I Wrote a Book… But I am Not an Author

If you go to any public library in WakeCounty, North Carolina and navigate to Dewey Decimal number 340.92, you'll see a book entitled, You Can't Make This Stuff Up: My Criminal  Law War Stories. Take a look at it. It's a very special book. Why? Because I wrote it and I am NOT an author.

 To my mind and author is one who comes up with a concept, and then conducts significant research to map out the world he/she intends to write about. Then comes character development, setting, plot, conflict, and ultimately resolution. All of this serves as the basis were drafting some 65,000 to 80,000 words to make the concept come alive and interesting to an audience. Not many of us have the time, skill and,  or that matter, the patience to bring an idea full circle into a book. But does that mean the rest of us are excluded? Clearly, the answer is “No.” While we may not be considered in the same league as New York Times best selling authors, we are writers nevertheless. And we do it writers do "We Write”.

 Writing to me is like an artist painting. You take a white sheet of paper as an artist looks upon a canvas, and we start to paint with the color of words. Well, all writers may not be authors. All authors are writers. Writers have an innate desire to share ourselves, and that causes us to sit with paper and pen or the keyboard words we would like to hear. While our ancestors used drawings on cave walls to record their history, we have the opportunity to do so much more.

 I never considered myself an author, but rather a storyteller. I don't concern myself with plot, character development, and the rest of the things that goes into a novel because all of those tasks are already done for me in a story I'm about to tell you. I see my job is taking actual cases and retelling them in a way that is interesting and hopeful instructional for the reader. All my stories are basically true. I wrote the book from the point of view of letting the reader know what really happens in criminal cases. In essence, taking them behind the scenes of an arrest and trial to see how criminal cases impact prosecutors, victims, defendants, defense council, police and judges in both funny and sad situations.

 As I often said, I like to take the kernel of a true story and make popcorn out of it if.  I'm really successful, it turns out to be Caramel Popcorn.