The Story Behind the Book is Literarily Speaking’s newest feature. Here we find out either the inspiration behind authors’ books or how they got published. Today’s guest is William Landay, author of the family drama novel, Defending Jacob.
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I don’t know that there is ever a single moment of lightning-bolt inspiration for a novel, at least for a novel of any complexity. Usually the writing process involves the slow, methodical development of a story from a minuscule idea, like the grain of sand that, at length, becomes a pearl. That is how my own books tend to start, anyway.
In that spirit, here are a few of the little inspirations that led to Defending Jacob, the story of a man whose teenage son is accused of murder.
(1) I read a story once about a Long Island detective who was the son of a convicted murderer. This detective was a strict law-and-order man, but his own son was subsequently accused of murder, just as the detective’s father had been. The story was told in a famous Esquire magazine article by the New York crime reporter Mike McAlary. It later became the basis of a movie called “City by the Sea,” which starred Robert De Niro and a very young James Franco. That story, which was published in 1997, long before the birth of “behavioral genetics,” was the first time I ever heard the phrase “the murder gene,” a haunting idea, if not a scientifically accurate name.
(2) Before turning to writing, I was an assistant D.A., and my primary interest as a writer has always been in the human drama of crime stories. My first two novels were set squarely in the world of street crime. They are peopled with cops and criminals. All of which resulted in me being labeled a “crime writer.” The term never really fit. I always thought I was writing novels that happened to involve crime, rather than “crime novels.”
In any case, as time went on — I have been writing full-time about ten years now — my life became more about kids and family. I have two little boys, ages 8 and 10 now. Nowadays I’m more likely to be watching a Saturday soccer game than a criminal trial. So it was natural that I would want to combine these two strands in my life, the criminal justice system and the quieter life of raising kids in the suburbs. The result was Defending Jacob, a novel about a prosecutor and suburban Everydad whose son is accused of a murder.
(3) Inevitably, every book — every artwork of any kind, for that matter — is inspired by other artworks. Harold Bloom wrote about “the anxiety of influence,” but, as every honest author will tell you, it is really the ecstasy of influence: the feeling of enjoying a book or movie so much that you say, “I want to create something that good, a story that gives people as much pleasure as that one gave me.”
In this case there were so many artistic inspirations that it’s hard even to remember them all. There is Presumed Innocent, of course, the ur-legal thriller, the book that revived a moribund genre and showed us all how it’s done. And of course To Kill a Mockingbird, the greatest courtroom drama of them all — and written by a non-lawyer to boot (though Harper Lee’s father was an attorney and the model for Atticus Finch). Throw in the Paul Newman movie The Verdict, as well, as a model of how to depict the grubby everyday reality of practicing law. There are the twisty stories that rely on a storyteller within the story and therefore add an element of slipperiness into the narration: The Usual Suspects and No Way Out. I have always loved puzzle-within-a-puzzle stories like that because they surprise and challenge the audience.
I am sure there are other stories that inspired this one, too. Too many to name, but to all of them I am indebted, as some author someday will be indebted to me, I hope.
(4) There were so many people I met and stories I ran across during my time as a prosecutor. I always feel, after every book, that I have used up my supply of these stories and I’ll have to get out there and do some original research, finally. But looking back on Defending Jacob, I see how much of my experience seeped into it. Characters who borrow aspects of realpeople. The grungy courthouse where I used to work. Little stories and phrases from the old days. The story is fiction, of course, and the characters are invented. But every invention takes off from some basis in experience. I am sure there is more of the real world in Defending Jacob than I like to believe.
William Landay is the author of The Strangler, a Los Angeles Times Favorite Crime Book of the Year, and Mission Flats, winner of the Creasey Memorial Dagger Award for Best First Crime Novel and a Barry Award nominee. A former district attorney who holds degrees from Yale and Boston College Law School, Landay lives in Boston, where he is at work on his next novel of suspense. You can visit William Landay’s website at www.WilliamLanday.com. You can also become a fan on Facebook by visiting www.Facebook.com/WilliamLanday
Dax Rigby, War Correspondent – Why I Wrote it and How I Published It
Writers Association and has published approximately 350 stories in places such as Weird Tales, Whitley Strieber’s Aliens, Fangoria, Galaxy, The Age of Wonders, and the Hot Blood anthology series. John has published twenty books, including SF action/romantic adventure novels such as Beyond Those Distant Stars and Speaker of the Shakk (Mundania Press), A Senseless Act of Beauty (Crossroad Press), and Alien Dreams (Drollerie Press and Crossroad Press). Shorter books include A Mingling of Souls and Music Man (XoXo Publishing), Here Be Dragons(Eternal Press), The Voice of Many Waters (Blue Leaf Publications), Green in Our Souls(Damnation Books), and Bagonoun’s Wonderful Songbird and Childhood’s Day (Gypsy Shadow Publishing). Recent developments: MuseItUp Publishing published two novels, Dark Wizard and
When I was single and working at a high pressure job in Manhattan, it was all a bit overwhelming. I was dating but not in a steady relationship, and had a great group of girlfriends in the same situation. We would meet for coffee and talk about our dates, and the conversations were often more entertaining than the actual dates we dissected in minute detail. But it wasn’t until I found my way to a writing workshop that I was able to explore the truths underlying those conversations.
The Queen’s Gamble is the fourth book in my “Thornleigh” series of Tudor-era novels which focus on a middle-class family I created – the Thornleighs – as they rise up through three turbulent reigns. The historical record is always my jumping-off point for the novels, and The Queen’s Gamble was sparked by some fascinating research I’d done about the first international crisis the young Queen Elizabeth I faced. It was in 1559. Elizabeth was twenty-five and had been queen for less than a year. My fictional family, the Thornleighs, have at this point risen to considerable wealth, with some power in Elizabeth’s government, and they are deeply loyal to her.
In the fall of 2008, I left my job in the hope of something new, something better, something far less stressful than operating a quick-service restaurant. More than anything, I left in the hope of a professional writing career. I’d finally sold my first article for print – and that to a major publication – and figured that my hard work and long-held dream would finally meet face-to-face, that the doors would finally open.
My Dearest Friend is the last book in the Dukes of Lear trilogy. Although all the books are related, they are stand alone novels and can be read in any order. Without realizing it, the trilogy started life over twenty-five years ago when I began to write Consequence, the first book. The idea for the beginning of My Dearest Friend originated from a dream and just grew. It was a classic case of listening to my characters and going wherever they took me. There was one point where I was taken completely by surprise when Sgt. Patterson marched on to the scene and announced that Stefan had an illegitimate daughter – totally unexpected, but added yet another element to enrich the story.
I always tell aspiring writers that the most important thing they can do for their careers is read – and I have no better example of this than my newest novel, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MRS. TOM THUMB.
Renee Hand writes because it is a passion in her heart. She is a homeschool parent and likes to create books that educate and inspire the children of today. She was born in Michigan and still lives there with her husband and two children. She has a degree in Zoology with a minor in Chemistry. Renee is the author of the amazing mystery series known as the Crypto-Capers Series that encourages children to read by incorporating several topics of interest. The reader participates into the story by solving cryptograms and puzzles to solve the case. She is also the author of the Joe-Joe Nut and Biscuit Bill Series, which focuses on animal detectives. This series is a great way to teach children about animals in a fun and interesting way that captures the reader’s attention and yet fills them with knowledge they will be learning about in school. All books are great to use in a classroom setting to supplement various topics or to just enjoy. Renee is an award-winning author, receiving awards such as a Best Book Award, a National Literary Award and a Preferred Choice award for her children’s series and adult books. She has just recently won a Seal of Excellence award in Storytelling for her Joe-Joe Nut and Biscuit Bill Series. She has been writing for over twenty-five years and has nine books published. When she is not spending time with her family or participating in author events, she is coaching and playing tennis, as well as doing research for her books and many other things that keep her busy. Not quite sure what a cryptogram is and want to learn more? 
Thirty years ago, I wrote Sentiments of Blue while attending Western Michigan University. Back in those ancient times, a writer couldn’t store a story on a computer file. I left the manuscript somewhere in the basement of my first house, and over time, it seemed to vanish.
People of the Book is the fourth and final book in the Extreme Devotion series from New Hope Publishers. Like the other books in the series, People of the Book was birthed through my passion for the persecuted Church. I am a long-time supporter of ministries like Voice of the Martyrs and Open Doors, and I make it a practice to pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ who suffer for their faith daily.
story or person (though Red Ink, set in China, comes closest). With People of the Book, the impetus for my Saudi friend’s willingness to work with me came from an experience with someone she knew in Saudi Arabia, a young woman who was martyred—by her own family—for becoming a Christian. My friend put it this way: “She can no longer speak for herself, so I have promised God I will speak for her—every chance I get.”
Many years ago my wife bought and read some of the Mervyn Peake Gormenghast gothics. I looked at a few pages and found them too depressing to want to read. All safely forgotten when some TV producer decided to make an adaption, and lo… I happened to see it. Nay, sat through the whole thing trying to figure out if it meant something to me. Apparently it didn’t. Now, since I’ve never read more than a few pages opened at random I mean no disrespect to those who love Peake’s novels – I merely introduce what my negative reaction produced.
won a place at RAE Farnborough learning to engineer them, but found the reality didn’t fit the dream. Did a stint in the army and then away to Libya to join the oil circus. Flying objects only appear as tools when they now appear in his writing. 
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