One thing you really have to watch as a writer is getting on a soapbox or pulpit about anything. You don't want to alienate readers.

How could homosexuals possibly srew up the sanctity of marriage any worse than heterosexuals?

Nobody wants to read about the honest lawyer down the street who does real estate loans and wills. If you want to sell books, you have to write about the interesting lawyers - the guys who steal all the money and take off. That's the fun stuff.

There are few things in life worse than a long-winded lawyer.

And they drank heavily, partied with great enthusiasm, and relished the drug culture; they moved in and out and slept around, and this was okay because they defined their own morality. They were fighting for the Mexicans and the redwoods, dammit! They had to be good people!

Privileged people don't march and protest; their world is safe and clean and governed by laws designed to keep them happy.

Very few writers understand the complex history and maddening social order of the Mississippi Delta. For Steve Yarbrough, though, it's home turf. He is wickedly observant, funny, cynical, evocative, and he possesses a gift that cannot be taught: he can tell a story.