The best advice Mike Lawson ever received was in a rejection letter from an agent who, after reading his spit-and shined manuscript told him that while the writing was just fine, it "didn't advance the plot."
Lawson, who since 1972 has lived in Magnolia and has spent his career as an engineer working for the U.S. Navy in Bremerton-and Washington, D.C.-is as thick-skinned as they come. He had sent hundreds of query letters to publishers and agents and received hundreds of rejections. Another rejection letter was just another bug on the windshield wiper, certainly nothing that would keep him from going where he wanted to go.
But that advice, stuck with him over the years, years that he has spent writing political thrillers (mostly while aboard a ferry on the way to work and on the way home). And so while developing his stories that center around lawyer and Congressional employee Joe DeMarco, he made sure the pacing was fast and the stories themselves, about scandals, terrorism and espionage, kept readers intrigued.
Still, it had taken him roughly 12 years to get a nibble from the publishing world.
"I got rejected by agents multiple times," he said. He found the names of agents by looking in the acknowledgements section of books he liked. And he was persistent, sending multiple queries to them. He said with luck, a lot of persistence and a little bit of talent, something can happen.
In 2004, it finally did and in a big way. Lawson got a call from David Gernert, a high-profiled agent (John Grisham is a client). Gernert said he liked what he had read so far of Lawson's first book, "The Inside Ring," and wanted to see more. Lawson immediately sent the rest of the text and within a few days, Gernert called back, while Lawson was vacationing in Las Vegas with his wife, Gail, and said, "Which do you want, Knopf or Doubleday?" Suppressing his excitement as best as possible, Lawson coolly replied, "Doubleday."
Shortly thereafter a two-book deal was signed and Lawson was well on his way to becoming the next John le Carré, Ian Fleming or John Sandford. Gernert even asked John Grisham to call Lawson to congratulate him on his deal.
"My family was more impressed that Grisham called than my agent calling with the book deal," Lawson said with a smile.
"The Inside Ring" was fine-tuned, edited and reedited and then sent to most bookstores in the country. Barnes & Noble had it on its new releases shelf. There was not a lot of pressure to come up with a second book, "The Second Perimeter," as Lawson had already written it. The third, "House Rules" and his latest "House Secrets" were already ideas in his head.
In fact, as Lawson begins his promotional tour for "House Secrets," the work on book five is done and book six is under way. These days, now that he is retired and doesn't take daily ferry rides to work, he spends three to four hours a day writing, either from his residence in Bainbridge Island or inside the Tullys in Magnolia. And to get a clearer sense of setting, since most of the scenes in his books take place in the greater Washington, D.C. area, he'll fly out there. The characters come from inside his head. Some of them are inspired by family. Rumor has it that Lawson's grandfather, a bricklayer by trade, had ties to the mob. But that, he said, is more myth than anything else. Other characters are composites. The avuncular Harry Foster, a man who knows just about everybody, might have a touch of Lawson's grandfather in him. DeMarco himself is a composite of Lawson and Lawson's imagination. And characters such as Marcus Perry, an intercity thug or DeMarco's colleague, Emma, a spy, are pure imagination.
Inventive characters and daily goings on (and scenery) in Washington, D.C. help to create the mixture of character and plot that bring Lawson's books to life.
"It's a target-rich environment," Lawson said. "The stuff that happens in Washington, D.C. is so fascinating and the government does such huge stuff, that every day there's a new book idea."
Mike Lawson will sign copies of "House Secrets" at noon, Sunday, July 19 at Magnolia's Bookstore.
[[In-content Ad]]Mike Lawson will sign copies of "House Secrets" at noon, Sunday, July 19 at Magnolia's Bookstore.
