Michael Connelly part 2

Connelly kept saying that the “idea” that interested him was the line between vigilance and paranoia. This, I’ll call it space, kept coming up for him. He said, “That’s where The Overlook comes in. There’s serendipity in terms of ideas landing in my lap.”

But the serendipity doesn’t appear and someone gets it. He talked about putting himself in positions to hear the stories and using his experience to recognize which stories could go the distance.

He used an example: An FBI agent attended one of his signings. Instead of just signing the book, Connelly asked the agent if he’d stay and have coffee with him after the signing. Then, he established a relationship with the man with more meetings and lunches. That agent gave him a story about Cesium (explosive in high doses) being stolen from a clinic where they treated cancer. That story was The Overlook.

Connelly also talked about sitting next to a lawyer who worked out of his car. From talking with this man, Connelly came up with his best-selling legal thriller, The Lincoln Lawyer.

He did tell the agent that he didn’t have anything against FBI agents, but in a thriller, you have to have obstacles in front of your character. The easiest thing to do is to make those obstacles people that should be working with Harry Bosch, but are corrupt.

A crime novel, he believes, should be “first and foremost for entertainment, and then a character study.” “You want to entertain, and then you can slip in a message and get people to think.”

One reader asked how he kept up with Bosch and the details in the book. He said he had a dozen research assistants, then laughed and said he just has to go back and look it up.

He has a hard time reading crime fiction because he sees the writing behind it—“so it’s like work.”

Someone asked how he keeps it fresh. He said he writes a “good mix of character driven books and plot driven books.”

“Momentum is very, very important.”

“What happens in the writing process happens in the reading process.” A fast moving writing of a book will turn out fast, page-turning reading.

I myself struggle with that line between vigilance and paranoia. (Quit spying on me through my laptop.) In the end, I just call it vigilance and throw out the cliché, “Better safe than sorry.” But I don’t really believe it, or I wouldn’t be a writer.

Keep taking risks. Look for and take advantage of those serendipitous moments and then share them, tell me about them, tell your friends. They’re always inspirational.

These are the last of the Connelly notes.

I solved the video problem I had earlier, so next entry should be the next two videos. (I have a different problem, but at least the video plays.)

Later, I’ll share notes from listening to Tom Perotta, George Saunders, and then mystery novelists Rick Riordan (also writes Young Adult), Diane Fanning (known for her True Crime novels), and Harry Hunsicker.