Michael Connelly and Janet Evanovich Interview Each Other

Posted on June 20, 2009

Amazon.com recently conducted an interesting Author One-to-One feature with author Michael Connelly and Janet Evanovich interviewing each other. You can read the questions Michael Connelly had for Janet Evanovich here. Michael Connelly mentioned that one of his characters uses a Janet Evanovich in his latest novel. Janet Evanovich replied that she alwasy reciprocates when one of her character names pops up in someone elses novel and advised him to "live in fear."

Connelly: You strike me as an author who is involved in every aspect of the publishing of her work. But the output--at least two solid novels a year--suggests otherwise, that you delegate all over the place so that you can focus on writing high-quality stuff. So which is it? (And if your answer is that you do indeed delegate, how the heck do you learn to do that?)
Evanovich: You reach a point in your career where the business side threatens to eclipse writing time and you either delegate or power back. I delegate everything but the writing. My daughter and her staff manage the website, the fan mail, the book tour, the author publicity and marketing. My son is my agent and finance officer and chief problem solver. When no one else can solve the problem it gets dumped on my son's desk! I oversee all aspects, but I've had to learn not to micro-manage.
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Connelly: Did you know that in my most recent novel a very bad man plans to use a Janet Evanovich novel to get close to an unsuspecting, potential victim? It's scary stuff--the plan, not the Evanovich novel. Have you reached a stage where your work is part of the terrain and gets these sorts of little nods here and there?
Evanovich: Every now and then my name or one of my character names pops up and it's usually in the work of a friend. I think it's fun and I always reciprocate...so live in fear.

Janet Evanovich's questions for Michael Connelly can be found here. One of her questions for him was what will bookstores be like in 2020.

Evanovich: What will a bookstore look like in 2020? Will we all be downloading?
Connelly: Good question. Since it is only eleven years from now, I think there will still be a solid population of "old school" readers who need the book in their hands. The question is, will they get it at a bookstore or will we have a Kindle 9.0 device that manufactures a book for you at home, complete with photo of author in a bomber jacket.
Evanovich: If everybody is downloading in 2020 what the heck will we be signing on book tour? Body parts? Kindle cases?
Connelly: I signed two Kindles yesterday. One person asked me to leave room for signatures from you and Dennis Lehane. So next time you're in Seattle she'll be in your line.

That's pretty cool that authors are getting Kindle autograph requests. It might make it hard to upgrade to a new device if you have some autograph on your ebook reader that you really treasure.