Spotlight on Law Librarians: Mindy K. Maddrey

Mindy K. Maddrey
National Library Manager
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP
Washington, D.C.

Like so many of our law librarian colleagues, I started my grown-up life as a lawyer.  I attended law school straight from college, and from the very first day, I wondered if it was the right career path for me.  I should have been more suspicious when I found myself sitting in Evidence, half-listening to a Socratic deconstruction of the hearsay rule and half-drafting a rhymed iambic pentameter prophecy for a novel that I was writing.

I graduated from law school and took a job with a large Washington law firm, working as an associate in the intellectual property group.  After seven years of litigating cases, I decided that I’d had enough of the law.  I wanted more control over my schedule.  I wanted less stress in my life.  I wanted more time to write my as-yet-unpublished novels.  And yet, I could not imagine walking away from the profession that I’d lived, breathed, and dreamed for so long.

One night, eating fajitas and drinking margaritas with a long-suffering friend, I repeated my catalog of job wants and not-wants.  I concluded by saying, “I want to use my law degree, but I want to do something different.  Something like … be a law librarian!”  Cloudbanks opened.  Angelic choirs sang.  My friend ordered another round of margaritas.

After dinner, I walked to the nearest bookstore (libraries were already closed for the night) and looked up graduate programs in library science.  I applied to Catholic University one week later, and I was accepted a month after that.  I power-loaded classes, taking five in each semester, and in a year, I was a law librarian.

In the twelve years since my career transition, I have never regretted the change.  I always loved the “people” side of lawyering, client counseling in particular.  I thrived on the research and writing.  I embraced building teams of paralegals and associates to tackle large cases.  In short, I have been able to apply all my favorite lawyer skills to managing the library for a 14-office national law firm.

And as a pleasant side-effect, I had more time for my writing.  I sold my first novel, The Glasswrights’ Apprentice, two years into my first library job.  Five more traditional fantasy novels followed, and then I sold five contemporary urban fantasies (i.e., comic romance novels about ordinary women in real-life situations who find their lives turned upside down by the supernatural.)

My most recent novel is Sorcery and the Single Girl.  Sorcery is my second book about Jane Madison, a special librarian - in two senses of the word.  First, she works in a collection that specializes in colonial America (and she even "gets" to wear an eighteenth-century costume to work!)  Second, she's a witch.

Sorcery and the Single Girl traces Jane's adventures when the exclusive Washington Coven asks her to join their secret society.  The invitation might be her dream come true, or it could be the most humiliating experience of her life.  Either way, Jane must juggle her insane work schedule, best-friend drama, and a new romance - all while keeping her witchy familiar and astral protector satisfied.  Readers can learn more about Sorcery, including reading a free sample chapter, at my website - www.mindyklasky.com.  (I publish under my maiden name.) 

I had no idea that one dinner of fajitas (and the ear of a sympathetic friend) would lead me to where I am today – but I can honestly say that I would not trade anything to go back to my lawyer life!

Editor's Note: About Sorcery and the Single Girl, Publishers Weekly wrote:

Klasky emphasizes the importance of being true to yourself and having faith in friends and family in her bewitching second romance featuring fledgling witch Jane Madison (after Girl’s Guide to Witchcraft). Young librarian Jane believes getting into the elite Washington Coven, ruled by the prodigious Teresa Alison Sidney, is of major importance. If Jane wants to hold on to her familiar, her valuable book and gemstone collection and David Montrose, her hunky protector and instructor, she has to meet the coven’s standards for knowledge and skill. When slickly seductive Graeme Henderson starts laying it on suspiciously thick, and David insists that friendly coven witch Haylee can’t be trusted, Jane must decide what’s most important: trying to impress the popular coven snobs, or taking control of her power and doing what she knows is best for herself. Klasky’s moral lesson is obvious, but readers who identify with Jane’s remembered high school social angst will cheer her all the way.

Mindy didn't provide a link to Amazon for Sorcery and the Single Girl, so here it is. And don't forget to check out Mindy's blog, Virtual Cocktails. [JH]