ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 7, 1997 TAG: 9704070128
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE (AP)
SOURCE: MARTY MORRISON THE FREE LANCE-STAR
John Grisham came here to hide.
Now, the nation's best-selling author finds it's a place he can put down some roots. The prolific writer of legal thrillers recently made a rare public appearance in his newly adopted home town. He was a speaker at the Virginia Festival of the Book.
But Grisham is no recluse. He just wants his family to have a normal life.
``We're all very happy here,'' he said. ``We're able to have the privacy we need.''
Grisham is a low-key guy with a next-door neighbor appeal. He is more comfortable talking about the kids' baseball fields he's built than about his author-celebrity status.
He's written seven legal thrillers in the past eight years. Most are hot commodities the minute they hit store shelves. His latest novel, ``The Partner,'' already is at the top of most best-seller lists.
Five of his works - ``A Time To Kill,'' ``The Firm,'' ``The Pelican Brief,'' ``The Client,'' and ``The Chamber'' - have been turned into motion pictures. And three more - ``The Rainmaker,'' ``The Runaway Jury,'' and an original screenplay ``The Gingerbread Man'' - are headed to the screen.
Grisham, 42, still owns a home in Oxford, Miss., where he lived for years. He returns for visits and remains loyal to his friends there.
Grisham retreated to Charlottesville to regroup after the overwhelming popularity of ``The Firm,'' ``The Pelican Brief'' and ``The Client'' catapulted him to international fame.
He and his wife, Renee, discovered Albemarle County about four years ago during a weekend outing. They bought a farm about 20 miles outside Charlottesville.
At first, the Grisham family, which includes 13-year-old Ty and 10-year-old Sheanty, used the farm for weekends and school breaks.
``The more we came, the more we liked it,'' Grisham said. ``The more we came, the crazier life got back home.''
This is their third year living in Charlottesville full time, and they have no plans to leave.
Grisham never wanted to be a writer. He dreamed in high school
and college of a career as a professional baseball player, studied accounting at Mississippi State University, and settled on trial law after hanging out in courtrooms as a law student at the University of Mississippi.
He stayed in Oxford, where he put out his shingle in a city of 100 other lawyers and claims he ``almost starved.''
Unlike the character Mitch in ``The Firm,'' Grisham said he was not recruited by corporate firms. He practiced law for 10 years and spent six years in the state legislature.
It was in 1984, three years into his practice, that he witnessed a trial that changed his life. A man who had just been paroled from prison broke into a house, brutally raped two young girls and left them for dead. The girls struggled for their lives and eventually survived.
Grisham became obsessed with retelling the story. He reshaped and expanded the account in his mind over the next several weeks, and told it through the eyes of a young small-town attorney like him. He sat down late one night and wrote the first chapter of what was to become ``A Time to Kill.''
Grisham kept the project a secret from everyone but his wife. He was in his office from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. for three years, writing longhand on 28 legal pads.
Writing became a part of his day. Next came the rejection letters - plenty of them. After his wife suggested sending out random chapters of the book, Grisham rated the attention of an agent.
That agent gave him a sage piece of advice: Don't sit around waiting for ``A Time to Kill'' to be published. Start writing another one. Grisham mapped out a lighter story - ``The Firm.''
Two years later, a small-time publisher printed 5,000 copies of ``A Time to Kill.'' Grisham bought 1,000 and held book parties at libraries in the state to sell them. He sold all but 100.
About that time, Doubleday & Co. published ``The Firm.'' It became an overnight success and remained on The New York Times best-seller list for 47 weeks.
Grisham now writes full time at his Albemarle County home. He has no desire to return to the courtroom.
He's on a book-a-year schedule. He spends six months writing, beginning in late spring. He manages only two to three pages a day through the summer while the children are out of school. By September, when the kids return to school, he types away at his computer from 5 a.m. until noon.
His wife is his chief critic. Renee Jones Grisham was an English major in college and has a knack for a good story and a passion for writing.
Renee reads chapter by chapter to see if the story line holds together or if certain characters need to be changed or eliminated.
Grisham has developed a low-key attitude about movies made from his works. ``You're selling your story,'' he said. ``You're getting paid for it. Don't go and complain a lot about it when things don't go your way.''
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS. John Grisham, his wife and twoby CNBchildren have lived in Charlottesville full time for three years.
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