"If I'm not enjoying it, I don't want to write it" with Kevin G. Chapman, Crime Fiction Novelist and Lawyer

More Than Work

This week’s guest is Kevin G. Chapman, Assistant General Counsel at Dow Jones and Company, and crime fiction author.

Kevin is a labor and employment lawyer who started out in law firms. But, for the last 27 years he has been in-house counsel having started out at The Wall Street Journal. He has resided in Central New Jersey for that long too.

As a lawyer, Kevin writes a LOT. But it was when he got laid off from a firm 5 years after finishing law school that he started writing his first fiction novel, Identity Crisis which he published via a small publishing house. His next book took 10 years to complete and was self-published.

We get into how he approached writing differently when he decided to write for the purpose of selling his work starting with his first crime fiction novel, Righteous Assassin. Also, how he went about learning to market his novels and the business of self-publishing. Kevin has written an entire crime fiction series focused around the main character he created, NYPD Detective Mike Stoneman. One of those novels, Lethal Voyage, was even a Kindle Book Award finalist in 2021!

Hear about what Kevin is working on next and the communities he is a part of both as an independent author and as in-house counsel. He also plays tournament poker!

Note from Rabiah (Host):

I have not read Kevin’s books yet but I’m very curious about Mike Stoneman so that’ll happen soon. I intended too but time just didn’t allow it. One thing that came up in our chat was that Kevin is a member of an author community. I have learned so much about how important community is and it is more prominent in my life than it used to be. It has been a theme of this podcast too. I’d love to hear what communities listeners are a part of.

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Find Kevin

Website: kevingchapman.com

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MikeStoneman/posts/865325540547293/

Mike Stoneman Box Set: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09SS8XL44

Lethal Voyage, winner of the 2021 Kindle Book Award: http://getbook.at/lethal_voyage

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Mentioned in this episode:

Dow Jones: https://www.dowjones.com/

Xlibris Publishing: https://www.xlibris.com/en

Jencey Keeton Episode of More Than Work: https://www.rabiahsaid.com/podcast/s5e8-jencey-keeton

Chanticleer Book Reviews: https://www.chantireviews.com/

In the intro:

Yard Act: https://yardactors.com/

Ann Liu Cannon: https://linktr.ee/annliu

True Strays: https://www.truestrays.com/

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