Bookpleasures.com welcomes as our guest William Manchee author of the Stan Turner Mystery series, the Rich Coleman novels, the Tarizon Saga and two stand-alone novels, Uncommon Thief and the Prime Minister's Daughter. He has also written a non-fiction work for small business owners, You Can Save Your Small Business. William is not only an author, but he is also a consumer lawyer practising in Dallas, Texas with his son Jim.

Good day 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 learn about the publishing business.  Like everyone else, I had been spinning a story around in my head for years but never put it on paper.

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

Once I started writing, the story came pouring out. I was shocked and amazed, but not as much as my family when I told them I had written a novel.

Norm: What did you find most useful in learning to write? What was least useful 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, and started with legal thrillers inspired by my experiences as a lawyer.

This made the process go quickly since there was no research necessary.  I didn’t find writing classes or writing groups that helpful. I didn’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 narrator spends a lot of time on the setting and exploring the inner thoughts and motivations of each character, so I let the characters do the talking through a lot of dialogue.

This allows the reader figure out what the character’s are thinking. I move the story along quickly and don’t waste time on events that don’t matter. 

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

William:  After Second Chair, a Stan Turner Mystery, came out a reader asked me if I had intended to write an anti-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 very therapeutic, so I looked forward to writing an hour or two every night. It was a great escape.

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

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

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

The next time I sit down, I repeat the process, adding new characters and events a long the way. It’s amazing at how quickly the story moves along and the story unfolds, and I rarely have to rewrite anything.    

Norm: How much of Bitter Choices is realistic? As a follow up, where did you get your information or ideas for the novel? 

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

The immigration and sex trafficking was the original objective of the novel. I was distressed that there was so much attention to historical slavery in America when actual slavery existed today, in the form of human trafficking, sexual exploitation, drug addiction, and exploitation of immigrants by gangs and cartels, which may be as bad or worse as it was in the Civil War era, but today is often tolerated and ignored.

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

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

Norm: What was the most difficult part of writing Bitter Choices? 

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

This can make the beginning of the book a bit tedious and boring. So, the challenge was to make the characters engaging enough that the readers would stick with the book until the excitement began.

Norm: What was one of the most surprising thing or thing you learned in creating Bitter Choices? 

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

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

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

I use this same technique in my novels by having three story lines going at once. That way something important is always happening on one of the cases which keeps the reader engaged and keeps the timeline realistic.

Norm: Where can our readers find out more about you and Bitter Choices?

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 egregious practices, so that might spark a new Rich Coleman novel.

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

William:  Earl Stanley Gardner (Perry Mason) was my childhood favorite. Over the years I have had the pleasure of meeting Lisa Scottoline, and I have enjoyed her novels. There are many more, but I like the writing style 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