Scott Simon, with his mellifluent voice and occasional outbursts of laughter, is known to many as the host of National Public Radio's "Weekend Edition Saturday.'' But, gradually, he's been building another career as a successful novelist.

Simon has written a book about Chicago politics, "Windy City,'' and will talk about it here on St. Patrick's Day. The novel, his second, is a fulsome account of the nature of local government in Chicago, a city Simon considers his hometown.

"There's no better place than Chicago for the setting of a political novel," he said. "In that town, politics is a specialty like the blues or improv theater."

Chicago's 50 wards each have a representative or alderman on council, a circumstance, in Simon's mind, that makes the workings of local government closer to its constituents.

"In Chicago, you can put a face on what otherwise would be a faceless bureaucracy," he said. Simon, 55, lists his 50 fictional aldermen in the book's first pages, then proceeds to create a rather sentimental, positive picture of the democratic process.

He agreed with that description. "In our system of government, you have to do a whole lot of things with other people to make it work. Some are great, some are not, but in general, I think they all add up to something positive for everybody."

Simon's first novel, 2005's "Pretty Birds," grew out of his experience covering the fighting in Bosnia and its main city, Sarajevo, for NPR.

"I had read most of the nonfiction that was written about Bosnia and a lot of it was first rate," he said. "So, when I decided to write about my experience there, I decided to try a novel. I thought that fiction might have the power or the impact with people who might never pick up a book about Bosnia."

Simon said his impulse to turn to fiction was spurred by his long career as a reporter in a variety of hot spots from Central America to Afghanistan to Chicago, where he joined public radio in 1977.

"I had such a rich career in journalism all around the world, that I became intrigued, if not dazzled, by the idea that I could make creative use of a lot of the things I had seen," he explained. "Once I started to write fiction, I found myself exercising an alternative set of muscles in my head -- and my heart.

"I know that fiction can reach into people and affect readers in ways that nonfiction and certainly broadcast journalism can't. If the novel is well done, it creates characters in our minds that continue to travel through life with us."

Pittsburgh, where Simon stopped eight years ago to talk about his first book, the memoir "Home and Away," is the start of a monthlong book tour for "Windy City." It might be the start of many more, he hinted.

"Yeah, I'm thinking of writing more novels," he said, adding that he has started writing a third. "I still have a few things to say."

Scott Simon appears at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the Drue Heinz Lectures at Carnegie Music Hall, Oakland. Call 412-622-8866 for tickets.