For obvious reasons, I've always been fascinated by struggling writers.

Robert Dugoni used to be in that category. Dugoni is the author of the David Sloane legal thriller series.

The fictional Sloane, "the lawyer who does not lose," lives on Three Tree Point and hangs out at Olde Burien's Tin Room Bar & Grill. (If Sloane knew that's how they spell "Old," he would drink somewhere else.)

Dugoni will sign copies of his brand new book, "Bodily Harm," at a Tin Room launch party on May 27 at 4:30 p.m. Dan House, who is both the real Tin Room proprietor and a character in Dugoni's series, will be there, too. The bar is located at 923 S.W. 152nd St.

Dugoni and I talked at the Tin Room last month.

He revealed that it had taken him eight very long years after he began writing seriously to get published.

Before embarking on the literary life, Dugoni was accustomed to success. Always a writer, he majored in journalism and hired on at the Los Angeles Times.

But coming from a family with 10 kids-all "compulsive overachievers, " the family code was to attend a professional school.

"I ended up in law school but I knew within a few months I was not passionate about it," Dugoni said. "But you get on that treadmill."

He practiced law in northern California and dabbled in theater to feed his artistic side.

Then he started reading about a lawyer named John Grisham who wrote phenomenally successful legal thrillers.

An attorney who writes novels-that was his ticket out!

For a few years, he tried lawyering by day and writing by night. But in 1999, Dugoni told his wife he needed to write full time.

His wife agreed. She specified only one condition-they had to relocate to her hometown, Seattle.

The Bay Area was just too expensive to support a starving writer and his family. Besides, it would be too tempting to be lured back into a lucrative law practice there. He does not have a Washington law license.

They moved to a home very familiar to Dugoni's fans. It's the three-story colonial with white clapboard where Sloane, his wife Tina and Tina's son, Jake live.

The house on a small bluff near the old Three Tree Point community store and next to a public access has been in Dugoni's wife's family for over 40 years. Presumably, their time there was much more peaceful than the multiple assaults upon the house the Sloanes endure.

Dugoni discovered he knew how to write, but not how to write a book. However, as an ex-journalist and civil litigator for over 20 years, Dugoni knew how to research. He eventually compiled his own writing workbook.

In fact, he uses the workbook in advanced writing classes where he teaches attorneys and doctors who want to become novelists.

"I tell them I am teaching them my mistakes," Dugoni noted.

His journalism and law background also taught him the discipline to treat writing as a job. Having two kids to put through school also helped.

He started at 7 in the morning and wrote steadily until about 3:30 in the afternoon.

"If it felt good, I would do it until 7:30," Dugoni said. "When I'm in rhythm, my wife and kids know to leave me alone. When the rhythm stops, I don't force it."

Dugoni admits there were times his wife would come home dead tired from work and ask him, "How much longer?"

Possibly the lowest point came soon after he glanced a glimmer of hope.

Finally, he had found a literary agent to pitch his manuscript to publishers.

He happily worked away on his text while anticipating good news.

One day, Dugoni received a letter inviting him to a celebration for the agent.

He called New York for more details.

He was told the event was a "celebration of life"-in other words, a memorial service!

"When did he die?" Dugoni inquired.

"Oh, about three months ago," was the answer.

His agent had been dead for 90 days but Dugoni wasn't important enough to the agency to be notified.

Dugoni persevered and found another agent.

"I was very naive but I had a great bit of faith," Dugoni declared. "I put it in God's hands. I did everything I could.

"You need a little luck and help along the way, too."

Best-selling true-crime author Ann Rule, a Highline resident, was one of the established writers who Dugoni credits with helping him.

With a combination of hard work, talent and a little luck, Dugoni finally broke through in 2004 with his first published book.

An advance blurb says his newest novel is reminiscent of Grisham's best-only better.

Well, I'm happy for a fellow writer but I don't know how successful we want Dugoini's Sloane thrillers to get. Three Tree Pointers like to keep the Point their hidden secret and it's already tough enough to find an unoccupied Tin Room table.