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BIO
Michael Connelly decided to become a writer after discovering the books of Raymond Chandler while attending the University of Florida. Once he decided on this direction he chose a major in journalism and a minor in creative writing --- a curriculum in which one of his teachers was novelist Harry Crews.
After graduating in 1980, Connelly worked at newspapers in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, primarily specializing in the crime beat. In Fort Lauderdale he wrote about police and crime during the height of the murder and violence wave that rolled over South Florida during the so-called cocaine wars. In 1986, he and two other reporters spent several months interviewing survivors of a major airline crash. They wrote a magazine story on the crash and the survivors which was later short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. You can read this story at the Sun-Sentinel web site. The magazine story also moved Connelly into the upper echelons of journalism, landing him a job as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times, one of the largest papers in the country, and landing him in the city about which Chandler, his literary hero, had written.
After three years on the crime beat, Connelly began writing his first novel to feature LAPD Detective Hieronymus Bosch. The novel, THE BLACK ECHO, based in part on a true crime that had occurred in Los Angeles, was published in 1992, and later won the Edgar Award for best first novel by the Mystery Writers of America. Connelly followed up with three more Bosch books, THE BLACK ICE, THE CONCRETE BLONDE, and THE LAST COYOTE, before publishing THE POET, a thriller with a newspaper reporter as a protagonist, in 1996. In 1997, he went back to Bosch with TRUNK MUSIC, and in 1998 another non-series thriller, BLOOD WORK, was published. BLOOD WORK was inspired in part by a friend's receiving of a heart transplant and the attendant "survivor's guilt" the friend experienced, knowing that someone died in order that he have the chance to live. Connelly has been interested and fascinated by those same feelings as expressed by the survivors of the plane crash he wrote about years before. The movie adaptation of BLOOD WORK was released in 2002, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood.
Connelly's next book, ANGELS FLIGHT, was released in 1999 and was another entry in the Harry Bosch series. The non-series novel VOID MOON, was released in 2000 and introduced a new character, Cassie Black, a high-stakes Las Vegas thief. His 2001 release, A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT, united Harry Bosch with Terry McCaleb from BLOOD WORK, and was named one of the Best Books Of 2001 by the Los Angeles Times.
In 2002, Connelly released two novels. The first, the Harry Bosch book CITY OF BONES, was named a Notable Book Of The Year by the New York Times. The second release was a stand-alone thriller, CHASING THE DIME, which was named one of the Best Books Of The Year by the Los Angeles Times.
LOST LIGHT was published in 2003 and named one of the Best Books of 2003 by the Los Angeles Times. It is another in the Harry Bosch series but the first written in first person. To celebrate its release, Michael produced the limited edition jazz CD, "Dark Sacred Night, The Music Of Harry Bosch." This CD is a compilation of the jazz music mentioned in the Bosch novels and was given away to his readers on Michael's 2003 book tour.
Connelly's 2004 novel, THE NARROWS, is the sequel to THE POET. It was named one of the Best Books of 2004 by the Los Angeles Times. To accompany this Harry Bosch novel, Little, Brown and Company Publishers released a limited edition DVD, "Blue Neon Night, Michael Connelly's Los Angeles." In this film, Michael Connelly provides an insider's tour of the places that give his stories and characters their spark and texture.
His 11th Harry Bosch novel, THE CLOSERS, was published in May 2005, and debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. THE LINCOLN LAWYER, Connelly's first-ever legal thriller and his 16th novel, was published in October 2005 and also debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. This book introduced Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles defense attorney.
CRIME BEAT, a non-fiction collection of crime stories from Michael's days as a journalist, was released in 2006, as was the Harry Bosch novel, ECHO PARK, released in October 2006.
THE OVERLOOK, Michael's 18th novel, was originally serialized in the New York Times Magazine. This Harry Bosch story was published as a book with additional material in May 2007.
Michael's 19th novel, THE BRASS VERDICT, was released in October 2008, and debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. It introduces Lincoln lawyer Mickey Haller to LAPD Detective Harry Bosch in a fast-paced legal thriller. Michael's 20th novel, THE SCARECROW, will be released in May 2009, and reunites reporter Jack McEvoy and FBI Agent Rachel Walling for the first time since THE POET.
Connelly's books have been translated in 35 languages and have won the Edgar Award, Anthony Award, Macavity Award, Los Angeles Times Best Mystery/Thriller Award, Shamus Award, Dilys Award, Nero Award, Barry Award, Audie Award, Ridley Award, Maltese Falcon Award (Japan), .38 Caliber Award (France), Grand Prix Award (France), Premio Bancarella Award (Italy), and the Pepe Carvalho award (Spain) .
Michael was the President of the Mystery Writers of America organization in 2003 and 2004. In addition to his literary work, Michael was one of the creators, writers, and consulting producers of "Level 9," a TV show about a task force fighting cyber crime, that ran on UPN in the Fall of 2000.
Michael lives with his family in Florida.
— Bio courtesy of www.michaelconnelly.com
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AUTHOR TALK
 October 16, 2009
Michael Connelly's latest Harry Bosch novel, NINE DRAGONS, finds the series' homicide detective protagonist out of his element on many levels, as he travels to Hong Kong in search of his kidnapped daughter, which he believes may be related to a murder case he is investigating in L.A. In this interview, Connelly discusses what prompted him to delve into the character's personal life in this installment, and elaborates on what he has at stake in solving these cases. He also explains the origins of the book's title and shares what initially captivated him about the exotic setting.
Question: "Eight bullets, eight dragons. And then there would be him. Bosch would be the ninth dragon, as unstoppable as a bullet." Where does the title NINE DRAGONS come from?
Michael Connelly: Hong Kong has many sections. One of the biggest is called Kowloon, which means "Nine Dragons." It comes from a legend. During one of the old dynasties the emperor was chased by the Mongols into the area that is now Hong Kong. He saw the eight mountain peaks that surrounded the area and protected him and wanted to call the place Eight Dragons. But one of his guards reminded him that the emperor was a dragon too. So they called it Kowloon, meaning nine dragons. I was told this story by a researcher who was showing me around Hong Kong the first time I visited. I loved the story and immediately started thinking of using Nine Dragons as a title. This dictated that a lot of the Hong Kong portion of the story take place in Kowloon, including the most significant moment of the whole novel.
Q: What inspired you to write NINE DRAGONS and to set a third of the book in Hong Kong?
MC: NINE DRAGONS is a book long in the making. It is a pivotal story in Harry Bosch's journey --- and his most personal one. While I think it is a book with more action than usual for me, it is also a deeply driven character story for which the inspiration was set about seven years ago when I was writing the novel LOST LIGHT (2003). I think with a series you have to be very careful with what you do with your character. Harry Bosch is built to be of and about L.A. So, I have to be careful about taking him out of this environment. Usually when I do, it is never for a whole book. I have him follow a case to Mexico and back. Or to Las Vegas or Florida. NINE DRAGONS starts in Los Angeles, goes to Hong Kong, and then comes back to Los Angeles. Sending him to Hong Kong came out of me wanting to do that again but to really put him in a fish-out-of-water situation. So I planted the seed five or six books ago when I had Harry's young daughter move there with his ex-wife. When I did that, I knew that I would eventually write a story that would take Harry there and give me the opportunity to explore the character in completely different terrain. So the book has been sort of waiting to be written. In writing, you rely on your instincts in terms of what to do and when to do it. Somehow, I felt it was time to write this story now.
Q: Did you actually spend time in Hong Kong researching the book?
MC: About five years ago I stopped in Hong Kong on my way home from a book tour in Australia. I immediately found what I was looking for: an intriguing new place with a sense that anything could happen. So I've made two trips to Hong Kong to research NINE DRAGONS. One was a general knowledge trip. I then refined what I was looking for, had a general sense of the areas the story would take me through, and I went back to more specifically research the story, to more or less follow the trail Harry follows in the book. As it turns out, only about a third of the book is set in Hong Kong, and that segment takes place in one day. There is a lot of movement and action. Like Hong Kong itself, it never slows down.
Q: Why did you wait so long to explore Harry Bosch's relationship with his daughter Madeline?
MC: In LOST LIGHT, Harry got the surprise of his life. He found out he was a father and met his daughter, Madeline, for the first time. Over the years and stories that followed their meeting, Harry's relationship with his daughter never moved to the forefront because I wasn't ready to explore it yet. I wanted her to grow up some and be a character who could communicate with Harry (and the reader) as a young adult before I wrote the story that explored the relationship and what is Harry's ultimate vulnerability.
Q: Are you saying in this book that being a father is Harry's greatest vulnerability?
MC: NINE DRAGONS is about Harry and his daughter. It's about his hopes for her, his guilt over his poor performance as a father, and most of all it is about his vulnerability as a father. Putting this young person in Harry's life was done with a lot of thought. Up until Bosch became a father, I had been creating a character who viewed himself as being on a mission. He was someone who was skilled enough and tough enough to go into the abyss and seek out human evil. To carry out this mission, he knew he had to be relentless and bulletproof. By bulletproof, I mean he had to be invulnerable. Nobody could get to him. It was the only way to be relentless. And this idea or belief bled into all aspects of his life. He lived alone, had no friends, and didn't even know his neighbors. He built a solitary life so that no one could get to him. All that suddenly changed in one moment (one page) when he locked eyes with his daughter in LOST LIGHT. Harry suddenly knew he could be gotten to.
Q: NINE DRAGONS opens with Bosch investigating the murder of the owner of Fortune Liquors, a small L.A. package store he's known for years. He still carries in his pocket a matchbook he picked up there on a case years ago. Its motto inside --- Happy is the man who finds refuge in himself --- has been a guiding light through some of his darkest days. How did you come up with this "fortune" and is it significant thematically to the novel?
MC: What's weird is that I can't remember where that came from. I think it was an actual fortune I received in a Chinese fortune cookie and it sort of spoke to me and so I used it in ANGELS FLIGHT, which is the book in which Harry first visits Fortune Liquors. So that's going back more than a decade and I can't remember the origin. But what I do remember is that I thought it sounded almost like an anthem for a loner like Harry. As somebody who feels he's on a solitary mission in life, this bromide or whatever you want to call it would speak to him and keep him on the path. I think he finds refuge in himself by believing in the cause and remaining relentlessly in pursuit of it. By believing that everybody should count or nobody should count. By believing that no one need know about his mission as long as he believes in it himself. I think that it is not only thematic to this book but to all of the Bosch books.
Q: Do you think readers in Hong Kong will enjoy riding with Harry Bosch through their city?
MC: I don't know. I think they might see a part of their city they haven't seen before. The nature of a crime novel is to explore all areas of a city, good and bad. In this story Harry is on a mission that literally takes him from the highest vistas of the city to some its darkest corners. I think Hong Kong is a vibrant and beautiful place that is full of intrigue. I hope I've gotten that into the book.
Q: The day that Harry Bosch visits Hong Kong the city is in the middle of something called the Festival of Hungry Ghosts. People are burning sacrifices to ancestors all over the city. Is this fiction or does this festival exist?
MC: Yes, it exists. One of the times I was in Hong Kong researching, the ghost festival was going on and it was one of the things that linked this amazingly modern city with old ways and beliefs. I thought it was fascinating and something I could use in the book to sort of tilt Bosch's world, to be a constant reminder that he was not in any sort of comfort zone.
Q: What's next for Harry Bosch, and do you have plans for more Mickey Haller and Jack McEvoy books? Any other projects on the horizon?
MC: I think it's safe to assume all of these characters will be back.
© Copyright 2009, Michael Connelly. All rights reserved.
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VIDEO
 If you'd like to learn more about THE NARROWS and its author, we encourage you to take a look at this 11-minute streaming video. Here, Michael Connelly shares with you locations in Los Angeles, reads excerpts from THE NARROWS and gives you personal insight into the writing of this latest Harry Bosch novel.
PAST INTERVIEW
April 19, 2002
Michael Connelly's writing career has achieved such momentum that each release of a new novel is a highly anticipated event. In this interview he discusses his new female protagonist in CITY OF BONES, his fascination with the city of Los Angeles, and future plans --- including the summer release of the movie based on his novel, BLOOD WORK.
TW: CITY OF BONES features everyone's favorite detective, Harry Bosch. You once said in a discussion of recurring characters, "Knowing what I know now, I would not give too much away about a leading character's past early in the series." Is there any fact about Harry Bosch that you wish you had not revealed? Do you keep a chart or a list of all the things that you have revealed about Harry? Do fans ever point something out to you that you've missed or mistaken?
MC: I keep no character charts or anything like that. I wish I had thought about that at the beginning but at the beginning it would have been presumptuous to assume that Harry Bosch would be around for seven or eight more books. So now I have to rely on my memory and good editing. I will from time to time reread one of the old books to refresh my memory about something in particular. I recently reread TRUNK MUSIC because part of it deals with something I am writing about Harry Bosch now. The one regret I have is that in the second book, THE BLACK ICE, I revealed who Harry's long lost father was. I covered it in a matter of two pages. I look back at that now and think it was a big mistake because I could have waited and turned those two pages into a whole and interesting book.
TW: You often discuss the issue of foster care in your books --- Harry Bosch was a foster child and it is an interesting part of the plot as well. Why are you interested in the foster system?
MC: I am not really sure why I am interested. I have no personal connection to it. But I guess like most people I believe that how children are treated and raised implicitly impacts how they will behave as adults. So I first of all appreciate how lucky I was to grow up in a full family atmosphere. I also feel some sort of empathy for the people who didn't have that but survived and persevered and made lives for themselves. Harry Bosch is a good man trying to do a good job. But he has problems and quirks and I think a lot of them could be traced back to his upbringing.
TW: You also often mention Raymond Chandler as one of your influences. If one of your fans wanted to start reading Chandler, which book should they start with and why? And, which of his books is your favorite?
MC: I guess I would recommend my favorite which is THE LITTLE SISTER. It wasn't his most popular book or the one he is best remembered for but having lived in Los Angeles I found it to be the one that most captured the place. Chandler was known for his descriptions of LA and some of the best ones are in THE LITTLE SISTER. There is a whole chapter that has the protagonist, Marlow, on a drive around the city. It has nothing to do with plot. In fact, you could skip the whole chapter and miss nothing. But it is full of wonderful description and mood. It has nothing to do with the plot but is probably the best part of the book for me.
TW: Are you inspired by events in the news for your stories? The story in CITY OF BONES is particularly chilling. Where did the story come from?
MC: For the most part I am. The death that is investigated in the book was circumstantially inspired by a real case. But it was a case I read about in academic literature on anthropology and child abuse. The article I read did not give the circumstances of where and when the case occurred. It was only about the bones and what they told investigators. But that was enough to get me started.
TW: Julia Brasher is such a compelling and three-dimensional character in CITY OF BONES. As a reader, you feel like you know her almost immediately. Was she inspired by someone you know? You're so good at writing dynamic female characters, have you considered writing another book from a female perspective like CITY OF BONES?
MC: In general she was inspired by an amalgam of police officers I have known, male and female. No matter the gender, cops share a lot of traits. I just tried to put them into her, add some other things I know and mix it up, and hopefully she came out as a real person. I think I will definitely write a female protagonist book again. I just don't know when.
TW: In an essay on mystery writing on your website, you write that the mystery is all about "Not the solution to the puzzle but the act of putting the pieces together." When you sit down to write a mystery, do you know what the outcome will be and set up the plot to get to that ending? Or do you discover the clues along with your investigator?
MC: I usually know the beginning and ending and a few of the key things that will put the investigator on the right path. But the rest sort of develops as I go along. I think what I was trying to say in that essay was that it is not as much about the destination as the ride. You want the ride to be exciting and fulfilling so your passengers are happy when they reach the final destination.
TW: What's next for Harry Bosch? Do you have any plans to bring back Terry McCaleb or Cassie Black?
MC: I never say never about any character but for the moment McCaleb and Black are on a back burner, hopefully keeping warm. I am just starting a Harry Bosch novel in which I take him in a new direction, one I hope will keep him interesting.
TW: Production has begun in Southern California for the movie based on your novel BLOOD WORK. Clint Eastwood is starring, directing, and producing this adaptation. What has your participation been in this movie? Have you worked on the screenplay? Have you been to the set yet? How do you feel about the casting of the film?
MC: My participation before filming was limited to reading the script and offering comments to Eastwood. My comments were few because I thought it was a really good script. I've been to the set to watch them film scenes twice. It was interesting to see this whole community of creative people working with an idea that came from me. The script was geared toward Eastwood, so although he is much older than the McCaleb in the book, I think it works.
TW: You've recently moved from Los Angeles to Florida; up to now, Los Angeles has been almost like another recurring character in so many of your books. Do you plan to keep writing about LA? Do you think that physically moving will change the way that you write or the subjects that you write about?
MC: My plan is to keep writing about LA for as long as the place fascinates me. I may have moved but I have made several trips back and continue to do so to stay familiar. The move has changed how I write and the change has been stimulating and fun. I used to spend a lot of time in the places I would write about and close to the time I would write. Now I am 3,000 miles away when I am doing the writing so I write from memory, and I think this has forced me to be more creative or imaginative. I have enjoyed it. I still swing in to LA to check my work against the real stuff but when I am in the process of writing it has been different.
TW: This fall, you'll be publishing a book called CHASING THE DIME, which is based somewhat on an experience that you had when moving to a new house. What can you tell us about this book?
MC: It is remotely based, or I guess I should say sparked, by my move. I got a new telephone number when I moved here and almost immediately I started getting calls for the woman who formerly had the number. Many were from her friends and relatives who did not know where she had gone and were very worried. I never found out what happened and after a few months the calls stopped. But it sparked this idea for a story about a man who has something similar happen to him and he acts on it, attempting to find out what happened to the woman whose number he had inherited. This leads him down a path into the dark side of the Internet as well as his own dark side.
This interview provided courtesy of TWBookmark.com. All rights reserved.
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PAST INTERVIEW
February 2, 2001
Michael Connelly is back with his latest thriller, A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT, which is already making a big buzz in the publishing world. With DARKNESS returns Connelly's well known recurring characters --- Terry McCaleb and Harry Bosch, who is not only a major character but a suspect in this novel. Bookreporter.com's Senior Writer Joe Hartlaub dove headfirst into Connelly's most recent creation and came up with a series of indepth questions for the author. Enjoy our interview with Connelly where we find out about Harry Bosch's namesake, what's in store next for the detective, the free story available on Connelly's website, and much more.
BRC: Your new novel A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT not only marks the return of Harry Bosch but also reunites him with Terry McCaleb for the first time. When did the idea to pair up Bosch and McCaleb originate?
MC: It didn't really come to me to do this until it dawned on me that this was my 10th book and that I was very fortunate to get this far in the publishing business and so maybe I should do something that was a little different, maybe a culmination of my work so far.
BRC: Bosch, the Detective, has much in common with the work of Bosch the Painter --- dark, mysterious, riveting, horrific. A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT explores the explicit and implicit relationship Harry Bosch and his artistic namesake. Did you have Hieronymus Bosch in mind when you first created Harry Bosch?
MC: Yes, back when I was first putting the character together I wanted to try to make every detail about him a significant character stroke, even his name. I had studied the painter Bosch while in college and was familiar with his work. I decided that there was a metaphor worth exploring there --- Bosch's paintings and contemporary LA. It is mentioned in all of the books, usually just once or twice, that his name is Hieronymus.
BRC: One element of A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT that personally knocked me out were the scenes involving Bosch sitting in his living room and listening to Art Pepper's Rhythm Section album. This is a seminal jazz album --- in my opinion, easily one of the Top 10 albums ever recorded --- by a musician who made a career of recording milestone records but who is sadly underappreciated today. Your setting was perfect. Are we going to be seeing more sides of Bosch like this in the future?
MC: I hope so. I like the weaving of music and art into the books. It inspires me from the standpoint of writing. I think the music also has an inspirational aspect for Harry as well. Usually, the music that is played in the books is the same music I was playing when I wrote the scene, so it has a good way of helping me imagine the scene and write it.
BRC: A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT alludes to a case which McCaleb and Bosch worked on previously. You have written a story involving their first meeting which you are giving away via your website, www.michaelconnelly.com, to readers on your mailing list. Which came first, creatively --- A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT or the forthcoming story? And where did the idea to give the story away via email arise from?
MC: The novel came first. The short story was written a week ago, right before it was sent to the mailing list. The idea of doing it came from Jane Davis, who manages the site, and me brainstorming ways of keeping the site active and interesting as well as being a useful tool for me to let readers know about my work. It was fun to do. Since it was only a short story and I wasn't paid for it and it was going out to readers free, it gave me a lot of freedom. I wrote it in first person with the narrator being Harry Bosch, something I had never done before.
BRC: Your last book --- VOID MOON --- featured Cassie Black. BLOOD WORK, the book preceding VOID MOON --- introduced Terry McCaleb. Do you have any plans, however tentative, to continue alternating protagonists in this manner? Or can we expect to see future novels featuring individuals who we haven't encountered as yet?
MC: I think it's all of the above. After DARKNESS will come a Bosch book called CITY OF BONES. I just finished it last week. Following that, I don't know what I am going to do. It won't be a Bosch, but I haven't decided yet whether to come up with a new character or go back and dust off one of the old ones. They all still fascinate me and I hope I haven't seen the last of any of them.
BRC: On a related note, do you presently have any plans for another novel featuring Cassie Black?
MC: I liked the character of Cassie Black. I would like to bring her back but it would have to be in the right story and so far that hasn't come to me.
BRC: And, continuing on matters involving the future, what can you tell us about your next novel?
MC: CITY OF BONES involves a case where the bones of a 12-year-old boy are found buried in the Hollywood Hills after a dog disturbs the shallow grave. Harry Bosch is called in and the case evolves into an investigation that is fraught with department politics and danger to Harry.
BRC: Your website also very generously provides links to unpublished chapters of Bosch novels, for those of us unable to get enough of your published work. Do you have any more of these gems that you'll be releasing in the future?
MC: At the moment I don't have anything else. But, who knows, maybe my editor will cut a chapter out of CITY OF BONES and I'll put it on there. I think that with this short story I just wrote, I may end up doing more short pieces like this for the website.
BRC: You have an incredibly ambitious book tour in support of A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT scheduled for January and February 2001. I was extremely impressed by the breadth of the tour --- from New York City to Anchorage, Alaska, and all points in between--- as well as the obvious effort made to include stops in cities which most book tours normally miss. Could you share with us your most favorite and least favorite book tour experience?
MC: Well, there have been a lot of both. I think the absolute worse was when I was scheduled for a signing in Lexington, KY, at the same time as a University of Kentucky basketball game. Well, Lexington virtually shuts down during one of these games. It was the only signing I ever had where absolutely no one came. I even left a half hour early and wasn't missed. The best would be hard to pinpoint. I have had many fantastic experiences. I think some of the times I have been in foreign cities like Paris and London and Sydney and come into bookstores that are crowded with people who have read and liked my books. There is a measure of fulfillment there that goes beyond words. When you write a story in your little room in LA that connects with somebody half a world away, you can't beat it.
BRC: Are any of your novels scheduled to be adapted for film?
MC: I am not really sure. Three of them --- THE BLACK ICE, BLOOD WORK, and VOID MOON --- are in active development and so things could possibly happen with one or all of them this year. You never know with Hollywood.
BRC: Could you describe for us what your work habits are like when you are writing?
MC: I try to get up as early as possible and be writing before the sun comes up. I find I am most creative in the morning. I usually go to lunch and then things slow down after and I either do a little more writing or concentrate on the business side of my work. When I am writing a book, which is most of the time, I write everyday, even if it's only for a few minutes. It keeps the story alive in my head.
BRC: What authors would you consider to be your primary influence?
MC: I think the big three for me are Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald and Joseph Wambaugh.
BRC: What books have you read recently that you could recommend to our readers?
MC: The books I have liked a lot lately have been A PLACE OF EXECUTION by Val McDermid, PURPLE CANE ROAD by James Lee Burke, RIGHT AS RAIN by George D. Pelecanos, and AFTERBURN by Colin Harrison.
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PAST INTERVIEW
February 4, 2000
Michael Connelly is the successful author of many popular crime novels often featuring his famous LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch. But his latest --- VOID MOON --- has a female in the lead. A burglar named Cassie Black takes center stage in his thrilling new book. TBR Senior Writer Joe Hartlaub --- interviewer extraordinaire --- was eager to ask Connelly some questions about his new book and his old characters, namely Harry Bosch. Find out where the inspiration for "void moon" came from, how the birth of his daughter influenced the story, when we can expect the next Bosch book and more in this interview.
TBR: You weave Las Vegas, Los Angeles, astrology, parenthood into an absorbing thriller. Can you describe for us the inspiration that led to the creation of VOID MOON?
MC: The inspiration for VOID MOON came from many directions. It came initially from a police officer who told me about a burglar like Cassie Black who was operating in Los Angeles and hitting guest rooms in the Sunset Strip hotels. I wed my interest in this to another story I had heard from a friend who follows astrology. That story is about "void moons" and how they are bad luck. Finally, I took these two things and melded them with some current writing desires; one, that I write a book with a female protagonist; two, that I write an underworld story in which there would be no cops; and, three, that I use some of the feelings about being a parent that were new to me following the birth of my daughter.
TBR: Your main character in VOID MOON is a woman. Was it a challenge for you to write in a female character's voice?
MC: I didn't find writing a female protagonist to be the major challenge of the book. I think if you write a character who is good at what they do, has an interesting back story and is overlaid with a lot of telling details about their personality and world view, then it doesn't matter whether they are female or male. So as with my prior male protagonists, I concentrated on that --- making them an interesting human with their gender being secondary. The greater challenge of the book was telling a tale about different levels of criminals and making it a world the reader would want to inhabit for a few days.
TBR: In my review of VOID MOON I commented that your Harry Bosch novels have become popular enough that you could take the path of least resistance, so to speak, by writing and publishing a Bosch novel every year or two. You instead have established, at least for now, a pattern of alternating a Bosch book with a book featuring new locales, new characters, new storylines --- in essence recreating your universe every couple of years. What made you decide to take a respite, albeit a temporary one, from the Bosch novels?
MC: Actually, writing Bosch books would be the path of most resistance. I have written six novels with him in the lead and these books are becoming increasingly hard to write. It is imperative that if I write about Bosch I break new ground with his character. After six books or about a half a million words about him, that is getting hard to do. So now I only write about Bosch if I have something new to say or reveal. Writing these other books, while not apparent, actually is following the path of least resistance.
TBR: I understand that approximately two years ago you became a father for the first time. Did this experience --- certainly a benchmark in any man's life --- have any influence during your writing of VOID MOON?
MC: Being a father certainly had an influence on VOID MOON. Cassie Black operates on her maternal instincts in the book. To be able to write these sequences I simply tapped into my own paternal instincts.
TBR: Your acknowledgments in VOID MOON indicate that the surveillance equipment described therein exists and is available to the general public. You additionally go into great detail describing how this equipment can be utilized, as well as how a hotel room break-in can be facilitated. Did you, like Cassie in VOID MOON, have an "insider" with respect to how such things are done? Or do you merely have an active, if larcenous, imagination?
MC: I had both --- a lot of help and hopefully a lot of imagination. I did not use a burglar as an insider. I actually used a law enforcement officer who often performed these kind of break-ins --- with court approval --- to set up cameras and bugs to record criminal behavior. With that as a baseline I imagined the criminal side of things. Additionally, long before I wrote this book I had spent a considerable amount of time as a journalist writing a story about a professional burglar. I drew on that as well.
TBR: I have read elsewhere that your earliest influence was THE HARDY BOYS series. What was --- or is --- your favorite Hardy Boys book? Just for the record, mine is THE HOUSE ON THE CLIFF.
MC: I read the Hardy Boys books so long ago that I cannot remember which would be my favorite or what the exact titles were. I just remember being totally absorbed in the stories as I read them. They were full of intrigue and mystery but they also could be scary. Most of all, they made you feel like you could be a hero. That was important when I was thirteen or fourteen.
TBR: I have also read that your main influence was Raymond Chandler. I found this interesting due to the fact that, while Harry Bosch is a private investigator, you have managed, quite successfully, to find and present your own voice to the extent that any stylistic comparison between yourself and Chandler would be difficult. How do you avoid subconsciously writing in the style of an author who has greatly influenced you?
MC: I think Chandler's style has been copied so often that it is rather easy to avoid. But the truth is I don't really think about it. I have my own voice, and whether it is derivative or influenced or unique doesn't really matter to me. I just want to be happy with the story.
TBR: You already have written the screenplay for VOID MOON --- any idea when/if this will be available to our eyes? And are there any other books of yours that you'd love to see adapted for the big screen?
MC: I don't own the screenplay so I don't think it will be made public unless a movie gets made. The movie question is tricky. I think I would like to see a Harry Bosch movie made, but by the same token if a film is made and an actor becomes the image of Harry Bosch, it may make it even more difficult for me to keep writing about him. I studiously avoid thinking about actors when I write my characters. I have my own images of them in my head. If suddenly Harry is spoken for by another image/actor it may prevent me from writing about him again. This is a gamble I took when I sold my books to Hollywood. So whatever happens it is of my own doing.
TBR: What other influences, literary or otherwise, have you had?
MC: Thomas Harris, James Lee Burke, Lawrence Block --- to name just a few.
TBR: Please tell us about your educational --- and prior to being published --- your professional background.
MC: I was a newspaper reporter specializing in the crime beat for about ten years before I was published. Many of my stories --- THE BLACK ECHO, THE CONCRETE BLONDE, TRUNK MUSIC come to mind --- have an inspiration in something I wrote then. And THE POET is a story inspired by my reporting days in terms of character, not plot.
TBR: Could you share with us a description of your writing discipline on a typical day?
MC: I try to be writing by 7AM. I am most productive from 7 till noon. I also write everyday, even if it's only for a few minutes.
TBR: What are you working on presently? And, assuming that your present pattern holds, will your next novel feature Harry Bosch?
MC: My next book is my tenth novel so I am sort of drawing in a lot of the characters I have written about before. The main protagonist is Terry McCaleb from BLOOD WORK. But Harry Bosch has a big part in it and Jack McEvoy from THE POET has a small part. Essentially I use McCaleb as a device for taking a look at Harry Bosch from another angle. I've almost finished it.
TBR: A number of authors known for a particular character --- James Lee Burke and Robert Parker, among others --- have recently introduced new, recurring characters. Do you have any plans along such lines?
MC: I think of all of my characters moving across the same plane of time. So I think they will always move in and out of my work. I will introduce new ones and drop others. I can't say for sure what I'll do next.
TBR: What are you reading now?
MC: SHAME THE DEVIL by George P. Pelecanos --- a great book by an underappreciated writer.
TBR: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
MC: Write everyday, even if only for a few minutes. To even accomplish a few minutes of writing you have to think about the story and the characters. Writing everyday keeps them fresh in your mind. When they are in your mind you are constantly working the story. A lot of writing takes place away from the computer or the pad and pencil. This little trick keeps that creative process going.
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