My Biography

             Before I was an author I was a trial lawyer, and a damn good one (still am for that matter).  My older brother chose to be a writer first (and a damn good one); determined not to follow in Tommy’s footsteps, I found myself in law school at The University Of Texas.  That may sound somewhat strange, but, unlike so many of my classmates, I had no burning desire to be a lawyer and really went to law school because I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and law school seemed like it was worth a shot.  In my senior year I decided that since I was now going to be a lawyer, I might as well see if I could be a trial lawyer.

             I founded the firm of Lorance & Thompson and began trying lawsuits.  I was good at it and got better.  As my skills developed, so did my reputation.  My peers have consistently voted me a “Texas Super Lawyer.”  I became board certified in two trial specialties.  I never kept count of exactly how many cases I have tried, but I know it is far in excess of three hundred.  More importantly, I have won better than ninety-five percent of them.  And I’m still trying cases as I write novels. 

             On a more personal note, I grew up in Fort Worth, the son of school teachers.  Now, let me reveal a very well kept secret:  Fort Worth is one of the great mid-size cities in the country.  My fondness for it is such that I am setting my next novel there.  You can learn more about it in that story.

             My brother was quite a bit older than I.  In those years I was just the pesky kid brother.  Then, something interesting happened.  When I became an adult, we became the best of friends.  He had a dramatic career, first as a journalist, then with LIFE magazine and later as a best selling author of non-fiction that read like fiction.  I vetted all of his books.  When he wrote Blood and Money, I warned him that libel suits were on the horizon.  He told me not to worry, that his facts were accurate.  He and I were both right.  He was sued for libel three times.  I defended him and we won all three cases.  Sadly, Tommy died a few years later of liver cancer.  He had a score of books still to write.  I suppose that I knew then that I would someday take up the mantle. 

             At the time, though, I was busy raising kids and trying lawsuits.  When I wasn’t working, I was with my kids.  They are all now grown and I can say with pride that their mother and I did a great job.  They all graduated from college and are off on their own, successfully leading their own lives.  They’re all entrepreneurs and becoming more successful by the day. 

             There were two particularly sad times in my life.  The first was when in a period of four months I lost my brother, my father and my mother.  The second was a divorce from my first wife.  The good news from that, though, was that I married Vicki who was once my law partner and now my life partner.  As you will note, my second book is dedicated to her. 

             That leads to the last part of this bio, my career as a writer.  Somewhere in the depths of my mind or maybe in my heart of hearts, I knew I was going to try to be a writer.  Finally, when my youngest son graduated from college, I decided to give it a shot.  I combined my knowledge of law, medicine, lawyers and trials to write So Help Me God.  It’s a great story that initially went nowhere.  Vicki and I decided to self-publish it, and we promoted the book to the point that we attracted the attention of Ken Atchity, literary manager extraordinaire, who saw something in me and my writing and became my agent.  Next came the sale of paperback rights to So Help Me God.  That brings us to THE TRIAL.