A friend of mine sent me a podcast from the ABA journal that includes a discussion with four lawyers turned romance novelists. Apparently this is a very common thing—who knew?

http://www.abajournal.com/books/article/podcast_episode_30/

I took a listen to the conversation between Grace Burrowes, Julie James, Courtney Milan, Lauren Willig and someone from the American Bar Association. The first thing I heard was someone tell a story about a douchey guy in her section who wasn’t “brightest dish in the drawer.” I was happy to learn that she put the gunner in his place.

Anyway, here are five reasons why lawyers make good romance novelists according to the podcast:

1. They typically have backgrounds in liberal arts
2. They desperately need happy endings
3. There are a lot of ex-lawyers who are no longer interested in practicing the law
4. Noveling takes discipline
5. Lawyers have a lot of experience with broken relationships and broken people

I found the general lawyer talk entertaining in a nerdy way. For example, one novelist included a joke about the rule of perpetuities in her book. She said a lawyer-reader told her it made the crazy rule worth learning.

Another noted that a common misconception about lawyers is that they can be neither sexy nor funny. To combat this atrocity, one of the novelists made her lawyer-characters sexy and funny. What? It’s fiction.