September 2012

 

Fiction Writing for Lawyers: Turn Your Passion for Writing into Publishing

- LIVE IN DENVER

 

Program Description:

Have you ever wanted to be the next John Grisham? Join four Colorado attorney who are also published authors as they explain:

Presented by Derek Blass, Esq., Jim Hansen, Esq., Baine Kerr, Esq.,and Manuel Ramos, Esq.

Agenda:

11:00 am - 11:30 am Registration (Lunch Provided)

 

About the Faculty:

Derek Blass, Esq.

Derek Blass is an author and trial attorney in Denver, Colorado. He has first and second chaired trials ranging from medical malpractice with surgeons to the detention of alleged illegal immigrants.

Derek graduated from Duke University and the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. He majored in English and Economics at Duke. In Colorado, Derek has served as the co-Chair of Mayor Hickenlooper's Denver Latino Commission, and was recently selected to serve as a co-Chair of the Denver Chapter of the Colorado Latino Forum. Derek was named as a Colorado Superlawyer “Rising Star” in 2010 and 2011, and was awarded the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association's 2010 award for Most Outstanding Young Hispanic Lawyer. He is married to his wife Meranda, has a beautiful new baby girl named Itzel, and has two uncontrollably terrible dogs (and one good one that isn't really his).

Derek is the author of Enemy in Blue and Allegiance. Both have reached bestseller lists internationally on Amazon.

Jim Hansen, Esq.

Jim Michael Hansen writes under the penname R.J. Jagger. He is a practicing Colorado trial attorney, the author of over 20 thrillers and a member of the International Thriller Writers. His newest hardcover, A Way With Murder, was released by NY publisher Pegasus Books on August 1, 2012. Visit him at www.rjjagger.blogspot.com.

Baine Kerr, Esq.

Outside his practice, Baine Kerr's principal interest is fiction writing. He has published a book of short stories, Jumping-Off Place, and has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories, the University Press of Colorado, and elsewhere. He was one of 100 authors selected nationwide by the National Endowment for the Arts for a 1983 fellowship in fiction, and was, with Lewis Thomas, M.D., the co-recipient of the 1992 Editor's Award of The Missouri Review. His best-selling novels, which have been published by Scribner/Simon and Schuster, and, in paperback, by Berkeley/Jove, are Harmful Intent, 1999 and 2000, a finalist for the Colorado Book Award, and Wrongful Death, 2002 and 2003, which drew on his sabbatical-year experiences as an elections supervisor in Bosnia and a war crimes journalist in The Hague.

Baine has lectured on legal and literary topics at the Rocky Mountain Survivors' Center, the Texas Book Festival, the Colorado Book Festival, the Barbara Bush Foundation for Literacy, Industrial Light and Magic in San Rafael, California, the Colorado Lawyers' Committee, the North American Society for Sociology of Sport, Moving to End Sexual Assault, the American College of Radiology, and the DU, CU and Harvard law schools. Baine has made numerous appearances on public radio in Denver, Boulder, and Houston; on commercial television in Houston and Colorado Springs; on public television in Denver and Houston; and on commercial radio in Denver, Colorado Springs, Houston, Tucson, and San Francisco. His novels have received over 100 favorable book reviews.

Manuel Ramos, Esq.

Manuel Ramos is the Director of Advocacy for Colorado Legal Services, the statewide legal aid program, and the author of seven published novels, five of which feature Denver lawyer Luis Móntez. He is a recipient of the Colorado Bar Association's Jacob V. Schaetzel Award and the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association's Chris Miranda Award. His fiction has garnered the Colorado Book Award, the Chicano/Latino Literary Award, the Top Hand Award from the Colorado Authors League, and an Honorable Mention from the Latino International Book Awards. The Móntez series debuted with The Ballad of Rocky Ruiz (1993), a finalist for the Edgar^® award from the Mystery Writers of America. His published works include the mainstream novel King of the Chicanos (2010), several short stories, poems, non-fiction articles and a handbook on Colorado landlord-tenant law, now in a fifth edition. He is a co-founder of and regular contributor to La Bloga (www.labloga.blogspot.com), an award-winning Internet magazine devoted to Latino literature, culture, news, and opinion. The short story When the Air Conditioner Quit is scheduled for publication in Border Noir: Hard Boiled Fiction from the Southwest (2012).