Question & answer pages

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

You're 42 years old, and you have three kids and fifteen books - I can barely manage to get my grocery shopping done! You must have an incredible writing regimen!

Regimen? No way. Does anyone with three kids have a regimen? My children know that they come first with me - which means I will schedule tours, when possible, around school plays and hockey tournaments. It also means that I am continually interrupted to referee sibling wars, to get the cheesy popcorn off the top closet shelf, and to help rescue frozen computer games. These little breaks have gotten less frequent, now that my husband is an at-home dad. He is the one who carpools, drives to and from school, attends hockey practice, etc. It means I can go on tour for months at a time without batting an eye; or work through school pickup at 2:45 PM without breaking stride; or hie off on a research expedition without thinking twice. My husband's choice to stay home has been an amazing gift to me - a freedom and ability to write whenever I like. But for many years, I had to squeeze in my work around child care schedules, and that made me develop a very firm discipline. I write quickly, but I also do not believe in writer's block, because once I didn't have the luxury of believing it. When you only have twenty minutes, you write - whether it's garbage, or it's good… you just DO it, and you fix it later.

Do you write every day?

I don't work on weekends, usually (although I have been known to sneak up to an office when I'm in the middle of a chapter - I hate leaving my characters hanging!) But other than that, I'm a workaholic. I will start a new book the day after finishing a previous one. What you need to remember, however, is that there's nothing I'd rather be doing than writing. My kids know that I need it like some people need medication - as a preventative, because when I don't write for a few days, I get predictably cranky. They've become used to sharing me with people who don't really exist, but who are incredibly real to ME while I'm telling their stories.

Do you always know the end before you write it?

Let me put it this way - I think I do, and I'm usually wrong. When I start a book, I juggle a what-if question in my head, and push it and push it until I feel like I have a good story. I figure out what I need to know and do my research, via the Internet or email or in some cases getting down and dirty (more on this later). I start to write when I come up with an excellent first line. And then I keep going, chapter by chapter, exactly in the order in which you're reading it. Often, about 2/3 of the way through, the characters will take over and move the book in a different direction. I can fight them, but usually when I do that the book isn't as good as it could be. It sounds crazy, but the book really starts writing itself after a while. I often feel like I'm just transcribing a film that's being spooled in my head, and I have nothing to do with creating it. Certain scenes surprise me even after I have written them - I just stare at the computer screen, wondering how that happened. For example, the scene in The Pact where Melanie nearly runs Chris down with her car. Or in Keeping Faith, when Millie Epstein resuscitates. Or in Salem Falls, that last scene (don't you dare peek ahead). When I was writing Plain Truth, I called my mom up one day. "You're not going to believe what's happening to Ellie!" I told her. I think she said I was scaring her and hung up. I know it seems a little unnerving, but I love the moments when my characters get up and walk off on their own two feet.

Did you know how My Sister's Keeper was going to end?

Yes. Even before I wrote a single word.

Which of your books is your favorite?

In more than a decade, every time I've been asked this, I always have said, "Oh, that's like asking me to pick which kid I love the most!" or in other words, something I wasn't ever going to do. But right now, I do have a personal favorite - Second Glance. I think it's the most complex book I've written to date, and I am incredibly proud of the characters in there…some of whom I've never seen in fiction ever before. Plus, it addresses themes and concepts that are rarely discussed in fiction. There's a real tendency when you write to think that Shakespeare did it all, and that we just recycle it…so when you feel like you've broken new ground as a writer, it's a big deal. For all those reasons, I think Second Glance is my biggest accomplishment to date.

How long does it take to write a book?

Nine months. Stop laughing. I don't know why it takes me the same amount of time to deliver either a book or a baby, but there you have it. Sometimes the amount of research vs. rough-drafting varies, but it generally takes three-quarters of a year for my head to gel ideas into a cohesive story. Often, I work on more than one book at once. I may be touring for Perfect Match, for example, while editing Second Glance, and writing a new book. It's like windows on a computer - several are open at once. It also means I'm usually about three books ahead of myself; I am currently writing the book that will be published in 2010.

Does anyone read your books while you're in the process of writing them?

My mom, my agent, some other writers who are friends. I take their comments and incorporate them into the next draft… and do a hefty edit. And another… and another…

Where do your ideas come from?

Usually, a what-if question: what if a boy left standing after a botched suicide pact was accused of murder? What if a little girl developed an imaginary friend who turned out to be God? What if an attorney didn't think that the legal system was quite good enough for her own child? I start by mulling a question and before I know it, a whole drama is unfolding in my head. Often, an idea sticks before I know what I'm going to do with it. For Mercy, I researched Scottish clans without having a clue why this was going to be important to the book. It was only after I learned about them that I realized I was writing a novel about the loyalty we bear to people we love. Sometimes ideas change in the middle. The Pact was not a page-turner when I conceived it. I was going to write a character driven book about the female survivor of a suicide pact, and I went to the local police chief to do some preliminary research. “Huh,” he said, “it’s the girl who survives? Because if it was the boy, who was physically larger, he’d automatically be suspected of murder until cleared by the evidence.” Well, I nearly fell out of my seat. “Really?” I asked, and the character of Chris began to take shape. Sometimes I write books because other people make the suggestion: Plain Truth came about when my mother said I ought to explore the reclusive Amish. "If anyone can learn about them,” she said, “it’s you.” And sometimes, ideas grow out of the ones I’m researching. That happened with My Sister's Keeper - information I learned while researching Second Glance was so fascinating to me that I stuck it into its own file and turned it into a story all its own.

How do you do your research?

Meticulously. I hate catching authors in inaccuracies when I’m a reader, so I’m a stickler when I’m writing. At this point, I have several folks on call for me during a book - a few lawyers, a couple of psychiatrists, some doctors, a pathologist, a DNA scientist, a handful of detectives. When I start researching, I read everything I can about a topic. Then I meet with an “expert”. Some things are harder to find out about than others - getting the head of launch operations at NASA to fit me into his schedule, for example; or making a series of connections that landed me in the home of an Amish farmer for a week. These are some of the things I’ve done in the name of research: Watched Sly Stallone on a movie set (for Picture Perfect); observed cardiac surgery (Harvesting the Heart); gone to jail for the day (The Pact); milked cows on an Amish dairy farm (Plain Truth); learned Wiccan love spells and DNA testing procedures (Salem Falls); explored bone marrow transplants (Perfect Match); gone ghost hunting (Second Glance). For Vanishing Acts, I spent time in a hardcore Arizona jail, and met with both detention officers and inmates (learning, among other things, how to make my own zip gun and the recipe for crystal meth); and went to the Hopi reservation to attend their private katsina dances. For The Tenth Circle, I trekked to the Alaskan tundra to visit a remote Eskimo village and to follow a dogsled race on a snowmobile – in January, when it was -38 degrees Fahrenheit.

How on earth did you get to live with an Amish family to do research?

Amazingly, through the Internet. After posting a query on a Lancaster County message board, I got a response from a lovely Mennonite woman, with whom I struck up a research relationship. After many email queries, she suggested I come visit the area and volunteered to find me some Amish friends to stay with. I was there for a week, milking at 4:30 AM and participating in the morning Bible study, as well as helping out with the cooking of meals. I quickly learned that the Amish aren't the one-dimensional characters they're made out to be - like us, there are good people and bad people, tolerant people and intolerant people, lenient people and more exacting people. Just because we grow up taught to live our lives differently doesn't necessarily mean our way is better.

You must have done a ton of research for Change of Heart.

Yup. I’ve been to Death Row in Arizona, twice now. It’s a very strange place – in all the years I’ve been doing research, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a cloud of secrecy like the one I found there. I was literally on a plane when my visit was being nearly cancelled – I had to arrive at the facility and talk my way into it, because they decided if I was a writer, I must be “media”. I was able to charm the authorities into giving me a tour of their death row – which is more serene than you’d think, because the inmates are locked into their individual cells 23 hours a day. Then I begged to be taken to the execution chamber – the Death House, as it used to be called in Arizona. It was while I was examining their gas chamber (Arizona uses both gas and lethal injection) that the warden approached me to ask me again who I was, and why I was writing a book about this. She definitely had her guard up – and wasn’t budging an inch. We started talking about the last execution in Arizona; and at some point she mentioned she was a practicing Catholic. “If you’re Catholic,” I said, “do you think the death penalty is a good thing?” She stared at me for a long moment, and then said, “I used to.” From that moment on, the wall between us came down, and she was willing to tell me everything I wanted and needed to know – including scenes you’ll see in this book in 2008, a backstage look at how an execution happens. The most jarring moments in my research trip? Speaking to a condemned man – who was convicted of murdering someone by shooting battery acid into his veins – yet who also called me Ma’am and cried when he started to talk about his late grandfather. And talking to the warden in the death house, when I was having trouble juggling notebooks and papers, and leaned against the closest surface to take notes more easily…only to realize I was sprawled across the lethal injection gurney. The counterpart of the research I’ve done on death row involves holing up in my office wading through the gospels for research…not just the ones that made it into the Bible, but the ones that didn’t, like the Gospel of Thomas – a gospel found in 1945 in Nag Hammadi, Egypt. Like the other 51 texts found at Nag Hammadi, they contain a lot of sayings you can find in the Bible…and a lot you won’t. These are referred to as the Gnostic gospels – part and parcel of a religious movement that was denounced as heresy by Orthodox Christianity in the middle of the second century. Gnosis means knowledge in Greek – and the basis for their beliefs is that if you want to know God, you have to know yourself. Or in other words, there’s a little bit of divinity in all of us, coded and hidden…and it’s up to each of us to figure out how to get it out. The Gnostics felt that religion was something that by definition had to be personal – and that if you simply believed what others told you to believe or said the right words during a church service or just got baptized, it wasn’t enough to reach spiritual fulfillment. Above all else, the Gnostics said, ask questions. Don’t believe everything you’re told; don’t assume that just because someone says “This is the way it should be done” that he or she is right. There are a lot of good reasons – political and religious – why Orthodox Christianity rejected the Gnostic movement…but something else was lost along with those gospels – the belief that people might reach spiritual enlightenment in a variety in ways, rather than one “right” way. “If you bring forth what is within you,” Jesus says, in the Gospel of Thomas, “what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” Sounds like a riddle, right? But it’s actually pretty simple: The potential to free yourself – or ruin yourself – is entirely up to you. Which gets pretty interesting when you’re talking about a condemned man who happens to think that donating his heart to the sister of his victim is the way to save himself. 

I read your latest in twenty-four hours. What’s next!?

Handle With Care is centered around a wrongful birth suit, which is fascinating to me – it involves a parent suing an OB for not being told earlier that a child was going to be severely impaired. Most parents who start these lawsuits love their kids very much…but want to give them the best lives possible, which is very expensive given the level of physical impairment, so they sue. However, it means getting up in front of a jury and saying that if you’d known your child was going to be this disabled, you would never have had the baby. Not only is that emotionally devastating…but it usually creates a lawsuit that circles back to questions of abortion rights, and who gets to decide what sort of life is or isn’t worth living – at which point should an OB counsel termination? Should a parent have the right to make that choice? How disabled is TOO disabled? As you can see, lots of thorny moral and ethical questions in this one – which is why I love it! In Handle With Care, Charlotte O’Keefe’s daughter Willow is born with osteogenesis imperfecta Type III, a very severe form of brittle bone disease. These are children who, literally, will have hundreds of breaks over the course of a lifetime; you can lift up your infant and break her back; she can roll over and break her ribs. Financially strapped by her daughter’s needs, she files a wrongful birth suit against her OB – who also happens to be her best friend. Thematically, this novel’s about the things that break apart in times of stress: bones, friendships, families.

Can you give me a hint about 2010?

House Rules is about a teenage boy named Jacob Hunt who has Asperger’s Syndrome – a form of high-functioning autism. He’s watched all 248 episodes of CrimeBusters on television and is enthralled with the police scanner radio he keeps in his bedroom and is extremely proud of his passion for crime scene analysis…until one day, he finds himself accused of murder. One of the biggest problems with autism is that many of its hallmarks look – t0 someone in the law enforcement community – like guilt: averted eyes, nervous stimulatory behavior, trouble answering interrogative questions. This book is going to explore how our legal system only works for people who communicate a certain way – and how, for the others, it often fails. I had the great privilege to meet many kids with Asperger’s while writing this book – and to meet their parents, too, who have struggled for years watching their children trying to fit in with their peers and failing.

What about 2011?

I can’t wait to start writing the 2011 book! It is going to explore embryo donation, and gay rights in America. What’s particularly unique about the novel is that the main character is a musician/singer, and each chapter will be the name of one of her songs – a song that reflects what she’s feeling at that point in the book. Accompanying the novel will be a CD of these original songs. A really talented friend of mine, Ellen Wilber, is writing the music for them, while I write the lyrics. We’ve already started to work on them, and I think you’re going to be blown away! I want this character to come alive for the reader – to reinforce the fact that gay rights isn’t about issues – it’s about PEOPLE.

What did you think of The Pact and Plain Truth airing as movies on Lifetime? Are any others going to make it to the big screen?

Let’s start with The Pact. Given that a book is NEVER a movie, I thought that Lifetime, and director Peter Werner, did a wonderful job. They targeted the movie to Lifetime’s audience, which is why it was about the women and not the two teens; and they treated teen suicide with great care and honesty and openness. They also went out of their way as a network to raise awareness of teen depression by using the movie, and that’s an incredibly proactive thing to do. Now - that said - I also believe that forty different movies could have been made from that single book! This was just one of the options. Plain Truth fared a little better for die-hard fans of the novel, because it followed the book much more closely than The Pact. It was the highest rated Lifetime movie of 2004, so apparently a lot of other people enjoyed it too. Plus, it was great fun for my family to have a cameo as an Amish family. I really enjoyed the adaptation of The Tenth Circle – the acting was top notch and the director, Peter Markle, was intent on making sure that when you watch it, you are left with the same feeling you have when you read the book – and ultimately, it works beautifully as a cautionary tale about teen sexuality. My Sister’s Keeper hits theaters June 26, 2009. Nick Cassavetes is directing, Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin star.

I missed the movies on Lifetime. Can I buy them?

They are available on iTunes.

Were you very involved with the filming of My Sister’s Keeper the movie?

It’s hard for people to believe, but when Hollywood adapts a movie to the screen, the author is pretty much at the bottom of the totem pole. You sell the rights and it’s like giving a baby up for adoption – you aren’t allowed to call daily and ask what she’s been fed for breakfast. Of course, you hope that the family you’re trusting with your baby is a good one, and that she’ll turn out well in the long run…but there are no guarantees. I am very excited about the movie adaptation of My Sister’s Keeper , but I had minimal input on the script or the filming process. The movie will not be a carbon copy of the book; in particular, the ending is different. How do I feel about that? Well -- disappointed, of course. But I’m not the first author it’s happened to (heck, even Jane Austen and Nathaniel Hawthorne have had Hollywood tamper with their endings!) and I don’t think it’s fair to judge a two-hour movie on the last five minutes. Plus, I believe that the quality of the acting will really impress fans of the book. And isn’t that the beauty of a novel: if the screen adaptation isn’t what you remember, you can always go back and reread it!

Who are your favorite authors?

Alice Hoffman, Jo-Ann Mapson, Alice Hoffman, Anita Shreve, Ann Hood, Amy Tan, Diana Gabaldon, Alice Hoffman, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Sara Donati, Alice Hoffman, Susan Isaacs, Elinor Lipman, Chris Bohjalian, Ann Tyler, and Jane Hamilton. Oh, and did I mention Alice Hoffman?

What is the best book you’ve read lately?

I loved The Story of Forgetting, by Stephen Merrell Block, and The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. And Anita Shreve’s Testimony is, I think, the best thing she’s ever written!

So, do you write mysteries or women’s fiction or legal thrillers or what?

Hang on while I get on my soapbox. I hate being pigeonholed. I have always been called a women’s author, but I have loads of male fans, and I think you can legitimately label my novels as legal thrillers, mysteries, romances, or plain old fiction. I think you can consider my books literary, because they make you think, or commercial, because they are a compelling read. Marketing departments like to label authors with just one tag, so that they know how to promote a book, but I think the best books straddle genres and attract a variety of readers. I’d like to think this is one reason my books appeal to people - because I give them something different every time.

Do you draw upon your own experiences with family and friends as you create characters and plots?

Let's just say I am the world's worst friend. Tell me something and it's likely to end up in a character's mouth. A disagreement I had with my husband became a pivotal scene in The Pact. For Perfect Match, I'd go to breakfast in the morning, take notes on what my kids said, and then go upstairs and transform their voices into the character of Nathaniel. I usually draw a plot out of thin air, but pepper the book with real-life conversations I have had in different contexts. My friends tell me that it's really strange to be reading one of my books and to find one's life sprawled across the page…

What the heck did you mean by the end of Keeping Faith?

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Spoiler alert – don’t read this answer if you haven’t read the book!!!

What the heck did you mean by the end of The Pact?

Spoiler alert – don’t read this answer if you haven’t read the book!!!

What the heck did you mean by the end of Change of Heart?

Spoiler alert – don’t read this answer if you haven’t read the book!!!

What’s the answer to the hidden message in The Tenth Circle?

Spoiler alert – don’t read this answer if you haven’t read the book!!!

Do you hang out with other writers?

There's no "Author Café" where we all meet on Wednesday nights. In fact, Janet Evanovich lives in my hometown but I have only really met her once (although we did share a cleaning lady several years ago!) I am fortunate to count some terrific authors among my friends, but they are people that I've met through various speaking engagements or chance meetings. For the most part, however, writing is a very solitary process.

I think I'm a writer… how do I know for sure?

Oh, you'd know it. Real writers can't sleep because there are stories batting around inside their heads. Real writers create characters they weep over, because they are so real. Real writers can't NOT write. I think you can make a person a better writer technically by having him/her attend workshops and creative writing programs… but I think that at the basal level, writers are born, not made.

Do you have any advice for someone who wants to be a writer?

DO IT. Many people have a novel inside them, but most don't bother to get it out. Writing is grunt work - you need to have self-motivation, perseverance, and faith… talent is the smallest part of it (one need only read some of the titles on the NYT Bestseller list to see that… :) If you don't believe in yourself, and you don't have the fortitude to make that dream happen, why should the hotshots in the publishing world take a chance on you? I don't believe that you need an MFA to be a writer, but I do think you need to take some good workshops. These are often offered through writer's groups or community colleges. You need to learn to write on demand, and to get critiqued without flinching. When someone can rip your work to shreds without it feeling as though your arm has been hacked off, you're ready to send your novel off to an agent. There's no magic way to get one of those - it took me longer to find my wonderful agent than it did to get published! I suggest the Literary Marketplace, or another library reference material. Keep sending out your work and don't get discouraged when it comes back from an agent - just send it out to a different one. Attend signings/lectures by authors, and in your free time, read read read. All of this will make you a better writer. And – here’s a critical part – when you finally start to write something, do not let yourself stop…even when you are convinced it’s the worst garbage ever. This is the biggest caveat for beginning writers. Instead, force yourself to finish what you began, and THEN go back and edit it. If you keep scrapping your beginnings, however, you’ll never know if you can reach an end.

My life would make the greatest book. Will you write it?

I get asked to write someone’s life story about ten times a week – but I’ve never said yes. First, I have plenty of my own stories to write first! But second and more importantly – if I wrote the story, it would become MINE, not YOURS. I’d make changes, and alter characters – and it wouldn’t be what you’re looking for. For that reason I always encourage people to write their own stories. Even if you think you’re not a writer, you might find it therapeutic to get it all out of paper. THEN you can decide whether or not you want to publish it – or find a ghost writer to help you polish it. In the case of a life story, it’s usually the act of getting it onto paper that’s most important – and because of that, you should be the one to do it!

Have you met many of your readers at book signings or through letters and email?

Yes! I love getting fan mail. Often, as a writer, you never know what your readers think of a book… you get critical reviews and sales figures, but none of that is the same as knowing you've made a person stay up all night reading, or helped them have a good cry, or really touched their life. The best part of this web site is the accessibility fans have to me via email. See that little mailbox on the bottom of the page? Please email me and tell me what you thought of the book you read! The letters come right to me, and I always answer.

Really? When I got an email back YOU were the one who wrote it?

Yup…I don’t have an assistant. It’s me!

Will you come to my book club? We serve wine/ice cream/escargots…

I wish I could…but I can't honor every request, and it's not fair to pick some instead of others. I used to compromise with phone chats, but then a magazine mentioned that and I had to quit, after scheduling fifty in one weekend. However, if your book club discusses one of my books and has any lingering questions, you can email me (see above) and I will do my best to answer them. And I LOVE meeting entire book groups at my signings - if you schedule a field trip to one of my events, you can ask me all your questions in person there!

I’m interested in having you come to speak at my library/women’s group/literary festival/school. Do you do that kind of stuff?

I do, but unfortunately, I have to charge a pretty hefty amount for my time. (I get about 35 requests per week to do that sort of thing, and if I said yes to everyone, I’d never have the chance to write another book, much less see my kids…) I also book about a year in advance. You can contact Arlynn Greenbaum, arlynnj@cs.com, if you want to know more about fees/availability.

How can I get a book signed by you, if you aren't touring near my home town?

I'm always happy to sign books for fans. Send your book, along with a self-addressed-stamped envelope and return postage, to Jodi Picoult, PO Box 508, Etna, NH 03750. Make sure you include a note stating how you'd like the book made out (i.e. To Susie, To Aunt Fran, Merry Christmas Darling…) International readers: you have to send AMERICAN currency that’s enough to cover the cost of shipping back the book – ask your postal office how much that will be, and make sure you specify whether you want it to come back via air, sea, land, snail. (If you want a signed photo, send a prestamped self addressed 10x13 envelope to me, along with a note requesting the photo and how you’d like it signed.)