I don't answer fan mail. I won't even send a postcard to my mother unless she pays for it," says Lawrence Sanders. "I'm a commercial writer." That single-mindedness has resulted in five spectacularly successful novels.
The latest, The Second Deadly Sin, about the murder of a famous artist, was a best-seller from the moment it was published last September. His First Deadly Sin, a 1973 hit, was in the news again this summer because of similarities between its maniacal, random killer and New York's Son of Sam. At the moment Sanders is working on a gothic novel but expects to continue the deadly sins series. "The first is pride," he says, "the second greed, then lust, then anger—that's an easy one to write a murder mystery about. But gluttony? Envy will be good. The last one is sloth. How the hell are you going to write a detective novel about laziness?" he asks. "With luck I'll be dead by then." (He is 57.)
Born in Brooklyn, Sanders grew up in Michigan and Minnesota. A ninth-grade English teacher steered him into literature by publishing a book review of his in the school paper. "Once I saw my byline in print I was sunk," he confesses. In 1946 Sanders returned to New York with a B.A. in literature from Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind. On his first job he earned $30 a week writing gag captions for a girlie magazine. "Then I was an editor on a detective magazine. That's as close to being a cop as I ever want to get."
For 24 years Sanders blue-penciled other writers on pulp and science magazines by day, and in the evenings churned out male adventure stories. Finally in 1968, at the age of 48, he decided to write "a fast-moving crime novel," which he published two years later. It was The Anderson Tapes, awarded an Edgar by the Mystery Writers of America and made into a film with Sean Connery. "I made so much money I quit my job immediately. I was shoveling down martinis at night and waking up on Turns," Sanders admits.
Settling down, he moved to Florida, where he now lives on the 11th floor of a condominium at Pompano Beach. Although he has never married, for 30 years he has shared his life with Fleurette Ballou. "Flo is my constant and beloved companion."
Sanders' day starts at 7:30 with a brisk 40-minute walk on the beach, followed by breakfast on the patio and the New York Times. Ideas for characters and scenes come from newspapers and magazines. "I clip like mad," says Sanders. "I guess every novelist does." He swims and suns himself at the pool until 3 p.m., then goes back to the apartment to type what he wrote in longhand the night before. "After dinner, about 8, I start writing and finish up about 1:30." He averages five pages a night.
"I'm obsessed with writing," he admits. "I have no hobbies. I don't fish. I'm not interested in sports. I don't even own a car. When I'm writing, my fantasies become more important than my personal life. I'm a Walter Mitty—living out my years through my characters."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
