Michael Connelly
Michael Connelly's latest novel is The Black Box.
From his February 2013 Q & A with Nathan Rostron at Bookish:
Bookish: Which are your favorite characters that you've created? Is there a character by a different writer that you wish you had created yourself?--Marshal Zeringue
Connelly: I think it's pretty apparent who my favorites are because I keep coming back to them. At the top of that list would be Harry Bosch, who's now going on 20 years of literary life. I still like him the best because there's still a lot to say about him. He's an intriguing character to me, and as long as it stays that way for me, it hopefully will stay that way for the readers.
As far as characters in fiction that I really admire--it's pretty strong to say you would wish that you had created another character--but I'll throw out Will Graham, the protagonist in "Red Dragon," a book I've read several times. One reason I keep reading it is because I get so into his world and his struggle, so I really admire him and I think that'd be a cool character to have on your résumé.
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Bookish: Looking at recent crimes, is there any news story in particular that you would like to explore in your fiction? Have you ever come across a news story or crime that you thought was too controversial to write about?
Connelly: I usually go the other way. I usually try to find stories that have not made any kind of a media blip, and therefore they're more my own. I also think about the reading process--I don't want a reader to go, "Oh, this was inspired by this…." It can give them a preconceived sense of where the story's going or what it's about. Maybe it has something to do with being a reporter for a long time that I don't look to newspapers and television and so forth for inspiration most of the time.
But, you talk about controversy: I was about 100 pages into [writing] a novel in the fall, which was about a school shooting, and then the massacre in Newtown, Conn., happened and it made me put that book on the shelf. I'll probably come back to it, but I just thought, "It's not what I want to be writing about at the moment." And, it would probably...[read on]
