November New Releases, Short Stories and More

What’s new in November?

This month’s featured new release is Devil’s Defense., a new release from Lori B. Duff.

An interview with Lori B. Duff

You’ve had a long and successful legal career as an attorney and municipal court judge. How and why did you transition to writing?

I had to even out my karma somehow. Lawyers wage war all day and bring turmoil — even when you win a battle, you still come away with battle scars; writers entertain and bring joy. I also find great personal satisfaction in living a creative life. 

Most of your previous books were collections of humorous essays, as were most of your columns and blog posts. Why did you decide to pivot to writing fiction?

After my children left the house to go to college, I had more time to focus on myself and what I thought about the world. And I realized I had more to say. I could explore ideas that weren’t my own through fictional characters. Why do people think such things? Well, let me get into their heads and find out. 

What were some of the difficulties you encountered when writing fiction? Were there some things that came easier than with nonfiction?

It’s a lot easier to write and edit a 500-800 word first-person opinion essay than a 95,000 word book. Keeping everyone’s personalities intact — and remembering that they didn’t think the way I do — was a huge adjustment. Oddly enough, I found that the people I disagreed with the most were the most fun to write. 

Are the people and/or situations in the book based on real clients you’ve represented or cases you’ve presided over? How do you draw the line at details to include and exclude?

No, I don’t want any of my clients or the people who come in front of me to think that they are going to find themselves in a book, because they won’t. That said, there are some of my friends in there, and there are Easter eggs sprinkled liberally throughout for the people who know me well. Mostly they’re there to entertain me, and because if I use familiar names and places, I can remember them better than if they are pulled out of the air.

What sets “Devil’s Defense” apart from other courtroom dramas or legal thrillers?

The author is better looking and smarter. Ha ha ha. Seriously, I think it’s more true to what the actual life of a lawyer is like. You don’t have one case at a time. Cases take months, if not years, to resolve. More often than not, you don’t get to represent the good guy, and your client doesn’t often do what you want them to do. They keep secrets from you. You have to make arguments in public that make you sick to your stomach. You get emotionally involved when you don’t want to.  And you can’t talk about the details of what’s upsetting you to the people who are closest to you.  I wanted to write a novel that reflected that.  

What sets your protagonist Jessica Fischer apart from other legal fiction protagonists?

It always irritates me when protagonists are impossibly beautiful and always have the answers.  Jessica looks like a normal human and, although she’s smart (and knows it) that’s not the same as knowing what she’s doing. She also has a sense of humor, which gets her through some of her more difficult moments.

Quite a few important scenes occur in eateries such as Waffle House, which is a staple in Georgia, where you’re from. Why was it important for you to include locations like this?

The town of Ashton, although fictional, felt like a character in the book to me. I wanted the reader to not only meet the people who lived in Ashton, but to get a sense of place. They not only go to Waffle House, but to your basic meat-and-three restaurant, and never have to drive more than five minutes to get to each other’s houses. There’s a whole culture that exists in the small-town South, which felt important to me to include.

Are you planning more books for the series? Do you have additional projects you’re working on?

I am! I couldn’t leave Jessica, Diane and Bobby alone. And Coach was so much fun to write; even though he’s a jerk, I had to bring him along, too. This is a planned series with no planned end, if my readers will have me. The second book in the series, “The Devil’s Children,” is set to be released in October 2025, also by She Writes Press.

An excerpt from Devil’s Defense

Chapter Six (818 words p. 25-27)

“The hell, Jessica,” Coach barked into the phone.

“Excuse me?” Jessica squeaked, her voice higher than she would have liked. She shouldn’t have been surprised by the phone call, and yet, here she was, surprised.

“I told you I wasn’t dealing with this shit until the season was over, and the season is far from goddamn over. Are you the only person in this shithole town that doesn’t know that?”

Jessica’s mouth opened and closed twice before her voice rose from her throat. She’d imagined a number of reactions Coach might have to the news, but mad at her for telling him the news at all was not one of them. This made her indignant, which made her mad at him, which made it easier to speak up. “The world does not stop turning during football season. The DNA results came back. What kind of lawyer would I be if I withheld that information from you?”

“The kind of lawyer who wants Ashton High to have a winning season.”

This was such a ridiculous thing to say, Jessica could think of nothing to say in response, and so she said nothing. Coach filled the silence on his own. “So, here’s what’s gonna happen. I’m gonna pretend I never got that email. You’re gonna resend it to me when the season’s over, and when I see it then, I’ll be seeing it for the first time. Got it? Great.”

Coach hung up the phone before she could answer.

Jessica picked up one of her stress balls, the dark blue one shaped like a brain with the logo from a neurologists’ office printed on it. She squeezed it hard until it disappeared inside her fist. She breathed in through her nose, held it, then let it out as slowly as she could through pursed lips. Then she called Eric.

“Hey, buddy,” she said when he answered. “New development on the Wishingham/James debacle.”

“You’re giving in to all our demands?”

Jessica chuckled silently. Oh, how she wished she could say yes just to end it. “Yeah, no. Well, maybe. Well, whatever we’re doing, I don’t know what it is, and we’re not doing it until the end of football season.” Once again, she thanked Fortuna for putting Eric on the other side of this case. She could be honest with him, and not have to make up some cock-and-bull story that would allow for procedural delay.

“Are you serious?”

“Dead. Coach is apparently too busy getting his team through the playoffs and beyond to give this matter the attention that it deserves. He is not making any decisions without being able to focus fully on the situation on hand, and believe me, you don’t want him to either. This is not a guy who can multitask.” Jessica bounced the eraser of a pencil on her desk like a drumstick on a snare drum. The reality of what she’d just said didn’t make it taste any better in her mouth.

“You realize the level of bullshittery you’re throwing at me, right?” Jessica couldn’t see Eric over the phone, but she knew him well enough to know that he would be carving finger-sized canyons in his gelled hair. You could always tell how stressful Eric’s day was by how intact his hair was.

The fact that Eric was correct only served to frustrate Jessica more and make her dig her heels in. “And you realize that you can call it what you want to call it, but it ain’t gonna change, right?”

“We’re going to get this on a calendar and let the judge deal with it.”

“Fine,” said Jessica. “Be my guest. By the time you get a court date, football season will be over and you will have pissed off Coach Wishingham beyond reason or negotiation. You don’t think Judge Brandywine isn’t watching the playoffs along with the rest of the county?”

“This is bullshit!” Eric’s voice was getting louder.

“So you said.” She couldn’t deny the fact, but she couldn’t agree on the record either. She silently begged Eric to understand this. Surely he did. Surely. Time to try to lighten the mood. “You realize, don’t you, that the pioneers used dried cow pats as fuel for their stoves. They kept warm with it and cooked their food over it. Basically, bullshit built this country. Bullshit is patriotic. As is football. Suck it, Eric. Your client waited sixteen years; she can wait another few weeks.”

Jessica could practically hear Eric deflating. “Fine,” he said. “But it’s still bullshit.”

“God bless America,” said Jessica before hanging up. She looked up at the ceiling and apologized to the universe. It really wasn’t fair that a football game was taking precedence over this poor girl’s life. But she wasn’t being paid to be fair. She was being paid to represent Coach Wishingham. Even if it did make her a little ill.

*****

You can buy the ebook here.

Or buy it in print and support indie bookstores.

Author bio (from her website):

After thirty years practicing law, I decided to start doing what I always wanted to do, and what I always secretly did, which is write. I started with a blog on the Patch, and achieved “Star Patcher” status. That led to a humor blog and a legal column on Your Local News. Then my own website, an award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, a spot on the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop faculty, and a blog on the Huffington Post. I’ve also won a few awards, including the Georgia Bar Journal’s annual fiction competition (in 2022 and 2023) and the Foreword Indies Gold Medal for humor. Oh yeah, I also wrote a few books.

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More releases in November

Double Barrel Bluff by Lou Berney.

Murder Town by Shelley Burr.

Streetlight People by Charlene Thomas.

The Author's Guide to Murder by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White.

You Can't Hurt Me by Emma Cook.

April Storm by Leila Meacham.

She's Always Hungry by Eliza Clark.

DevilsGame, an interactive and immersive cyber novel by Michael Wolk.

Here is the trailer:

Shell Games by Bonnie Kistler.

Stealing Time by Tilia Klebenov Jacobs and Norman Birnbach.

Gangster Hunters by John Oller.

Heavy Are the Stones by J.D. Barker.

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Short Fiction

“The One I Loved” by Elizabeth Dearborn.

“Miss Temptation” by Kurt Vonnegut.

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Habeus Corpus

Starting from where we left off last month.

Episode Twelve

Ramon and I arranged to meet in a back room near the busy kitchen. The “early supper” types kept a parade of room service attendants or waiters drifting past the open door. I wanted to be within shouting distance of someone in case Ramon was the type to carry a knife or otherwise inflict bodily harm.

We arrived almost simultaneously to the oversized closet of a room, not far from the kitchen. The scent of overcooked chicken, watery vegetables, and dirty mop hung in the air.

“Ramon, you sent my client’s photo to Room 405, didn’t you?”