obvious liar. But then the jury found
him NOT GUILTY. I talked to the jurors afterwards to ask if they
believed his story. Their spokesman said, "Oh no, we knew
he was lying. But we figured if she went back to him after he'd
broken her nose [on an earlier occasion], she got what was coming
to her." That was early in my career, and it taught me that
juries are not to be trusted.
DM) That doesn't' seem to say much for the justice system.
Can that be prevented?
JB) Not if you believe in the jury system. Look at the most
famous American trial in recent memory, in which I can't even
bring myself to mention the defendant's name. That jury made
a "not guilty" finding that was completely contrary to the evidence.
But juries always have that option. In America, we think a jury
of ordinary citizens should stand between someone accused of
a crime and the police, judges, and prosecutors who think he's
guilty. To have that protection, you have to take the frequent
aberrations from justice, too. In my first courtroom novel, called
Fade The Heat(1990), the narrator was a veteran prosecutor.
One observation of his began, "I hate juries." He went
on to say that all lawyers would admit this in private, none
in public. That paragraph got more comments than any other segment
of the book.
So the next time you get called for jury duty and the lawyers
smile graciously as they introduce themselves and say how glad
they are to see you there: it's a complete lie.
DM) When did you first get into writing?
JB) I am always introduced as a lawyer-turned-writer, because
there are so many of those since you-know-who has made so much
money in the fiction biz. But in fact, I've been writing continuously
since I was ten years old. A writer was the only thing I ever
truly wanted to be. I only went to law school as a fall-back
position when I decided I might never get a book published. Then
I sold my first two novels while I was in law school. The first
was published in 1985, the year I graduated from law school,
so I began both careers at the same time. But I'd been writing
much longer than that. Anyone trying to write knows how difficult
it is to break into print. I always tell people now that they
should develop a second career - both for the support and because
it gives you a field, you know, which every writer needs.
DM) Do you still work as a lawyer?
JB) Yes, I still work for a lawyer, doing mostly family law
and criminal appeals. Family law - divorce, child custody, etc.
- is very emotional, and sometimes shows people at their worst.
As a lawyer, family law is more dangerous than criminal law,
too. More divorce lawyers get shot each year than any other kind.
One of these years I need to write about family law. I've got
a good divorce novel in mind, and also a short story called "The
Divorce Lawyers' Ball," about an annual Christmas party
for people who spend their professional lives splitting up families.
It should be uplifting.
DM) Doesn't it get rather depressing to be a divorce lawyer?
JB) Oh, yes. Sometimes people are at their worst then. But
some people really need to get divorced. I try only to take on
the clients who seem to be in the right. (Of course, they all are when they tell you their stories.) And it's not just divorce
cases. Last month I had a hearing in which I represented a father
who'd been kept from seeing his 3-year-old son for the past 8
months - just coincidentally, since the month he'd gotten remarried.
At the end of the hearing, the judge lectured the mother on her
bad behavior, and my client got to see his son a few hours later. Soon after that, he got to spend Christmas with his son.
When he came to pick him up, he invited me to go to lunch with
them so I could meet the son. They were wonderful together. So
sometimes family law can be very gratifying.
DM) Which of the characters do you find resembles yourself
the most?
JB) That's a tough question. I liked the characters in ANGEL
OF DEATH very much, so much, in fact, that I've already written a second
novel about Chris Sinclair and Anne Greenwald. I even liked the
villain, Malachi Reese, though some reviews have called him pure
evil. In two earlier books I wrote about a fictional District
Attorney named Mark Blackwell, who was ten years older than I
was, with much more experience in the practice of law, and rather
cynical. Then I wrote about another fictional D.A., Chris Sinclair,
who is ten years younger than I am, and in some ways much more
idealistic. Oddly, I've mellowed a lot in the last ten years,
so I guess I resemble Chris more than I did Mark Blackwell. But
my favorite character in the books is the psychiatrist Anne Greenwald.
I wish I were more like her.
DM) What do you admire about her?
JB) She's funny, she's smart, she knows her own mind. I think
Anne is the strongest person in the book. She's compassionate
- she works mostly treating abused children - but tough, too.
She's not afraid to tell anyone what she thinks.
DM) Who in "real life" do you admire the most?
JB) Nobody. How about you?
I mean it; I can't come up with someone I really admire. And
I don't think I'm alone in this. Look at the phenomenon in Washington.
What Republicans don't seem to understand is that most of us
in America don't admire the President, we certainly don't respect
him, we just think he's doing a good job and should be left alone
to do it. Does anyone have heroes any more? Do we need them?
Only sports fans seem to have heroes, and, sorry, I just don't
care about sports. Michael Jordan seems to be a good person,
but I'd only admire him if he'd tell Nike to stop exploiting
child labor in Asia instead of taking millions of dollars from
them to help sell their lousy sneakers.
Sorry, I'm starting to let my cynicism show. Let me just add
that my only continuing hero as a writer is Mark Twain. Love
him.
