Welcome to Leslie Budewitz's Author Page

“Thicker than Blood” – Leslie Budewitz’s contribution to FISH TALES: The Guppy Anthology – is the story of one weekend in the lives of two women, good friends, and how far each will go to protect her daughter. True to the theme of the anthology – short mysteries involving water and fish – it’s set on the shores of Montana’s Flathead Lake, a few miles from her home.

Leslie’s first book, BOOKS, CROOKS AND COUNSELORS: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure, will be published in fall 2011 (Linden Publishing/Quill Driver Books). As a practicing lawyer with more than twenty-five years’ experience who also writes fiction, Leslie has been answering other writers’ questions about using the law in their novels, stories, and scripts for years. BOOKS, CROOKS AND COUNSELORS answers the questions writers frequently ask and helps them avoid the most common mistakes, so they can use the law accurately while telling a good story. The book also gives writers ideas on using legal issues to develop plots and subplots, backstory, character, and setting. Information on her consulting services and an archive of her columns for writers are at www.LawandFiction.com

Leslie’s short stories have been published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, ThugLit, and The Whitefish Review.

She’s an avid gardener, practices yoga, paints, and hikes and backpacks the mountains of northwest Montana, where she lives in the woods with her husband, a doctor of natural medicine, and a Burmese cat who loves to hunt and nap.