Ex-Lawyer Proves the Pen is Mighter than the Gavel (Press release 23 April 2009) For Belinda D'Alessandro, writing her debut crime novel about a disillusioned attorney served as much needed therapy. Inspired by events in her own legal career, D'Alessandro's book, Discovering Wounded Justice: Cruel Menace, began as a way of dealing with the struggles of being a woman in a system that is still very much a man's game. "I started it as a hobby, a bit of an outlet for my personal disillusionment with the profession," explains D'Alessandro, who served as a Research Associate for Federal Judges before moving into private practice. "But then it snowballed and I just had to write it; had to finish. It became a cathartic experience." D'Alessandro drew on her own experiences working in the legal field for much of her book, though unlike her protagonist Alyssa Giordano, D'Alessandro has never had a former co-worker try to kill her. Still, she says, "I've worked with both good and rotten lawyers, and learnt just as much, if not more, from the bad ones as I did from the good ones! Let's just say the location and some of the names were changed to protect the guilty." Like her protagonist, D'Alessandro comes from a diverse family. Her father moved from Italy to Australia at the age of seven. She has great-grandparents from both Scotland and Ireland, and extended family in both the United States and Canada. She grew up in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast of Australia, and earned her law degree from Bond University in 1992. A desire to focus exclusively on her writing led her to launch her own boutique publishing company. For now, BDA Books will handle D'Alessandro's own projects, though she hopes to expand her press to include other authors. More information regarding BDA Books can be found at http://www.bdabooks.com.au