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In 1988, I was five years into the practice of law and tired of the fact that no one—including judges—seemed to be interested in any of the legal stuff I was writing. I also noted that the hottest show on television was L.A. Law, and the hottest book in the country was Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent. There seemed to be this insatiable public appetite for stories about lawyers written by lawyers. So, I started writing, nights and weekends, still practicing law full time.

Finally, after four years, I had a 250,000-word monster in the box that no publisher wanted. But my agent assured me that I had received—get this—the most encouraging rejection letters he had ever seen. With his encouragement, I wrote The Pardon over the next seven months, and it sold to HarperCollins in a weekend. It’s now all over the world in 26 languages. Don’t you love happy endings?

LG: How does a thriller differ from mystery?

JG: After my first novel (The Pardon) sold to HarperCollins in 1993, my new editor sent me a thirty-five page, single-spaced letter describing “the six essential elements of a suspense thriller.” I still use those guideposts, and I share them with readers when I lecture about writing: 1) a sympathetic lead character, 2) a problem or conflict that commands immediate attention, 3) a worthy adversary in the form of a compelling villain, 4) every-escalating peril, 5) a dramatic, clear climax, and 6) a satisfying conclusion.

Or you might subscribe to my agent’s view. The key to a good thriller, he used to say, is in the first ten pages, with the test of a great ten pages being simply this: “Do you want to get to page eleven?”

LG: Good answer. Your books have several simultaneous stories. Any tips for keeping track of story lines?

JG: Outlining helps, but honestly I think your brain works this way or it doesn’t.

LG: Jack Swyteck and Theo Knight intrigue me. Did they come from your experiences as an attorney or straight out of your imagination? What ingredients make a character appeal to readers?

A lot of people think that because five of my novels are about Jack Swyteck, Jack must be me. That’s not at all the case. Jack’s father is Florida’s governor, and my dad is a retired stripper (I kid you not: he was a printer, and the technical term for his job was “stripper”). Jack’s love life could fill an entire chapter in Cupid's Rules of Love and War (Idiot's Edition), and I’m married 12 years to the love of my life. Jack’s best friend was once on death row, and my friends—well, maybe some of them do belong in jail. But cloning myself or my friends or my former clients is not what makes a character work. It’s about complexity.

My bad guys are never all bad, and my good guys are never all good. They have a past that makes you understand their contradictions, their flaws, and their motivations. They surprise you, too.

When I outline a story, I never outline beyond the point of conflict, where good clashes with evil. The ending always works itself out in the writing, which is to say that the characters show me the way. And if they have dark secrets they’re trying to hide, even better.

My characters are like my second family (dysfunctional, I admit, but still family), and their problems feel like my own. I know Jack Swyteck—my serial protagonist—better than I know myself.

LG: Did the idea for a hostage situation in When Darkness Falls come from one of your characters or somewhere else?

JG: It’s the first novel I’ve written where the plot unfolds in such a compressed time frame, and there is a lot of plot to unfold. I’ve long wanted to write a novel with that kind of tension, and a hostage situation seemed to be the most believed format.

LG: Last Call is described as a “bullet-fast thriller.” You do a wonderful job of building tension. How do you write such tight, tense scenes?

JG: Early on in my career my agent told me to make sure every chapter ends with a cliffhanger. He used to represent James Patterson, so you can see where that advice comes from. It has helped me make sure that every scene in the book adds suspense

LG: Tell us a bit about your process.

JG: I live in south Florida, so I write in my backyard. My outdoor office has these essentials:  a patio table and chair, a big shade umbrella, a laptop computer, a hammock, a hot tub, and a swimming pool.  The cell phone is optional.

For me a “normal” workday means putting on my oldest pair of shorts and favorite T-shirt, visiting the refrigerator every half hour, and explaining to my youngest daughter—who speaks more Spanish than English—that she can’t bang on the keyboard while daddy is trying to write a book.

It’s hard to say how long ideas percolate before you’re ready to write. My first published novel hit me like a proverbial lightning bolt. One night in October 1992, tired of staring at a blank computer screen, I went for a walk before going to bed. I got about three blocks from my house when, seemingly out of nowhere, a police car pulled up onto the grassy part of the curb in front of me. A cop jumped out and demanded to know where I was going. I told him that I was just out for a walk that I lived in the neighborhood. "There's been a report of a peeping tom," he said. "I need to check this out."

I stood helplessly beside the squad car and listened as the officer called in on his radio for a description of the prowler. "Under six feet tall," I heard the dispatcher say, "early to mid-thirties, brown hair, brown eyes, wearing blue shorts and a white t shirt."

I panicked inside. I was completely innocent, but it was exactly me! "And a mustache," the dispatcher finally added. I sighed with relief. I had no mustache.

As I walked home, I could only think of how close I'd come to disaster. Even though I was innocent, my arrest would have been a media event.

It was almost 2 a.m. by the time I returned home, but I decided that I needed to write about this. I took the feeling of being wrongly accused to the most dramatic extreme I could think of. I wrote about a man hours away from execution for a crime he may not have committed. What I wrote that night became the opening scene of The Pardon.

On the other extreme, there are books that seem to take forever. Your characters tell you when it’s time to let go.

LG: Your acknowledgements say that you have had the same agent since “day one of your literary career.” How did you find this gem?

JG: It’s actually a father son team, Artie and Richard Pine. A King's Ransom is dedicated to Artie, who passed away in 200l. I would never have become a published author if it weren't for Artie.

I spent four years writing a novel while practicing law full time, writing nights and weekends. Artie believed in that book, pitched it hard for an entire summer, but not a single publisher would touch it. Not many people could have persuaded me to start all over again with a new idea, page one, chapter one. But Artie had a way of making you believe that rejection was just another step along the road to success. Artie the optimist, I called him.

Seven months later, I had a new book written, and in two weeks, he sold it to HarperCollins. I continue to be represented by Artie’s son, Richard. Now, you’re going to die when I tell you how I found them. Cold query.

LG: That last line has punch and offers enough frustration to set up reader tension. Your style is wonderful. What advice would you give to people who want to write suspense?

JG: Have fun, and accept the fact that it is going to take some amount of luck to make it—the way I just described finding my agent is pretty good evidence of that. People tell me that I have talent, and I know I work hard. But so do a lot of aspiring writers. The difference between them and me is that I found my first break. My advice to them is to keep looking. So maybe it’s luck and perseverance.

I think you also have to able to answer this question: why do you write. For me, it’s simple: I love it. I keep an “idea file” in my closet, and I’ll never live long enough to write all the stories I want to write. It blows my mind that I actually get paid to do this. Truly.

LG: What are you working on right now?

JG: I have a huge year ahead of me. I’m finishing up the publicity for Last Call. I have a stand-alone thriller coming as an exclusive release to the book clubs this summer called “Intent to Kill,” which will be in bookstores in June 2009. For the next two months I’ll be busy putting the finishing touches on the January 2009 Swyteck novel (Born to Run), and I have to deliver the 2010 release by January 2009. As time permits, I will be visiting schools and libraries across the country to promote my first young adult novel, Leapholes.

LG: Wonderful. You are a prolific writer with a great voice for interviews as well as thrillers. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and turning your advice into stories.

To learn more about James Grippando, visit http://www.jamesgrippando.com/. You’ll find a fascinating biography and a wonderful story about his “office mate,” Sam, the family’s Golden Retriever, who “assisted” with eleven novels.

Let Jack Swyteck and Theo Knight guide you through the seamier side of Miami and some amazing searches for justice. The James Grippando collection keeps growing and they are all wonderful reads.

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