Fact & Fiction Shape the Life of Lawyer, Author Mike Farris

© 2013 The Texas Lawbook.

By Patricia Baldwin
Lifestyle Writer for The Texas Lawbook
Best-selling author Tom Clancy once distinguished the difference between fiction and reality: “Fiction has to make sense.” That truism has sometimes posed a challenge for attorney and author Mike Farris, Of Counsel for Vincent Lopez Serafino Jenevein in Dallas, especially when his characters are lawyers.
Of course, therein lies the reason that the public loves to read legal thrillers, says Farris, who writes fiction, nonfiction and screenplays, teaches screenwriting, and operates a literary agency – among other things. In books, as in life, lawyers can be good guys and bad guys.

And, in dealing with the worlds of publishing and Hollywood, there can be good times and bad times. As Farris notes, many “overnight” successes take a dozen or more years. He had been writing for a decade when his first book was published 10 years ago. He acknowledges that he is sometimes short on patience. Farris is ready to “break out” from the realm of small publishing houses.
He hopes a new historical fiction project might provide that break. He is partnering with a Hollywood producer to develop the “Isle of Broken Dreams” into a television series. The first goal, however, is a published novel to provide source material and to get the story recognized. The manuscript is currently under consideration by a New York publisher.
Yet, the fictional story of true events once again proves the adage that truth can be stranger than fiction. The facts underpinning this novel about “Hotel Street” – Honolulu’s red light district during World War II – sometimes stretched the credibility of the readers of Farris’ drafts. Repeatedly, he heard the comment, “It couldn’t have happened.”
In the Farris Literary Agency’s home office in suburban Sunnyvale, the 57-year-old Farris shares a copy of a black-and-white photo showing a queue of soldiers and sailors wrapping around a city block in Honolulu. Some of his early readers, he says, could not believe these men were waiting in line to enter the brothels of Hotel Street.
The same readers had “no idea” that the Hotel Street prostitutes went on strike – post Pearl Harbor – to protest their treatment by the local vice squad. “Prostitution was illegal,” Farris notes, “but it actually was highly regulated by the military and the police for the benefit of the troops – to keep up morale.”

The novel follows the story of Sadie MacKenzie, a young woman who arrives in Honolulu the week before the Pearl Harbor attack. She has dreams of being an entertainer, but discovers a Madam has bought her. Sadie becomes trapped in the seamy world of Hotel Street and struggles to escape that life.
“I think she’s a very sympathetic character,” Farris says. “I don’t know what connects me to her other than the fact she is a naïve girl who becomes a strong, powerful woman.”
Unlike some authors who create continuing characters, Farris likes to “write something new each time.”
When Farris’ longtime colleague Chuck Serafino is asked if he’s ever concerned that he’ll show up as a character in one of Farris’ books, he answers, “Yes.”
Then the shareholder at Vincent Lopez laughs. “We have some funny stories. Some people have accused him of putting them in a book even though he did not intend it.”
Serafino calls Farris “very conscientious,” adding, “I have a lot of respect for Mike as a person and an attorney.”
Serafino says the law firm approached Farris, who only wanted to work part time. “He’s such a good lawyer that we love to have him as much as he wants,” Serafino adds.
A photo of Farris and Serafino has a prominent spot in Farris’ home office. The picture shows the two attorneys as extras in the movie “Infiltrators” to be released this year. The scene was shot in the Vincent Lopez offices in Dallas, thanks to the fact the producer is a fellow attorney. [See seconds 56-57 in this YouTube trailer: www.youtube.com/farris]
Also prominently displayed in the home office are framed, enlarged covers of Farris’ published books. He summarizes the plots and characters.
In “Kanaka Blues,” a law professor’s mentor is killed investigating native Hawaiian sovereignty claims. In “Manifest Intent,” an attorney must discover who is killing the witnesses in his case with the federal government. In “Rules of Privilege,” a young lawyer defends her uncle on a murder charge – only to find he might be a serial killer. In “Wrongful Termination,” a first-year associate blows the whistle on fraudulent billing by one of her law firm’s most powerful partners. Farris also has ghostwritten a memoir and co-authored another. His agent currently is “shopping” a thriller titled “The Bequest.”
Pointing to his U-shaped desk area, Farris talks of other works-in-progress. “I have quite a few in the drawer.”
The home office, which Farris shares with his wife, Susan, reveals a lot about the couple. They both graduated from Texas Tech University School of Law in 1983. The two have frequently traveled to Hawaii. And they obviously love books – shelves of books line the walls. And Farris admits to storing 20 boxes of books in the attic.
“I like books. I like how they look on a shelf,” Farris says. He acknowledges, however, that eBook sales are up and have cut into print sales. His Hawaiian publisher, Savant Books, has published eBooks for “Kanaka Blues” and “Manifest Intent.”
He points out, “Some mainstream writers like Barry Eisler and others are going to eBooks before print.” In fact, Eisler’s website announces his latest release, “London Twist,” is available exclusively from the Kindle Store.
Despite his busy schedule, Farris says he reads a lot “at night and weekends – I’m a fast reader.” Authors on his bookshelves confirm his taste for mysteries and legal thrillers: David Baldacci, Jay Brandon, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Jeffery Deaver, Robert Dugoni, David Ellis, James Grippando, John Grisham…Yes, the books are mostly in alphabetical order.
“I always like it when I discover a writer I’ve never read before,” he says. As a faculty member of the La Jolla Writers Conference, Farris more recently met Tess Gerritsen of “Rizzoli & Isles” fame. He got “hooked” on her books, also the basis of the TNT television series.
Farris enjoys the speaking engagements at writers’ conferences because he discovers clients for the literary agency. “We picked up Sheldon Russell at the Oklahoma Writers’ Federation conference a number of years back,” Farris says. The Oklahoma writer’s “Dreams to Dust: A Tale of the Oklahoma Land Rush” won the 2006 Langum Prize for Excellence in American Historical Fiction. Publisher’s Weekly cited Russell’s mystery novel “The Insane Train” as one of the top six mysteries of 2010. The book is the second in a mystery series set in the 1940s that Farris sold to St. Martin’s Press.
Yet another project is evidenced by the notebooks lined up along his desk. Farris confirms they hold research – mostly trial transcripts and legal papers. He plans to novelize the story of Clarence Darrow’s last case, a “very obscure” criminal trial in 1932 in Honolulu.
Farris pulls a paperback off a shelf: “Rape in Paradise” by Theon Wright. “I came up with the story because I found this book in a bookstore in Hilo. It was written in 1966. I started doing research.”
As a screenwriter and a lawyer, Farris learned about the film business and its various option-purchase agreements and “sort of backed into” representing several university presses to sell the film rights to their books. His clients include the academic presses at Duke University, Kent State University, Texas Tech, the University of Illinois, the University of North Carolina and the University of Oklahoma.
In 2007, representing the UNC Press, Farris sold the film rights for “The Free State of Jones: Mississippi’s Longest Civil War” to Universal Pictures and Gary Ross. Ross is known for directing “The Hunger Games,” “Pleasantville” and “Seabiscuit.” The UNC Press book, by retired Texas State University history professor Victoria Bynum, is the story of Jones County. According to unsubstantiated legend, the county seceded from Mississippi during the Civil War and declared itself a free state.
The entertainment media report the movie is in production, with no release date set. The time lag is perhaps because of what a 2009 story in The New York Times characterized as a “literary shootout.”
As The Times reported, a feud began when Bynum discovered that filmmaker Ross, after purchasing the film rights to her book, “had spurred the publication of a new and somewhat sexier work on the same subject.” Bynum told The Times she was “appalled” that the new book was not touted as historical fiction, since the book had “romanticized” the facts. The Times described the revisions as “touches that do not hurt the story’s cinematic potential.”
Farris acknowledges that dealing with Hollywood can be frustrating.
“When the subject is history, you always have to keep in mind that historical events are in the public domain and are fair game for other interpretations, even inaccurate interpretations,” he notes. “There are plenty of examples of how Hollywood took liberties with historical facts, but movies are about entertainment, not education.”
Once again, the clashes between reality and fiction keep life interesting. And Farris concludes, “I’m having a lot of fun.”
Do you have a special avocation, hobby or other lifestyle interest to share? Please email patricia.baldwin@texaslawbook.net.

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