The Janet Evanovich Interview, by Jess Lourey

Thanks to Janet Evanovich, I write humorous mysteries. (At least I hope they're funny.) About seven years ago, I was having no luck getting my embarrassingly autobiographical "fiction" published, and I needed something to distract me. A friend suggested I read One for the Money. Couldn't put it down. What a person likes to read is personal, but I consider that book one of the top ten best mysteries ever written. It hit all the right notes--suspense, humor, sex, food. When I found out there were more in the series, I devoured them. When I was at the end, and she wasn't writing fast enough, I decided to try my hand at it, and so, the Murder-by-Month series was born.

So yeah. She's one of my idols. And on a whim, I recently emailed her and asked if she would agree to a brief interview, made up of five questions only a Stephanie Plum geek could love. Imagine my surprise when she graciously answered them! Here is the interview:

JESS: You are famous for your dedication to your fans, touring when it is no longer a career necessity. What keeps you going back on the road?

JANET: It's a way of staying in touch with my readers. And I love room service.

JESS: Ha! That room service never seems to find me in the basement of the Motel 8, but it's probably for the best. I don't know what they'd bring, but I'm pretty sure it'd have a hair in it. OK, next question. Tess Gerritsen tells a story of having one of the big dogs reviewing her first book. The review said, essentially, "This book will only appeal to readers who move their lips." Do you have any mortifying interview/review anecdotes that could make us mere mortal writers feel better about ourselves?

JANET: First, let me say that I've been known to move my lips while reading. Second, stop reading the reviews and interviews and use that time to improve a couple sentences in chapter three. Third, just about everything I do is mortifying ...it's a way of life.

JESS: Hallelujah! Back in your pre-published days, you wrote a few novels that would be categorized as literary, or mainstream, fiction. Ever think about dusting those off, revising them using your hard-won writing skills, and publishing them?

JANET: Nope. They wouldn't meet reader expectation in their present form and the editing would be so time consuming it wouldn't be cost effective.

JESS: And I certainly don't want to pull you away from creating more Stephanie Plum adventures! OK, Mark Twain once said, "I prefer having written to writing." (He also said, "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society," but that's beside the point). How about for you? Do you enjoy the act of writing, or is it still a challenge, albeit a grand one?

JANET: I prefer writing to having written. I love the process, the isolation, the unique world I go into every morning. Once the book is off my desk it belongs to someone else. The only really good part to having written is that someone sends me a check which allows me to go on writing.

JESS: That is a nice perk! OK, here's the big one, the one many of your fans are dying to know. If you were single and Joe Morelli and Ranger both came to life, whom would you choose? (Morelli would come with a lifetime supply of Cheetos; Ranger w/limitless grocery store birthday cake with crusty buttercream frosting.)

JANET: That's an easy one ...birthday cake.

Ha ha! Thank you to the lovely, ever-funny, and talented Janet Evanovich for her time! In celebration of funny mysteries everywhere, I'm sending out a free copy of August Moon to the three people who write the the best (as judged by me, using entirely arbitrary and shifting criteria) comment to this post. Here's some prompts: Whose your favorite character in the Stephanie Plum novels? Who do you think is the best actor to play Stephanie Plum, Grandma Mazur, Ranger, Joe Morelli, Lulu, Vinnie, etc. in a movie version of the series? Would you pick the Cheetos or the birthday cake? What writer(s) inspire you?

Happy fall, and thanks for reading!

Posted by Jess Lourey  |  Oct 05, 2008 4:00 pm  |  16 Comments

Inkspot News - October 4, 2008

Be sure to visit Inkspot on Monday, October 6 to read Jess Lourey's interview with Janet Evanovich, who once and for all answers the question, "Who would YOU choose: Ranger or Joe?"

*****
Starting this coming Thursday and throughout the weekend, you can meet several Midnight Ink authors at Bouchercon in Baltimore:

Thursday, 3:00 PM, Tim Maleeny - LET'S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER

Friday, 10/10 @ 10 AM, Felicia Donovan: STOP I'M ALREADY DEAD: Keeping a series interesting. Felicia is also a nominee for the Barry Award, to be presented Thursday night. The Barry is awarded by Deadly Pleasures magazine for excellence in crime fiction.

Friday, 10/10 @ 3 PM, Tom Schreck will be moderating I COULD'VE LIED.

Saturday, 11:30 AM, Tom Schreck - MURDER WHAT FUN

Saturday, 3:00 PM, Tim Maleeny - KUNG FU FIGHTING

Sunday, 10/12 @ 8:30 AM, G.M. Malliet - BEGINNINGS: First-Time Novelists

*****
The fourth book in the supper club series, Stiffs & Swines, has been released! See J.B. Stanley's web site for details.

*****
Lynn Sholes & Joe Moore will be signing their new Cotten Stone thriller, THE 731 LEGACY, at:

BORDERS BOOKS
700 University Drive
Coral Springs, FL
Saturday, October 11, 2:00 - 4:00 PM

*****
This week marks the official launch for Deborah Sharp's series debut, MAMA DOES TIME. On Tuesday evening, Oct., 7, she'll be the first guest in an interactive teleconference series, ''Author Talks.'' For more info, or to sign up to participate:
http://www.shelleylieber.com/work5.htm

*****
Don't miss the Midnight Ink ad in the latest issue of Mystery Scene Magazine, along with an article by Midnight Ink author C.S. Challinor, and a nice review for Deborah Sharp. Also, see great reviews for Joanna Slan and Jess Lourey in this month's Crimespree (pdf).




Posted by G.M. Malliet  |  Oct 04, 2008 9:00 am  |  0 Comments

Entertainment in Tough Times




Posted by Susan Goodwill  |  Oct 03, 2008 8:27 am  |  6 Comments

Sign of the Times
by G.M. Malliet

This sign appeared Tuesday on the remaining Olsson's bookstores in my area. Hard to imagine sadder news for book lovers and writers, not to mention all the people who counted on the store's success for their livelihoods.

Olsson's was in business for 36 years. If you don't live in the DC area, you may not have heard of it, but it was an institution here. It was where you went when you had an hour to kill and didn't quite know where else to go. In Alexandria, there was a coffee shop upstairs with a gorgeous view over the Potomac, and you were free to sit there and dream or scribble in your notebook uninterrupted. It was not uncommon to find people asleep up there in one of the easy chairs. No one bothered them. It was that kind of place.

A small chain to begin with, Olsson's had recently dwindled to five stores. Even when they filed for bankruptcy protection in July, we figured they'd weather the storm. But no. They'd been Amazoned and iTuned, as the Washington Post said. They're not the first and sadly, they won't be the last. But they were really great about supporting this newbie author and I want the staff there to know: I will miss you guys. Thank you.

Amazon is convenient, but it doesn't have a river view.

Posted by G.M. Malliet  |  Oct 01, 2008 10:13 am  |  4 Comments

Who Says Crime Doesn't Pay?

by Felicia Donovan

Anyone who has read THE BLACK WIDOW AGENCY series knows that I draw a lot of my plotlines from my own years of experience in law enforcement, as well as my extensive research on all facets of cyber crime. Throughout the writing of the series, I assisted on cases involving child predators, cyber stalkers, on-line harassment, etc; alongside the gal who gave me the original idea for the series, Detective Kristyn Bernier. Kristyn works as an Investigator with the Northern New England Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Together, we trolled the Internet, watched a lot of nasty things pop-up on monitors as she posed as a young teen in chat rooms, and tracked these creeps down through a variety of sources to identify them and get them off the street.

Kristyn is a bloodhound when it comes to finding the slugs and maggots who prey on our children. In that, we are very much alike - sniffing out the bad guy like a dog and never giving up the bite until absolutely commanded to - but beyond that, we're very different. "Ying and Yang" is how she often refers to us. She's quick-witted with an even quicker tongue, I'm methodical, reflective and reserved. She's always "pulled together" while I slouch around in whatever happens to be clean that morning. Her desk looks like a hurricane just blew through the area while I need everything in folders with labels.

Despite our differences, we work incredibly well together because we both have a strong work ethic and desire to see justice served. We also appreciate each other's intellectual capabilities, so to that end we put our collective blonde (sort of) heads together and schemed up a brilliant idea - What if we collaborated on a book all about cyber crime and case stories from the victim's and law enforcement's perspective about the REALITY of cyber crime? What if we were to make people aware of some of the most frightening websites and tools available to stalk someone? What if we told what it is really like to "catch a predator?" My agent loved the idea. Publishers loved the idea. So...

I'm proud to announce the impending arrival of CYBER CRIME FIGHTERS: TALES FROM THE TRENCHES by Felicia Donovan and Kristyn Bernier, which will be released in December from Que Publishing (ISBN: 0789739224).

Writing non-fiction has been an entirely different experience than writing The Black Widow Agency series. There's all kind of formatting, figures and captions, pull quotes, permission issues, research, fact checks, and more research. There are Development Editors, Permissions Editors, Technical Editors and Author Reviews. And just when we thought we were done with everything, a case that we'd mentioned in the book would take a bizarre turn so we'd have to scramble to squeeze the details in.

As much as I loved writing CYBER CRIME FIGHTERS: TALES FROM THE TRENCHES and working with a terrific co-author, let's just say that I began to sorely miss my Black Widows and the freedom to suspend reality. I'm looking forward to returning to my gals to chronicle their adventures once more, but in the meantime, who says crime doesn't pay?

Posted by Felicia Donovan  |  Sep 30, 2008 9:50 pm  |  11 Comments