Lori Andrews

Last night I went to a reading by Lori Andrews, a leading geneticist and bioethicist who incorporates her knowledge of those disciplines into her new series of mystery novels. She told this story: Years ago she was teaching a law class at a university, and she decided that on the side she’d enroll in one of the school’s creative writing classes. The class was taught by a rising young writer who wrote very literary novels. Andrews, who was used to the high-pressure environment of the legal world, quickly became bored with the slow pace and low expectations of the creative writing class. She told the instructor that she was thinking about quitting. He encouraged her to stay, saying that if she did he would work with her more one-on-one and teach her to write in a more literary way. He added jokingly, “Which I promise will knock at least $100,000 off your advances.” She was charmed by this, and decided to stick with the class.