Today, on Jorie Loves A Story, I am featuring author Robert Bailey who has written a legal thriller entitled: The Professor! Oft in eager search of my next legal drama find, I jumped at the chance to not only interview a début author who is breaking out into this wicked and thrilling section of literature, but to review the book as well! Therefore, this interview will serve as a glimpse into the life of the writer behind the book before I reveal my recollections of reading the story! I am always striving to bring additional content to my bookish blog which correlates with the stories I am seeking out to read. It is my honour to bring you Mr. Bailey’s conversation:
When did you first pick up the pen and realise you were a writer? What were your influences?
Bailey responds: I took a creative writing class my senior year of college, where I wrote four short stories. My critiques were fairly positive, but more importantly, I loved the process of creating the stories. That is probably when I knew I wanted to be a writer. Early influences were John Steinbeck’s novels and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. In college, I became enraptured with John Grisham, and loved Jake Brigance in A Time to Kill and Mitch McDeere in The Firm.
I picked up Grisham a bit younger than you did, as I read my first novel of his when I was fourteen. I must admit, it was the hardest hitting one by a yard and a half too! (A Time to Kill) My favourite reading of his works back in the mid-90s was actually “The Pelican Brief”. I sort of bridged myself into a different timescape of reading a year prior when I was thirteen as I was soaking into Michael Crichton’s works of science fiction. It was the science behind Jurassic Park which intrigued me the most; such as chaos theory. With Grisham it was the depth of the character’s development and central core of the story which held my attention in rapt emotion. I segued into reading Tom Clancy, Debbie MaComber, Cameron Judd, and Dana Fuller Ross. I always find it intriguing which authors spark the creative musings in writers. As much as seeing where their reading adventures take them. If I had to choose, I’d pick Mitch McDeere from The Firm, as I can handle re-reading that story far easier than your most beloved. Honestly, until I picked up Masquerade by Gayle Lynds at eighteen I wasn’t sure if I could find another writer who wrote thrillers in the vein I appreciate!
What writers attracted you the most? And, why? (John Grisham notwithstanding as your billed as a like-minded author)
Bailey responds: Obviously, John Grisham was a huge influence. However, as I have grown as a reader and a writer, I have also been attracted to Michael Connelly (It doesn’t get much better than the Harry Bosch series), Greg Iles (I love the Penn Cage series starting with The Quiet Game), John Sandford, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, C.J. Box and Michael Koryta. I tend to enjoy series characters, so that I can follow a character through multiple stories and challenges. I love how Greg Iles has created a fictional world, where characters are sometimes the protagonist and come back later in supporting roles and cameos. When I began writing The Professor, I was hoping to create a similar factional world in Alabama and Tennessee as Iles has created in Mississippi and Louisiana. King and Koontz are so terrific at creating characters and unusual situations that I gravitate towards their work and am always looking for the next one. I enjoy C.J. Box, because game warden Joe Pickett lives in Wyoming, a place I have never been but have always wanted to visit, and I think it is original and different for a series to star a game warden. I love the pacing and main characters in Sandford’s(Lucas Davenport series) and Koryta’s (Lincoln Perry series) novels.
I read a hearty amount of Dean Koontz freshman and sophomore year, as I could borrow the books out of my school library. I was enjoying my time with Koontz until I made the fatal mistake of reading “Mr. Murder”. Perhaps it was my fifteen year old self finding the connections inside the story a bit too haunting to shake off rather than continuing to read his other works, but I had to let Koontz stay on the shelf. Stephen King was always a writer I had a great respect for except to say I was never one for an appreciation for ‘horror’. When “Hearts in Atlantis” (motion picture) and “The Dead Zone” (tv serial) were released I found myself a bit gobsmacked to be attracted to two of King’s story-lines! Part of me always leaves the door open for the unexpected as you simply never know how the tides could turn and bring you into a story by a writer you might have overlooked as plausible! I appreciated reading not only the names of writers you appreciate but the full reason behind why you read them! Wicked inclusion!
Is it true that being a lawyer who studies the law and writes briefs for a living is inspired to write fiction?
Bailey responds: I don’t necessarily think writing legal briefs has inspired me to write fiction. However, as a trial lawyer, I am constantly developing the story of a case to present to a jury. The jury is the audience, and the witnesses are the characters that make up the story. I think my love of jury trials has certainly inspired me to write fiction.
I had crafted this question after another lawyer turnt writer had eluded to the sentiment that one world would help inside the other. You both have similar answers but from different perspectives. She felt writing was akin to the briefs whereas you find yourself more acquainted with the art of story-telling based on your experiences of delivering a story in front of an audience.
What is your greatest triumph besides your first novel “The Professor”? Can you elaborate?
Bailey responds: My wife and I had difficulty having our first child. It took us almost two years to get pregnant, and we ended up needing assistance from a reproductive specialist. I’ll never forget the sense of triumph, elation and relief that I felt when I saw the faded blue line next to the solid blue line on that test in early 2004. Nine months later, James Randall Bailey (“Jimmy”) came into the world. Fifteen months later, Robert Newell Bailey, III (“Bobby”) joined him. Five years later, Allie Dale Bailey (“Allie”) came into our lives too. My kids are my greatest triumph. Nothing else is even close.
Congratulations! You were blessed with not one but three wonderful children, of whom I can tell light up their father’s life with a heap of joy! Many blessings to all of you!
What do you find trickier… in depth research or writing from your imagination?
Bailey responds: Probably in-depth research. Not so much the research itself, mind you, but incorporating factual information into the story without losing the reader. Every story requires some research, as you do not want to get any major details wrong about a setting or something you are describing. The trickiest part is not to let research get in the way of the story. Any details should only serve to enhance and move the story. In The Professor, one of the trickier things I needed to get across to the reader early on was that the driving schedules Jack Willistone put his drivers on violated federal regulations and exposed him to possible jail time if he were caught. The hard part was trying to get this information across without bogging the reader down too much in the minutia of trucking law.
Alas! A writer who finds the same difficulty as I do myself! Yes, its not always the breadth of the research we undertake but how to pick and choose the precision of its inclusion! I find it to be a tricky balance at times for the very reason you said it is for you: not to yield the flow of the story for the sake of the research! Or as you said to give out too much information or rhetoric and lose your reader completely! I found myself reading a book that went into too much of this last year, and it ruined my continuation of the story.
As a boy, were books always a part of your life?! What were your favourite literary genres?!
Bailey responds: Yes, books were a big part of my early childhood. My favorite books as a boy were The Red Pony and The Pearl by John Steinbeck, and Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. I also loved the Encyclopedia Brown mystery books, the Hardy Boys and the Choose Your Own Adventure books. My favorite genres were probably mysteries and sports fiction. There was a youth sports novel called Rebound—I’m not sure of the author’s name–which I absolutely loved as a seventh grader. I would skip lunch to go to the library to read it.
I enjoyed seeing what you read as a young boy, as although I knew of the Encyclopedia Brown series, for whichever reason, they were not in my life. Quite odd really considering I read the Hardy Boys & Nancy Drew as if both were mysteriously going out of fashion! Laughs. Steinbeck is one author I shied away from along with George Orwell. I was more into reading about horse dramas and Westerns than in sinking into the harder hitting classics. You would have adored Andrew Clements (his Keepers of the School series). Huckleberry & Sawyer were always among my favourites.
Are you at a crossroads? Are you going to continue to practice law full-time or write full-time? OR both?
Bailey responds: I think my writing complements my law practice very well and vice versa, so I will continue to do both. I write in the mornings for an hour or two before work, and a little more on the weekends. As such, my writing does not interfere with my law practice. In fact, my morning writing sessions tend to charge me up for the day, so there is nice synergy between the two careers.
My hat’s off to you for your dedicated schedule, as I am quite impressed how not only The Professor developed out of such a small window of creative outlet but that you could carve out such a positive niche for continuing to write and develop it into a secondary career! Quite impressed.
As this is a launching point for a full-series, do you find maintaining continuity complicated or natural?
Bailey responds: It’s been a bit complicated. Initially, I did not envision Tom McMurtrie as a series character. I thought Rick Drake might come back in more of a starring role down the line and I had big plans for Bocephus Haynes, but I didn’t see Tom doing much besides playing a cameo role in future books. Continuing the character has been challenging, but also rewarding. Tom is older than many series characters, which makes him unique. I think it is going to be exciting to see where Tom goes from the end of The Professor.
Since you launched “The Professor”, do you have new ideas for additional series outside the genre of legal thrillers? And, if so, can you expound?
Bailey responds: I have a number of ideas for stand alone novels outside the world of The Professor. I’m not sure if any of these stories could morph into a series, as I haven’t written the character yet. I tend to think a series either happens or it doesn’t and you can’t really force it.
Are you contemplating taking your passion for football into fiction or non-fiction stories outside the scope of “The Professor”?
Bailey responds: I don’t know. Growing up in Alabama, football has had a profound influence on me. I could certainly see writing more fiction with a taste of football in it.
Whilst living in the South, do you find that you are leaning towards writing traditional Southern literature or only keeping semblances of its flavour?
Bailey responds: No one is going to confuse my writing with classic southern literature like William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor or Robert Penn Warren. However, I do tend to lean towards writing contemporary southern fiction similar to that of Grisham, Iles and Mark Childress.
Are any of your children interested in the creative arts such as writing? Or, are they following the family tradition of teaching?
Bailey responds: My kids are following the family tradition of loving stories. Before bed, my sons (ages 9 and 7) will read their own books, and I will read a children’s book to my three-year-old daughter. My oldest has started his own short story, and my seven-year-old writes a diary as part of his reading class for second grade. They all think it’s cool that the old man has written a real book.
I oft find writers who have a strong lineage of living histories within their families are naturally inclined to become story-tellers as adults. Was this a characteristic of your family?
Bailey responds: I don’t know about living histories, but my father is a history buff who has always entertained the family with stories of how his father (my grandfather) grew up in Jacksonville, Alabama and the different mischief he got into as a child. I was a history major in college, and have loved hearing the true stories of American history from colonial days up through the Civil War.
By ‘living histories’ I was referring to what you had described, the stories passed down through the generations of a family. The histories become ‘living’ as they are told aloud and given new life for each person who hears the story as if for the first time. I liked hearing about your grandfather!
Do you find the genre of legal dramas are undergoing a bit of a Renaissance? Emerging back onto the market with more dynamic story-lines rather than what we always expected to find?
Bailey responds: Legal dramas do seem to be making a comeback, mostly on the small screen with a lot more television shows featuring lawyers and law firms. Also, Michael Connelly’s Lincoln Lawyer series is such a smart and unusual take on the genre (the very idea of a lawyer practicing out of the back seat of his Lincoln is fantastic!) that I do believe doors are beginning to open for more like-minded stories and characters.
One of the stand-outs for me recently was “The Good Wife” as it took me by complete surprise! I hadn’t watched it whilst it aired on networks but rather through the syndication on Hallmark Channel. I misunderstood what the series was about apparently, as I was most curious to see Julianna Margulies in the role of a lawyer as I had growing up watching her on ER. Prior to this (as I only discovered it about a month ago!) I appreciated JAG and Law & Order (all three). And, yet I still remember how much I loved The Client (the tv series based on Grisham’s novel; my second favourite of his overall!) with JoBeth Williams? Lifetime had a good series in “For the People” but it simply never found its footing. I agree that the whole of the genre is inside a lovely Renaissance of new offerings! One series I still want to see is “L.A. Law”!
What would you consider a perfect day for you?
Bailey responds: Any day that includes writing and spending quality time with my family is, as Randy Owen and the group Alabama would say, “close enough to perfect for me.”
I think a day couldn’t be happier or lovelier without the inclusion of one’s family! Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and for giving such a personal glimpse into your life as a writer!
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I was thankful that Mr. Bailey had the opportunity to share his unique style of entering the legal drama genre as much as getting to understand a bit about his personal inspirations in both stories and in life. Even though I wasn’t able to connect with his novel, I was thankful I could host his interview as a way to better understand him as a person and as a writer. Perhaps what didn’t appeal to me will inspire someone else to try his novel? Please leave a note for the author if you have anything you’d like to say or ask!
This Author Interview is courtesy of:
The second half of this showcase is: my review of “The Professor”!
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Similar to blog tours, when I feature a showcase for an author via a Guest Post, Q&A, Interview, etc., I do not receive compensation for featuring supplemental content on my blog.
{SOURCES: Robert Bailey photograph, and the logo badge for JKS Communications were all provided by JKS Communications: A Literary Publicity Firm and used with permission. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Author Interview badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. I requested an Author Interview in which I submitted the Questions for Bailey through JKS Communications and received his answers by Ms. Lien.}
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