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René Fix wouldn’t necessarily call himself a thrill seeker, per se, but the local attorney hopes there are many folks out there that would consider themselves one.
The employment law and commercial litigation attorney with Rogers Towers recently released the suspense thriller, “Informed Consent,” published by Florida-based Frontline Publishing, to Northeast Florida and will release the book nationally in October. So far, Fix has sold out of his personal stash of the 300-plus-page novels he keeps in his office more than three times.
“I’ve received lots of great feedback from co-workers and friends,” said Fix. “I hope others enjoy it just as much, whatever their genre of preference is.”
The book, Fix said, took four years to complete and chronicles the story of Jacksonville Attorney Alex Weaver who has been hand-picked by his firm’s most influential partner to work on a high-profile case. The case involves the development of an international drug, a class action lawsuit and what turns into a million-dollar murder investigation.
“I knew that I wanted to write a suspense novel and I knew the main components of the story. But as for the storyline, I wasn’t really sure which way I wanted to go. It took a lot of planning and time,” he said. “It was my first (novel) and so things moved along a bit slowly.”
Fix said none of the characters in the book were modeled after real characters, but he did sprinkle in some personal experiences from his career.
“You’re going to have pieces of you in every character, both good and bad,” he said. “In the bad characters, I think you let out your dark side.”
Fix, who is married with two daughters, said because of the demands of work and the birth of his youngest daughter, Whitney, the process was interrupted frequently.
It was also sometimes hard to fit time for writing into his schedule since it’s a separate full-time career, he said.
“I’d set aside time between, say, nine and midnight and I’d just write,” he said.
Despite the fact that writing demands plenty of time and discipline, Fix said it’s more than a hobby, and in fact a sort of calling that can’t be ignored.
“I like storytelling and I think I have a talent for it,” he said. “If you’re given a talent, I think you should use it.”
Born in Tübingen, Germany, René Mark Fix completed his undergraduate degree in business at Indiana University and received a scholarship to attend the University of Toledo College Of Law. He came to Jacksonville in 1999 and went to work for Rogers Towers in 2003.
With no real prior affection for writing or reading – except for a stint as Lead Articles Editor for the Toledo Law Review – Fix said the idea to write a book came to him unexpectedly.
“Writing was never really something I enjoyed as a kid,” said Fix. “But for whatever reason, the thought just popped into my head one day that I wanted to write a novel and the next thing you know, I started the project.”
Although he’s still crunching numbers to determine the exact national release date for “Informed Consent,” Fix has already starting writing his second novel, “White Collar” — a story about a corporate lawyer in New York City who works with large investment houses and develops a gambling addiction.
“I know where I want the story to go, but I haven’t completely planned it out,” said Fix.
He hopes to finish the draft by the end of the year and then have it ready for release by next summer, but says he’s in no rush to become the next best seller.
“Right now, I’m taking things one day at a time,” he said. “I enjoy my law practice and I enjoy the people that I work with and I enjoy writing, so there’s no telling where things will go. We’ll just see what happens.”