John Lescroart |
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“John Lescroart is one of the best thriller writers to come down the pike."
—Larry King, USA Today
J
ohn Lescroart is a big believer in hard work and single-minded dedication, although he'll acknowledge that a little luck never hurts. Now a New York Times bestselling author whose books have been translated into 16 languages in more than 75 countries, John wrote his first novel in college and the second one a year after he graduated from Cal Berkeley in 1970.
The only hitch was that he didn't even try to publish either of these books until fourteen years later, when finally, at his wife Lisa's urging, he submitted Son of Holmes to New York publishers—and got two offers, one in hardcover, within six weeks!
But about six years before that first hardcover publication, John's ambition to become a working novelist began to take shape. At that time, as Johnny Capo of Johnny Capo and His Real Good Band, he'd been performing his own songs for several years at clubs and honky-tonks in the San Francisco Bay Area. On his 30th birthday, figuring that if he hadn't made it in music by then, he never would, he retired from the music business.
He'd been writing all along, and didn't stop now, although his emphasis changed from music first, prose second, to the other way around. Within two months of his last musical gig, he finished a novel, Sunburn, that drew on his experiences in Spain. Since John didn't know anyone in the publishing world, he sent the manuscript to his old high school English teacher, who was not enthusiastic. Fortunately, the teacher left the pages on his bedside table, and his wife picked them up and read them. She loved the book and submitted it in John's name to The Joseph Henry Jackson Award, given yearly by the San Francisco Foundation for Best Novel by a California author. Much to John's astonishment, Sunburn beat out 280 other entrants, including Interview with a Vampire, for the prize.
Though Sunburn wasn't to be published for another four years, and then only in paperback, the award changed John's approach to writing. He started to think he might make a living as an author, something he'd never previously believed possible for a "regular guy with no connections." He started paying for his writing habit by working a succession of "day jobs"—everything from a computer programmer with the telephone company, to Ad Director of Guitar Player Magazine, to moving man, house painter, bartender (at the real Little Shamrock bar in San Francisco), legal secretary, fundraising executive, and management consultant writing briefs on coal transportation for the Interstate Commerce Commission!!
John moved to Los Angeles and in the next three years finished three long novels, the last of them featuring a private investigator who shared the name Dismas Hardy (and very little else) with the man who would become John's well-known attorney/hero. Since he'd gotten Sunburn published without using a literary agent (an old friend had shown it to a secretary at Pinnacle Books in Los Angeles, who bought it), John went on submitting his work to New York over the transom, receiving many kind rejection letters, but no offers. Finally he realized that even if he wasn't fated to become a commercially successful author, he wanted to be involved in books and literature. So he enrolled in the Masters Program in Creative Writing at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
It was not to be.
While John and his wife, Lisa Sawyer, were preparing that summer to move to New England, he was paying bills by typing technical papers on coal transportation for a consulting firm. Asked by the boss what he thought of the paper, John commented that the argument it made wasn't very compelling and that it wasn't very well-written. His boss challenged him: could he do it any better? In a week, John re-wrote the 400-page draft, which went on to win before the ICC. This led to a "day job" offer that John couldn't refuse. Graduate school fell by the wayside.
But after a year and a half, even a lucrative day job had become a burden. Nothing would do for John by now but to write, but he had little time for writing with his high-paying, career-oriented job. Lisa suggested taking a look at some of the old manuscripts and submitting them—she remembered reading and liking Son of Holmes. How about that one? There was one 14-year-old yellowed and brittle copy of the manuscript left in the world—in the basement of their best man, Don Matheson's, apartment. Six weeks later, John had his first hardcover book deal.
Over the next seven years, back in Los Angeles again, John and Lisa were finally ready to start their family. During this time, John wrote several screenplays and published three more books while he held down a job as a word processing supervisor at a downtown law firm. He rose each day at 5:30 and went to a room they'd built in their garage, where he wrote four pages of his latest in two hours. Then he worked his nine-to-five, ate a bag lunch, and stayed downtown, typing briefs and pleadings at various other law firms until 10:00 or 11:00 at night.
Finally he was publishing, but he wasn't making a living. And then in 1989, at the age of forty-one, he took a break to go body-surfing at Seal Beach. The next day, he lay in a Pasadena hospital. From the contaminated sea water where he'd been surfing, he'd contracted spinal meningitis. Doctors gave him two hours to live.
John now looks back on his 11-day battle with death as the turning point in his career. He quit the last of his day jobs to move back to Northern California and to write full-time, with intense focus and a renewed dedication. The resulting books, richer in terms of theme and story, found a devoted readership and propelled him into the elite circle of bestselling authors—only twenty years to overnight success!!
Questions Frequently Asked of John Lescroart
(and their much, much less-frequently provided answers)
How do you...?
Stop right there. This is, hands-down, the most-asked question I get. Although I'm three-quarters Irish, my French last name—pronounced "less-kwah"—is courtesy of my paternal grandfather.
What order were your books published in?
Dead Irish (1989), The Vig (1990), Hard Evidence (1993), The 13th Juror (1994), A Certain Justice (1995), Guilt (1997), The Mercy Rule (1998), Nothing But the Truth (1999), The Hearing (2001), The Oath (2002), and The First Law (2003).
Where did you go to law school?
I didn't. I graduated from Cal Berkeley with a degree in English Literature.
I heard you are also a musician. What's up with that? Are you still making music?
Shhh. Not here. This is the John Lescroart book site. Look for an all-new Web site about my music at date-nite.com in December 2002.
Where does the name "Dismas" come from?
I was raised Roman Catholic and in the pantheon of saints in that religion was Saint Dismas, who was supposedly "the good thief" on Calvary, crucified next to Jesus. He is the patron saint of thieves and murderers.
Why do I feel like I read A Certain Justice and Guilt out of order, even though by looking at the published date I can see that I didn't?
I wrote A Certain Justice first and in the course of writing it came up with Wes Farrell's account of this trial he'd done that made him lose faith in the law. So when I finished that book, I decided to go both backwards and forwards and tell the whole story of Mark Dooher in Guilt. In a real sense, A Certain Justice is both a prequel and sequel to Guilt. The events of A Certain Justice happen chronologically between Parts IV and V of Guilt.
How do I find a harcover copy of Sunburn? What about Son of Holmes and Rasputin's Revenge?
Sunburn was never published in hardcover. Presently, it is simply out of print, and extremely rare. I understand there are a few online booksellers that have it, but it's going in paperback for, literally, hundred of dollars per copy, and that's just too much. Maybe someday I'll try to bring that book out again.
Son of Holmes and Rasputin's Revenge were originally printed in one paperback edition in 1995 by Primus/Donald I. Fine, Inc. in New York City. They will apparently be re-released in the relatively near future, so they should be easily available soon.
I bought Hard Evidence in paperback recently, but feel like I've read it before. Why is that?
Hard Evidence was RE-released in paperback, and that has caused much confusion! It was originally published in 1993.
I would love to see one of your books made into a movie. Are there any plans, and who do you see playing the lead roles?
As to the movies, I'm represented in Los Angeles, but none of my books has yet to make the complete journey from page to screen. That, as they say, is show-biz. My own choices for the gang include Dennis Quaid as Diz and Delroy Lindo as Abe but that's about as far as I've taken it.
Fun Facts About John Lescroart
- John, whose surname is “Lescroart” is French, three-quarters Irish, and descended from the French Robin Hood.
- John was a “professional” quiz show contestant, appearing on “The Joker’s Wild,” “TicTac Dough,” and “Headline Chasers” in the 70s and 80s. He was paid to play pilot games so producers could see how they appeared on camera.
- John once wrote transportation briefs for the Interstate Commerce Commission (not a favorite job of this gregarious guy).
- John actually tended bar at the Little Shamrock in San Francisco, a familiar hang-out in his novels.
- John has a guitar in his office and plays almost every day—he has written more than 500 songs.
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