On Wednesday, June 20, 2001, I arrived at the office of attorney Sheldon Siegel, author of "Special Circumstances" whose second book, "Incriminating Evidence", is due out at the end of July. As I entered his downtown San Francisco office, I noticed a spectacular view. The interview began as my attention drifted to the rest of the office, festooned with banners, books, and covers proclaiming that this was either an attorney being slowly engulfed by exhibits in some sort of case, or the author of a very successful first novel published in various languages.
Fiatgirl: For a first book, yours did surprisingly well.
Siegel: Yes! It was a national best seller and was on the Chronicle Best Seller List for five weeks. It made the New York Times extended list and got up to #7 on the Amazon.com Hot 100. Plus, look at the number of different languages it got published in.
Fiatgirl: That's pretty amazing. Doesn't it seem strange to you that people from all these different countries are interested in reading a novel about the American legal system?
Siegel: I guess it just goes to show how far American culture has reached. Can you read Japanese? I'd be kind of interested in knowing what this one translated into Japanese actually says!
Fiatgirl: Unfortunately, no. With all the entries in the genre, to what do you attribute the fact that yours really stands out?
Siegel: I'd say it started with people in my classes who read my work, and my wife, who reads everything. Also, I was lucky to get the editor I did. She's an experienced editor and I think working with her helped give me an edge that maybe a lot of first time authors don't have. That being the case, I'd have to say that there was some luck involved.
Fiatgirl: What do the people here in the office think?
Siegel: Everybody's been really supportive. I've needed time off to go on book tours, and to work on the next book, and I've been able to arrange my schedule to suit my needs.
Fiatgirl: Are you planning on quitting your day job?
Siegel: Right now, I'm a part-time author and a part-time lawyer. Fulfilling the book contract is a lot more difficult than writing the first book. With the first one, I took about 5 years. Now I've got to write one in a year. That's why it's been important for me to get some time away from the office here.
Fiatgirl: Has the way you work changed a lot since your first book?
Siegel: For the first book, I wrote at night and when I was on the ferry going back and forth to work. Now, I got three months off and worked from the time my sons went to school in the morning until they got back, like a day job.
Fiatgirl: That brings me to another question. Are you working on another one?
Siegel: See that stack of paper in the corner there? That's the third. I'm now working on the fourth.
Fiatgirl: Did you ever have any trouble meeting your writing goals?
Siegel: Not really. Most days like that I'd be able to do about 10 pages. There were times when those ten pages weren't very good, though.
Fiatgirl: Were you ever resistant to any requested changes or suggestions?
Siegel: No, no. I can't think of any. Actually, it is the initial writing that's the hardest. I'm at my best when editing and doing revisions.
Fiatgirl: Have people here at the office asked you if certain characters in the book were based on them, or other people you work with?
Siegel: No one seems to think they are the ones characters are based on but they do ask me if one or the other was based on someone else we both know.
Fiatgirl: How much of it is based on you?
Siegel: There are some things I put in for the character at first which are very much like things in my own life. It's true that characters develop a life of their own, though, and after awhile, he came into his own so I didn't have to "lend" him so much. Some people may wonder how the ex-priest Mike Daley could possibly be based on the Jewish author, thinking that the main character must be like me, but originally the story was written from the point of view of Joel, the suspect. It was only after I got to the point where he was in jail that I started to think I'd better make some changes--how could the story progress if the narrator was in jail? That's when I switched to having Daley as the narrator.
Fiatgirl: What about Rosie? Where did she come from?
Siegel: When I made Daley the narrator, I realized that he needed someone to talk to. Since he'd just lost his job, I had to bring someone else in. Mike and Rosie also represent two facets of the Mission District in San Francisco that not many people are aware of. It's been in the news a lot over time and people are fascinated by it.
Fiatgirl: You mean the "dot.com" invasion?
Siegel: It goes a lot further back than that. Most people don't know that a long time ago, it was populated in large part by working class Irish folks. It was only later that the character of the neighborhood changed. San Francisco is such a unique place. I try to get that across in the books.
Fiatgirl: Are you a San Francisco native?
Siegel: No, I'm from Chicago. I got out here in about 1980 to go to law school.
Fiatgirl: You do seem to care about accuracy. I read a lot of books and more often lately find some continuity or factual error. I can't think of anything in your books that set me off. Do you attribute that to having good editorial support?
Siegel: That, and I consult with a lot of people in the process of my writing. Like you say, a reader can be turned off by mistakes. Readers are pretty sophisticated about the legal system these days, too, especially because of all the great legal thrillers out there, plus things like the O.J. trial. I don't think it's a good idea to take too many liberties with this. You do have to make an effort to entertain the reader, something you don't have to do when practicing law. In practice, you just have to make sure everything is clear and that all the parties understand what's in the contract.
Fiatgirl: So, who do you consult with?
Siegel: I know some people in the police department, and the fact that Mike Daley is an ex-priest is not a coincidence. I know one ex-priest who is a lawyer, and another who is married to one.
Fiatgirl: I've read at least one book where the author has introduced a priest character alongside an attorney, the first having lost his faith in God and the second having lost his faith in the justice system. Did you intend to have your characters play this out?
Siegel: No. I don't really have any big issues to write about, or axes to grind. That's a good point, but my point is more that Mike is really just a nice guy. That's just part of it. I had to give him some background, some baggage. And, I wanted him to be a good guy, and this seemed to fit.
Fiatgirl: I know a lot of people don't have a very high opinion of lawyers. Is this attitude something you were consciously trying to change by creating a character who is not only a lawyer but a likeable one?
Siegel: Like I said, I wasn't writing with particular issues in mind. I thought the book would be more successful with a protagonist people liked. Mike is the end result.
Fiatgirl: Do you think of your books as being educational?
Siegel: More like entertaining. My books are to help people get through that plane trip or pass time on vacation.
Fiatgirl: A lot of readers, when they are looking for new books to read, like to hear what other authors a new author is like, to help them decide whether it's worth their while to try a book. What authors would you compare yourself to?
Siegel: I think that people who like my books would like Steve Martini. John Lescroart--you know his?
Fiatgirl: Yes. He writes some stuff that's very San Francisco!
Siegel: I'd say Scott Turow but his stuff is a bit more literary.
Fiatgirl: How about Grisham?
Siegel: Definitely.
Fiatgirl: What are you reading these days? Do you even get much time to read?
Siegel: You're right, my time is limited. Most of what I read are legal thrillers by those authors I just mentioned, plus Gillian Roberts, Michael Nav, and some other local authors. Some of them I met in writing classes I took. I used to read more of a variety, different kinds of thrillers besides the legal ones. It used to be there were just a few prominent writers of legal thrillers--Richard North Patterson and Turow are a couple more of them--and you used to have to wait for their new ones to come out to have something good to read. Now, there are dozens, maybe even hundreds, and I can't begin to think of all the names.
Fiatgirl: Who would you say your favorite author is?
Siegel: Well...
Fiatgirl: I see you're hesitant to say anything. Okay, how about from any time?
Siegel: When I was in high school, Kurt Vonnegut was really popular and I read and enjoyed everything I could get my hands on by him. Also, "Catcher in the Rye". I kind of thought of my first book as "Lawyer in the Rye."
Fiatgirl: A lot of people in San Francisco remember the shooting in the building at 101 California Street. I understand you were working there when it happened, in the same office. Was there anything about that incident that influenced any part of the book?
Siegel: It made me decide that the weapon used should be a gun.
Fiatgirl: What about the current economic downturn? Do you think this will have an effect on book sales?
Siegel: I hope not! What I think is that people may delay that remodeling project or skip buying a new car this year but readers are readers and I think that books are something that people won't be able to deny themselves.
Note: Incriminating Evidence was released July 31, 2001.
You can check the author's website, http://www.sheldonsiegel.com, for a schedule of appearances at bookstores to see if he'll be in your area.
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Copyright © 1999-2007 by Erika A. Lockhart
