Dylan Schaffer writes:
One day I went to a party and my friend approached me with some pictures he'd taken of dogs. He asked me to write some dialogue to go along with the photos. I went home that night and wrote a few hundred words. He made a little booklet of the pictures and dialogue and I sent it to my friend at Chronicle Books. A few weeks later we had a book contract. So I suppose my entry into professional writing was fairly painless. But things took a distinctly downward turn thereafter.
I wrote a couple of screenplays which were rejected everywhere. I wrote two novels, also rejected. In attempting to rewrite one of the novels I came up with an idea for a third, and decided to put away the first two and try again from scratch. This was the book that eventually became Misdemeanor Man, my first published novel. The writing and rewriting of that book, from start to sale, took about six months.
All told, it was eight years from the party to publication of the novel. Seems like a long time, but during most of that span I had a full-time job.
Dylan Schaffer lives in the Bay Area where he is an appellate attorney. His first book, Misdemeanor Man, recently won the Gumshoe Award for Best First Novel. Its sequel, I Right the Wrongs, is scheduled for publication this May.
