Alafair Burke on Writing and the Law

Alafair Burke - American Crime Novelist, Professor of Law, Legal Commentator… and a Downright Nice Person!

Along with hordes of other readers, I'm storming the gates this week to get my copy of ALL DAY AND A NIGHT!

IF YOU WERE HERE had me glued to the pages. Its back-cover blurb expressed my own thoughts: "Blistering. As carefully plotted as a surgeon's heart transplant!"

With a Phi Beta Kappa key, honors from Stanford Law and the Order of the Coif under her belt, Alafair Burke is, according to Harlan Coben, "A major talent!"

Michael Connelly says "She's got what it takes!"

So what is in this talented writer's future besides crime bestsellers?

• To qualify eventually for a senior LPGA tour!
• To provide a loving home (with Sean her husband) for two adorable four-legs - Bogey Duffer Burke Simpson (known as Double) and newcomer Frannie.

I'm delighted to share with you Alafair's responses to my questions on her writerly life.

T. Jacqueline Straw

photo by Deborah Copaken Kogan

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Thelma: What sparked this intriguing plot?

Alafair: This book isn’t based on any single case but on a phenomenon. With more than 300 exonerations through new DNA evidence, we are in an era where the once unthinkable is now undeniable: We convict the innocent, we imprison the innocent; we place the innocent on death row.

In this book, Detective Ellie Hatcher and her partner, JJ Rogan, are asked to serve as a “fresh look” team, essentially re-investigating the evidence against a convicted serial killer named Anthony Amaro who is serving a life sentence without parole. I thought that putting Ellie—a true blue cop who now lives with a prosecutor—at the center of a wrongful conviction case could show us a new side of her. Maybe she’d even learn something about her job and the people she works with.

In a way, I’ve probably wanted to write this book for more than a decade. The first murder case I worked on as a prosecutor wasn’t even a prosecution. My job was to help my office get two innocent people released after the real killer exonerated them. It was absolutely fascinating to see, with the benefit of hindsight, the bizarre turns of events that had led to their convictions. As a law professor, I write about some of the causes of wrongful convictions and the role that police and prosecutors can play in them, whether wittingly or not. I don’t think anyone sets out to convict an innocent person, but we’ve learned that there are red flags in the process: leading interrogations, single eyewitness identifications without reliable checks, faulty scientific evidence. Sometimes it just boils down to tunnel vision: once police think they have the right guy, they continue to process every new piece of evidence through that lens.


Thelma: What came first… the characters, the plot, the actual puzzle?

Alafair: The character of Carrie Blank came first. She’s a young defense attorney whose half-sister was a stripper and a drug addict and was one of Amaro’s victims. She agrees to represent Amaro because she believes it’s the only way to make sure the police got the right man for her sister’s murder.

But working on this case brings Carrie back to her hometown of Utica and all the guilt she feels for escaping the rough neighborhood where she was raised. Years ago, I read a lengthy New York Times article calling attention to how difficult it is to break out of class barriers in this country. The article focused on three girls from poor families who were close friends and academic super-stars. Despite getting college scholarships, they all struggled to get through school. They had family obligations, distractions, and a hard time fitting into college culture. Carrie’s backstory grew out of that article.

Thelma: I confess I am most drawn to your standalones. Anything on the near horizon?

Alafair: I am just starting a new standalone this week! I’m really excited about it. But that’s all I’m saying for now.

I also have a book coming out in November that is co-authored with Mary Higgins Clark. It’s called THE CINDERELLA MURDER and is the start of a series based on Mary’s #1 bestseller, I’VE GOT YOU UNDER MY SKIN.

Thelma: Do you map out a plot in advance - or are you what they call a pantser?

Alafair: Oh, I am definitely a seat-of-the-pants kind of writer. But I usually don’t start writing until I have a good sense of the main characters and their motivations. It’s amazing how well that groundwork can lead you on the plotting journey.

Thelma: What kinds of scenes do you get a real kick out of doing?

Alafair: I love banter. I love fast-talking, quippy, dialogue-driven movies where all the characters are sharp-tongued and quick-witted. My favorite scenes are when Ellie is verbally sparring (in jest, of course, and as sport) with her brother Jess or her parter, JJ Rogan.

Thelma: Why did you start writing novels? You have had a brilliant career in law.

Alafair: I was already a big reader, especially of crime fiction. When I was the District Attorney’s Office in Portland (in the 90s), I got an idea for a book and became yet another lawyer who wanted to write a novel. When I moved to New York, I took a summer off to study for the bar. I figured I’d go ahead and start that book while I was at it. It took me three years to finish. By then, I was a law professor. Much to my delight and surprise, the editors who wanted to publish the novel assumed it would be a series. Who was I to disagree?

Thelma: Do you plan to base other novels on your legal experience?

Alafair: In a way, I would say that every book I've ever written was based in some part on my legal experience. Even when the characters are not lawyers, I am writing about the impact of crime on human lives, which I don't think I would understand at the same level if not for my time at the District Attorney's Office.

Certainly, though, some of my books are more squarely set within a legal context. In fact, the standalone that I am about to start has a defense attorney has a main character.

Thelma: Would you consider setting parts of your plots in foreign settings? If so, where?

Alafair: Ooh, that's a really good question. I do love to travel, and find myself including what I see in my books. For example, I recently wrote a scene set in Anguilla, one of my favorite places in the world. And in ALL DAY AND A NIGHT, Carrie dreams of going to Europe, because she grew up in a neighborhood where people didn't get to do that kind of thing.

I think I would be intimidated to set an entire book in a place I didn’t know extremely well. To me, place is as big of a character as any individual person. I didn't write about New York until I’d been living here for several years.

Thelma: Will you create a strong major male protagonist for a future book?

Alafair: Yes! I think I have written strong male characters, such as JJ Rogan, Jess Hatcher, and several characters in my standalones. (Patrick in IF YOU WERE HERE is loosely based on my husband.)

But the book I’m just starting has a main character who is male. Stay tuned.

Thelma: Can you tell us what's next on your drawing board?

Well, I’m going to try to start this week while I’m on book tour, so it’s hard to say much about it. Hopefully that drawing board will be filling up quickly.

Thelma: What kind of feedback do you get from your legal colleagues?

Alafair: For the most part, I think my fellow law geeks are thankful that they can read a book without major legal mistakes in it, which is a relief. But I've also learned by now that you can’t write a good novel simply by being a lawyer. People don't read fiction for legal detail or procedural information. Too much of it is a distraction.

I had to take more liberties with legal process than usual in ALL DAY AND A NIGHT. Wrongful conviction cases often take years, which doesn't really work for a page-turner. I have the pace of this case much faster than you're likely to find in real life, although I did try to set up for the reader why the case might move extraordinarily fast.

Thelma: Can you tell us what a typical writing day is for you?

Unfortunately, I don’t have “typical” writing days. I’m a full-time law professor, and my students come first. But when I have a day with no other obligations, I try to write as much as possible that day. I also love to write late at night (like really late, where I start falling asleep at the desk). Most importantly, I try to write at least a tiny bit every day. As long as I do that, I always have the characters and voices in my head and can pick up right where I left off when I get a bigger chunk of time.

Thelma: Describe your most comfortable writing environment.

Alafair: A few years ago, I bought a small studio that is all my own, and I love writing there. I also love to write at Otto, a Mario Batali pizza and wine bar near my apartment. I even have the bar manager, Dennis, as a character in the Ellie Hatcher books.

Thelma: Do you run your first draft by a valued first reader?

Alafair: I am extremely lucky to have my editor, Jennifer Barth at Harper, as my most valued and earliest reader. We have done 10 books together now. She’s invaluable.

Thelma: Do you ever plan to write a novel that takes place at another time in the past?

Alafair: That's one thing I can say I will never do. Parts of ALL DAY AND A NIGHT take place in the 1990s, and that's about as much history as I can take.

Thelma: What is the hardest part of the process for you in creating a new novel?

Alafair: Starting is the hardest part. Because I don't plot things out scene for scene, I have to trust my gut about when it's time to start writing. I usually wait longer than I should. You have to trust that you have enough of a sense of the characters to find your way through a beginning, middle, and end.

Guest Today: Alafair Burke

Here we give you the delightful Alafair Burke, not only a delightful writer but also a gracious and delightful colleague.  This is a post from her the past from her own blog, which you can find at: http://alafairburke.com/

Go there.  You will find not only her blog and much more about her, but also a photo of Double-Bogey Duffer Burke Simpson.  I would nickname him Mr. Cuteness, a name I would otherwise reserve only for my own family's new puppy, Peter King-Steen.

Annamaria Alfieri


I promise this next sentence is an honest intro to today's post, not just BSP: This weekend I officially joined the board of directors of Mystery Writers of America and became President of the New York chapter. (Pause for applause.) In preparation for the annual MWA board funfest (aka orientation day), the unparalleled Margery Flax requested a biography to distribute to fellow board members. I sent her the usual jacket copy:

A formal deputy district attorney in Portland, Oregon, Alafair Burke now teaches criminal law at Hofstra Law School and lives in New York City. A graduate of Stanford Law School, she is the author of the Samantha Kincaid series, which includes the novels Judgment Calls, Missing Justice, and Close Case. Most recently, she published Angel's Tip, her second thriller featuring Ellie Hatcher.

Her response was polite, quick, and resoundingly clear, something like, "Are you sure that's all you want to include? This is usually a longer fun one, only for internal board distribution." In other words, Yawn, Snore, Zzzz....

I can take a hint, so I gave it another try. Borrowing in part from my website, I allowed myself thirty minutes to hammer out something that would give those who hadn't met me yet some sense of who I am and where I've been. Margery's assurance that this was purely internal was freeing. After I submitted my specially-designated "MWA board bio," I couldn't stop thinking about the sterileness of those book jacket author bios, scrubbed clean of all personality. As writers, we're committed to exploring the human stories that lurk beneath the superficial, but when asked to describe ourselves: Yawn, snore, zzzz..... I've spoken a few times during author appearances about a hypothetical world in which books (like the law school exams I grade as a professor) would be published anonymously, their authors known only by a randomly assigned number that readers could use to "identify" the authors they consistently enjoyed. After all, what separates reading from television and film is the active role of our mind's eye. To read books without knowing an author's age, gender, race, religion, region, education, attractiveness, or work experience might truly unleash our imaginations. Despite my musings about a utopia of anonymous publishing, I've come to realize why publishers emphasize (and readers desire) personal information about authors. The most delightful unexpected benefit of writing has been meeting some of my favorite authors. I already read these folks religiously before I met them, but I'll admit that I read them differently -- and more richly -- now. I recognize the wry winks in Laura Lippman's most leisurely paragraphs. I hear Michael Connelly's quiet voice in Bosch. I think I really know what Lisa Unger means when she writes on Ridley Jones's behalf that she's a "dork." And those short, little, maddeningly frustrating sentences from Lee Child are now sexy as hell. But I didn't get any of that from the book jackets. As the traditional print media and personal appearance opportunities for authors to introduce themselves to readers continue to dry up, many of us have taken to the Web. We do that not only to get our names out there, but also because we recognize that readers are more likely to experience our written work as intended if they come to it with a sense of who we are. (For example, an online reviewer once dissed a line of Ellie Hatcher's, something like "kicking it old school." The fact that it's corny to talk that way is of course precisely why she'd say such a thing. And if the reader "got" Ellie or anything about my work, he'd know that's -- ahem -- just how we roll.)

So as we're knocking ourselves out to convey our souls to readers, maybe we should take another look at book jacket bios. The publishers are going to type something beneath that favorite photo: It may as well be interesting. And so, even though Margery promised to keep this unsanitized bio a secret, I've decided to blast it out to the world:

Alafair Burke is the author of six novels in two series, one featuring NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher, the other with Portland prosecutor Samantha Kincaid. Although reviewers have described both characters as “feisty,” Alafair might accidentally spill a drink on anyone who invokes that word to describe her or anyone she cares about.

Alafair grew up in Wichita, Kansas, whose greatest contribution to her childhood was a serial killer called BTK. Nothing warps a young mind quite like daily reports involving the word, bind, torture, and kill.

From Kansas, Alafair dreamed of fleeing west. Fearing their daughter might fall prey to a 1980’s version of the Manson Family (um, Nelson?), her parents prohibited her from attending school in California. Ironically, she ended up at Reed College, where the bookstore sold shirts that read "Atheism, Communism, Free Love," and Alafair found herself (lovingly) nicknamed Nancy Reagan and The Cheerleader.

From Reed, Alafair went to the decidedly less hippy-ish Stanford Law School. Although she went with dreams of becoming an entertainment lawyer so she could make deals at the Palm and score seats at the Oscars, she eventually realized she had watched "The Player" one too many times, and instead decided to pursue criminal law because she was obsessed with the Unabomber.

Most of Alafair’s legal practice was as a prosecutor in Portland, Oregon, where she infamously managed to tally up a net loss on prison time imposed during her prosecutorial career. (Help spring two exonerated people from prison to put a guy called the Happy Face Killer behind bars, and it really ruins your numbers.) As hard as it is for her to believe, she is now a professor at Hofstra Law School.

When Alafair is not teaching classes or writing, she enjoys rotting her brain. She runs to an iPod playlist with three continuous hours of spaz music (think "It Takes Two" by DJ Rob Bass, "Smooth Criminal" by Alien Art Farm, and "Planet Claire" by the B-52's). She insists that Duran Duran, the Psychedelic Furs, and the Cure hold up just as well as the so-called classics. She watches way too much television, usually on cable. She wants Tina Fey to be her BFF. She likes to drink wine and cook.

She discloses TMI on the Interwebs, blogging regularly at Murderati and logging teenage-territory hours on Facebook. She will golf at the drop of a hat even though she’s bad at it.

Most importantly, Alafair loves her husband, Sean, and their French bulldog, The Duffer. She also loves her parents, but if you ask her about them, she’ll ask you about yours.

What do you think? Should all authors let loose on their jacket flaps? Would it affect that crucial decision of whether to purchase? Would it change how we read? If you're a writer, what should your author bio REALLY say? And if you're a reader, what would you like to know about some of your favorite writers?

Riding the Beast of Social Media

The cool weather is back. I wake from my long summer's torpor and pick up my Authors Guild Bulletin. It says here that other writers are prospering in their careers through skillful use of social media.

How does one do this? A couple of years ago I got some advice from Janet Reid, the Query Shark, who gave me tips on improving my web site (www.kategallison.com), told me to post on my blog three times a week, and guided me onto Twitter. My Twitter handle is @kategallison. Oh, please follow me. I still don't have many followers. On the other hand I don't tweet much. But this is about to change.

Alafair Burke's Puppy

Alafair Burke (@alafairburke) is good on Twitter, Janet says. I follow her, and it's true. She shares personal stuff without grossly invading her own privacy, a fine line to walk, and interacts gracefully with other tweeters. Besides being a lovely person and an engaging writer, Alafair has a really cute puppy.

J.T. Ellison (@thrillerchick) was mentioned in the Authors Guild article as having an excellent Facebook presence. I looked, and it's true. Odyl helped her design the application, and Involver handles her mailing list. Constant Contact is one of many other services that will do this for people. The mailing list is used to direct the newsletter.

Maureen Johnson (@maureenjohnson) won an award for her Twitter activities. She's a lot of fun to follow. Her web site is very nice, having been developed over a period of years. The visual design is gorgeous, and the functions work well.

All of these women are writers of enviable success, and owe some of it to social media. What are they doing that the rest of us can emulate? Here's a plan.

Write a really excellent book. (Hey, I did that. A couple of times.)

Choose your social media venue carefully. Don't overextend yourself. Nobody does everything. Remember you're going to have to update early and often. Here's what's out there that's been useful for reaching readers:

• Your web site. You have to have one. I'll tell you what needs to be on it in my next post, and suggest ways to put it together whether or not you have technical expertise. Meanwhile check out the above links to other people's sites.
• Your blog. That can be the same as your web site, with a little tweaking. Blogger supports custom URLs, and a number of other platforms probably do too. (If you don't know what any of  that means, don't worry about it. We'll talk later.)
• Your newsletter. You will write this at regular intervals and your mailing service will mail it out to the people who gave them their emails and said they wanted it. (I haven't been doing one. Maybe later.)
• Facebook. You can put up an author page on Facebook, which is different from the "wall" you use to send baby pictures to Aunt Fanny. It can, and should, be beautifully decorated and fancy.
• Twitter. Post short, clever observations here, hang around to see what goes on, and become involved in conversations. Post links to items of interest.
• Goodreads. You should explore that. I'm no good at it.
• Youtube. You can put book trailers up, if you have the skills or the money, or you can post home movies of your puppy.

There are others. These are the most popular right now. I don't understand the usefulness of LinkedIn to writers unless they're looking for day jobs, but there are groups on LinkedIn where you can talk to other writers.

Be open to hiring help. (For setting up pages and mailing lists, that is, not for writing tweets, blog posts, or Facebook remarks. That's supposed to be you talking.)

So here I go, all set to drum up a little interest before the next book comes out (MONKEYSTORM, or maybe BUCKER DUDLEY.) I'm going to try out some of the things mentioned in the Authors Guild article as well as the things I talked about here. I'll let you know how it goes.

I am not going to get a puppy.

Kate Gallison