Connelly and Evanovich in Online Conversation
Amazon’s Omnivoracious blog put Michael Connelly and Janet Evanovich together for a two-day Q&A, with Connelly answering on day one and Evanovich responding on day two. And talk about two questioning styles at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Here’s one Connelly-initiated exchange:
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?)
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.
And one from Evanovich’s side:
Evanovich: So dude,… Okay, you're back in Florida. Do you
ever get to the beach? And when and if you get to the beach…is Harry
Bosch with you? And what kind of beachwear are you guys sporting?
Flip-flops? Crocs? Speedo? Board shorts?
Connelly: I
go to the beach often on weekends. Board shorts are required and I wear
flip-flops with the built in bottle opener. Comes in handy. In Florida
we rarely have waves, unless there is a hurricane in the Gulf. So I
have taken up paddle-boarding, which essentially involves a big
surfboard that you stand on and paddle. Still a balancing act, but
easier than surfing, and you don't need waves.
All told a lot of ground is covered, from what a bookstore would look like in 20⁄20 to the “graduating class” including Jan Burke and Robert Crais.