Bookpleasures.comwelcomes as our guest William Manchee author of the StanTurner Mysteryseries,the RichColemannovels,the TarizonSaga andtwo stand-alone novels, UncommonThiefandthe PrimeMinister's Daughter.He has also written a non-fiction work for small business owners, YouCan Save Your Small Business.Williamis not only an author, but he is also a consumer lawyer practising inDallas, Texas with his son Jim.

Goodday William and thanks for taking part in our interview.

Norm:How did you get started in writing? What keeps you going?

William:I represented a romance author once on a matter and had to learnabout the publishing business.  Like everyone else, I had beenspinning a story around in my head for years but never put it onpaper.

Thisexperience broke the ice for me, so I began to write my story aboutmy experiences as a bank courier while I attended UCLA.

OnceI started writing, the story came pouring out. I was shocked andamazed, but not as much as my family when I told them I had written anovel.

Norm:What did you find most useful in learning to write? What was leastuseful or most destructive. 

William:Working full time as a lawyer doesn’t leave much time for writing;so I stuck to fiction, used familiar settings and locations, andstarted with legal thrillers inspired by my experiences as a lawyer.

Thismade the process go quickly since there was no research necessary. I didn’t find writing classes or writing groups that helpful. Ididn’t have the time or the patience for them. 

Norm:What do you think most characterizes your writing? 

William:My writing style is unique. I don’t like stories where the narratorspends a lot of time on the setting and exploring the inner thoughtsand motivations of each character, so I let the characters do thetalking through a lot of dialogue.

Thisallows the reader figure out what the character’s are thinking. Imove the story along quickly and don’t waste time on events thatdon’t matter. 

Norm:Has a reader ever told you something about your books that surprisedyou?

William: After SecondChair, a Stan Turner Mystery,came out a reader asked me if I had intended to write ananti-abortion book. That blew my mind.

Norm:How do you find or make time to write? 

William:Practicing law can be very stressful, and I found writing to be verytherapeutic, so I looked forward to writing an hour or two everynight. It was a great escape.

Norm:Do you write more by logic or intuition, or some combination of thetwo? Please summarize your writing process. 

William:I am an organic writer. I get a idea about a story, usually from myown past experience, a dream or the news, and then I conjure up a fewcharacters and let them write the story. 

WhenI run out of ideas, I physically stop writing and go about mybusiness, but my mind never stops thinking about what comes next.

Thenext time I sit down, I repeat the process, adding new characters andevents a long the way. It’s amazing at how quickly the story movesalong and the story unfolds, and I rarely have to rewriteanything.    

Norm:How much of BitterChoicesisrealistic? As a follow up, where did you get your information orideas for the novel? 

William: A lot of it. The dynamics of the law firm, the personal injury storywas inspired by an old case of ours, the characters. I always have anactual person in mind when I’m writing a character’s dialogue.

Theimmigration and sex trafficking was the original objective of thenovel. I was distressed that there was so much attention tohistorical slavery in America when actual slavery existed today, inthe form of human trafficking, sexual exploitation, drug addiction,and exploitation of immigrants by gangs and cartels, which may be asbad or worse as it was in the Civil War era, but today is oftentolerated and ignored.

Norm:How did you go about creating the character of Stan Turner? Is theremuch of you in him?

William: Stan is the attorney I wish I could be. Of course, his life parallelsmy own, but he has much more courage, determination, and patiencethan I have.

Norm:What was the most difficult part of writing BitterChoices? 

William: Stories like these require a lot of background information which hasto be introduced in the beginning for the reader to understand thecharacters and events.

Thiscan make the beginning of the book a bit tedious and boring. So, thechallenge was to make the characters engaging enough that the readerswould stick with the book until the excitement began.

Norm:What was one of the most surprising thing or thing you learned increating BitterChoices? 

William: Unfortunately, the degree the US government and so many Americancharities were knowing or unwitting accomplices in human traffickingin America today. 

Norm:What is your secret in keeping the intensity of the plot throughoutthe narrative?

William: In a small law office each attorney has twenty or thirty cases goingon at once. Most of the time nothing is happening, but with so manycases something is always happening with a few of them which keepsyou busy.

Iuse this same technique in my novels by having three story linesgoing at once. That way something important is always happening onone of the cases which keeps the reader engaged and keeps thetimeline realistic.

Norm:Where can our readers find out more about you andBitterChoices?

William:They can go to my WEBSITE

Norm:What is next for William Manchee?

William:We are currently battling a large US bank over some very egregiouspractices, so that might spark a new Rich Coleman novel.

Norm:As this interview comes to an end, if you could invite three authorsdead or alive) of legal thrillers, who would they be and why wouldyou invite them?

William: Earl Stanley Gardner (Perry Mason) was my childhood favorite. Overthe years I have had the pleasure of meeting Lisa Scottoline, and Ihave enjoyed her novels. There are many more, but I like the writingstyle of James Patterson, so he’d be my next guest.

Norm:Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors. 

Follow Here To Read Norm's Review of Bitter Choices