Janet Evanovich is the highly successful author of the Stephanie Plum series of mysteries featuring the bounty hunter based in Trenton, New Jersey. Like Stephanie, Janet was born and raised in New Jersey. After spending four years at Douglas College studying art, she decided to stay home and raise her family.

For the next ten years, she tried to write what she called The Great American Novel. After three manuscripts and a box full of rejection notices that she ended up burning, she decided to try her hand at romance writing. She wrote two novels and started submitting them to publishers.

Frustrated with the lack of response, she stopped writing and went to work for a temporary employment agency. Four months into her new career, she received an offer for one of her stories. Excited about the astounding amount of money she received, $2,000, she quit the day job that she hated and went back to writing.

The first novel was called Hero at Large and was published in 1987 under the pen name Steffie Hall. Although she continued writing romance novels for the next five years, she decided she wanted to write more adventuresome stories after her twelfth in the romance genre. She credits her romance writing with teaching her about likeable characters and captivating men, but said she decided to make the change when she ran out of sexual positions.

A planner and a doer, for the next eighteen months she researched her new character, new style of writing, and the role of a bounty hunter. She decided to write in the first person, and to create a light-hearted character that had a strong sense of family and community. She based Stephanie in Trenton, created the characters that would surround the often-inept bounty hunter, and published One for the Money in 1994 to good reviews.

The series has remained on the New York Times Best Seller List since book number six, with all subsequent novels debuting at number one.

Later she began writing with author Charlotte Hughes because she had ideas for other stories but did not have the time to follow through with more books of her own. In 2004, she began a new series with Metro Girl.

Metro Girl was soon followed by Motor Mouth. The books are about a NASCAR mechanic by the name of Alexandra Barnaby, and a racecar driver, Sam Hooker. The heroine was named after her daughter and her dog, Barnaby.

A long time fan of comic books, Evanovich knew from the beginning of this new series that she wanted the stories to go into graphic book form. In 2009, she got her wish. The news was announced at the 2009 Comic-Con International convention in San Diego that the third installment of the series would appear as a graphic novel from Dark Horse Comics.

The Evanovich, Inc. empire is a family affair. Son Peter, a Dartmouth College graduate, handles the financial aspects. Alex graduated with degrees in film and photography, and is the webmaster of Janet’s website, handles all e-mail, online advertising, and the newsletter. She also travels with her mother and will handle the comic book franchise.

Janet’s husband, Pete, who has a doctorate in mathematics from Rutgers University, handles all the business aspects of the corporation, and attempts to get Janet to all her appointments on time.

Janet acknowledges she does not know what she would do without her family. They handle the business and day to day running of the growing franchise so that she can continue to write. Her numerous fans are sure to appreciate that assistance as they look forward to many more novels, and comics, from this prolific and adventurous author.