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Interview by Arley Owens
Joseph Finder needs no introduction, his novel High Crimes was made into a movie starring Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman, Power Play debuted at number 7 on The New York Times bestseller list, and People Magazine dubbed him “a new John Grisham”. He graciously granted this interview even though he was on vacation after just finishing his latest book. He’s a perfect example of the adage The Bigger They Are, The Nicer They Are!
AET: First off, let me congratulate you on your huge success and confess my envy, along with a bazillion other writers who, like me, would love to be in your shoes. I watched a video of one of your interviews where you were talking about High Crimes being made into a movie, and busted a gut about Michael Gaston wanting to make sure you understood his character only to learn you wrote the book. Were you approached to write the screenplay?
JOE: No. They never asked me. I think I might have wanted to write the screenplay back then, but that was before I learned first hand how tough Hollywood is on screenwriters. Which is an outrage, because without a good script, all the brilliant direction and elegant cinematography in the world can't make a decent movie. Since then—since my days on the set of High Crimes—I've been wary about agreeing to do any screenwriting without adequate protection.
AET: Please take us through a typical writing session, what tools you use, what your office looks like, what you drink or snack on while working, etc.
JOE: I have two offices: one a studio at our house on Cape Cod, which is an old barn beautifully converted, set in the woods, down the hill from our house; the other is an office suite in a great old townhouse in the Back Bay, Boston, a few blocks from our apartment. My office in Boston (a photo of which appeared in this: Boston Magazin piece is 3 rooms—one my study, with a huge antique library table that's my desk, lined with books, one a library where I sit and read, and one my assistant's office. I write on a Macintosh G5 tower in Boston and on a MacBook Air at our Cape house, and yet another Mac, a MacBook Pro, at my small home office in Boston.
Usually I arrive at my office in Boston by 8 or so, depending on whether I drive the carpool, and I work until 6, leaving in the middle of the day either to work out or to have lunch with a friend. A long workday, fueled by constant shots of espresso from my own Italian espresso maker. Crucial. Not much of a snacker, fortunately, or I'd be as big as a Back Bay townhouse.
AET: So you work under seriously cramped and impoverished conditions, I see. Oh man, envy has turned to flaming jealousy, heh heh.
JOE: Yeah, tough life. But useful—every time I hear myself complain about something (a deadline, say) I just look around and remind myself that no one put a gun to my head to make me become a writer.
AET: What time of day do you usually write, and how much time do you spend during a setting?
JOE: I'm a morning person, so I usually start as early as possible, write in the morning, and then either edit or do research or outline in the afternoon. Afternoons are also for the business stuff—contracts, correspondence, etc. As a book progresses, I start getting up earlier and earlier, so that instead of starting my writing day at 8:00, I might get up at 5:00 a.m. and get in a few hours at home. Then I'll go for months starting my workday at 4 a.m., which is my most productive time, because I'm not tempted to check e-mail—the only e-mail I get then is from my UK or European publishers. In terms of how long a session might be, it depends on where I am in the book. If it's early in the writing cycle and I'm not dug in yet, I might write for half an hour at a time until I suddenly need to check my e-mail and fill out a questionnaire from Apple about the quality of my customer service experience. Later in the writing cycle, though, I can go for 3 or 4 hours at a sitting and not even notice.
AET: Choosing the corporate world as a backdrop for a thriller was, excuse the pun, a novel idea. Do you plan to continue in that vein in future novels or is there a possibility you might return to the political arena where you started in Red Carpet?
JOE: I totally love the corporate setting, since I find it rich with untold personal human drama, rife with backstabbing and conspiracy. But in fact I'm starting a new series, with a continuing character—I've just finished the first book in the series—that will combine the corporate intrigue of each of my books since PARANOIA with the political/conspiracy aspect of first four novels and my nonfiction book. I find that the two fit neatly together.
AET: You’re obviously a very hard worker who does painstaking research. Do you ever suffer from burnout?
JOE: Sure. There's always a period of time right after I finish a book when I just want to hang out and take naps and read and watch TV. I call it the refractory period. And just like in the human male, it gets a bit longer every year. So I try to make myself take a vacation at least once a year. Mark Twain talked about the importance of letting the "tank fill up" once in a while ("....I made the great discovery that when the tank runs dry you've only to leave it alone and it will fill up again in time"). But I confess I'm a workaholic. I'm always thinking about another book. Even right now, having finished a book two weeks ago, I'm researching and planning and thinking about the next one. In fact, I started the next one the day after sending off my last one.
AET: To what do you attribute your energy and drive?
JOE: It's because I'm doing something I love. When you're lucky enough to get paid—and paid well, to be blunt about it—for doing something you absolutely love (in my case, making up stories), you never want to stop. I can't imagine retiring.
AET: What do you think your occupation would be if you weren’t a writer, and what’s the one occupation you’d never choose?
JOE: A movie director, maybe. If I weren't a book writer, I'd definitely write for TV, though—and in fact I plan to be doing both fairly soon.
AET: You seem very open, is that merely a public persona?
JOE: I am extremely open, and it's not always something that serves me well, I have to say. Here's an example: I was at ThrillerFest in July, and I'd just sent off a first draft of my book to my brother, who's my first editor (he's the editorial director of The New Yorker magazine), and just before I was about to give a talk about the craft of writing, I got an email from my brother listing all kinds of things he thought I needed to improve about the draft he'd read. So I was feeling bruised and battered (as Bruce Springsteen says), and I started off my talk telling my audience that even successful, bestselling writers who've been doing this a while can find themselves making all the same old mistakes over and over again, and I told them about my brother's e-mail. A huge mistake. Someone in the audience talked to my editor, who talked to my agent, and an alarm went up—Joe's book is a disaster! It's in terrible shape! I was in the U.K. at another conference the next week when I got several frantic calls from my agent. By then, of course, I was feeling just fine about the book—in fact, I loved it, and I was making the changes my brother suggested..... but I learned my lesson. When you're in the public eye, even in that minimal way that writers can be, keep your problems to yourself!
AET: What do you think would surprise your fans most to learn about you?
JOE: Maybe that I always go through a phase while I'm writing a book that I'm convinced it's a piece of crap. That for all the outward success I've had recently, I still go through periods in which my confidence deserts me. But the truth is—every single writer who's honest with you or with herself/himself experiences the same thing. Most, however, are too savvy to tell you so.
AET: Some time ago I caught a video on your web site where you said that your favorite part of writing is the writing itself. Do you still feel that way?
JOE: Yes, absolutely. I love research, love finding stuff out. I dislike plotting, but I do it; dislike outlining, but I do it too. Nothing compares to that amazing blissful state when the story is just flowing and you can't type fast enough. It's truly like a drug. Writing is just one of those activities that produce endorphins, I'm convinced.
AET: Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview, Joe, and we at Alors wish you much continued success! Visit Joe’s Website at Joseph Finder