Set in the brilliant and diverse city of Baltimore, Accidental Lawyer is a humorous, often irreverent portrayal of the dubious practice of personal injury law.
Jessica Snow has a crisp new law degree, a grinding ambition, and a pesky moral compass that is often at odds with her new job as an ambulance chaser. Her face and name appear on billboards and buses throughout the city, and if that isn’t enough to embarrass her mother, there’s a television commercial in the works.
Her elevated professional status has her wrangling with a local mob boss, duping a drug dealer, and confronting phony clients. With the help of her bold and brassy sidekick, Kari, Jess develops a remarkable proclivity for this ignoble profession by wrapping up difficult cases and finding new business in unexpected places.
When trumped-up murder charges are brought against her boss, she faces her biggest challenge yet—tracking down a killer. Along the way, Jess builds a new kind of family for herself, her own tribe, made up of friends, colleagues and clients, many of whom are sure to raise eyebrows at her mother’s dinner table.
Paperback: 260 pages
Publisher: TouchPoint Press (September 15, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1946920150
ISBN-13: 978-1946920157
Accidental Lawyer is now available for pre-order on Amazon!
-----------------interview with Crystal J. Casavant-Otto
WOW: Thanks Kim for being here with me and our readers today. How exciting!
I understand you are working with Stephanie Hansen and Metamorphosis Literary Agency – how did you end up choosing this particular agent and agency? What has been a highlight of this partnership thus far?
Kim: Somehow, I managed to get Stephanie’s attention, with a 140-character tweet about ACCIDENTAL LAWYER during a Twitter Pitch event. She passed my manuscript on to her associate, Jenn Haskin. Jenn and Stephanie demonstrated an immediate and genuine interest in me and my book. Their enthusiasm is beyond anything I expected. They are always accessible and work diligently behind the scenes in my behalf. It’s like having two intelligent and zealous cheerleaders at my side.
WOW: I must agree - enthusiastic is exactly how I felt when I first laid hands on Accidental Lawyer! I absolutely love the cover of “Accidental Lawyer” – were you able to have a say in choosing the cover?
Kim: Thank you! Yes, I did have a say in the cover. In fact, I hired my own artist because I was adamant about the cover reflecting the humorous and satirical tone of the novel. It’s not meant for readers who are looking for a hardcore mystery or fancy-pants literature. It’s a fun and entertaining read, and I hope the cover conveys that.
It was also important to me that the Baltimore City skyline be prominent on the cover. The story is set in Baltimore, and in the narrative, the City becomes almost a character by itself. My goal was to reveal the eclectic nature of the City, and highlights its assets.
WOW: You clearly based your book on some bits and pieces of real life, but what prompted you or was there a particular moment when you said to yourself “Kim, you totally need to write a book about this!”?
Kim: The book is inspired by my own experiences. I practiced personal injury law in Baltimore for ten years. It was not my chosen field but the sudden death of a family member who owned the firm propelled me into the practice. It was lucrative work, and that’s why I stayed for so long, frankly. But I would have preferred to be hunkered down in a law library doing research and writing legal memorandums.
After a while, I realized how unhappy I was in that line of work, plus I had two young daughters at home to whom I wanted to give more attention, so I left and never looked back. Once time passed, and the unhappiness of the experience faded, I was able to look back on that time and find the humor. That’s when I realized I wanted to share my experience and unique perspective through fiction. As I developed the story, I found it quite therapeutic using humor to reveal the good, the bad and the ugly about the practice of personal injury law.
WOW: I'm certain you have thick skin as a lawyer, but how did you deal with rejection and nay-sayers as an author? What advice would you give other authors as far as overcoming objections and rejection when it comes to their writing?
Kim: This book is very personal to me, so I simply did not allow rejections or nay-sayers to give me pause or shake my confidence. I think it helps that I’m fifty-something years old and have developed a tough skin over the years. But the truth is, there’s never been a book written that didn’t face negativity somewhere along the way to publication.
For other authors, I would say, stay true to yourself and your goal. Your writing is personal, it’s uniquely yours. If you know you’ve put solid words on the pages, your audience will take note – ignore those who see otherwise.
WOW: Great advice and I agree with what you said - that confidence comes with age sometimes too! Surrounding ourselves with great people is a help too. Speaking of which, are you a member of a writer’s group? What advice would you give for making the most out of a group, whether critiquing or networking?
Kim: Yes! We call ourselves the DreamWeavers. Our members are incredibly supportive. In addition to critiquing each other’s work, we share advice and experience on writing, querying, publishing and marketing. To those authors looking for a group, I encourage you to find writers like my DreamWeavers who will lift you up in this way. Even though we only meet once a month, just knowing I have my writing buddies to share the process with is comforting. Writing is a solitary pursuit, but it need not be lonely.
WOW: Well it certainly has been a pleasure! We hope to hear more from you!
Find Kim and Accidental Lawyer Online:
iBooks: http://apple.co/2wJlfME
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/2wGtHh4
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2j4D5Xa
Amazon: amzn.to/2w7qeEG
website: kimhamiltonbooks.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/khamiltonbooks
Facebook: www.facebook.com/kimhamiltonbooks/
About Author Kim Hamilton:
I believe that humor in all its forms is a handy weapon—a defense against unhappy, worrisome, aspects of life. It can be found in even the toughest situations if we look hard enough. And if we can find the courage to laugh at ourselves, all the better—it’s wildly therapeutic. That’s why I wrote Accidental Lawyer, to look back on a difficult time and see the humor. I practiced personal injury law on the streets of Baltimore for ten years. Being an ambulance chaser didn’t suit my professional or intellectual goals and it occasionally tugged at my ethics. A good sense of humor sprinkled with sarcasm and a hint of cynicism were my survival tools. The novel is a backhanded tribute to this profession and its unshakable stigma. It’s also a heartfelt bow to the otherwise, high-principled lawyers who wade in its murky waters. I live in the Baltimore suburbs with my husband in our partially empty nest. I have two accomplished daughters who make me proud every day. I consider myself a cool mom even though I drive a minivan, listen to a.m. radio and need help with my iPhone apps. When I’m not writing, reading or being sucked into social media, I watch sit coms and cooking shows, preferably with a chilled glass of pinot grigio at the end of a productive day.
3 comments:
I'm so excited to tell you that this book is fabulously hilarious - and in a few weeks I'll share my review, but in the meantime - this is one of those books YOU MUST READ!
Hugs,
~Crystal
Great interview, ladies!
I always hear about the twitter pitch and here is a real life example of it in action. That rocks!
Kim, I love the cover too, and it's so great that you had a say. Funny story: Crystal asked me to look at the questions, and I was like, sure, ask her about the cover, but usually writers don't have a say. lol I was wrong! You even hired your own artist.
Your writing group sounds very supportive, and your book sounds like a fun read!
Thanks for the interview. :)
Sounds like a good read. I'll have to check it out!
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