Ayelet Waldman

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Ayelet Waldman : biography

December 11, 1964 –

Legal career

After graduating from law school, Waldman clerked for a federal court judge. She worked in a large corporate law firm in New York for a year, then Waldman and Chabon moved to California, where she became a criminal defense lawyer. Waldman worked as a federal public defender for three years in the Central District of California, first in Orange County and then in Los Angeles. Chabon mentioned on their first date that it was his intention to care for his children so his wife could pursue her career, which he did after the birth of their first and then second child.Thompson, Bob, . (Retrieved August 25, 2010.) She took some time off after the birth of her first child, returned to work, then tried juggling her legal work with mothering,Salter Reynolds, Susan, , Jakarta Globe, June 22, 2009. (Retrieved August 25, 2010.) then left her job to be with her husband and child. This was short-lived. She finally left her job after the birth of her second child, because of frustrations with the criminal justice system and because she was jealous of her husband’s time with their children.Frost, Jo, (Retrieved on August 25, 2010.)

Waldman worked as an Adjunct Professor at the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley from 1997 to 2003. She taught classes on federal drug policy and the legal and social implications of the war on drugs.Edelstein, Wendy, , UC Berkeley News, October 29, 2003. (Retrieved August 25, 2010.) She also worked as a consultant to the Drug Policy Alliance, a resource centre advocating a drug policy based on harm reduction.

Although Waldman still calls herself a lawyer on her tax returns, she has said she will not be returning to the legal profession.Bokma, Cindy, , Conversations with famous writers, August 2, 2005. (Retrieved on August 25, 2010.)

In addition to writing some nonfiction on aspects of the criminal justice system, in all her fiction Waldman has drawn extensively on her legal education and career as a lawyer, whether in describing criminal investigations in her murder mysteries or highlighting anomalies in drug sentencing law and describing legal practice in her literary novels.

Fiction

Waldman has written often about how she found full-time parenting to be monotonous.Waldman, Ayelet, , UK Daily Mail, May 28, 2009. (Retrieved August 25, 2010.) She started writing various online and print articles about mothering while at home on maternity leave after the birth of her first child, Hot Metal Bridge, February 5, 2007. (Retrieved on August 25, 2010.) and again after she left her job as a public defender. She has at various times said that she chose to write because it was not as time-consuming a career as the law, because it gave her something to do during naptimes,Briggett, Marlissa, , Harvard Magazine, March–April 2003. (Retrieved on August 27, 2010.) to keep her entertained, because she was starved of someone to laugh at her jokesKinsella, Bridget, , December 30, 2005.(Retrieved on August 27, 2010.) and because it gave her a way of putting off going back to work.

While working as a university professor, Waldman attempted to research legal issues with a view to writing articles for legal journals and thus increasing her chances of a tenured job teaching law. She has said that every time she tried to write those scholarly articles she became uninterested or intimidated,Gruner, Libby, , Literary momma.(Retrieved on August 27, 2010.) so she began writing fiction instead.. Lyceum Agency. (Retrieved on August 25, 2010.)

Waldman has said that her fiction is all about being a bad mother.

"Mommy-Track Mysteries"

Despite vowing at her wedding never to become a writer, in 1997 Waldman started writing mystery novels, thinking they would be "easy . . . light and fluffy." At first she wrote in secret, then with her husband’s encouragement. She has said that she chose mysteries because they are primarily about plot.Behe, Regis, , Tribune Review, February 12, 2006.(Retrieved August 27, 2010.) Waldman has said that her first mystery work, eventually published as "Nursery Crimes" was her first attempt at creative writing, describing it as her first piece of fiction "aside from my legal briefs."