With his new book, first-time author Stan Gregory uses parts of his career as fodder for his passion…writing.
By Denise Clay
On one side of Miami, you have Demetrious, a man who has gone from a seat on the New York Stock Exchange to the streets of Miami thanks to some shady business dealings. His financial deal with the city’s most powerful drug lord, Rawlings, has gone awry…costing the kingpin $500,000….and putting his own live on the line.
On the other side, you Ben, a law clerk that works for a powerful matrimonial court judge who is trying to make ends meet, and finding it next to impossible despite the long hours he works. He could use some extra money…and he gets the chance to earn some by doing a “favor” for a mysterious man…
What happens when these two men get together is the plot of the new legal thriller The Law Clerk, the first boo k from Stan Gregory, Esq., a matrimonial lawyer from Burlington County, N.J.
Gregory, who has been a practicing attorney for more than 10 years, wrote the book as a means to flex his creative muscles, he said.
“I like writing,” he said. “I consider myself an artist at heart. I wrote the first version of this book in 30 days and I dreamed about a lot of it beforehand. I was a maniac for 30 days. Writing the book was the easy part.”
Editing however….
“Rewrites were tough,” Gregory said. “As a first-time author, I didn’t know about character development. So when an editor says that certain characters were flat, and the book is covered in red Xs, that can be tough. But after a while, the characters begin to speak to you as you develop them.”
But while the rewrites may have been tough, the book spawned by them is a taut thriller that may take you a few minutes to fully get into, but is a good read once you do.
Like most writers, Gregory incorporated some of his experiences both as a law student in Miami and as a former law clerk for a judge who presided over divorces for celebrities including actor/producer Kelsey Grammer and boxer Mike Tyson into his story. Gregory went to St. Thomas University law school in Miami after graduating from Rutgers University, thus he decided to make the hip, happening Florida vacation spot the setting for his novel.
But that’s where the similarities end, Gregory said.
“Other than the setting and what the main character does, I didn’t use that much of my life at all,” he said.
The Law Clerk is published by Nevaeh Publishing and can be found on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com and at your local independent bookstore.
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