"It's funny how the protagonists in our books almost become real, both to us as writers and to our readers. One of the things I try to do in each book is present Bryson Coventry, with a new internal conflict in addition to the external ones," says Hansen.

Several Coventry novels in, it occurred to him that in every book he'd written so far, Coventry had been on the right side of the law. So he decided to experiment.

"I came up with a storyline where he woke up in an apartment in Bangkok, having been drugged. In the bed with him was a murdered woman. All the doors and windows were locked from the inside. At first, he didn't remember anything, much less killing her. Then his memory started to return and he was confronted with the horror that he had actually done the unthinkable."

But when he shared this storyline with a few avid "Laws" readers they agreed, almost universally, that under no circumstances could he let Coventry get that dirty.

"So what I did was develop an entirely new character, San Francisco homicide detective Trane Ravenwoood, to star in that story and, by extension, kick off a spanking new series. Ravenwood will make his debut appearance on March 15, 2010, in a book tentatively called Next Kill."

As if writing a novel a year weren't enough, Jim Hansen is also a full-time attorney. "Both worlds have a long, steep learning curve. Both require a tremendous amount of organization, knowledge, experience, self-starting, attention to detail and good people skills," he says. But there are contrasts too - most notably, the stakes involved. "When a novelist falls face first, the damage to the reader is a less than satisfactory reading experience. When a lawyer falls face first, however, the damage to the client can be life-changing. That's probably why lawyers need malpractice insurance and novelists don't."

Liz Jensen is the author of six previous novels, including the acclaimed THE NINTH LIFE OF LOUIS DRAX, and ARK BABY, a New York Times Notable Book. Her work has been nominated three times for The Orange Prize and has been translated into more than 20 languages. THE RAPTURE is currently in development as a major motion picture.