Meet Pamela Samuels Young,
author of Murder on the Down Low

Pamela Samuels Young is a practicing attorney and author of the legal thrillers, Murder on the Down Low, In Firm Pursuit, Every Reasonable Doubt, and the forthcoming, Buying Time, A desire to see women and people of color represented in today’s legal fiction prompted Pamela to start writing despite a busy career as an attorney.  The former journalist and Compton native is a graduate of USC, Northwestern University and UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law.  Pamela is the fiction writing expert for BizyMoms.com and is on the Board of Directors of the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America.

List your published books.

I currently have three published novels:  Every Reasonable Doubt, In Firm Pursuit and Buying Time.  The books are series featuring L.A. attorney Vernetta Henderson.  You’ll also find her crazy sidekick, Special, and her husband, Jefferson, in all of the books.

My fourth novel, Buying Time, goes on sale November 1^st. It’s my first standalone book. It involves a disbarred attorney who finds that’s a murder suspect stemming from an insurance fraud scheme.
Which book did you find the hardest to birth?

I would have to say my forthcoming book Buying Time was the most difficult to birth.  That’s primarily because I had very little time to write it. I was actually working on another book when my agent’s excitement about the storyline convinced me to put the previous book on the shelf.  I finished it in less than a year.  That includes working full time and not having much weekend time to write because I was out promoting my other books.

Which book is your current favorite?

Murder on the Down Low is my favorite because I think it’s both educational and entertaining.  Writing Murder on the Down Low gave me an opportunity to both entertain and raise awareness about HIV and AIDS.  While African-American and Latina women make up only 24% of the female population in the U.S., we account for more than 80% of the total AIDS diagnoses for women, according to the latest statistics published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.  I wanted to communicate to women that it’s up to them to take responsibility for their own bodies.

How would you describe your writing style?

I’m definitely a commercial writer.  My style is short and snappy. I spent seven years as a television news writer and applied that same writing style to my novels.

Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what kind?

Nope, no music when I’m writing.  I’m usually in Starbucks, which has music playing in the background.  I’m so focused on writing, however, that I don’t hear it.

Tell us anything about you as a writer that you think might be interesting or unusual.

I think it’s interesting that I wrote a novel about a lawyer married to electrician and later married a plumber who is very much like my character, Jefferson.  I like to say that I wrote my husband into my life.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

I would encourage anyone who wants to write to study the writing craft.  Most people who want to write a novel just start writing.  That’s certainly what I did.  And I was really disappointed when people didn’t like my early efforts.  I had no clue about story structure.  It wasn’t until I spent time studying best-selling novels in my genre that I began to understand story structure.  I then put a lot of effort into trying to figure out what makes a book a page-turner.  Once I started reading like a writer — and by that I mean taking each chapter apart and looking at its elements — did I begin to understand how to keep readers engaged from the first page to the last.

How did you handle rejection as a writer?

It was really tough.  I’ve had lots of accomplishments in my life, but none was as difficult to achieve as writing a novel, finding an agent and getting a book deal.  Writing is very subjective.  The same book one person loves, another person may hate.  While it can get you down at times, you have to have faith in your talent and keep getting back up – no matter how many times people knock you down.  That’s essentially what I did.  Every time I received a rejection letter from an agent, I whined about it, but I never stopped believing that I would eventually be a published author.

Writers are often encouraged to write what they know. Have you found that to be the case with your writing?

Definitely.  I wouldn’t dare have the courage to write legal thrillers without a background in law.  There’s just too much room for error.  I’m an employment attorney, and it’s already hard enough making sure my criminal law elements are correct.  I read books all the time by writers who have a legal storyline and the mistakes often jump off the page.

ABOUT THE BOOK

A high-profile lawsuit erupts into chaos, revealing its place in a larger spree of violence in this scandalous tale of lust, lies, and vengeance. A brazen gunman is targeting prominent African American men on the streets of Los Angeles, and police are completely baffled. At the same time, savvy big-firm attorney Vernetta Henderson and her outrageous sidekick, Special, lead the charge for revenge against a man whose deceit caused his fiancée’s death. For Special, hauling the man into court and suing him for wrongful death just isn’t good enough. While she exacts her own brand of justice, a shocking revelation connects the contentious lawsuit and the puzzling murders.

Follow the rest of Murder on the Down Low Blog Tour at http://bit.ly/MurderOnTheDownLow

For more information about Pamela, visit her at PamelaSamuelsYoung.com.

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