Maxine Paetro | Collaboration

When I was the creative department manager of several top ad agencies, the part of my job that I found most rewarding was hiring creative talent.

Among the 25,000 copywriters and art directors I interviewed was a talented junior copywriter with a portfolio that I critiqued.

Over time, this junior writer became the Worldwide Creative Director of J. Walter Thompson, a huge advertising agency that was winning awards for Kodak, Burger King, Ford and other first-class clients.

His name was James Patterson.

In addition to supervising two hundred creative people and writing much of Thompson's award-winning work, Jim Patterson wrote killer-thrillers in his spare time and developed an adrenaline-charged style that really connected with the reading public. His novels rocketed to the top of the best sellers lists every time.

Years passed.

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