| |
 |
I
really can’t remember a time when
I wasn’t thinking of stories, then
writing them. When I was seven years old,
my oldest brother got a portable typewriter
for his Bar Mitzvah. I was transfixed by
it. Would sneak into his room and use it.
I read everything on the bookshelves of my
two very smart older brothers. When I was
15, I sent a short story to The New Yorker magazine. (I kept the rejection letter, on
their letterhead no less, for years.) I wrote
my first film script the next year.
After studying English
literature at University of Toronto, I took
a year off to drive cab (my Razor’s
Edge phase), hang out and write a book. |
I
drove, I partied, I went to Europe and
I think wrote
a line
or two in a journal.
At law school I spent
most of my time in the free legal clinic,
doing criminal cases, rarely going to class. The writing faded. |
| |
After
I was called to the bar, desperate
to get out of Toronto – and
avoid being a lawyer - I went to
the London School of Economics to
get a masters degree in International
Law, and managed to travel all over
Europe on various scholarships.
Back in Canada, I finished my bar exams and nine days
later hopped on a plane to Paris, where I became the managing editor of an English-language
magazine, Passion, The Magazine of Paris. I turned 30 in Paris, living
in
a tiny basement apartment, working insane hours, with almost no money – a
recurring theme in my life.
I had this plan to start a magazine in Toronto, came home
and, with a partner, created and published T.O. The Magazine of Toronto. Below,
left is one of my favorite covers).
Six years of ridiculously hard work, and, once again, very little money,
ensued. We folded T.O. in 1988. I was broke, unemployed. Not a great
time.
|
 |
|
| |
 |
I
had a job offer in New York at Newsweek,
but it was time to stop uprooting my
life. I worked for a year as a film
executive – hated
it - then spent as year a producer at CBC Radio – not a good fit.
With our first child on the way and broke yet again, I rewrote
my law exams, put $3,000 on my Visa card, rented a closet in someone’s
law chambers, hung up some posters from Paris, and started my criminal law practice.
I was 37 and starting all over, yet again. (I’ve now practiced for 18 years
with my associate Alvin Shidlowski and am very proud of our firm, Rotenberg,
Shidlowski & Jesin.)
And I started to write. I wrote a film script. I wrote a novel. My wife’s
best friend married a then-struggling young writer, Douglas
Preston. We became friends and, as Doug’s career took off, I read his
stuff and he read mine. |
(At right
is a picture of Doug and me in New Mexico
in the summer of 2008 with two of our sons.)
My first book was
good enough to get me an agent in New York. But not good enough to sell.
I immediately started Old City Hall. It was 2001. By 2004
I’d hit a wall, with the book half done. I took a nine-day writing
course at Humber
College and worked with two talented writers, David Bezmozgis and
Michelle Berry, who were most generous with their time. I finished the
book in April
2007. Doug read it and, determined to hook me up with a top agent, introduced
me to Victoria Skurnick at Levine
Greenberg Literary Agency. Victoria read the book overnight, and
the next day signed me up. Magic. |
 |
Victoria is a wonder. Within weeks she’d drummed
up a major bidding war for the book in New York. I signed a two-book hardcover
deal with the talented editor Sarah Crichton at Sarah
Crichton Books/Farrar
Straus & Giroux. Now we have sales in all sorts of foreign languages,
including French, Italian, German, Spanish, Italian and Japanese, and an audio
book deal.
I’d like to mention the volunteer work I do. I’m chairman of the
Board of Directors of The Canterbury/Marc
Perri Clinic. We’re a small,
struggling, privately funded, on-the- street, drug and alcohol rehab clinic.
As a criminal lawyer for 18 years, I’ve seen up close the ravages of serious
drug and alcohol addiction. If you have time, please check out our new website.
Any readers who’d like to contribute volunteer time or make a tax-deductible
donation are most welcome. |
|
|
| |
|
