Thriller writer Margolin prepares like a lawyer

By Belinda Goldsmith

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - Thriller writer Phillip Margolin spent 25 years as a criminal defense attorney before turning to writing full-time and found his preparation for court was also an asset to writing fiction.

Margolin, who became a full-time writer in 1996, has just released his 13th novel, "Executive Privilege", in which the U.S. president becomes a murder suspect.

Margolin, 64, who was born in New York and now lives in Portland, Oregon, spoke to Reuters about writing and his career shift:

Q: Was this novel timed for an election year?

A: "No, I had the idea in the early 1990s. Writers like to push the envelope so I thought what if you had a president who was a serial killer? I usually get an idea for a book and think about it for quite a while. I kept getting ideas but could not work out how to end it. Then I was in my car about two years ago and the ending popped into my head. It just so happened to come out in 2008 in the midst of a presidential election."

Q: Can't you write without the ending?

A: "The ending is the most important part of the novel. It is what the reader takes away with him and I hate reading books that are great but have a lousy ending. Until I have a good ending I won't even start writing it."

Q: Do you work on more than on book at once?

A: "I can't walk and chew gum at the same time. I work on one book at a time and when I have finished I move on to the next one. Usually I have the idea for the next one ready. I have ideas periodically that I throw into an ideas file. If I have a lot of ideas for a book I will create a separate file for it."

Q: But you have the rest of the book planned out too?

A: "I was a criminal defense lawyer for 25 years and I am used to doing murder trials. I will do drafts of 50 to 60 pages for each book that take months to write before I start. I think that is a part of my legal training. You don't walk into a trial without knowing everything that can happen. I am like that with my writing. I've got into the habit of being very well prepared."

Q: This is your 13th book. Why did you decide to give up legal work to write full-time?

A: "I always wanted to be a criminal defense lawyer and the writing was sort of a hobby. I loved my law practice but I had been doing it for about 25 years and it was mainly death penalty murder cases and federal drug conspiracy cases and you are in court for a long time. My first two books were not bestsellers but my third book was. When I ended up being out of state for about three months on book promotions I realized that you cannot do that and give 100 percent to a murder case so you have no business starting it. I loved being a lawyer but I loved being a writer too and it is less stressful so I gave it a shot and it has worked out very nicely."

Q: Has you legal experience helped your writing?

A: "I have only used two real cases as a basis for books but the books I write are mostly about lawyers and murder and the fact I have done these trials helps makes them realistic so I guess being a lawyer has been a big help."