European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 18, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Novel writing is a second line for Many authors Tom Blackburn Cox news service the insurance agent the actor the priest the senators speechwriter and the Wall Street investor have this in common they Are novelists. So is a Bench Ful of lawyers. Book publishers embrace lawyers who can write without typing  yes in previous times writers have had full time jobs to keep them fed while they struggled to get out their novels. For example . Eliot worked in a Bank and Nathaniel Hawthorne was . Consul in Liverpool England. But they did that As Stopgap their real career was literature. The novelists we re talking about Here already have real careers somewhere else. Tom Clancy was running a successful casualty insurance business when he started working on Quot the Hunt for red  it gave him time to pursue his Hobby As a military Buff which gave him the idea for a novel about submarines which eventually led to other books including a Clear and present danger a which was at the top of this summer s Best Selling paperback lists. Everybody knows Kirk Douglas the actor. Now he is Kirk Douglas author of a dance with the Devil a a novel about a Hollywood director with a past. Two years ago he wrote his autobiography Quot the ragman s  critics said he could write. So he tried fiction. He is reported to be writing his second novel at the moment. Douglas Isnit the Only writing actor. Carrie Fisher started to write a Memoir of growing up with two parents a Eddie Fisher and Debbie books father Andrew m. Greeley Patricia Solimon m. Scott Peck Reynolds a in show business. It was to be called a Money  nobody knew she had lapsed into fiction until the first 150 pages arrived at the publisher and they weren to Money Dearest a her Book underwent this incredible metamorphosis a said her editor Patricia b. Solimon. It became a novel a few years ago a postcards from the  Solimon who has been an editor All her adult life made the transition this summer. She wrote a Coco the novel a based on the life of fashion designer Coco Chanel when she goes out to talk about her novel interviewers can also ask about editing Fisher Rona Jaffe Zsa Zsa Gabor and others. If interviewers prefer they can talk to a Catholic priest. Andrew m. Greeley has been writing novels for years and his latest Quot the search for Maggie Ward a will be out in the Winter. William Nixon has written his first novel Quot strategic Compromise a a a High stakes political thriller. Nixon worked for sen. William v. Roth jr., r-del., and also did some speech writing for the Reagan White House. Donald Porter brought his own expertise to a Jubilee Jim and the wizard of Wall Street a a historical novel about 19th-Century financiers Jim Fisk and Jay Gould. In his Day Job Porter is a 20th-Century financier head of Ariel capital management in new York. Physicians have Long had an Affinity for literature. They include Thomas b. Costain Michael Crichton sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Many More including or. M. Scott Peck author of the non fiction Quot the Road less travelled a a Best seller in both hard cover and paperback. Now it looks like lawyers Are developing the same writing skills. Miami attorney Paul Levine has written a to speak for the dead a Texas lawyer Jay Brandon penned a fade the heat and Settle lawyer John j. Nance wrote a final  that a three new novels by lawyers obviously influenced in part by the Success of Scott Turow a two novels two no. 1 Best Sellers. Incidentally Turow Levine Brandon and Nance have something in common with one of the first great american writers Washington Irving of a sleepy hollow Fame. He passed the bar exam too. Now they re hoping to follow him into literary  \ is Buffalo girls by Larry Mcmurtie Simon amp schuster 351 pp., $19,95 whenever Larry Mcmurtry sits Down at the campfire of modern fiction a wild cast of characters soon ambles in from the shadows and their compelling yarns quickly Edge any weighty issues into the background. So it is in this tale of Martha Jane Canary Larry better known As calamity Jane As she Mcmurtry and her companions ramble across then old stomping grounds the old West that no longer exists aimlessly seeking some vague goal that they All sense can no longer be found. The Central irony of the Story is a that the Only Hope of salvation for these characters arrives in an offer from old Friend Buffalo Bill who persuades them that they might recapture their past glories a real or imagined a by joining his wild West show for a performance before Queen Victoria in London. But the end of the West is Only part of what a Buffalo girls is about. Both the characters and their country Are struggling with Middle age and the possibility that a the fun is Over a and this discussion of loss and maturity also drives the Book. Bob Sipchen los Angeles times current affairs by Barbara Raskin random House 270 pp., $19.95 this is a tale of two Sisters and sibling rivalry told in the humor and style of which Onty Barbara Raskin is capable. It is tender funny romantic lovable laughable and All too believable for anyone who has Ever had a sibling that gets the attention. Shay is twice divorced a free Lance journalist with a list of lovers that reads like who a who in society and politics. Sister Natalie is a Normal a Middle class and dying of boredom. Shay has just stolen the scoop of the year but the documentation has been stolen with Natalie a car. Meanwhile the tale of two Sisters will steal your heart with its humor and style. Raskin shows that rivalry Falls by the Way when most siblings find they need a familiar shoulder to lean on cry on and laugh on. Kathleen Ostrander United press International two states a one nation by Gunter with a Wen anger Harcourt Brace Jovanovka 123 up $1835 a i am already a traitor to this fatherland a writes Ginter grass deploring the unified Germany that just came into existence. A any fatherland of mine must be More diverse More colourful More neighbourly a a fatherland that has grown through suffering Wiser and More open to Europe a in this Book Germany a Best known contemporary author presents Strong essays and dialogues that go against the general celebrating in his country. Is Strong views about die potential problems of a unified Germany of 80 million people and about die Short memories of some of his countrymen should come As no Surprise to admirers of his novels. Even when grass reasoning can be challenged its a pleasure to encounter his fanciful ideas and unsheathed language. Herbert Ming air new Yorito tunes a books either Are or will be available at stars and stripes  16 c to plus sunday november 18,1990