Ask the Author: James Grippando
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James Grippando
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James Grippando
Sometimes an idea percolates in your head for years. Sometimes, the inspiration hits like a lightenng bolt.
When I first starting writing, I was working 50-60 hour weeks in a big law firm, secretly writing a novel nights and weekends. And, I had my share of disappointment along the road to success. After four years of writing, not a single publisher wanted my first manuscript. But my agent believed in that book. "Jim," he said, "you got the most encouraging rejection letters I've ever seen." It sounds goofy, but what else can you say to an author who's taken his best shot and landed face down on the floor? Artie the optimist, I called him. With Artie’s encouragement, I decided to try again, but I was having trouble coming up with another idea.
Then one night in October 1992, tired of staring at a blank computer screen, I went for a walk before going to bed. I got about three blocks from my house when, seemingly out of nowhere, a police car pulled up onto the grassy part of the curb in front of me. A cop jumped out and demanded to know where I was going. I told him that I was just out for a walk, that I lived in the neighborhood. He didn't seem to believe me. "There's been a report of a peeping tom," he said. "I need to check this out." I stood helplessly beside the squad car and listened as the officer called in on his radio for a description of the prowler. "Under six feet tall," I heard the dispatcher say, "early to mid-thirties, brown hair, brown eyes, wearing blue shorts and a white t shirt." I panicked inside. I was completely innocent, but it was exactly me! "And a mustache," the dispatcher finally added. I sighed with relief. I had no mustache. The cop let me go. But as I walked home, I could only think of how close I'd come to disaster. Even though I was innocent, my arrest would have been a media event, and forever I would have been labeled as "the peeping tom lawyer.”
It was almost 2 a.m. by the time I returned home, but I decided that I needed to write about this. I took the feeling of being wrongly accused to the most dramatic extreme I could think of. I wrote about a man hours away from execution for a crime he may not have committed. What I wrote that night became the opening scene of The Pardon. I finished the manuscript in seven months, and it is now available all over the world in 28 languages.
That's a long-winded way of saying that inspiration can come from anywhere. Take a walk. Maybe you'll get hit by lightening.
When I first starting writing, I was working 50-60 hour weeks in a big law firm, secretly writing a novel nights and weekends. And, I had my share of disappointment along the road to success. After four years of writing, not a single publisher wanted my first manuscript. But my agent believed in that book. "Jim," he said, "you got the most encouraging rejection letters I've ever seen." It sounds goofy, but what else can you say to an author who's taken his best shot and landed face down on the floor? Artie the optimist, I called him. With Artie’s encouragement, I decided to try again, but I was having trouble coming up with another idea.
Then one night in October 1992, tired of staring at a blank computer screen, I went for a walk before going to bed. I got about three blocks from my house when, seemingly out of nowhere, a police car pulled up onto the grassy part of the curb in front of me. A cop jumped out and demanded to know where I was going. I told him that I was just out for a walk, that I lived in the neighborhood. He didn't seem to believe me. "There's been a report of a peeping tom," he said. "I need to check this out." I stood helplessly beside the squad car and listened as the officer called in on his radio for a description of the prowler. "Under six feet tall," I heard the dispatcher say, "early to mid-thirties, brown hair, brown eyes, wearing blue shorts and a white t shirt." I panicked inside. I was completely innocent, but it was exactly me! "And a mustache," the dispatcher finally added. I sighed with relief. I had no mustache. The cop let me go. But as I walked home, I could only think of how close I'd come to disaster. Even though I was innocent, my arrest would have been a media event, and forever I would have been labeled as "the peeping tom lawyer.”
It was almost 2 a.m. by the time I returned home, but I decided that I needed to write about this. I took the feeling of being wrongly accused to the most dramatic extreme I could think of. I wrote about a man hours away from execution for a crime he may not have committed. What I wrote that night became the opening scene of The Pardon. I finished the manuscript in seven months, and it is now available all over the world in 28 languages.
That's a long-winded way of saying that inspiration can come from anywhere. Take a walk. Maybe you'll get hit by lightening.
James Grippando
I would encourage anyone who loves to write to give it a try. But you have to go in with your eyes open and realize that to make a career out of writing it does take some luck. People tell me that I have talent, and I know I work hard. But so do a lot of aspiring writers. The difference between them and me is that I found my first break. My advice to them is to keep looking. So maybe it’s luck and perseverance.
The first question you should ask yourself is “why do I write?” For some people the answer is “because I have to.” That’s fine. For me, the answer is “I love it.” At age eleven I wrote a comedy western and put my friends in it so they would sit and listen to me read it to them. In high school and college I was the guy who actually looked for courses that required you to write a paper. As a lawyer I published in more academic journals than most tenured law professors. I keep an “idea file” in my closet, and I’ll never live long enough to write all the stories I want to write. It blows my mind that I actually get paid to do this. Truly. But my point is this: until you understand why you write, you’ll have a hard time figuring out who you are as a writer.
The first question you should ask yourself is “why do I write?” For some people the answer is “because I have to.” That’s fine. For me, the answer is “I love it.” At age eleven I wrote a comedy western and put my friends in it so they would sit and listen to me read it to them. In high school and college I was the guy who actually looked for courses that required you to write a paper. As a lawyer I published in more academic journals than most tenured law professors. I keep an “idea file” in my closet, and I’ll never live long enough to write all the stories I want to write. It blows my mind that I actually get paid to do this. Truly. But my point is this: until you understand why you write, you’ll have a hard time figuring out who you are as a writer.
James Grippando
The best part is the freedom to write whatever you want, wherever you want. I live in south Florida, so I write in my backyard. My outdoor office has these essentials: a patio table and chair, a big shade umbrella, a laptop computer, a hammock, a hot tub, and a swimming pool. The cell phone is optional. My golden retriever, Atlas, is my only officemate. He brings me his rubber fish when it's time to take a break.
James Grippando
It’s a cliché to say “think outside the box,” but that’s sort of what I do when I see any signs of writer’s block. I think "outside the series." Eighteen of my 30 novels are in the series featuring Miami criminal defense lawyer Jack Swyteck, starting with "The Pardon" (1994) and most recently "Twenty" (2021). Within the series, I push myself by taking Jack to places that are out of his comfort zone—whether that be Guantanamo Cuba in “Hear No Evil” (2004)l or Washington D.C. in Born to Run. Other times, I stretch myself by writing a stand alone novel, like Code 6 (2023). Stepping outside the series not only keeps writer’s block at bay, but I also think it keeps the series fresh. Jack has a way of letting me know when it's time to take a break.
James Grippando
My first stage play, “Watson,” made its world premiere in late 2019. Based on the life of IBM founder Thomas J. Watson Sr., “Watson” tells the true story of the Nazi’s use of IBM technology to process census data and other personal information in the 1930s, which led to the world’s first personal information catastrophe: the systematic identification of Jews for extermination.
As I was writing “Watson,” I couldn’t help being reminded of the adage, “History repeats itself.” Most of us don’t worry about Big Data and “data mining”—the harvesting of our personal information from cyberspace—as much as we probably should. I didn’t want to adapt the play “Watson” into a historical novel, per se. But I did quickly fall in love with the idea of writing a thriller that was set in the modern world of data mining, and that, at the same time, drew on the warnings of the past.
The story really gelled with the creation of the lead character, Kate Gamble. Kate is a young playwright, which provided the hook for incorporation of my play “Watson” into the storyline. Kate has a unique insight into the world of Big Data, since her father is the CEO of one of the largest data mining tech companies in the world. Through Kate’s eyes the novel addresses the central question: “At what price do we open our lives to Big Data?”
As I was writing “Watson,” I couldn’t help being reminded of the adage, “History repeats itself.” Most of us don’t worry about Big Data and “data mining”—the harvesting of our personal information from cyberspace—as much as we probably should. I didn’t want to adapt the play “Watson” into a historical novel, per se. But I did quickly fall in love with the idea of writing a thriller that was set in the modern world of data mining, and that, at the same time, drew on the warnings of the past.
The story really gelled with the creation of the lead character, Kate Gamble. Kate is a young playwright, which provided the hook for incorporation of my play “Watson” into the storyline. Kate has a unique insight into the world of Big Data, since her father is the CEO of one of the largest data mining tech companies in the world. Through Kate’s eyes the novel addresses the central question: “At what price do we open our lives to Big Data?”
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