FAQ
Got a question for Joe? Send it to . If Joe answers your question here, we'll send you a prize! Keep reading for Joe's responses to earlier questions.

From several Canadian readers (paraphrasing):  "POWER PLAY was great, but I was disappointed, as a Canadian, to read your description of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's silly wide brimmed hats and red jackets ...  The RCMP risk their lives to protect Canadians, and I am proud of their dedication."

I am terribly sorry if my character's smart-aleck comments caused offense.  Of course I take responsibility for them — Jake's my creation, after all — but his remarks were meant to characterize him as irreverent, and don't represent my own opinion.

Members of the RCMP were very helpful to me as I researched the book, and my admiration for Canada inspired me to set POWER PLAY in British Columbia.  It's a magical place, and the RCMP have a great deal to do with that magic.

From MM: "Why do you use so many brand names in KILLER INSTINCT?"

I consider brand names — like place names and hotel names — useful and revealing cultural cues. I'm hardly the first writer to do it, of course. Oscar Wilde, in his play The Importance of Being Earnest, uses Perrier-Jouët and refers to the Grand Hotel in Paris. John O'Hara's Appointment in Samarra mentions Cadillacs and Buicks and Chevys. His characters wear hats from Brooks Brothers. John Updike wrote a great story called "A&P." Don DeLillo's White Noise teems with brand names, as do the novels of Haruki Murakami (who even has characters named Johnnie Walker and Colonel Sanders). And of course the great Ian Fleming — Bond wears a Rolex Oyster Perpetual, drinks martinis made from Gordon's and Kina Lillet.

Using proper names is one way of capturing our popular culture and also conveying social distinctions. A character who drives a gleaming black Mercedes is not the same as one who drives a Prius or a Pontiac GTO, right?

From Howard DeYoung: "Is the Cherokee legend about the two wolves [in POWER PLAY] true?"

Yes, the "two wolves" legend is an authentic Cherokee tale.  I don't remember where I first heard it — it might even have been in a movie — but you'll find several versions online, including this one on the First Peoples website:

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.

"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

From Jean-Marc Richard, Quebec, Canada: "Will POWER PLAY be translated into French?"

Yes, Albin-Michel has acquired POWER PLAY and will publish it in French. So far, POWER PLAY has been or will be translated into 12 languages: Portuguese, Czech, French, German, Dutch, Hebrew, Latvian, Romanian, Polish, Russian, Swedish, and Turkish. As we get the covers, we'll post them to the website -- and if you have a photo of any of these covers, send them to us at !

From Trudy Dempsey: Do you always know the beginning, middle and end before you start writing or does it evolve along the way? Have you ever started a story with specifics in mind, then decide to take a different direction?

I usually do spend a lot of time outlining my stories before I start to write.

POWER PLAY was different; it was told in the first person over a very short time period, so I thought I would write it from Jake's point of view as it happened, without outlining the book ahead of time. It was much harder than I expected, and the book took months longer to write than it would have if I'd started from an outline. I learned a lot, but I also learned that I work best with an outline.

You can read more of my thoughts on writing here, and in an interview I gave to The Writer magazine, here.

From Bill Gibson, Massachusetts: I was surprised that Trevor [in KILLER INSTINCT] would be bumping Kanye West on his car sound system. He was young enough, but was he cool enough? Then there was the art issue with Kate. How would you know about Faith Ringgold or Jacob Lawrence?
I hate to waste stuff I know, and anyway, it makes the characters feel more real to me, if they know about things I know. Good question about Trevor and Kanye, but I just wanted to have that song come up for its lyrics.

From Carol Mintz, Monroeville, PA: How long did it take you and how many manuscripts did you write before you sold your first book?  How did you react when you got the "call" and what is the first thing you did after you signed your first contract?
Well, it was a long haul.  It took me three years of constant writing and rewriting one manuscript.  Instead of writing a manuscript, getting it rejected, and then moving on to the next, I wrote a book, had it turned down by several agents, listened to their reasons why it didn't work, and then revised.  Over and over again.  I gave myself three years to sell the book -- told myself that if I wasn't able to sell a novel within three years, I'd give up.  The call came just barely within three years.  And I don't mean a call from an agent -- I mean a call telling me my first novel had been sold.  It was in fact from my foreign-rights agent, Danny Baror, early in 1989, who told me he'd just sold British rights to my novel to Pan Books -- even before we had a U.S. publisher.  Then we got a U.S. publisher, Viking, shortly thereafter. 

The first thing I did after I got the call from Danny was to quit teaching.  I had a great job, teaching writing at Harvard, but I knew I couldn't really write and teach at the same time -- one would suffer.  So I resigned from the Harvard faculty, and I've been a full time writer ever since.

  From Bob, Herkhimer, NY: "I notice in COMPANY MAN that women and African Americans have highly respected jobs and do well at those positions.  What has the role of women and African Americans been in your own life?"

Thanks -- yes, one of the two protagonists of Company Man is Audrey Rhimes, an African-American homicide detective.  She is in fact the moral center of the book, and she's a character I totally loved writing.  I'm the son of a strong woman, married to a strong woman, and I have one child -- a 12 year old daughter, who's also quite a strong woman.  So I have great respect for strong women and have a good feeling for how to portray them.  As for African-Americans, I actually based Audrey on a black woman homicide detective in Boston, an incredible woman of strong faith, whom I interviewed at length for the book.

From Connie Jo, in Elkhart, IN: "Where is COMPANY MAN set?  Were you thinking of a real city when you described Fenwick?   Because that Grand Rapids street name is real…"
I visited Grand Rapids a number of times while I was working on COMPANY MAN.  The fictional town of Fenwick, Michigan, is based on Grand Rapids, but it's a smaller town, which was important to the story.  Plus, by making it a fictional town, I didn't have to worry too much about getting the streets wrong!

Britton from Ruskin, FL asks: What inspired you to use the corporate mentality and the cut-throat atmosphere of the business world as a base for your novels?
It's funny, because it all started with PARANOIA, and originally I thought of that as a spy novel. The idea was suggested to me by a CIA friend who told me that corporate espionage is much, much more common, and much more important, than people realize. So I decided to do a spy novel about corporate espionage. But when I began to do research, in companies like Apple Computer and Cisco Systems and Hewlett Packard, I realized that I'd stumbled upon the real story. Here was a world -- the modern corporation -- where so many people work and spend so much of their time -- yet you barely see a mention of it in fiction! I found some of these companies really appealing -- exciting places to work. And, at the same time, they were places of intrigue and rivalry and backstabbing and ambition. I realized I had a whole new subject here, a place to set my novels -- something no other thriller writer was doing. Based on the overwhelming response from readers, I'm getting a sense that my hunch was right.

[NOTE: Joe recently dug further into this issue, researching a piece for the June 5, 2006 issue of Forbes magazine. He discovered that corporate espionage, while a reality, is not nearly as common as some widely-published reports maintain. Certain companies do spy on other companies, but it's infrequent, and almost always ends badly for the spying company. Joe still thinks it makes a great plot for a thriller. Click here for full article.]

M. L. H., from Canada, wants to know, "Why do some of your characters use profanity?"
Well, why do some people use profanity? I don't know, but they do. Lots of high-ranking corporate guys, I've found, often use bad words in their private conversations. (Ever see a David Mamet movie or play?) And my job as a novelist is to portray my characters accurately and believably.

It always amuses me to get letters or e-mails from people who object to my using bad words, but don't mind at all when a character gets murdered.

But having said all that, let me take an abrupt left turn.

Some of my most loyal readers have written to me very kindly to say that what they mind about the occasional use of profanity in my books is that they can't give them to certain friends, or to their kids.

And that I do sympathize with. I want as many people to be able to read my books as wish to. I want everyone to be able to read my books. Recently I've been getting lots of e-mails from high-school kids who've discovered my novels. Frankly, I'm uncomfortable with having them read obscenities. (I have a 12-year-old daughter, and I sure don't want her reading bad language!)

So you'll notice a change in my new book, Killer Instinct. There's very, very little obscenity. None of the very bad words, anyway. I think it works OK after all; I don't think it detracts from the credibility of the dialogue.

Let me know what you think.

Albert, in England, asks: "I have just read your fantastic novel PARANOIA… Any producers in the house?? Come on… this would make a great movie!"
When I was starting out, I got some great advice from a major bestselling writer. He told me that when it comes to Hollywood, just make the biggest deal you can, deposit the check, and forget it.

So here's the deal with Paranoia. I didn't remember that advice. I made a deal with a very well known producer who seemed enthusiastic about the book, and had a big development deal at Paramount. After a few months, he sent me a script, but he wasn't all that happy with it. Some months later he sent me another script, written by a terrific screenwriter and novelist, Michael Tolkin ("The Player," "Changing Lanes," "Deep Impact"). He loved the script, and I did too - Tolkin really captured the essence of the novel. His script was clever, exciting, fast-paced, and original. The producer told me we were on the verge of having the movie "greenlit."

Then all of a sudden there was a regime change at Paramount. In the classic Hollywood style, the new broom swept clean - the new president of the studio basically killed just about all projects the last president had put into development. Including Paranoia.

The producer, who'd once seemed so hot on Paranoia, suddenly wasn't. In Hollywood, if you want to get a movie made, you really have to fight for it. He didn't.

Two good things have come of this. One: in a few months I get the rights to Paranoia back. There's an amazing script out there. We'll sell it again. Two: I learned my lesson. My best-selling advisor was right. I should have just made the biggest deal I could have and cashed the check. You should never make a deal based on enthusiasm.

I had been spoiled because of how well the movie of "High Crimes" had gone - a smart, determined producer, Janet Yang, bought the rights and made it happen. As it turned out, that was an exception.

Live and learn.

Raymond, in London, writes, "COMPANY MAN was published as NO HIDING PLACE in the U.K. -- why?"
After they'd published the hardcover edition of COMPANY MAN, Orion, my longtime British publisher, decided this title didn't work in England - it doesn't have the same resonance as it does in the U.S. They chose the title NO HIDING PLACE, which refers to a gospel song of great importance in the book. A good title, I think.

It's unusual, but not unheard of, for a book to be published under a different title in the U.K. (Lee Child's Running Blind, for instance, was published as The Visitor in England.) It can get confusing, though, especially when my U.S. publisher puts out the "open market edition," the paperback for sale in non-English-speaking countries. I hope readers will be able to figure out that NO HIDING PLACE is not a new Joseph Finder book that for some reason hasn't come out in the U.S.

Several readers asked, "You really nailed the corporate environment of [my company] in PARANOIA. Did you ever work there?"
Thank you! Glad to hear my obsessive research has paid off. I do spend a lot of time in different companies, asking stupid and outrageous questions, looking at cubicles and break rooms and the CEO's office and getting a sense of what people's work lives are like. Since I never worked in a corporation - the closest I ever came was teaching at Harvard (which in some ways is more political than any corporation) - I approach my interviews as a complete outsider. I'm like an anthropologist in Fiji - everything is strange and weird to me, and I find I observe things that most people no longer see.

Rosemary, from Florida, writes, "I always have music playing while I'm working, reading, or whatever…" Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what music?
I do listen to music while I write. The music varies depending on the feeling I'm trying to evoke from the scene, or just the character, I'm writing. For example, when I was writing the Audrey scenes in COMPANY MAN, I'd play gospel music - The Dixie Hummingbirds, the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, The Meditation Singers, Hopeton Lewis, Mavis Staples. That was an obvious connection, given Audrey's deep connection to the church. For some reason, when I'd write Nick Conover, I found myself listening to jazz piano - Marian McPartland, Bill Evans, George Shearing, Tommy Flanagan, Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis. While I was writing KILLER INSTINCT, I listened obsessively to Coldplay's X&Y. I don't know why. I just needed to hear it, and it helped me write. That, and Brian Eno and Moby.

But here's what's interesting: I never listen to music while I'm editing or revising. Never. I need to get my own voice in my head, bounce it around, hear the cadences and make sure they scan.

Did you ever sell the movie rights to Company Man? (Spoiler alert!)
Not yet. We came really close with Tom Cruise's production company, and with Harrison Ford's as well. But in the end they (and the studios) were too uncomfortable with the notion of a hero who kills someone. If he's a bad guy, an assassin - like Cruise's excellent hit-man protagonist in "Collateral" - that's one thing. But a sympathetic hero who kills a man, even in self-defense, even to protect his family - that's more complex.

Also, Hollywood is going through one of its periodic cycles in which it buys very, very few books to adapt into movies. I've heard this from a bunch of other mystery and thriller writers - a novel that would have sold to the movies easily five years ago isn't selling today.

But, as Mark Twain said about the weather in New England: if you don't like it, wait a minute - it'll change. Soon enough, Hollywood will go back to overpaying crazily for books. We'll just wait.

Bear in mind, by the way, that nobody in Hollywood was interested in The Da Vinci Code. Nobody! It was submitted as a manuscript, then again in galleys, and not a nibble. Even after it was published and became an instant bestseller, it didn't sell. It wasn't until the book had been on the New York Times bestseller list for a few months that people in Hollywood began to take notice.

Company Man may sell to the movies after all. I think it could make a powerful movie. We'll see.

Jason asks, "Have you ever considered doing longer chapters for your books?"
Nope. I like short chapters, and so do most of the readers I hear from. I like to feeling of progress you get from finishing a chapter; I like what it does to the pace. Novels these days have to compete with TV, on which everything is kinetic and fast-moving. I don't like chapters as short as some of my colleagues do - like a page or two - but since I have a short attention span, I like them short and fast-moving.

What happened to the movie rights to The Zero Hour?
The rights to that book were sold way back in 1995, when its working title was PRINCE OF DARKNESS. It sold for what was then a record sum.

The story behind that sale was pretty amazing. My agent had sent the manuscript to a number of New York book editors. One, at Doubleday, liked it but thought it wasn't worth the price my then-agent was demanding. He tossed the manuscript. His assistant, who had read it and liked it, retrieved the 900-page, coffee-stained manuscript from the trash and sold it to a New York-based movie scout, who then faxed it, page by page, to 20th Century Fox. (This was before anyone in publishing ever e-mailed entire manuscripts.)

Quickly, the manuscript was faxed all over Hollywood. The head of Fox loved it and called my movie agents - who hadn't yet sold anything for me. He made a pre-emptive seven-figure offer for the movie rights. The catch was, the offer was good only as long as he and my agents remained on the phone. Once he hung up, the deal was off. (He didn't want my agents using his offer to leverage a higher offer.) So my agents called me. Problem was, I was playing squash at the time. I got home, found a bunch of desperate phone messages on my machine, called my agents back, and said, "What's up?" They said, 20th Century Fox is on the other line. They're offering $1.5 million for the movie rights to PRINCE OF DARKNESS. Should we take it?

I said, "Is this a joke?"

"No, we're serious."

"If you're serious, then how can you possibly ask that? The answer is yes. What do you think, I'm crazy?"

We made the deal. I got the check about a week later.

Okay, back to your question. Whatever happened to the movie? Well, it went through a bunch of screenwriters, some of them very good (the best was Cynthia Cidre). At one point I heard Julia Roberts wanted to play the heroine. Eventually, a Famous Director got control of the project, and got himself named Executive Producer. No one wanted to work with him. Then the Famous Director's big movie flopped, and he couldn't get anything made. Soon enough, the movie went into "turnaround," which is Hollywood-speak for purgatory.

Where can I get your earlier books?
St. Martin's Press has purchased the rights to all my novels except High Crimes, which is being kept in print, in a mass-market edition, by Harper Collins. The Zero Hour, The Moscow Club, and Extraordinary Powers will all be released fairly soon in a uniform paperback edition, starting with The Zero Hour. We'll update you here on the website when we know concrete dates. In the meantime, if you're really, really desperate, you can buy them all from Amazon UK - my British publisher, Orion, has re-issued them all. (My very first book - the controversial nonfiction book called Red Carpet - is out of print and will forever remain so. You can probably still get copies in used-book stores and used-book websites like ABEBooks.com.

Can you describe your working routine? Do you have a daily quota of words or pages that you aim to complete?
When I'm actually writing (as opposed to doing research or interviews or editing) I aim for ten (typed) pages, or roughly 2500 words. Some days it's less, often far less. But as I move deeper and deeper into the book, I start writing faster and faster, turning out more and more pages each day. By the end I can write 25 or 30 pages a day, but that's only because I'm so stoked, so pent up, that the story comes out as if from a pressure valve. I usually write in the morning and do research or interviews or the business part of my work in the afternoon. I work in an office a few blocks from my home.