Editor’s Note: If you want to see someone turn into a complete fan girl, all you have to do is ask me to write questions for an exclusive Behind the Book blog post for Janet Evanovich’s newest novel The Recovery Agent. I think I may have blacked out and I’m sure I was breathing into a brown paper bag at some point. I thought nothing could be more exciting, until I received the answers. Check out what she had to say.
When you were thinking about creating a new series, what made you choose to write about a recovery agent?
I wanted my hero to have a job that could be global. I love when I get to virtually travel the world and go to places I would never normally be able to visit. For example, I’d love to visit Machu Pichu but they need to install an escalator first. Plus, when your job is to find things there can be endless adventures. Sometimes you need to find a ring, sometimes you need to find a person, sometimes it’s just the keys to your car.
What kind of research did you have to do for this novel?
I did a lot of online research and Google Earthing. My daughter had been to Coca in Ecuador and traveled down the Napo River in the motorized canoes. She has wonderful stories about anacondas, howler monkeys and macaws. As a mother I’m happy to say she never ran into any jaguars.
You always put unique and humorous secondary characters in your novels. Who has been your favorite secondary character to write, and what character should we look out for in this new novel?
Lula from the Plum series is probably my favorite secondary character. She’s so positive and full of life. Her glass is always half-full. In The Recovery Agent I think readers should keep an eye on Rafer, Gabriela’s ex-husband. She’s known Rafer all her life, and despite any efforts made, the cosmos are going to keep throwing them together.
How do your ideas for your books come to you?
Ideas come from lots of places. Movies, songs, random conversations. All of a sudden you wake up one day and go what if? Or, you know what would be funny or exciting?
What advice would you give aspiring novelists?
Write! Set a time aside every day to write. Treat it like any other job. Don’t get hung up on chapter one and rewriting. Write the book, then go back to chapter one. Be patient and don’t give up!
What should we expect from you next, another Rose mystery, Stephanie Plum 29, Fox and O’Hare 8 or something else new?
The Next Plum novel is GOING ROGUE: RISE AND SHINE TWENTY-NINE. It will be in stores November 1. I don’t want to give away too much, but Connie has been kidnapped. Stephanie is going to have to figure out why, by whom and how to save her friend.
Well, I will definitely be looking for the next Stephanie Plum novel in November, but first I’m going to pre-order The Recovery Agent, which hits shelves on March 22.