{"id":1851,"date":"2021-12-22T18:28:57","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T18:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/?p=1851"},"modified":"2022-08-30T20:50:30","modified_gmt":"2022-08-30T20:50:30","slug":"baseballer-to-bestseller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/baseballer-to-bestseller\/","title":{"rendered":"Baseballer to bestseller"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Paul
Author and EOU Alumni Paul Phillips<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Paul Phillips, \u201982, didn\u2019t plan to go to college. Nobody else in his family had done it, but a clandestine visit to campus led him to baseball coach Howard Fetz\u2019s office and the rest was history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He joined the Mountaineer baseball team as an outfielder in 1979 and never looked back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phillips\u2019 time at EOU led him to a career as an Army officer and a job in the Pentagon, as well as master\u2019s and law degrees. More than that, though, he learned to dream big.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEOU gave me a good start,\u201d he said. \u201cIt gave me the foundation to go forward and do some things. Life would have turned out quite differently if I hadn\u2019t stumbled into the opportunity to attend Eastern, and I\u2019m so very pleased that I did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His writing skills grew as a public relations officer for the Secretary of Defense and through a master\u2019s in journalism, but the inspiration for his most successful endeavors came from the courtroom. He\u2019s been a judge in Wyoming since 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phillips authors a series of legal drama novels that currently rank in the top bestsellers on Amazon<\/a>. His first, published in November 2020, is titled \u201cMisjudged\u201d and ranked No. 8 of all books on Kindle, and No.1 among legal thrillers and mystery series. It\u2019s the No. 1 legal thriller and No. 1 political thriller in print, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before it became a hit, though, Phillips\u2019 manuscript got more than 100 rejections from publishers. When it was accepted by Seven River Publishing, they required that he write three more to make a four-part series. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA year and a half later here we are,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like his time at EOU, Phillips stayed the course even when it got rocky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Paul Philips’ books, published under the pen name James Chandler, occupy two of the top 4 spots on the Amazon Best Seller list<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would not have stayed in school if I hadn\u2019t been on the baseball team,\u201d he said. \u201cI was floundering on the education side, and frankly on the baseball field too, but there was a group of guys I enjoyed being part of, and that kept me there while I began to figure out what I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few English classes and one key conversation with a professor planted the seeds of Phillips\u2019 law career and entrance into writing. Finishing his undergraduate degree allowed him to progress as a military officer. With a gift to the EOU Foundation, he hopes to nurture the next generation of students and student-athletes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhatever I am, it wouldn\u2019t be the same without the experience I had at EOU,\u201d he said. \u201cThe hope is that with a little donation of thanks, there\u2019s another guy or gal out there who doesn\u2019t really know what the future holds, but if you can provide something\u2014facilities, activities, an environment they can learn in\u2014they enjoy some success and failure that will prepare them for what\u2019s ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phillips met his wife on campus, too. Ann (ne\u2019e Simmons) Phillips earned her associate degree in 1983. Their daughters enjoy advantages that Phillips never had as a first-generation college student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI got a letter after my first year of law school saying most people with my grades don\u2019t finish or pass the bar, but I was working full-time, going to my daughters\u2019 soccer games and dance recitals,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t do well in college, but I had no idea what to expect there. People who don\u2019t come from an education-oriented family don\u2019t have an advantage, but if you can get through it and get into life, if you\u2019ve been paying attention, and if you work hard and listen, you\u2019ll find that you can be a success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These days, he spends evenings and weekends writing on legal pads or adding thoughts to a Notes app on his phone\u2014progress toward the next installment of his book series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m writing all the time,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m always making notes about something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than writing a mystery from start to finish, Phillips said he skips around, writing a courtroom scene or a more reflective section depending on how he\u2019s feeling. He outlines the plot first, and then creates a draft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe hardest part is coming up with an idea,\u201d he said. \u201cComing up with plots that are realistic and courtroom-centric is the hardest part.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After he has a draft, he adds twists and revises the storyline. He said he almost always changes the ending. The surprise twist in his second book, \u201cOne and Done,\u201d wasn\u2019t part of Phillips\u2019 original outline, but the added drama caught readers\u2019 and reviewers\u2019 attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He pointed out that although he draws inspiration from his day job, the comparisons aren\u2019t exact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn’t go into this thinking I’d have three books selling in the top 100 on Amazon, but it happened. Dream Big. <\/p>-Paul Phillips, ’82<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI certainly know my way around a courthouse and try to make the books as realistic as possible, but I don\u2019t use any local events or characters,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not Sam, Gillette is not Custer, but we are sort of the whole of our experiences. I see stuff everyday that could be fodder for books.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he plans to continue gathering story ideas for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI enjoy being a judge and serving the people of northeast Wyoming,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cWriting is still a hobby, so I plan to continue doing both. If I gave up the day job, writing would turn into a job and I\u2019m not sure I would enjoy it as much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phillips calls himself an \u201caccidental author,\u201d and he\u2019s also an accidental Mountie. He wasn\u2019t recruited to play baseball. He was visiting campus with a friend, and walked into Howard Fetz\u2019s office. Coach Fetz told him to enroll in classes that fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI showed up in September and spent four years trying to convince him to put me in. If I hadn\u2019t taken that left into his office\u2026 Hopefully there are people on campus this year who will encounter those moments that make a big difference in their lives,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t go into this thinking I\u2019d have three books selling in the top 100 on Amazon, but it happened. Dream big.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul Phillips, \u201982, didn\u2019t plan to go to college. Nobody else in his family had done it, but a clandestine visit to campus led him to baseball coach Howard Fetz\u2019s office and the rest was history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":491,"featured_media":1988,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,119],"tags":[129,130,128,127],"class_list":["post-1851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-stories","category-fall-2021","tag-amazon","tag-bestseller","tag-books","tag-writing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/491"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1851"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1871,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1851\/revisions\/1871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}