The law profession is chock-full of wannabe Hemingways and half-finished novels. (Everyone who went to law school because of a love of writing, raise your hand!) Like legions of lawyers, Julie Lawson Timmer believed she had a book in her, too. Turns out, she was right. Since putting pen to paper in 2011, Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Timmer, who’s in-house counsel for a global manufacturer of automotive wheels, has published two critically acclaimed novels with a third due out this summer and a fourth in the works. (Timmer’s debut, a best-seller published by Putnam, shares an editor with The Help and A Good American.) How she got there is a page-turning tale of tragedy, challenge and dedication.

Q. Like many lawyers, you’d always loved writing and always wanted to write a book. What happened or changed in your life to compel you to actually do it?

A. I’d tried a couple of times to write a novel when my kids were young, but it was never the right time, and I never felt like I had an idea that I could sustain for 300 pages. But the year I turned 45, two things happened at once: One friend died of a brain tumor, and another was diagnosed with ALS. I was so consumed with rage at what they were going through that I felt like I needed to do something to express it. I decided I could either break every dish in my house, or I could write

Read more from Jenny B. Davis about Julie Lawson Timmer.