FERGUS – Combining his passions for law, history and writing, Fergus-based author Bob Grant is in the midst of writing his third novel.
Grant, who studied law for nearly 40 years, has previously published The Ailsa Stone and most recently Repose of the Ailsa Stone, which made its debut to bookshelves in November.
His latest novel, tentatively titled the Charles Lake Murder, is in its early stages, the Fergus author said in an interview with the Advertiser.
Formerly a lawyer in Fergus, Grant first pursued writing a few years ago, publishing The Ailsa Stone not too long thereafter.
“Your life isn’t completely the law, there’s other things to do in life,” Grant said of his decision.
“So I think I looked at it that way and said, ‘I think I’d like to retire and do other things, one of which was writing. I really enjoyed it.”
After reading The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman, he thought to himself “I can do this.
“That was sort of a little spark,” he explained.
“I had the Scotland connection and the curling history, journalism, desire to write and lots of extra time.”
Grant said his first two books took about two years each to complete.
“Now that I sort of know where the story is going, that’s the most fascinating part about writing, creative writing, is every day that you sit down to write … you just say, ‘oh yes.’ and you just sort of go in that direction.
“And then you go in that direction, and the story that you conceive is sort of there, but it’ll take little turns as it gets there.”
Grant said he gathers a lot of his inspiration from memorable moments as a lawyer.
“There will be something in there that I’d come upon that was really memorable and so I’ll say, ‘yeah, that’s a good place to start,’” he explained.
“And then of course you’re not following that story as much as that was a good platform from which to head off into whatever land you wanted to go to as far as developing it.”
Similar to his previous two novels, Grant said his third book will include a court scene.
“I think they all will, because it’s part of what I did and sort of part of what I am,” he said, adding “history, curling, writing, the law – all of those things that have come together.”
Grant said he does encounter some similarities between being a lawyer and a writer.
“When you’re a lawyer, you’re writing. You write opinions, and you write wills, and you write letters, lots of letters. So you’re always writing anyway,” he said.
Grant noted he always enjoyed the writing side of being a lawyer, specifically with regards to contracts and wills.
“And as a lawyer, you have to be creative. If you’re in court, you’re always on one side or the other,” he said.
“You are looking at creative ways to make your side look better, and you always anticipate what the other person is trying to create.
“So it is a certain amount of creativity with practice of law as well.”
Grant said when writing a book, the best thing is when you finally get the book and take a moment to open it.
“When you get it in your hand, you say, ‘Wow, you created something,’” he said.
He noted his advice to prospective authors is to just start writing – and it’ll either come or it won’t.
“Everybody has things that they really enjoy doing,” he explained. “I enjoy a whole bunch of things. But this one is just different.
“It’s creative, it tweaks a different part of your brain … It can be ludicrous, it can be fun, it can be intelligent, it can be whatever it wants to be.”
Grant said he’s currently about 25 pages into his latest book, and things are just starting to get interesting.
“It’s really at that fun stage to develop it now,” he said.
“[There’s] all the turns and flips I got to do, and I’m thinking, ‘I better keep moving this along because it’s going to be a very large book if I don’t.’”
To view Grant’s previous novels, or to learn more about the author, visit www.robertgrantwriter.com/index.cfm.
