Questions for Lisa Scottoline

[Stephanie]

Here's a place where we can post all of our questions for the author -- about plot, character, or any aspect of her exciting legal thrillers.

[Lisa_Scottoline]

Hey girl! Welcome everybody! So excited to be back on the first day of our book club! And DELIGHTED to see we can check our spelling now since my typing sucks. (Though I just tried it and it keeps hanging so I'll do it the old way.) And by the way, here'a a starter thought - though I love you, Steph, I never call my books legal thrillers - it makes them sound so BORING. I really think of them as stories about women who get in and out of trouble - like all women. Fair enough? Maureen Corrigan, a great writer, called them "women's adventure stories" - I agree!! What do you all think? Who am I? I know that People Magazine says I'm "the female John Grisham" - but that makes me think I'm cross dressing!!!

[Bill_T]

That misnomer might have come to me and Stephanie by way of our website, Lisa -- that's how your books are categorized there (maybe take it up with your publisher!?) In any event, we'll stop calling them legal thrillers if you say so! Women's adventure stories it is!

It's true there's nothing staid or "courtroom-y" about your books. I love the way that they move between a sense of "real" problems (like the opening scene in which Nat confronts an apathetic law school class) and the more exciting ones we find more in books than (for most of us) in the the real world.

Following up on that -- where did the inspiration for the opening Shakespeare-in-the-classroom scene come from? Did you ever have a professor act out Merchant of Venice to illustrate the history of contracts? Have you ever done that yourself?

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Lisa_Scottoline wrote:
Hey girl! Welcome everybody! So excited to be back on the first day of our book club! And DELIGHTED to see we can check our spelling now since my typing sucks. (Though I just tried it and it keeps hanging so I'll do it the old way.) And by the way, here'a a starter thought - though I love you, Steph, I never call my books legal thrillers - it makes them sound so BORING. I really think of them as stories about women who get in and out of trouble - like all women. Fair enough? Maureen Corrigan, a great writer, called them "women's adventure stories" - I agree!! What do you all think? Who am I? I know that People Magazine says I'm "the female John Grisham" - but that makes me think I'm cross dressing!!!

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[PaulK]

Why did you have to name your new column in the Sunday Inquirer "Chick Wit?" I am not sure I can read it in public with that title. However I did like this week's column on the frequent flier diet. I especially liked your story of the flight attendants complaining about their jobs in front of their customers. I have seen that behavior before. No wonder airlines are in trouble.

[Stephanie]

Hi Lisa,

Great to be moderating for another of your books. I loved this one, it kept me right on the edge of my seat throughout.

You've included more family situations in this novel - I'm looking forward to talking about that. I love Nat's family, especially Paul, the LOUD brother. Are Nat's parents and brothers based in reality at all?

[Lisa_Scottoline]

I always write what I know, and the family part is a tiny bit like mine - except we had less dough. Was a bookworm in a family that had one book - and it wasn't the Bible, it was TV Guide. I read like a fiend once I discovered books, and my beloved mother was always saying, "Stop reading, you'll ruin your eyes." Not to dis her, but books weren't in her background either, which was an immigrant family. So I used that out-of-place feeling I always had to inform Nat's bookish character. We had lots of love and meatballs in my family, but books came dead last.
PS I just did the spell check before I posted this and it wanted to replace meatballs with mothballs! Now THAT would have insulted my mother!

[Lisa_Scottoline]

Is this my old e-book club pal? I gathered it was from the baseball player. (I'm a mystery writer...) Don't be ashamed to read my column - it marks you as the enlightened man you are!!!! And if you don't get the Inquirer, the column will be online at my site, scottoline.com, any day now.

[Lisa_Scottoline]

No problem with the categorizing - it's my one-girl campaign to not sound boring and get more women to read me! I have gotten email from women who said they were turned off by the legal thriller labels and don't see my books that ay at all, and they convinced me!
As for your question, I do teach The Merchant of Venice in my class at Penn Law but I have a hundred kids in class and they do particpate, Thank God. But I admit I ply them with Snickers and Hershey bars because the class goes over the dinner hour. And that sugar does tend to get students yapping...

[Depet]

I loved the opening line about being an A cup in a size DD bra. You always have the greatest openings in your books.
Debbie

[Lisa_Scottoline]

Thanks, Debbie! I work really hard on the first lines. That one came to me late in the process, probably because my last remnants of good taste were keeping it suppressed! But then I went with it, and I'm thrilled you like it God knows it's embarrassing to read out loud at signing, but then again, my signing get crazy and fun anyway.

[Stephanie]

Lisa,

I know you're a news-watcher (perhaps you could say that a little better for the folks who don't know about that), and since I've been watching more lately than usual myself, I imagine you are as well.

Do you ever get ideas from stories in the news? Would you write a true-life crime novel?

[Lisa_Scottoline]

No,I would never get an idea from the news. I do read tons and watch TV all the time - it's on right now on my office - but for me, all the ideas come from inside, close to the ehart, as corny as that sounds. You really have to dig deep to make a real character who's worth knowing, and it comes from inside, not outside.

[avidreader39]

"Hello, Beautiful." That's the last line in your first novel, "Everywhere That Mary Went" which I have just finished reading. I have just started reading mystery novels and have started with yours. I have bought seven of your novels but haven't bought "Daddy's Girl" yet. Love your books. Thanks for writing. Larry

[Lisa_Scottoline]

Thanks, Larry, for reading me. I hope my writing has improved over fourteen books, I really try to. You'll see that I've chnaged viewpoints and tenses in the novels, so Everywhere That Mary Went is very different from Daddy's Girl. Enjoy!

[Sarahliz511]

Lisa,

My grandpa got me hooked on janet evanovich's books, which eventually led me to "daddy's girl".... I couldn't stop reading it. Now I am getting him hooked on your books

Do others frequently make comparisions between you and Janet?

Thanks,
Sarah