Janet Evanovich was born as Janet Schneider on April 22, 1943 in South River, New Jersey. She is a second-generation American writer. She got her start writing short contemporary romance novels using the pen name Steffie Hall. However, she gained fame by writing a series of contemporary mysteries. In theses mysteries, is a lingerie buyer turned bounty hunter named Stephanie Plum. There are fifteen books in this series and they continue to top the New York Times Bestseller List.
Evanovich started writing in 1987 and continues to write today. She was born and raised in New Jersey. Her father was a machinist and her mother a housewife. Evanovich was the first in her family to attend college. She wanted to study art so she enrolled in Douglass College, which is part of Rutgers University.
Like her mother, Evanovich became a housewife after she had children. She began writing novels in her thirties. She then took lessons in improv acting to learn the art of dialogue.
For several years she tried to write the Great American Novel and had written three novels, but was unable to sell them. Someone suggest so her to try writing romance novels. Evanovich picked up a couple of romance books and read them. She discovered she liked the genre. She wrote two romance novels and submitted them for publishing. Evanovich stopped looking for a publisher and signed with an employment agency.
Months after she began work, she received an offer to buy her second romance manuscript for $2,000. Evanovich considered that an “astounding sum”. Her romance novel, Hero at Large was published in 1987 in the Second Chance Love category under the pseudonym Steffie Hall. A year later she began writing for Bantam Loveswept under her own name.
For the next five years she wrote books for Loveswept working within the romance genre helped her to learn how to create likable characters and attractive leading men. During this same time, Evanovich became known for her humor in her stories. This is what she has to say about humor, “It’s very important to take a comic approach. If we can laugh at something we can face it.”
After reaching her twelfth romance novel, Evanovich realized she didn’t like writing the sex scenes so much as it was the action sequences. Her editors didn’t care for her change of heart. This caused Evanovich to take eighteen months to come up with a plan for what she really wanted to write. She quickly realized she wanted to write romance adventure novels. Different from her romance novels, her stories would be written in the first person. The new type of writing should contain heroes and heroines along with “a sense of family and community”. She intended her new style to be based on a TV sitcom. Her new books would have a central character that the other characters would revolve around.
Evanovich was inspired by Robert De Nero’s movie Midnight Run and she decided her heroine would be a bounty hunter. Using this occupation allowed more freedom for Evanovch as a write because bounty hunters do not have a set work schedule and they are not forced to wear a uniform. Evanovich spent a lot of time shadowing bond enforcement agents. She also had to research more about the city of Trenton as this is where she wanted her books to be set.
In 1994, her first romantic novel, One for the Money, was released and was published to good reviews. This was to be the first in a series of mysteries starring a barely-competent bounty hunter named Stephanie Plum. One for the Money was named by the New York Times as a notable book, a Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of 1994 and a USA Today Best Bet. Before the book was to be released, Evanovich sold the movie rights to Columbia Tristar for $1 million; as of 2009 no movie has been made.
Evanovich continued to write romantic adventures starting Stephanie Plum. Hot Six, the sixth book in the series, was the first of her books to reach number one on the New York Times Bestsellers List. Her subsequent Plum novels have all debuted at number one. All AboutRomance describes Evanovich as a “rare breed of romance author who has left the genre and yet not alienated her many romance fans.
The Plum novels have taken several attributes from Evanovich’s own life. She and Stephanie Plum share many common things. They both are from New Jersey, both devour Cheetos, both had owned a hamster, and they both had shared “similar embarrassing experiences”. The character Grandma Mazur who was loosely based on Evanovich’s own “Grandma Fanny” and “Aunt Lena”.
Evanovich began a collaborative effort with Charlotte Hughes because she wanted to see her other ideas down on paper, but didn’t have the time to write them. The result was the “Full” series.
She launched a new series with Metro Girl in 2004. The book made it to the number two spot on the New York Times Bestsellers List.
She then collaborated with Stephen J. Cannell on a book titled No Chance, which was to be her first book in a new series. The original release date was October 2007, however, as of July 2007, the book seems to have been cancelled.
During the week Evanovich works eight hours a day and on weekends she works an additional four hours. Before beginning a new book, she creates an outline with one or two sentences about what will happen in each chapter. When a new book is released Evanovich regularly goes on book tours. Her book signings in 2006 attracted 2,000-3,000 people each.
Evanovich lives in both New Hampshire and Florida with her husband, Pete, whom she married in 1964. Members of her family are employed by her company, Evanovich, Inc., including her husband, and son Pete, daughter Alexandra, and son-in-law, P.J. Heller.
Books by Janet Evanovich:
One for the Money
Two for the Dough
Three to Get Deadly
Four to Score
High Five
Hot Six
Seven Up
Hard Eight
Visions of Sugar Plums
To the Nines
Ten Big Ones
Eleven on Top
Twelve Sharp
Plum Lovin’
Lean Mean Thirteen
Plum Lucky
Fearless Fourteen
Plum Spooky
Finger Likin’ Fifteen
Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.com/wiki/Janet_Evanovich
