John Wasowicz
Alexandria author John Wasowicz is publishing his seventh legal mystery this summer, Spite House” featuring attorney Mo Katz, set in Alexandria.
“There’s a beauty to Alexandria, there are ghosts there from the Civil War, the Revolutionary War,” he said. “It lends itself to wanting to be captured in literature.”
Spite House follows his other books, Hazel Falls (2023), Gadsby’s Corner (2022), Roaches Run (2021), Slaters Lane (2020), Jones Point (2019) and Daingerfield Island (2017).
Born and raised in Chicopee, Mass., Wasowicz “was never a serious reader growing up,” he said during a recent interview at Ramparts Tavern and Grill in Alexandria. He did, however, “have a fantasy of being an author.”
“It wasn’t until I was in high school that I began to appreciate literature,” he noted. He fell in love with literature as an English major at Windham College in Vermont, a tiny liberal arts college (now Landmark College), where he wrote for the college newspaper.
His mother was a stay-at-home mom and his father ran a service station, The Muffler King, where John worked on weekends. “I learned a lot of my people skills working for my dad. I did not know I was acquiring a talent and I use it to this day when I’m selling books. I’m reminded a lot of how much I learned at my dad’s shop when that world doesn’t exist anymore.”
He went on to Marquette University, where the magazine editor, Robin, later became his wife. He got a job on Capitol Hill working for Sen. Ed Brooke from his home state. Working for the senator “propelled me to want to go to law school,” he said. He got his law degree attending night school at Catholic University and he and Robin were married.
“We buy a place in North Fairlington, we start our family, we’re off and running for 20 years. That’s a big blur.”
He became a prosecutor for Arlington County, then went into private practice. After 9/11, he went to work at the Department of Homeland Security, “and I’ve been there ever since.”
The characters in his first books come from his work experiences and he “tended to meld together many people and many cases that never receded in my mind. It was very impressionistic. Those cases stay with me to this day. I tended to borrow those characters and meld them together so no one would be identified.”
After writing his first book, “the characters began talking to me ‘John, we have more stories to tell.’” A cancer scare in 2019 “was a stark reminder of the importance of life. The combination of the characters not leaving me alone and the limited nature of life propelled me to write the next book.”
And now with his seventh book out? “This is just fun at this stage of life. The marketing and selling is just as joyful as the writing.”
Find “Spite House” and all of his books at Made in ALX, 533 Montgomery St. and Ramsey House, 221 King St.
Five people I would invite to dinner: Actress Jean Smart, actor Sean Connery, authors Anthony Horowitz, Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler.
My favorite movie is: “Goldfinger”
Every morning, I read: The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post. (He and his wife Robin enjoy the print newspapers.) On Sundays, they add The New York Times.
Favorite restaurant: Mamma’s Kitchen, a gyro platter there is my favorite.
My favorite way to relax is: Writing; I’ll sit outside with the iPad.
The hardest thing I’ve ever done: Pass the Virginia State Bar and becoming an Eagle Boy Scout.
I’m most proud of: My successful marriage (46 years) and our three adult sons.
The most adventurous thing I've ever done: Hitchhiked by myself at age 19 from Massachusetts to Seattle, in 1972. It gave my mother all the gray hairs she had.
My pet peeve is: That we are polarized as a society. When I came to Washington, there was something called bipartisanship, collegiality, shared goals and aspirations. I find so much of that broken today and it saddens me. I don’t subscribe to it. I believe in building bridges and finding consensus.
My dream is: To age like a bottle of good wine.
