If you are sleeping in when attending ALA Annual, you are missing out. Last year Marlo Thomas was a delight, and this year Harlan Coben, J. A. Jance and Rosemary Harris were more than worth getting up for. I arrived a few minutes early at the same time as a couple of other librarians. We sat in the front row, and one was obviously a Coben fan, talking about fixing the table skirt and pouring them water. We did wonder why so few people were there–well, turns out we were in the wrong auditorium! A big thank you to the people who told us where we needed to be and let us walk around backstage to get there. And the front row was still available.
What follows is from my hastily scrawled and incomplete notes. Any mistakes or omissions are mine. All jokes belong to Harlan Coben. (Who in addition to being funny and loving libraries, was very kind, realizing that Jance couldn’t hear, repeated all the questions to her.)
J.A. Jance is a former librarian and single mother who writes several long running mystery series.
Harlan Coben’s Myron Bolitar series has won all 3 major mystery awards–the Edgar, the Anthony, and the Shamus. The most recent Myron book, Live Wire, forms the basis for Coben’s new young adult book, Shelter.
When asked about writing a YA book, Coben explained that all his books start as ideas. He doesn’t set out to write another Bolitar book. Rather, he starts with a “what if?” Sometimes they work for Myron, but sometimes they don’t.
The idea for Live Wire/Shelter came from a sonagram posted on Facebook. What if someone commented, “not his?” The last two chapters of Live Wire and the first two of Shelter repeat the same events from two different points of view. Coben is excited about a fresh new character and found it quite easy to channel his inner 15 year old.
J.A. Jance’s first Beaumont book was published in 1985, and she and Beaumont have gone through a lot of adjustments since then. While it is easier to autograph J. A. Jance (as opposed to Judith Ann), the marketing told her that people wouldn’t read a police procedural written by a woman. Her first seven books had no photo or author information for this reason.
The series grew out of her wanting to understand someone who had died at a young age from alcoholism. So she went where alcoholics went and used the experience in her writing. Just as Jance herself has aged, Beaumont has aged over the years and the books.
In a long running series, it can be hard to keep track of details from book to book. When Jance needed two details for a current book, she asked fans to help on her blog. She had her answer in 24 hours from 2 different people. She dedicated the book, Betrayal of Trust to them.
When asked if anything ever surprised them in the process of writing, Coben said no, not really. He is in control, “God.” Jance says she works to step into Beaumont’s shoes and see the world from his point of view. In addition, because she write multiple series, she finds it easier to stay fresh, each set of characters peculiar to a time and place. Switching between them is like taking a vacation.
Coben on Myron: He had written seven Myron Bolitars in a row. He never sets out to write a book where Myron just solves the case. The story needs to be personal, cathartic. How many times can a guy go through this? All books start with an idea, but not every idea works for Myron.
J.A. Jance on Beaumont: She was once approached by a fan who told her that Beaumont has a serious drinking problem. ”You know its a book, right?” When Beaumont went through rehab, people would tell her they liked him better when he was drunk.
Do either of them get story ideas ripped from the headlines?
Jance noted that real murders affect and involve real people. She and her first husband were stalked by a serial killer–the killer gave her husband a ride, and her husband provided information to the police that led to the killer’s arrest. She did use the idea for a book but stayed away from the details. At a signing, a young lady hung back on the edge. ”Was your husband a witness?” Her father had been killed by the same serial killer, but her mother had refused to talk about it. ”Can you tell me?”
Coben doesn’t take his ideas from the headlines, but there are characters in his books that are based on people. The bat lady is like that one creepy house in the neighborhood where no one will go. You are sure she is stealing kids. In this case, she will tell Mickey his father, who Mickey thinks is dead, is alive.
Coben wanted to write for young adults what he does for adults.
Does music influence your books, writing?
Coben loves music, his books have a little bit of a soundtrack, portray certain emotions. He loves certain things that are cinematic, music is one of those.
Jance comments that when she and her current husband became empty nesters, it was too quiet to write. She can’t do easy listening because she knows all the words and that gets in the way of writing, so she switched to classical.
Best library story?
Jance has fond memories of the Bixby school library that opened one day a week in the summer. She would take a wagon and load it with books. Summers were, still are for reading. The only other books were paperbacks on a rack in the drugstore.
Coben-I met my wife in a library…oh wait, that was a strip bar. With the current budget crunch going on around the country, terrible things going on in the library. Libraries of today have internet and so much more, but libraries are still about books, the magic of books. His favorite authors, favorite children’s books were discovered in a library. ”I don’t know a great community that doesn’t have a great library….A great library is the coolest thing in the world.”
Coben met some librarians as BEA who found out he was brining his 14 year old son to ALA in New Orleans. Knowing his son likes to fish, these librarians contacted a librarian in Lafeyette and set up a fishing trip.
Jance–on book tours she likes to partner with libraries. Bookstores get more and more consolidated, less places to visit. We think library events are important.
Coben–One of the ways we built an audience was through libraries.
Jance–I am a recovering librarian, K-12, 5 years on an Indian reservation.
Tell us three things you won’t find on your website.
Jance–my golf score, my weight, and my cell phone number.
Coben–my cell phone number, that I took Miss New Jersey to prom, and that I have a tattoo.
Coben talked about how an American version of the French movie of Tell No One was being made. Exciting but Hollywood is a great tease and you can’t believe everything you hear.
Coben–I won’t tell my friends to write YA mysteries–I don’t need the competition. ”I’m not chasing the money, I’m chasing heart.” The character named Spoon is exactly what happened to his son.
Jance–about people who bring tons of books to book signing–”If I wrote it, I’ll sign it. I feel like it is an obligation.”
Coben–”If people bring a lot of books, I have J.A. sign them.”
Jance and Coben answer their own e-mails, they have no people working for them.
On whether characters are based on themselves.
Jance says no character based on her as far as she knows, but many mothers in her books are a lot like her mother. Joanna Brady’s mother is my mother. She made Brady short because she always wished that she were.
Coben says Myron Bolitar is wish fulfillment but Coben is a better dancer and has a better track record with relationships. I have what Myron wants, a family in the burbs. Myron has what I want, parents and basketball. In a way, Mickey is letting him “redo” Myron–darker, funnier. If you make a mistake in an early book in a series you have to keep it. He wonders why he made Myron a marital artist.
What authors do you like, do you read for fun?
J.A. Jance: Jasper Fforde, Thursday Next; Bret Battles, No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Ann B. Ross.
Coben: If you want to know, watch the Today show on July 7 for 5 books I recommend. ”I mostly read J.A. Jance and Harlan Coben.”
Coben: I wanted to write a YA book to continue telling Mickey Bolitar’s story. I haven’t been this excited about a book…read the first…”will change your life, improve your sex life.” ”I’m not writing this book to sell more books with my name on it.”
“A book isn’t a book when it is written, but when it is read. Librarians put books in people’s hands, take care of our books.”
After their talk, I waited in the long line outside the auditorium to get an ARC of Shelter. A thank you to the Penguin Young Reader rep who brought us copies to assure we would get one before they ran out. When I got up to the front of the line to have my book signed, all I could do, before shaking Coben’s hand, was to apologize for how cold my hands were. All I can say is Shelter better be good. But somehow, I know it will be.
