How to Know If You're Really a Writer

"I was in my first weeks as a prosecutor in Portland, Oregon, when I was asked to work on a truly puzzling case. A man who had murdered his girlfriend in Washington was now confessing to several other murders, including one committed in Portland five years earlier. Problem was, our office had already convicted two people of aggravated murder in the case. My job was to help convict the new defendant and exonerate the two old defendants. As a long time reader of crime fiction, I kept hearing myself think, "What if this?" and "What if that?" By the time I left the DA's office five years later, I knew the culture, characters and voices of law enforcement. I had asked "What if?" so many times that I had the kind of twisting, turning plot I've always appreciated as a reader. I thought I was finally ready to write." — Alafair Burke, If You Were Here

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