JANET EVANOVICH
Date of Birth:April 22, 1943
Janet Evanovich (born Janet Schneider) was raised in South River, New Jersey. She recalls spending most of her childhood in a fantasy world where she was able to communicate with Captain Kirk, sing in the opera and act as a horse. She was a very creative, imaginative and unique individual. Upon graduating from South River High School, Janet decided to take her creativity to the next level by studying art for four years at New Jersey’s Douglass Residential College, thus making her the first person in her family to pursue a post-secondary education.
Frustrated, Janet quickly realized art wasn't working for her and began to write instead. The first piece she put together was about the pornographic adventures of a fairy. Despite the strange plot, Janet was adamant about becoming a writer and began to send her pieces out to agents and editors. She managed to fill an up a cardboard box with rejection letters, which she would later burn.
In spite of the large number of rejections she had received, Janet still plugged away at her newfound dream. However, she still needed a real job, one which earned more than a "sorry, we are not interested" letter. She began to work for a temp agency and four months into the job she received a phone call from an editor, offering to buy the last manuscript she had mailed out. It was a romance story that she had forgotten about, but with a $2,000 dollar price attached to the piece, she quickly began to remember. She quit her job and spent the next five years writing romance novels.
After writing a total of 12 romance books, Janet began to shift her focus and dabble in the mystery genre. This is when she created the character Stephanie Plum, who has since appeared as the main character in her own 19-book series.
To date, Janet has written a total of 49 books. The first book written in the best selling Stephanie Plum series, One for the Money, was turned into a movie in 2012 starring Katherine Heigl and Jason O'Mara. The movie had a huge fan base even before it hit theaters, thanks to Janet's books. Fans of the Plum series hope that more of the books will be turned into movies as well.