What was your inspiration to become a writer?

Mark Anthony Sullivan Hi David,
You asked what inspired me to become a writer. I guess the best answer I can give is that it occurred to me that I already was one. In the fifteen years that I was a trial lawyer I wrote numerous briefs trying to convince judges that my versions of cases were correct. More importantly I had to compose opening statements and summations to juries. The former were by far the more difficult. Having to explain to a group of strangers what a case, that they had never heard of, was really about was extremely challenging. I developed the attitude that, if I could open well, the rest of the trial would be much easier.
In the twenty years that I was a trial judge I wrote more opinions that I can count. Some were released in written form, and some of those published, but most were delivered orally. They all involved telling a story about what really happened. I also had to compose jury charges explaining legal issues to non-lawyers. Many were extremely complex as in medical malpractice and racketeering cases.
I had been wondering what I would do when I retired until it occurred to me, just keep writing. My first book was a legal one about consumer fraud. It was published by Gann Law Books and is now in its third edition. I have had another non-fiction book in progress for some time involving pre-Civil War slavery cases. Firebase is my only published work of fiction so far. I had an advantage with that, since I saved all the letters that I received during my soldiering days in Vietnam, and my parents had saved the letters I sent them. I am working now on another novel, set in Paris at the 1919 peace conference.

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