Writing by Numbers With Mystery Author Janet Evanovich

Janet Evanovich

Many of us spend time thinking up weird stories, but rarely do we turn those self-made adventures in to a career. However, that's exactly what best-selling author Janet Evanovich did.

Evanovich started her career as a romance writer, moved to writing mysteries, and created heroin Stephanie Plum, a one-time lingerer buyer turned bounty hunter. The long running and much loved Plum series was also turned in to a film, "One For The Money."

Writer's Bone was lucky enough to chat with Evanovich about her career as a writer, how she learned to write dialogue, and what her favorite candy is.

Writer’s Bone: When did you know you were a storyteller? Was it at birth or was it something you realized years later? 

Janet Evanovich: As a kid who lived in a world of my own, I made up stories all the time. After graduating from art school (and discovering that I had an allergy to the pigment in the paint), I started writing those stories down. The first one was about the pornographic adventures of a fairy who lived in a second rate fairy forest in Pennsylvania. That was my starting point and I progressed from there. 

Writer’s Bone: We read that you took an improv acting class to learn the act of dialog. Did this help with your writing? Also, do you continue taking acting classes now?

JE: Yep, I really sucked at writing dialog. I had a friend who was teaching acting and I took a couple improv classes. It taught me to develop character and I became very good at talking to myself. I no longer take acting classes, but I talk to myself a lot.

Writer’s Bone: What's the single best piece of advice an established writer like yourself has for an aspiring author? 

JE: Sit your butt in the chair and start writing. Do it every day. You don't have to write full time—an hour or so seven days a week and you'll be amazed at what you can turn out. Even if your output is only two pages a day, at the end of a month you'll have 60 pages. Writing is like any other muscle; it gets stronger when you exercise.

Writer’s Bone: How many numbers are you planning to go up to? 

JE: This is where I normally would say "infinity." Well, maybe that's too high a number, but the point is that I have no plan to stop the Stephanie Plum series anytime soon.

Writer’s Bone: Can you tell us one unknown random fact about yourself? 

JE: How about two? My favorite Tootsie Roll Pop is grape and my favorite vegetable is birthday cake.

You can learn more about Janet Evanovich by visiting her official website or following her on Twitter @janetevanovich. 

For more interviews, check out our full archive. 

Mystery Writer Rebecca Cantrell on Why Writing Should Be Fun

Rebecca Cantrell (Photo Courtesy of the author)

Not many people would give up the sand and surf of Hawaii to move to Berlin, but that’s just what award winning and New York Times best-selling author Rebecca Cantrell did.

For those of you who don’t know, Cantrell writes the popular Hannah Vogel mystery/thriller series that is set in Berlin in the 1930s. According to her official website, the Vogel character was inspired by a faded pink triangle found on the wall of the Dachau concentration camp and her time going to school in Berlin in the 1980s (is it us, or does this sound like #badasswriter fodder?).

She graciously took some time away from Hannah’s world to answer Writer’s Bone’s questions about her life as a writer.

Writer’s Bone: What is a word or phrase that you hate to hear about the writing craft?

Rebecca Cantrell: Writers must suffer for their art. Every time I hear that it drives me crazy. If writing isn’t fun, why do it? I have lots of fun writing and so do most other writers I know. It doesn’t have to be about suffering.

WB: You were 7 years old when you decided to become a writer. How did you go about reaching your goal?

RC: I read every spare moment as a child and teenager (I still do), and I started writing all the time. I wrote poems and short stories as a kid, plays that I convinced other children to act out in my early teen years, and bought my first electric typewriter with my babysitting money when I was 14 years old and clacked away on it just about every day.

WB: Reporter Hannah Vogel just leaps off the page and grabs you by the neck and pulls you in. Where did the inspiration for this character come from?

RC: Thank you! Hannah Vogel was first invented as a counterpoint to her brother, who was the murder victim in the first novel, A Trace of Smoke. She’s not based on any one person, historical or otherwise, but has very much determined her own character since her very first page.

WB: What are the similarities between you and Hannah Vogel?

RC: Probably more than I’d like to admit. I think we’re both stubborn and have a strong sense of right and wrong that gets us into trouble. I don’t have her reckless streak, I’m happy to say.

WB: You are one of the few modern authors who write short story fiction. Do you have a preference of short stories or novels?

RC: I think short stories are enjoying a Renaissance right now. For years I wrote nothing but shorts stories, but now I have to fit them in between novels. I like them both for different things. You can pare things down to one essential moment in a short story, without having to build the structure of a novel around it—you can show a moment in a different way. But I also like the sweep and space of being able to add in more time and setting and emotions in a larger work. I’d like to do more of both.

WB: Do you have any new projects in the works?

RC: Let’s see. I just released The World Beneath, the first in a series starring Joe Tesla, a millionaire who is stricken with agoraphobia and lives in the tunnels under New York City. I plan to be working on the second in that series later this year tentatively titled The Danger Below. I’m currently writing Blood Infernal with James Rollins. That’s the third book in the Order of the Sanguines series. And early next year I want to get back to Hannah Vogel, with a new book set in 1945 as the Russians are taking over the city where Hannah will be going in with American troops as part of Operation Paperclip. I’m also putting out a new short story, The Man in the Attic, next month set at the beginning of World War II but with some fantastical elements.

WB: Describe your process for writing a novel. What do you do from the idea to the moment you write “the end?”

RC: First off, let me say that I don’t recommend this process to anyone. There are way more efficient ways to work. My process is that I have an idea for a book. Sometimes it’s a moment in history I want to explore, other times it’s a moment in the life of a particular character. Then I do loads of research, particularly for my historical novels. I love learning everything I can about my characters’ worlds so that I can walk in their footsteps and hope that readers can walk with me. After the research, I develop a plot for the book. Then I write the first 50 pages and discover that my plot isn’t working as intended. Then I re-plot and write 50 more pages and get stuck again. On my co-writing projects with James, I get stuck every 100 pages. I’m guessing that means that two pair of eyes can see further ahead into the story.

WB: Can you tell us one random fact about yourself?

RC: I wrote my first short stories on that typewriter I bought when I was 13 while living a haunted house. Surprisingly, it was not horror. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t very good. But it was a start.

You can learn more about Rebecca Cantrell by visiting her official website, or following her on Twitter @rebeccacantrell.

For more interviews, check out our full archive. 

Mystery Novelist Lawrence Block On Why Writers Must Go On

Lawrence Block (Photo courtesy of the author)

Lawrence Block has been writing crime, mystery, and suspense novels longer than the millennial generation has been alive.

Block started out writing midcentury erotica in the late 1950s and eventually introduced the world to colorful characters such as cop turned private investigator Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller.

He recently answered questions from Writer’s Bone on why New York City is a fixture in his novels, and what mantra his writing process follows.

Writer’s Bone: New York City is normally the setting—and a character—for your stories. What draws you to the Big Apple?

Lawrence Block: It’s my home. I first visited New York in 1948; my father and I took the train down from Buffalo and spent a long weekend at the Hotel Commodore. I first lived here in 1956, and it’s really been my home ever since, although I’ve spent stretches of time elsewhere. John Steinbeck put it best in 1953: "New York is an ugly city, a dirty city. Its climate is a scandal, its politics are used to frighten children, its traffic is madness, its competition murderous. But there is one thing about it-—once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough."

WB: Can you tell us about some of your earliest work?

LB: I started writing for publication at a young age, and my earliest stories appeared in the digest-sized crime magazines. They’ve since been collected in One Night Stands and Lost Weekends.

I’d been doing this for a year or so when a couple of publishers, Midwood Tower and Nightstand, spawned the genre of midcentury paperback erotica, and I found it a productive learning ground—although I sometimes think I may have stayed too long at the fair.

WB: Was there a time as a writer that you felt hopeless about the craft? If so, how did you work past it?

LB: There has rarely been a time when I haven’t felt hopeless about something or other. Beckett said it in eleven words: “You must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on.” And one does, at least until one doesn’t.

WB: You tend to write about detectives, thieves, and hit men. Where does this interest come from?

LB: I have no idea. I’ve known a few detectives, a couple of thieves, and at least one fellow with a couple of bodies on him. But I was writing about such folk long before I was acquainted with any of them. And I know a lot of lawyers and doctors and schoolteachers and guys who sell insurance, and rarely write much about any of them.

WB: Matt Scudder is one of the most beloved and interesting private detectives of the latter part of the 20th Century and in to the 21st Century. What is Matt’s staying power?

LB: I’m probably not the person to ask. If I were to guess, it would be that Matt has aged and evolved over the years, but that may better serve to explain why I’ve continued to find him interesting.

WB: Is Matt Scudder meant to be the voice for New York City?

LB: No, not at all. 

WB: So many of your characters have neat quirks, are they based on anyone?

LB:

Rarely.

WB: What is your writing process?

LB:

Again: “You must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on.”

WB: As a New Yorker what are some of your favorite spots in and around the city? Is there a place in the city that really gets your writer’s mind ticking?

LB:

I spend most of my time in Greenwich Village.

WB: Who were some of your early influences?

LB:

I grew up reading the realistic American novelists of the first half of the 20th Century, and when I began writing crime fiction, I read widely in the genre.

WB: Where did

A Candle for the Bag Lady

come from? It stands out as far as detective short stories go.

LB:

There’s a song quoted in the story, and I’d written it a couple of years before I wrote the story. Beyond that, I’ve no idea where the notion came from.

WB: Who are some of the up-and-coming mystery writers you enjoy?

LB:

I usually avoid this question, but I’ve enjoyed Wallace Stroby’s books a lot lately, so I’ll mention him. But just this once.

WB: What is something you wish you knew when you first started being a writer?

LB:

How fast the time goes.

WB: Do you think stamp-collecting hit man Keller will ever come to the big screen?

LB:

One never knows. There’s probably more chance for a television series, but long odds either way.

WB: How has the mystery genre changed since you first started writing?

LB:

Immeasurably.

WB: If you had to solve a case which fictional detective would you want to help you?

LB:

Oh, Bernie Rhodenbarr, for sure. He has the most fun.

For more on Lawrence Block, check out his official website lawrenceblock.com, follow him on Twitter @LawrenceBlock, or like him on Facebook.

For more interviews, check out our full archive. 

Why Screenwriter and Novelist Derek Haas Loves Making Readers Cheer for a Hit Man

Derek Haas (on left)  (Photo credit: Elizabeth Morris, photos courtesy of Derek Haas)

By Sean Tuohy

For the better part of a decade screenwriter/novelist Derek Haas has entertained and thrilled audiences across the globe with his adrenaline-pumping writing skills. Haas helped pen “3:10 To Yuma,” arguably one of the best westerns of the last 10 years, and is the co-creator of NBC’s “Chicago Fire.”

When Haas isn’t lighting up the silver and small screen, he is busy exciting readers with his Assassin Trilogy, which follows international hit man Columbus. His latest novel The Right Hand chronicles C.I.A. Austin Clay’s investigation into a deadly mystery and is one of best spy thrillers of recent memory.

Haas graciously answered some of my questions regarding his life as a writer.

Sean Tuohy:  Tell us a little about yourself. How did you get your start as a professional writer?

Derek Haas: I always wanted to be a writer. I went to school at Baylor University and stayed for graduate school in English Literature.

My now partner Michael Brandt was doing the same thing, only getting his MA in Film. We teamed up soon after college and started writing together.

A screenplay we wrote fell into Brad Pitt’s hands and he wanted to make the movie. He never did end up making it.

However, that got us our start.

ST: Was there a time as a writer that you felt hopeless about the craft?

DH: There have been times when I felt like the machine that is Hollywood would chew us up and not let us get any of our scripts produced, but to be honest, I haven’t had self-doubt about our writing.

Don’t get me wrong, we may not have always turned in the greatest draft, but I have confidence we’re strong writers.

ST: Who were some of your early influences?

DH: My earliest influence was Stephen King. I just think he’s a master storyteller. He knows how to manipulate pace and make his readers keep turning pages. He’s the greatest campfire storyteller of all time. On the movie side of things, I’m a big admirer of Spielberg, Scorsese, Coppola.

ST: What made you realize that you were a storyteller?

DH: I think the first time I wrote something that got the reaction I wanted—laughter, emotion, or a lump in the throat. I started writing stories when I was still in elementary school, and it seemed that I could always surprise people with my words. I still try to do that.

ST: Your Assassin Trilogy follows world-traveling hit man Columbus. Where did this character come from?

DH: I’m always attracted to characters that are gray; just when you want to like him, he does something to turn you away from him, and just when you want to condemn him, he brings you back. How could I make readers cheer for a contract killer? It was a great challenge. I do love writing him.

ST: You write about the unseen underworld—assassins, gangsters, and spies. Where does this interest stem from?

DH: Brandt and I spent a little time with FBI agents in Quantico and I remember one of them talking about a hit man—a contract killer—and it piqued my interest. I started to wonder about what twists and turns a life might have taken to put him in that position to where he kills people for a living. I just love crime stories. Elmore Leonard was also a big influence.

ST: All writers have a great work that is unproduced and sadly may never see the light of day. For example, Doug Richardson’s “Hell Bent,” Quentin Tarantino's “40 Lashes Less One,” and Lem Dobbs “Edward Ford.” Do you have a screenplay or novel that has yet to be produced or published?

DH: Michael and I wrote a movie called “MIAMILAND” that we’ve been trying to get produced for a dozen years. We love it. It’s a crime story where two overeducated con men have to go to Miami and separate a mobster from his money. Some day!

ST: What made you realize that you were a storyteller?

DH: While other kids were drawing pictures, I was writing stories. I asked for a typewriter for my 10th birthday. It was innate. I just had to do it. I pinch myself every day that I’ve made a living from doing it.

Derek Haas writing stories in his youth (Photo credit: Molly McCoy).

ST: What is your writing process? Do you outline your work before hand or just jump in to it?

DH: With screenplays, Brandt and I outline pretty extensively.

It’s the nature of the business. The producers or studio or network want to see what they’re going to get ahead of time. With novels, I just have a vague idea of what I’m going to do. I generally know my beginning, middle, and end in broad strokes. Other than that, I just plow ahead and let the story take me wherever it wants to go. That sounds like hippy-dippy writer-speak, but it’s true. I don’t want to get bogged down with an outline to which I have to adhere. No thanks.

ST: You are both a novelist and a screenwriter, which do you prefer to write?

DH: I love them both. I get to flex different muscles. Prose makes me happy, but when an actor or a director makes a scene even better than you imagined there’s no feeling like it.

ST: What is your best moment as a writer?

DH: Brandt and I were on a rooftop in Miami and it was hot as hell out and 300 people were standing around a set and then the director yelled action and two actors said the words that were in our heads. And it was three-dimensional and real and not just words on a page sitting on someone’s shelf. I almost started crying. (The scene never made the movie.)

ST: What is one random fact about yourself?

DH: I piloted the bullet train between Paris and Marseille once. True story.

Follow Derek Haas on Twitter @derekhaas, or visit his official website.

For more interviews, check out our full archive.