By Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.com
There’s an old adage shared with almost every aspiring writer: if you want to succeed, write what you know.
For U. S. District Court Judge Michael Ponsor of Amherst, writing what he knows seems to have been the ticket to success.
His 2013 debut novel, “The Hanging Judge” – inspired by a real-life case in his Springfield, Massachusetts, courtroom – spent a week on the New York Times Best Sellers list. His second novel, “The One-Eyed Judge” – for which the Washington Post dubbed him “a talent to watch” – was published this past June.
Since then the judge – who at 71 still hears cases in the Federal Courthouse on State Street three days a week – has set to work on a third novel, and has been making the rounds of book clubs, legal gatherings and library events talking about and reading from his works. Prime caught up with him at one of these readings late last year, and sat down with him in January to talk about his “second act” as a successful novelist.
An early passion
“I’ve always been drawn to writing,” Ponsor admitted, adding he took a deep dive into the potential career early in his college days.
“I wrote a complete novel when I was at Oxford for two years,” he said, adding he did “A very writerly thing,” by spending a summer on the Island of Corsica banging out his first effort on an old portable Royal typewriter.
He sent that work – the story of an 11-year-old by growing up in the Midwest that he titled “When the Bough Breaks” – to New York City’s Harold Ober Associates, famed publishers of many prominent writers, including F Scott Fitzgerald. At first there seemed some optimism that his manuscript might sell, Ponsor recalled. But it wasn’t to be.
“It was disappointing, and I can remember a specific date [I thought it had sold],” he said. “I was living outside Cotswell and a British Telegraph truck – a red truck with a gold crown on it – came up the street and I knew there was a telegram for me in it. “
Instead of word his novel had been accepted, Ponsor said he learned relatives were coming over to England for a visit.
When the actual rejection letter arrived, Ponsor said the literary agent advised him to “just keep working, write another novel.
“So I did over the years,” Ponsor continued, “I would get 200 to 300 pages into a book and then set it aside.”
A legal angle
Writing, though still a passion, was not as consuming as his new career.
“Once I began practicing law, I fell in love with it. Once I became a judge in 1982, I took great pleasure in the challenges of being on the bench.”
Ultimately, it was one of those challenges that brought Ponsor back to the writing table, and his first successful novel.
“I drew a death penalty case [in 2000]. I never thought I would,” he said. “Most [U.S.] district court judges don’t get one.”
Massachusetts, he observed, does not mete out the ultimate punishment, but as the crime in question – a nurse at the VA hospital in Leeds was accused of murdering patients – was committed in Western Massachusetts, the case fell in his jurisdiction, and “there is a federal death penalty.”
The duty of presiding over that case “in a way that was fair to the defendant and the government” inspired Ponsor to write about his experiences. His first piece was an objective, fact-based op-ed about the trial for the Boston Globe.
However, Ponsor said he didn’t feel “that type of writing could capture the essence of what kind of case this was.”
So he set out to craft a novel about a death penalty trial from the perspective of a presiding District Court Judge, David Norcross. As the defendant in his case was not sentenced, and dropped any appeal, he felt there was no ethical issue in fictionalizing the trial for the book.
“I changed all the facts, but drew on the experiences I had to make it a very realistic pieced of fiction,” he said. From concept to marketable manuscript the book took Ponsor seven years to complete.
A labor of love
An active judge at the time, he “didn’t have a lot of time to devote to writing,” but “set aside Saturday and Sunday mornings from 8:30 to 1 to work on [the book].”
Three and a half years and 185,000 words into the project, his first agent told him the initial draft was too long to sell.
With some “architectural” self- editing that included eliminating characters and “whole scenes,” Ponsor brought the manuscript down to 115,000 words – and eventually found an agent and publisher for “The Hanging Judge.”
His second book took less time to write.
In 2014, following former Hampden County DA Mark Mastroianni’s appointment as a U.S. District Court Judge, Ponsor cut back his docket to three days a week and devoted more time to writing. He also “started working with an editor right away and sent her chunks [of the book] as I was going along.
“With her help, it only took two and a half years” to complete ‘The One Eyed Judge,’” Ponsor said.
As for his third book, he’s in the process of outlining.
“I’ve got through a half-dozen scenes and I have a pretty good idea where I’m going, but it’s still at the very early stage” of plot development,” he said.
Coming full circle
At this point in his life, Ponsor said he feels fortunate to be combining “the two things I love” – writing and the law.
“It’s really fun at this stage in my life to be setting off on a new path,” he said, admitting he also harbors a secret wish about his writing career.
“I have this fantasy that when they do my obit they will begin with ‘The beloved novelist Michael Ponsor, who was also a federal judge, passed away surrounded by family and friends…’,” he said.
