Interview with Jane Haddam 
by Jon Jordan

Jon:  Could you give a description of your writing for people who have not read your books?

Jane:  I think I would describe my books as character-centered mysteries--they're about the lives of the suspects at least as much, if not more, than they are about the detective catching the murderer. On the other hand, I also try to make the detective-catching-the-murderer part more or less fair play, because I really hate those books where the murderer turns out to be somebody you never heard of who pops up in the last chapter.

Jon:  What is it about writing a series that you like?  Are there drawbacks?

Jane:  The best thing about a series is that it provides you with a continuing frame--you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time you write a book. The biggest drawback is that there is no way for your continuing characters to have consistently exciting lives without the whole thing beginning to sound like a soap opera. I mean, how many crises can one relationship go through?  How many times can a private eye get his heart broken? So you've either got to find a way to make your continuing characters interesting without making them maudlin or overwrought, or you've got to do what I do and put more emphasis on the suspects, who change from book to book.

Jon:  What prompts your ideas? News, things you see, actual experiences?

Jane:  Anything. I tend to come up with people more than situations -- most of my books start with a character. In Skeleton Key, the one that's coming out in February, it was the first murder victim's mother and then her boyfriend--two of the nastiest human beings ever to walk to planet. Everything flowed from there, including the fact that the victim had to be who she was.

Jon:  What other jobs have you had besides writing?

Jane:  I've been a teacher at the college level, in composition mostly, and I've been an editor on magazines. I was even the executive editor on a little magazine called Greek Accent, whose only claim to fame is that its art director went on to be the art director of Discover for many years and its assistant editor went on to be the features editor at New York for many years. There was a lot of talent on that magazine, but not much reach.

Jon:  What kind of advice would you give to some one wanting to be a writer?

Jane:  Go to New York and get a job as an editorial assistant on a magazine or at a publishing house. Trust me, that's the way it's usually done, and it's the easiest way.

But if, for some reason, you don't feel capable of doing that, then go to writer's conferences where editors and agents meet with authors, and LISTEN TO ADVICE. Sorry to shout. You don't know how many writer's conferences I've taught at where at least have the audience fights all the conventions of the field. Editors want manuscripts as loose papers in boxes? They won't do that--it's all so much neater in a binder.

When I was a magazine editor I had a guy who was really good, and whom I wanted to publish, but he would NOT send me a query letter. Instead, he'd send complete manuscripts, time after time. And time after time, I'd write him and say: don't do this. Send me a one page idea letter. We never did buy anything from him.

Jon:  If you could go back and talk to an 18 year old Jane, what would you tell her?

Jane:  You are not the ugliest person who ever lived, or even close.

Jon:  Have you ever thought of writing something totally different from what you normally write? If so what?

Jane:  Oh, yes. I actually write something totally different all the time -- I do a lot of magazine journalism even now. But I'd like to write a history, maybe of the Reformation, the way Barbara Tuchman used to.

Jon:  The internet seems to play a bigger and bigger role in peoples lives.  Do you see it as a good thing or something that may replace real interaction between people?

Jane:  The Internet makes it possible for people like me to live the way I do now. Without it, I'd have to be in New York or some other city. With it, I have the research resources of a great city and I'm off on a side road thirty miles from the nearest major shopping center. I think the Internet is the greatest invention in history after antibiotics.

Jon:  How long do you want to keep writing? Do you see a day where you may just want to stop?

Jane:  Writing, no. Writing full time, maybe. My husband used to take care of the business part of this, and after he died I found I wasn't really any good at it. I hate remembering who owes me what and bugging them if they haven't paid me -- and I write for a LOT of different magazines, and agents don't handle magazine articles, so I've got a lot of that to do.

But writing itself--I've done that every day of my life, except when I was traveling or ill, since I was maybe eight years old. I couldn't stop.

Jon:  I listen to different music to suit different moods. What authors do you read and why do you like them?

Jane:  I don't read a lot of fiction, although I really enjoy P.D. James and Sue Miller--very character-oriented writers, both of them. Miller's For Love is the only book out there by somebody else I wish I'd written myself.

Beyond that, I like a number of political writers, including especially Wendy Kaminer and Christopher Hitchens, and Norman Cantor's historical work on the middle ages.

Jon:  What is the best thing about being an author?

Jane:  Good grief. I don't know. I can't even say making my own schedule, because I DON'T make my own schedule -- it's constructed around my sons' school schedules. I think maybe it's being able to say what I want to say to large numbers of people and get taken seriously. Nobody in real life ever takes me seriously.

Jon:  What's always in your refrigerator?

Jane:  Four gallons of milk. Not for me, mind you, but for my almost-teen-ager, who mainlines the stuff and seems to be growing at the rate of an inch a day. He shaves. I'm not old enough for this yet.