May 29, 2025 • 53 mins
Hank Phillippi Ryan joined Lisa’s Book Club to discuss her new novel One Wrong Word. Hank Phillippi Ryan is an investigative reporter for Channel 7 News as well as a novelist. The two sat down for a lengthy discussion where Ryan gave amazing insight into her book.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, Welcome to Lisa's book Club, a podcast where I
interview best selling authors from the New England area, pulling
back the curtain on what it's really like being a
best selling author. They're guilty pleasures, latest projects, and so
much more. Hey, welcome into Lisa's book Club podcast. I
sat down with Hank Philippy Ryan, not once, but twice.
This is the podcast for her latest novel, One Wrong Word.
(00:27):
We're at the beautiful roof deck of the Reviewer Hotel
Boston and Hank, if you don't know, is help me
Hank from Channel seven. She's also a novelist, so listen up.
This is a great interview with Hank Philippy Ryan.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
It is so much fun to be here. This is
a beautiful place with the city lights of Boston behind
us as now we're just we're high high up on
the roof. It's amazing. And look at this amazing crowd
of people. I've been talking to people before we started tonight,
and everyone is just so charming and so funny and
such a big reader. It's lovely. And I have to
(01:02):
tell you that I was talking about you to them
and I would say that I would say, isn't Lisa
wonderful and they would say, yes, I mean, congratulations on this.
Just the sheer affection for you is so wonderful and
the gratitude for what you do.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Thank you, thank you very much. But thank you to
all of our members, because I mean, we had a
book club with you at Veronica Beard probably a little
over a year and a half ago, and that's when
we were just getting started, right, and the book club
just keeps growing and growing and growing. New members always join.
(01:42):
You guys, bring your friends, you bring your family, and
that's what it's all about. I always say, read one page,
read the whole book, but just come and get involved
and meet new people. And I think that's what we're
doing here.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
You never know when you're going to fall in love
with a book exactly. You never know when you're going
to meet a new friend, and you get to meet Lisa.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Out with it's great how that. I also want to
thank Joson Maine. We will be back at Joson Maine
in November for a very special book club event. So
I know a lot of you were there last month
with Aaron Gates, so I just wanted to mention them
again too, because it's gonna be really great. Okay, So
let's talk about Hank Philip Ryan. All right, So Hank
(02:22):
has written fifteen novels of suspense, fifteen. Can't believe it.
She's obviously the on air investigative reporter for WHDHTV Channel seven.
And you've been doing that close to forty years.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Forty three years, forty three years. I mean, that's amazing,
isn't it.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
You're it's amazing, all right, this is really amazing this figure.
She's won thirty seven Emmys.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
You know, it's interesting because every single one of those
Emmys I absolutely adore, and I could tell you the
secrets behind every single one of those gorgeous statues. And
when I when I when I'm in when I'm writing now,
and I have sometimes a bad writing day, as we
all do with whatever kind of jobs we have, sometimes
(03:13):
that I think, oh, I don't know what I'm doing.
This is never gonna work. I look at those Emmys
and I think, well, it's worked sometimes in the past, right,
so there's no reason why it shouldn't work again.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
This is a question from Bill Costa because we were
talking about you in the office this week and I said,
Hanks won thirty seven Emmys. He goes, where does she
put all of them?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Right?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Where do you put all of your emys?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Or you should come over, you should come over. They
and I will tell you this that I have floor
to ceiling bookshelves in my study where where I write
every day, and the and the Emmys are all in
a row on the bookshelves, and it's very nice. Although
people come over and they threaten to steal one, and
they say she would never notice that.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Well, do you count them at night? I know, just
to make sure they're all there?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yes, that could be in.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
A night, that could be in a book. That's like
something that one of your characters in a book would do. Right,
every night she counts her Emmies and then one goes missing.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Well, you know, I've been looking for the next my
next book topic, and I think Lisa may just have
found it.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I think in addition to her thirty seven Emmys, she's
won fourteen Edwar Armurow Awards and dozens of other awards,
all very very well done. As I mentioned, we met
at Veronica Beard about a year and a half ago
for your book The House Guests, which was one of
my thaves, but we're here for one wrong word. But
(04:44):
before we get to your book, I want to talk
about your background in investigative journalism. You've battled your way
through hurricanes, through floods, through blizzards. You've wired yourself with
hidden cameras. You've worn disguises chase down criminals, You've confronted
corrupt politicians in your work as a reporter. Has your
(05:10):
investigative journalism has that helped you with your with your
novel writing?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
What a really good question, because yes, yes, yes, I
didn't start writing till I was fifty five, which was
twenty years ago. And I couldn't have I couldn't have
written a novel if I hadn't been a television reporter
for so long. And I can tell you really why.
You know, what is a good television story. You have
(05:39):
a character who you care about, right, you have an
important problem that needs to be solved or else something
terrible will happen as a result. You track down clues
and follow leads, and in the end you want the
good guys to win and the bad guys to get
what's coming to them. And in the end, right and
in the end you want to check change the world
(06:02):
and make a difference and get and also get some justice.
And so when you think about that's a good television story,
that's an investigative story, and that is also a good
crime fiction story, That's what every one of my books is.
And to go on just a tiny bit about it
for the past. For thirty years, before I started writing fiction,
(06:22):
I'd written essentially a news story, sometimes every day, a
story with a beginning and a middle and an end
so you wouldn't turn the channel. That was important. It
was educational, it was enlightening, it was news. It was
something you'd never heard before. And you know, it's so
easy to just click click, click, click, click and change
(06:42):
the channel. So part of my goal was to have
you be riveted and immersed in this television story. So
now in my books it's just the same. It's just
the same. I don't want you to be able to
put the books down. I want you to miss your
stop on the t right because you can't put it down.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Okay, So it's the same rhythm. It's totally true storytelling.
Where did help me, Hank? How did that come to be?
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Help me Hank?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Because it's that's that's how we know you. That you're
helped me, Hank who created that? I mean, it's really
it's it's amazing. And never going to talk about how
many people you've helped. I mean, because you've really done
some groundbreaking work over the years. You know, how did
it all happen?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
I will tell you this. I will tell you this.
Don't tell I know it's just us right now and
Facebook Live, Okay, A million I have done. Hank investigates
for a long time, many many years, and that's what
that was my main focus and still sort of is
my main focus. Hank investigates big, powerful, life changing, law
changing stories. But one day my news director, no longer
(07:53):
the news director at Channel seven, she has been gone
for a long time, called me into her office and said,
I need to show you a resume tape, an audition
tape that someone has sent to me. So I said okay,
And she said, I want you to tell me if
it's good. And she said, and be really honest about it.
So I said, I said okay. And she plays this
(08:14):
tape and it was a consumer problem solving guy And
I'm telling you this was twenty years ago, consumer problem
solving guy, and he wanted to call it call Paul.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Call Paul better, call Saul.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
So I and it was so long ago that it
was before that. Okay, it was before that. Such a
good show anyway, such a good Joe. Anyway, I'm looking
at this guy's tape and I don't know who Paul is.
I'm looking at this guy's tape and I think, well,
you know, that's kind of good. It's not great, but
(08:49):
it's good. And you know, call Paul is a really
good idea, and if he does this for a while,
he'll probably be better. So I said, I said, just
off to the news director. I said, yeah, this is fine.
You know, this is great. I said, too bad, I
can't do help me, Hank, and she goes, oh, And
(09:11):
I honestly, that happened in a blink of an eye.
I didn't think of it. It was not something like
what would you call a thing that you help consumers.
It just came out of nowhere, and from that moment
on I was helping me. Hank.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Well, it works. It was meant to be. All right,
So let's talk about how many people you've held, because
I don't think people realize how instrumental you've been with
a lot of things that we use like the nine
one one. Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I mean one of the things. And you and I
were talking about this earlier. The power of broadcasting, the
power of radio, the power of television, the power of
that mass communication. That's why they call it that that
I can tell you something and things change and it
may change your life, and it may change your life.
So all of my stories are always about something that
(10:04):
might help one person specifically, but are designed to help
to tell you something that will help your life as well,
to have you learn something and grow from something. So
we you know, golly, you know, in my you know,
forty three years in television, we found such massive problems
that as you have referred to in the nine to
one one system, that we found that thousands of times
(10:26):
a year emergency responders, police and firefighters would be ambulances
were being sent to the wrong address in Massachusetts. You
call nine one one and they go to the wrong place.
And the state was not keeping track of it, and
the state was not correcting these thousands of errors. And
when we got a hold of it, we I'll tell
you this really really quickly. So research for an investigative
(10:50):
story can be really dense and hard and it takes
a long time, and we demanded that the state handed
over hand over what they call disc repency reports, which
is every single time there was a mistake in an
emergency responder. So they didn't want to give me that,
and they said that is not a public record, and
(11:11):
I'm like, yes it is. You know you all made
mistakes in the nine one one system. Of course it's
a public record. Give me those documents. So they, after
a year of fighting, they delivered a box like someone
had taken they well, was six thousand individual pieces of
paper in no order in a box which somebody had
(11:31):
just dumped into the box. So I thought, yes, this
is a treasure hunt, and this is investigative reporting. This
is a treasure hunt. I put them all in my
living room floor. My poor husband thought, said, what are
you doing. I spread them all out, town by town,
three hundred and fifty one piles of paper, and at
the end of the weekend I knew which towns had
the biggest nine to one one problem. It was and
(11:53):
I was the only one in the world to know that,
And it was just so exciting. I looked at so
many pieces of paper that by hands were bleeding from
paper cuts and I had I told my producer, I said,
there are blood. There's blood on the documents and so
and that's how you tell if you have a good story.
There's blood on.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
The document true and your passion for it.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, well, I mean I love that. You know, we
found so many problems. Uh, you know, firehouses, the place
where firefighters live and work, were in such terrible condition
in Massachusetts that they would not pass fire inspection. The
firehouses were not up to fire code, and we got
we got money appropriated to get that fixed. We found
(12:35):
so many problems in the mortgage lending and home improvement
contracting businesses that three new laws were passed to prohibit
the things that we had uncovered. I've gotten millions of dollars,
millions of dollars in refunds and restitution for consumers and
people's homes out of unfair foreclosure. You know, I've gotten
(12:55):
people's homes back to them. So again, that is the
power of television, and that is the power of you know,
sort of trying to change the world a little bit.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yeah, your impact is immeasurable. For what you've done for
all of us for the past forty years. You've touched
all of us in some specific way. We were talking
before we started this about journalism has definitely evolved with
the intranet and these just trying to get the information
out as fast as you possibly can, and a lot
(13:25):
of times there's a lot of misinformation that's put out
because the news outlet wants to be the first to
print something. Has that affected investigative journalism that you can't
take as much time to really delve into a story
as you could in the past.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I mean, it's so interesting because when I started in
television was there was film, not videotape, and there was
no live television. That you could not go live. So
if something happened after two thirty in the afternoon, it
could not be on the six o'clock news because the
film wouldn't be developed in time. That is the lag
(14:04):
you all don't remember that. I trust me that trust me,
that's true. Trust me, that's true. So as television evolved
and as live TV evolved, you know, initially what to
go live was a big production with a big truck
and a big microwave mask, and it took a long time.
Now you can go live with a little you know,
(14:25):
with your own phone, with your friend, and so that
changed to your point exactly, Lisa, that changed the immediacy
of what could go on the air. And now a reporter,
I'm in awe of the street reporters, all of them now,
who are sent to a place and you had it
as soon as you arrive, you're going live and you think,
(14:46):
I have no idea what's going on, and they say,
just describe it. And so, because as you say, we
need to be first, that's the goal of you know,
breaking news is let me tell you this as fast
as I possibly can. So what you need to know,
as good television and news consumers is to be aware
of what situation the reporter is. And if they say
(15:09):
we have just arrived on this scene, that means we
have just arrived on this scene and they're there to
find out the news. But they don't know it right
and it then, but they're doing the best they can.
So I'm an absolute awe of them. As for your
question about investigative stories not getting as much time, I
think what the result of that has been is that
(15:30):
the stories are smaller because you need to keep putting
stories on TV, but no one, you know, it's really
rare now to get the months and months that I
used to have to put a story on TV. You know,
it's like, can you get that on tomorrow?
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Maybe?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
And so of necessity, that makes the topic of the
story have to be smaller interesting.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
So we talked about some of your successes that you've had.
Has there been something that hasn't been such a success
for you that you wish you could go back and
redo a television story?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, if I say no, is that okay.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
No, that's great. I just don't know if there was
something that just didn't work out.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
I think it happens. It happens every day. I mean
think about it. As a reporter, I get hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds of story ideas. I have hundreds and
hundreds of story ideas, phone calls, emails, letters, curiosity, you know,
everything is everything is a possible story. And so I've
opened billions of doors, you know, doing research saying is
(16:30):
this a story? Is this the story? Is this the story?
And often the doors close, and so I just don't
go any farther than that. But when a story is
big enough and has the fullness of an investigative story,
that's what goes on TV. So I'm superly proud. I mean,
I've had. I'm superly proud of all of them. And
I'm lucky as an investigative reporter to get that little
(16:52):
bit more time to not only investigate, but correct craft
a beautiful television story and also to write it in
the best way that I possibly can. And that was
also something that I was very proud of as a reporter.
I am very proud of as a reporter that I
love to write. I want every story I do to
(17:13):
be the best story you've ever seen about whatever it is.
And I'm really focused on that.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
All right, let's talk about your book. Nice segue here.
One Wrong Word is her latest novel, and I need
to ask you, how do you come up with your
character names in the book? What is your process behind that?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
If I tell you how I come up with the
character names, I will I'll tell you the truth. It
is magic. It is some kind of writer magic, Lisa,
I don't know. Sometimes the main character in One Wrong
Word is arden Ward. I don't know where that came from.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Really, it's a very unique name, is I know?
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Because that's her name?
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Right?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
I mean, I sometimes I really struggle. Cordelia Banister in
the book how many of you have read the book.
Oh that's so nice, Thank you. Cordelia Banister was always
Cordelia Banister. It just when I started writing her. That's
what her name was. Now her husband Ned, Ned had
ten thousand names, and I finally got Ned. Sometimes when
(18:25):
I'm stuck up for a name, I go to the
missing money thing that they said, ohmsmoney dot com. Yeah,
and you see that's full of names.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
It's full. It's hilarious.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
And I close my eyes. I close my eyes and
I say, first name is this, last name is this?
Now it the thing is?
Speaker 1 (18:46):
And I know she's laughing. Now that's that's a good story.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
The thing is. And here's the thing that makes it magic.
That that seems like it would just work, you know,
Sally Smith, that can that be? It doesn't. It often
doesn't work to do that. It often doesn't work. To
search for a name. It just has to I don't
know how to tell you this. It just has to
(19:11):
be the right name. And I know when I have
the right name. My book, The Murder List, which won
the Anthony for Best Novel of the Year, the main
character started out being named Gianna Delaney. Now that's a
good name. I love that name, Gianna Delane beautiful, but
she just the character would not come to life. She
(19:32):
was like, it was like pushing wet spaghetti. She did
not do anything. And I kept trying to write her
as as whatever our name was, Gianna Delaney, Gianna Delaney.
It kept trying to write Gianna Delaney. She wouldn't write.
So I thought I was in despair as a writer.
I mean, I had hit the wall with this character,
and I almost dumped the book. And I just on
(19:53):
a whim, I thought, well, maybe that's not her name.
Maybe Gianna Delaney is not who she should be. So
I thought, oh, or whatever, I changed your name to
Rachel North. And I'm telling you, she sat up in
her chair and she had an attitude and she's like,
watch me do this.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
She was alive.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
She was alive because I had given her the wrong name.
And that is why I say, it's the man.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
It's so interesting. So how long do you give yourself
to find the right name? Well, how long did it
take you to write one wrong word?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
It took a year. It takes a year to write
a book. Now, And I'll tell you why. It's a
very it's a very secret formula. And that is because
my contract says it has to be due on this
day and that and that is a year away. Wow,
And that is how publishing works.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
They give you a year? Is that standard?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
A year for a writer like I write fast paced
cat and mouse thrillers, you know that you would love
on a beach or at an airplane or vacation or
read for it just one weekend at a binge for
those kinds of books, for that genre of novel, a
year is pretty standard, okay. And that's hard.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
I can't imagine.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
It's the hardest thing I've ever done. It really is,
because it has to be. Every book has to be
better than the previous book. You know. I want you
to have read my book and then think ooh I
can't ready to read the next one, and then have
you say, oh, it's even better than the one before.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
It's very true.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
And let me just say one more thing then. And
I also challenge myself with each novel because it gets
so much more difficult actually, as time goes by. Usually
in our lives, when we do something and we practice,
it gets easier. The next time. We think, oh, now
I know what I'm doing about this. But In writing
(21:44):
a novel, it's much more difficult because you learn. You're
learning along the way. I'm challenging myself along the way.
I want to be better. I want to be cooler
and smarter and more unique and more riveting and more interesting.
And how do you do that? So I give? I
give one hundred percent of myself to every novel I write.
(22:08):
But I don't know how to put this. I hope
that the one hundred percent gets bigger every time. I
know mathematically that will not work. Don't call me, but
I think my hundred percent is bigger every time, and
so I think that makes my novels be bigger every time.
I wouldn't my first book, Primetime. I wouldn't change a
(22:30):
word of Primetime. I love that book. It's still in print.
I still get royalties for Primetime. I love it. You know,
fifteen books ago, sixteen books all go now. But it's
a different kind of book than one wrong word. One
wrong word is the biggest hundred percent I ever had.
When I was writing it.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
I noticed that in a lot of your novels. I
read two. Now you mention street names in Boston, you
mentioned mass General, but you don't mention restaurant names that
are like like Ellen Hildebrand mentions actual businesses and we
just had a discussion about it and how it really
(23:09):
helps the economy on Nantucket because if she mentions a store,
people go to it when they when they visit the island.
Was that a conscious decision for you not to name
specific places?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
And why I write crime fiction? You know, I love
Ellen Hilda Bround. She's a genius and her books are marvelous.
But not many people die in the restaurants. That's true,
you know, And so point how happy would that, you know, happen?
Happy would the restaurants in Nantucket be if somebody die?
Speaker 1 (23:39):
That's true?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
So because exactly so, because my books are crime fiction,
because people do die, because people do have conflicts, because
people are often unhappy or sometimes unhappy in the places
I say in my acknowledgments that I have changed, right, uh,
the geography of Boston to tech the innocent. Also, you know,
(24:02):
I don't want there to be I don't want there
to be like somebody's house on Beacon Street. I'm making
this up, you know, one one one Marlborough Street where
the bad guy lives and somebody goes and says Oh,
that's one one one Marlborough Street. That's where the bad
guy lives. So you don't you don't want that.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
So your story ideas are they? Jen?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Have?
Speaker 1 (24:22):
They sometimes been loosely based on something that maybe you
had heard of or had happened at one point.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
We see what she's doing here. You see she's acting like,
oh she just thought of that question. Well one more thing,
really quickly, about where about Boston? About Boston? We were
talking about this a minute ago. The books, though, are
very true to Boston. Oh definitely, although not specifically. I mean,
(24:53):
how many have you seen or philp that you have
been there?
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Yeah? The streets? Oh yeah, My.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Husband and I were driving down the mass Pike one
day and I said, oh, exit seventeen, this is where
Jane was chased by the bad guy. And then I think, no,
I made that up. By that totally made up an
answer to your question. I know, finally an answer to
your question. It's really hard to tell you this, but no,
(25:20):
they're not my television stories made into fiction. Now that said,
you know, my life as a television reporter and even
before that in politics and in radio and on Capitol
Hill in Washington, d C. How many experiences. How many
billions of experiences is that that I've had? And I
(25:41):
think that's why if Lisa and I said, you have
an assignment, you're all going to write a short story
about the man who walks through the door, every single
one of our stories would be different, right, because every
single one of us has had different experiences. We have
different hopes, different fears, different dreams, all those things, and
so my books could only be written by me because
(26:04):
I'm the only one that has had those specific experiences.
So it's kind of like, you know, a Rubik's cube
of twists and polish and change, and you come out
with something that's wholly fictional, completely entirely fictional, but still
is only the product of only my brain.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
I like that idea that maybe we should do that
at the next book club, y'all. I give you all
a little note card and you write five sentences, five
sentences about the man that walked through the door. That's
a good idea. I think that's a really fun idea.
I want to talk to you about your book cover.
How involved are you with the covers of your books?
(26:46):
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Well? I will tell you that specifically, and I want
to show you all something. And I pick up your book,
Lisa and cut your nose in half.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Yeah, see how see how you become the book? And
if you and every we'll do that again for the camera.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Let's that's very cool.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
And you do you have to do what Lisa to do.
I can do it, help her do it. Cut your
nose in half, and you see when when Lisa does it,
or when I do it, or when you do it.
And I want a picture of every single one of
you with that book cover. I have a lot of
input into the cover. The gorgeous Katie Klemowitz at Forge
(27:37):
was the one who designed this cover, and she's a genius.
But my editor and Katie and I talked about how
we wanted a book cover that was beautiful and soft
and gorgeous and but relatable, relatable, And one of the
things I wanted to do with this cover, and it
was very specifically designed, was to make us all realize
(28:00):
that any of us could be arden Ward. What happens
to arden Ward could happen to anyone. So I wanted
you the reader to instantly feel like part of the book,
because when you hold that book up to yourself, it
is you, and that's what this book is.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
I love that, and I love how involved you were
in the cover art, because I know that some authors
don't have that luxury that the cover is chosen for them.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Yes, yes, and I'm very lucky about that. Now, I
do have to tell you something that was a surprise
that Caitlin for Caitlin at Winchester. No pressure, it's just
our career and her livelihood for you to buy books
for tonight. But this edition of the Other Woman, the
book that came out in twenty twelve, it won the
(28:48):
Mary Higgins Clark Award for Best Novel of the Year.
I have never seen this cover in my life. The
original cover of this had the same gorgeous woman in
the running on the bridge, which is very apropos of
the book, but the words on the cover were looking
looked like this read. I've never seen this blue book.
(29:10):
I think this is a rare treasure. Actually this doesn't
exist anywhere else in the universe, but right here on
that table, I'm telling you, Caitlin will tell you that
when I saw that book, I actually literally emailed my
agent and I said, have you seen this? So I
but every cover that's on that table. I have had
(29:31):
a big hand except for this one which I helped
with the original one, which I adore.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
So we should buy them tonight. You have Hank sign
them because it's a collector's edition.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Those may never appear anywhere else again and one wrong,
but but yes, because how do you choose a book?
I know you ask Lisa what to read? Okay, but
after Lisa suggests.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Well, I was actually going to ask you that how
do people how do people choose books? Do you look
at the cover and say, oh, that looks what kind
of in testing? Right?
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Yeah? I mean I think that the common wisdom is that,
of course, if you go into a bookstore, if you
go into a bookstore like Bookends in Winchester, you you
look at You're drawn to the cover, right, You're drawn
to the cover, and you say, ooh, that looks good.
I mean, how many times have we said ooh that
(30:24):
looks good. By that looks good. That's the cover of
a book you don't know anything about it. Then you
might pick up So you pick up the book, you
might read the inside cover flap to see what the
genre is and whether the story sounds good. Then you
might look at the back to look at the endorsements,
the blurb on the back. How many of you do that? Okay?
Does that matter to you? You might look at the
(30:47):
the picture of the of the author to see whether
you think it looks like somebody you might like. Right,
and then you read then what happens though? You read
the first page? You read the first line. And how
many of you, after you read the first paragraph of
a book in a bookstore, say.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
No, it's not grabbing me.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
It's not grabbing me. How about that? You all? That's amazing?
That blink reflex is what every author cares about, is
that opening of the book has to really grab you.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
I want to ask you a question about why people
are so obsessed with suspense, with true crime. What do
you think is behind that?
Speaker 2 (31:30):
There's just this is just the best question in the universe,
because I think it's one of the burning questions for
all of us. And I think the essence of it
might be, and I'd love to know what you all
think too. I think the essence of it might be
that we all really want things to work they should
the way they should work. You know, we really want justice,
as I was saying earlier, we want the good guys
(31:52):
to win and the bad guys to get what's coming
to them. And we want the world to be an equilibrium.
We want it to be fair and we want to
to be right. And in crime fiction and in suspense,
you can. I mean, part of the contract with the
reader that I make in every book is that stuff
is going to happen, that's going to keep you turning
the pages. But in the end you're gonna go, yeah,
(32:14):
that's exactly what should have happened. And that's my goal
at the end of each book is to have you
be feel that someone was empowered and someone's life was changed,
and that the world was set back into equilibrium. Now,
I think that also the reason people like suspense is
because they like puzzles. They try to you know, they're
trying to figure out who did it before the before
(32:36):
the author tells them that.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Don't You also think it makes us all feel much
better about ourselves too, that well, we're not that bad,
Like WHOA didn't he didn't do that? You know, right, Yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
It's not I thought my life was pretty bad.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
It's nice that's going on early book.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
And I think also, you know, especially in times of
stress and trouble, and we have all lived through some
stress and trouble. You know, we're in this book solving
someone else's problems, you know, and being in someone else's world.
And I think you know that sense of escape into
someone else's story. Is that what you were saying to
That sense of escape into someone else's story also is
(33:17):
what draws us into these.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
I want to ask you a question about yourself. Is
there something about you that people may be surprised to
find out.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
That feels like you all know me so well?
Speaker 1 (33:32):
But is there one thing that maybe like you like
you like rap music, or you like you you guys?
Speaker 2 (33:40):
In high school? In high school, all I wanted to
be was a major atte. Really, I just wanted those
little white boots and a little skirt. I just thought
that was the coolest thing. You can't This was in nineteen,
like sixty three. I want you just to remember that,
and I wanted that. So I worked and worked and
worked to be a major aette. And I tried out
(34:02):
to be a major atte. Do you even know what
that is? Okay? Say okay? What Like they're like, I
don't know what that is, sweetheart? And I tried out
and I got to be I got to be a majorette,
and I got my little outfit. But but LISTA, I
was so terrible. I was so terrible that the band
director put me in the middle of the back row
(34:25):
and he took me aside, and he said, go out
there and pretend to twirl because because I was gonna
I was gonna drop it, you know, I was gonna
drop it and trip up the tuba player and it
would just be a mess. But I I loved that
sort of the music and the glamour and the little outfit.
(34:47):
But that was a long time.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Again, you put yourself out there, you gave it a shot.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
It was very embarrassing. I have to say. I was terrible.
I was a terrible major. I was a terrible majorrette.
There's my epitaph.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
I have has it gotten easier for women in journalism
since you first started?
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (35:06):
And what would think?
Speaker 2 (35:07):
What do you think?
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Yeah? I think I definitely think it's easier. I think
definitely think that there are more opportunities. But I'd like
to know specifically, what do you think has changed since
you first started?
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Well, I think you know, I started as I started
as a radio reporter in nineteen seventy, if you can
picture that. And I went into the biggest radio station
in Indianapolis and I said, I'm here to apply for
a job as a reporter. And we went through this
whole litany of how inexperienced I was. Have you been
(35:39):
a television reporter, no? Have you been a radio reporter, no.
Have you been a magazine reporter, no? Of you been
a newspaper reporter, no? I had no experience. And finally,
at this at the end of this absolutely you know,
doomed interview, as I was applying for a job for
which I was not qualified in any way, and the
news director told me that he said, you seem like
a very nice young woman, but you know you are
(36:01):
supremely unqualified for this job. And he says, can you
tell me one good reason why I should hire you?
And I said, yes I can. I said, your license
is up for renewal at the Federal Communications Commission right now,
and you don't have any women working here. And then
I just smiled, you were born to do this. And
(36:24):
the next day I had my first job in television.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
At you that is that's good?
Speaker 2 (36:29):
And let me story apropos of your question Jane, and
that was nineteen seventy. And Jane Paully, who started in
television at the same time, calls us the class of
nineteen seventy, the class of nineteen seventy, the women who
you know, Leslie Stall and Barbara Walters, Jessica Savage, Jane
Paully and I all started in nineteen seventy. All got
(36:51):
our jobs because we were women, but we couldn't keep
them because we were women. And all you know, in
every realm of society, any of you who started your
careers in the seventies, we had to work harder and
work stronger and be better. But we change the world.
And when I talk to women and young women in
journalism classes now, I say it's you know, if I
walked into Channel seven right now and said you should
(37:13):
hire me because I'm a woman, they'd say, yeah, sister,
you and everybody else in this building right my boss
is a woman, and her boss is a woman, and
her boss is a woman. And those of us who
started I'm really proud, Lisa actually to be part of
that sort of breaking up the gender barrier in broadcasting,
because I tell young women starting now, it's not like
that now, and you know that that now.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
But every single name that you just mentioned I remember fondly.
I really I would be glued to their stories and
they were so impactful. So I totally agree with you.
Do you guys have any questions for Hank, don't be shy.
In the back.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Are the books in order?
Speaker 1 (38:01):
And which which is your favorite?
Speaker 2 (38:03):
The books are there? The books are standalonees, so each
one stands alone. Each one is a singular story about
a singular word world with different characters, so you can
read them in any order. The newest one on that table,
the newest one anywhere in the youth the universe is
one is one wrong word. That's the newest one that's out.
And you know, it's interesting about what's my favorite? Okay,
(38:25):
come on, you know everyone is my favorite because because
it's the best possible book that I could have written
at that time, and I love, love, love them. You know.
The Other Woman is my first standalone you know how
wonderful is that? And the murder list, the murder list
is really surprising, you know. And I figured out the
(38:47):
end of the murder list. I stood up and applauded,
and I was and I was by myself, you know,
and so her perfect life and the house guests that
sort of took me into another realm of domestic cat
and mouse gas lighty suspense, and I love that. And
(39:07):
then One Wrong Word, I think is incredibly powerful and
really really about It's about a woman who has the
rug pulled out from under her. Everything she relies on
and trusts in the world is gone. She was wrong.
She cannot even get her breath because she's so she's
(39:28):
so surprised and so terrified, and it's about her getting
her power back, and I'm really proud of that.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Do you have a favorite character.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
You know I have? Well, Gianna Delaney, who turned into
Rachel North, is one of my favorite characters, and definitely
in this book has several of my favorite characters. Arden
Ward I love. I would love to be arden Ward.
Everything about her. Absolutely love to be arden Ward. Also
Monel Churchwood, who is an obsessive, just empowered district attorney.
(40:06):
I love her too. I think she's hilarious. So both
of those, What about you?
Speaker 1 (40:10):
I like garden Ward because I was in public relations
for ten years, so I really I was drawn to
this book because I understand that on high profile clients
and powerful clients and how you deal with it. So
I like I like Ard absolutely the pressure. I think
we have another Patty in the back?
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Am I in the middle of a book? Now?
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Yeah? What's your new latest project?
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Patty? I sent book sixteen in yesterday. I I am
so happy right now?
Speaker 1 (40:46):
What do what do you do when you send it
to the published? Do you have do you have a ritual?
Do you how do you celebrate?
Speaker 2 (40:52):
You know, it's interesting. I should celebrate more than I
do in every way, on every level, and I don't
allow myself really to do that. And I know that's silly.
We should all celebrate every milestone, no matter how small
the milestone. But I did come out. I did sort
of feel like there was this massive weight off my shoulders.
(41:14):
And I love the book that I'll tell you. I'll
tell you quickly if you want breaking news. The new
book is called All This Could Be Yours? All This
Could Be Yours, and it's about a debut author with
a surprise best selling novel who realizes that she's being
followed by someone who's trying to ruin her life and
(41:35):
the family She left back home on book tour, all
because of a Faustian bargain she once made, and it
may be that it's time for the devil to be paid.
I love your reaction. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
When will the book be out?
Speaker 2 (41:52):
The book will be out this time next year. All
this could be yours. Follow me on Instagram. You all
follow me on Instagram. Follow me on Facebook at Hank p. Ryan,
and sign up for my newsletter and you will get it.
You know. I'm also always looking for what I call
super readers who get an early version of the book.
So we might want to talk about that.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
Oh, I want to ask you that question because you
gave me the early copy of this book. So how
does that differ, Like, how does that copy versus.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
What have copy, which is called the early copy, which
is called an advanced reader copy. Sometimes they're called arcs.
An advanced reader copy has not been has not been
copy edited, and it has not been proof read. So
those books go to reviewers and savvy readers who can
read around the typos and who can read, you know,
read around the dropped lines and the weird printing because
(42:47):
they're just dashed off by the printer. So you read,
so you read the story without being picky about those
kinds of things, and That's why you'll see on an
advanced reader copy it'll say, do not quote from this
book because it isn't the final, final book. And also
don't write that author and tell them there's a typo,
because because.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Of course there's a they now they know you don't
have to tell them. Are any of your books in
development for any TV projects, movie projects?
Speaker 2 (43:15):
They are definitely. There is definitely talk about one wrong
word and I can you not picture I can totally
picture one wrong word. The Murder List also, and the
Other Woman also so far you never know. I mean, like, hello,
anybody anybody interested in the other ones? Yeah? I mean this.
I I have to tell you though, I it would
(43:37):
be cool if there were, you know, television series of
one of them, or you know that kind of thing,
but it doesn't I never really think about it because
my books are written to be books. They're written for
you to read. And my goal is more than having
(43:57):
a television movie or series, is to have the movie
in your mind start to play and when you say
to me, oh, I could just see that. That's that's
what my goal is. So you know, there's things that
might happen, who knows. But if it never happens. That's
fine too, because I love my books as books.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Who could you see as arden Ward?
Speaker 3 (44:21):
Well?
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Did you who?
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Could you guys see it?
Speaker 2 (44:23):
Who would you guys see? Because you know the new actors?
I'm not sure of all of them, but I do
envision tay Leoni could be her. Remember she's could be Hello,
Tay are you out watching? I'm sure she's what she'd
be really good? And also did you see the new
the newish, the newer Thomas Crown Affair? And it's Renee
(44:43):
Russo in that dress in the Thomas Crown that Renee Russo?
Are you out there to so? I'm sure there are
many I'd love to hear from you about who you think,
but I it would be a really great role for someone,
don't you think? Would you like to do it?
Speaker 1 (44:58):
I would love to do it. Wouldn't she lived it?
She'd be a perfect lord. Do you guys have any
other questions?
Speaker 2 (45:09):
And to say it is my favorite?
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Please give him a hug for me? Do you? As
for the audio books?
Speaker 2 (45:27):
What a good question. Do I pick the voice actors
for the audiobooks? Yes? They Yes, I will tell her
she was Gail Shahan is just a genius. They send me,
the publisher sends me. McMillan Audio sends me several audition
tapes where the readers have read just a bit of
(45:47):
the story. And I and I'll tell you that, as
an author, it's very weird to hear someone else's voice
being Arden, being Cordelia, being Monel, because for that year
of me writing the book, I've had their voices in
my head and it's kind of my voice, you know,
it's how I think, how I think they sound. So
(46:09):
it's very disconcerting a little bit to hear somebody else's
voice saying those words. So I listened to all the
audio So for this book and for all of them,
I listened to all the audio auditions, and every single
time there's the one, there's just the one. There's good, good,
good good, wow, and those the other actors are wonderful,
(46:31):
and they've done other wonderful, amazing books, but some you
just hear it. I mean, I remember when I heard
her voice doing the audition tape for one wrong word,
I just burst into tears because I thought, that's art
and Ward, you know, how did she do that? So
it was quite marvelous.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
That's great. Any other questions. Yep, oh great, Yeah, this
is what it's all about.
Speaker 3 (47:07):
Yeah, yeah, they repossessed urgy.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Oh that's wonderful. Thank you. Give for a hug for me.
I got back someone's.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
That's a good story, thank you. Okay. Well, yes, oh
that's a great questioning.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
That is a great question. I do not know the ending.
At the beginning of the book, and we were talking
about this, the group on the couch and I were
talking about this earlier. I I just sit down and
I type chapter the words chapter one, and I think,
let's see what happens, you know, let's just see so
(48:05):
it's really fun for a while. And then at some
point you got to figure out what really happens. And
I get about seven eighths of the way through the
book and I think, okay, this, I better figure this
out now. At some point I got to cut bait
on who is the bad guy? And but and along
the way, I'm thinking about it. Along the way, you know,
(48:27):
is it this person? Is it this person? Is it
this person? And if it is that particular person, why
would they do that? Because a good novel is all
about motivation. It's all about what does someone want and
how far will they go to get it. That's a novel, right,
That's what we're talking about, and people with competing and
conflicting desires crashing into each other is what makes a story.
(48:53):
So the ending has got to wrap up every single
thing in the novel and have you be surprised. But
it has to be surprising but inevitable. I want you
to say, oh, I should have seen that, you know.
Ask got to be totally fair every clue. I'm really
careful that, bless you. I'm really careful that every clue
(49:14):
in to the solution is in the book. I'm just
distracting you from it. All of my magic writer magic
slide of hand. I'm saying, look over here when you
should be looking over here. So I try in my brain.
I try in my head, in my mind, I try
different endings throughout, but I don't really know till I
(49:35):
get there. So when you know, I had one person
say to me, oh, I saw that coming a mile away,
and I said, you did, because I didn't. And so
there's you know, so you know you talk about foreshadowing,
there's not foreshadowing. There's only the foreshadowing. That's the same
as we have in real life. And how many of
(49:57):
us have had something happen to them and you think, oh, oh,
I misread the signs I should have seen that I
should have known. And that's the essence. That's the essence
of crime fiction. So at the end, when I know
what the ending is, whoa, I know it. And that
is quite the moment when I my darling husband in
the back room, in the back of the room knows
the moment that I come out and say I've figured
(50:19):
it out.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
You know, I figured it.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
Out, And it is always a really high point in
the story.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
What is your writing process? Do you write during the day,
do you write late at night or does it.
Speaker 2 (50:30):
Very you know, I have writer pals who get up
at five in the morning and they you know, they
say they love when they're kind of groggy before they've
even had coffee and they go down to their computer
and their you know, unfiltered, gorgeous words. If I went
down to my computer at five in the morning with
no coon, you'd see me my head clunked against the computer.
(50:54):
That's not happening. But I think it's because after all
these years as a reporter, I can tell you every
day when it's almost six o'clock, and I can tell
you when it's almost eleven o'clock because that's when the
news is on and that's when my stories have to
be ready. So I get really good at writing at
like two in the afternoon, when it's the metabolism of
(51:15):
a news story having to be ready, and I can
write like crazy up till, you know, up till six,
at seven, at eight, late at night. I'm great. Sometimes
I'll say to my husband before we go upstairs to sleep,
I say, and it's midnight, and I say, I'm just
going to go say good night to the book, and
(51:35):
I and I open the manuscript. And that's sometimes when
I have my best ideas.
Speaker 1 (51:41):
That's wonderful. Any One, we have time for one more question,
and that's it. Right back there?
Speaker 2 (51:48):
Oh, how do I come up with the titles? So hard?
Sometimes so hard and so easy other times the other woman.
I was reading a story about the ex governor of
South Carolina, Mark Sanford. He's the one who, yeah, everybody's going, oh, yeah,
I know that, okay, So you know, so he told
(52:09):
his staff and his employees and his constituents that he
was out hiking the Appalachian Trail when he was really
off with his mistress. Remember that, yes, And I remember thinking,
who would be the other woman? Why would you do that?
You know, it's such a destructive thing to everyone involved.
And I was reading an article about it and a
(52:31):
person who was involved in this episode said, you can
choose your sin, but you cannot choose your consequences. And
I thought, Oh, that's a book. That's a book. That's
a book, and so what could that be called but
the other woman? And that is what the other woman is.
So sometimes, you know, one wrong word is about is
(52:54):
about rumor and betrayal and scandal and revenge. You know
how one wrong word can ruin your life. So that
made total sense. On the other hand, other books, you know,
I just work and work and work for the titles.
And sometimes usually it's in the text of the novel.
Usually somebody along the way will say something and I think, Oh,
(53:17):
that's that's a perfect that's a perfect title. So it's
different every time. Sometimes it's very difficult. Sometimes with like
one wrong word, it's very easy because it's just so
perfect for the book.
Speaker 1 (53:28):
Well, thank you, Hank, You're thank you an absolute You're
a dream. We could sit here and talk to you
all night. Your stories are fabulous and so interesting and
we loved the book. Hey, coming up Lisa's book Club,
we'll go to the Mandarin Hotel. Well, we will host
doctor Paracone, who is a celebrity dermatologist. That event is
(53:50):
coming up in July. Details to follow.
Hey, Welcome to Lisa's book Club, a podcast where I
interview best selling authors from the New England area, pulling
back the curtain on what it's really like being a
best selling author. They're guilty pleasures, latest projects, and so
much more. Hey, welcome into Lisa's book Club podcast. I
sat down with Hank Philippy Ryan, not once, but twice.
This is the podcast for her latest novel, One Wrong Word.
(00:27):
We're at the beautiful roof deck of the Reviewer Hotel
Boston and Hank, if you don't know, is help me
Hank from Channel seven. She's also a novelist, so listen up.
This is a great interview with Hank Philippy Ryan.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
It is so much fun to be here. This is
a beautiful place with the city lights of Boston behind
us as now we're just we're high high up on
the roof. It's amazing. And look at this amazing crowd
of people. I've been talking to people before we started tonight,
and everyone is just so charming and so funny and
such a big reader. It's lovely. And I have to
(01:02):
tell you that I was talking about you to them
and I would say that I would say, isn't Lisa
wonderful and they would say, yes, I mean, congratulations on this.
Just the sheer affection for you is so wonderful and
the gratitude for what you do.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Thank you, thank you very much. But thank you to
all of our members, because I mean, we had a
book club with you at Veronica Beard probably a little
over a year and a half ago, and that's when
we were just getting started, right, and the book club
just keeps growing and growing and growing. New members always join.
(01:42):
You guys, bring your friends, you bring your family, and
that's what it's all about. I always say, read one page,
read the whole book, but just come and get involved
and meet new people. And I think that's what we're
doing here.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
You never know when you're going to fall in love
with a book exactly. You never know when you're going
to meet a new friend, and you get to meet Lisa.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Out with it's great how that. I also want to
thank Joson Maine. We will be back at Joson Maine
in November for a very special book club event. So
I know a lot of you were there last month
with Aaron Gates, so I just wanted to mention them
again too, because it's gonna be really great. Okay, So
let's talk about Hank Philip Ryan. All right, So Hank
(02:22):
has written fifteen novels of suspense, fifteen. Can't believe it.
She's obviously the on air investigative reporter for WHDHTV Channel seven.
And you've been doing that close to forty years.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Forty three years, forty three years. I mean, that's amazing,
isn't it.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
You're it's amazing, all right, this is really amazing this figure.
She's won thirty seven Emmys.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
You know, it's interesting because every single one of those
Emmys I absolutely adore, and I could tell you the
secrets behind every single one of those gorgeous statues. And
when I when I when I'm in when I'm writing now,
and I have sometimes a bad writing day, as we
all do with whatever kind of jobs we have, sometimes
(03:13):
that I think, oh, I don't know what I'm doing.
This is never gonna work. I look at those Emmys
and I think, well, it's worked sometimes in the past, right,
so there's no reason why it shouldn't work again.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
This is a question from Bill Costa because we were
talking about you in the office this week and I said,
Hanks won thirty seven Emmys. He goes, where does she
put all of them?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Right?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Where do you put all of your emys?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Or you should come over, you should come over. They
and I will tell you this that I have floor
to ceiling bookshelves in my study where where I write
every day, and the and the Emmys are all in
a row on the bookshelves, and it's very nice. Although
people come over and they threaten to steal one, and
they say she would never notice that.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Well, do you count them at night? I know, just
to make sure they're all there?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yes, that could be in.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
A night, that could be in a book. That's like
something that one of your characters in a book would do. Right,
every night she counts her Emmies and then one goes missing.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Well, you know, I've been looking for the next my
next book topic, and I think Lisa may just have
found it.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I think in addition to her thirty seven Emmys, she's
won fourteen Edwar Armurow Awards and dozens of other awards,
all very very well done. As I mentioned, we met
at Veronica Beard about a year and a half ago
for your book The House Guests, which was one of
my thaves, but we're here for one wrong word. But
(04:44):
before we get to your book, I want to talk
about your background in investigative journalism. You've battled your way
through hurricanes, through floods, through blizzards. You've wired yourself with
hidden cameras. You've worn disguises chase down criminals, You've confronted
corrupt politicians in your work as a reporter. Has your
(05:10):
investigative journalism has that helped you with your with your
novel writing?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
What a really good question, because yes, yes, yes, I
didn't start writing till I was fifty five, which was
twenty years ago. And I couldn't have I couldn't have
written a novel if I hadn't been a television reporter
for so long. And I can tell you really why.
You know, what is a good television story. You have
(05:39):
a character who you care about, right, you have an
important problem that needs to be solved or else something
terrible will happen as a result. You track down clues
and follow leads, and in the end you want the
good guys to win and the bad guys to get
what's coming to them. And in the end, right and
in the end you want to check change the world
(06:02):
and make a difference and get and also get some justice.
And so when you think about that's a good television story,
that's an investigative story, and that is also a good
crime fiction story, That's what every one of my books is.
And to go on just a tiny bit about it
for the past. For thirty years, before I started writing fiction,
(06:22):
I'd written essentially a news story, sometimes every day, a
story with a beginning and a middle and an end
so you wouldn't turn the channel. That was important. It
was educational, it was enlightening, it was news. It was
something you'd never heard before. And you know, it's so
easy to just click click, click, click, click and change
(06:42):
the channel. So part of my goal was to have
you be riveted and immersed in this television story. So
now in my books it's just the same. It's just
the same. I don't want you to be able to
put the books down. I want you to miss your
stop on the t right because you can't put it down.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Okay, So it's the same rhythm. It's totally true storytelling.
Where did help me, Hank? How did that come to be?
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Help me Hank?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Because it's that's that's how we know you. That you're
helped me, Hank who created that? I mean, it's really
it's it's amazing. And never going to talk about how
many people you've helped. I mean, because you've really done
some groundbreaking work over the years. You know, how did
it all happen?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
I will tell you this. I will tell you this.
Don't tell I know it's just us right now and
Facebook Live, Okay, A million I have done. Hank investigates
for a long time, many many years, and that's what
that was my main focus and still sort of is
my main focus. Hank investigates big, powerful, life changing, law
changing stories. But one day my news director, no longer
(07:53):
the news director at Channel seven, she has been gone
for a long time, called me into her office and said,
I need to show you a resume tape, an audition
tape that someone has sent to me. So I said okay,
And she said, I want you to tell me if
it's good. And she said, and be really honest about it.
So I said, I said okay. And she plays this
(08:14):
tape and it was a consumer problem solving guy And
I'm telling you this was twenty years ago, consumer problem
solving guy, and he wanted to call it call Paul.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Call Paul better, call Saul.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
So I and it was so long ago that it
was before that. Okay, it was before that. Such a
good show anyway, such a good Joe. Anyway, I'm looking
at this guy's tape and I don't know who Paul is.
I'm looking at this guy's tape and I think, well,
you know, that's kind of good. It's not great, but
(08:49):
it's good. And you know, call Paul is a really
good idea, and if he does this for a while,
he'll probably be better. So I said, I said, just
off to the news director. I said, yeah, this is fine.
You know, this is great. I said, too bad, I
can't do help me, Hank, and she goes, oh, And
(09:11):
I honestly, that happened in a blink of an eye.
I didn't think of it. It was not something like
what would you call a thing that you help consumers.
It just came out of nowhere, and from that moment
on I was helping me. Hank.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Well, it works. It was meant to be. All right,
So let's talk about how many people you've held, because
I don't think people realize how instrumental you've been with
a lot of things that we use like the nine
one one. Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I mean one of the things. And you and I
were talking about this earlier. The power of broadcasting, the
power of radio, the power of television, the power of
that mass communication. That's why they call it that that
I can tell you something and things change and it
may change your life, and it may change your life.
So all of my stories are always about something that
(10:04):
might help one person specifically, but are designed to help
to tell you something that will help your life as well,
to have you learn something and grow from something. So
we you know, golly, you know, in my you know,
forty three years in television, we found such massive problems
that as you have referred to in the nine to
one one system, that we found that thousands of times
(10:26):
a year emergency responders, police and firefighters would be ambulances
were being sent to the wrong address in Massachusetts. You
call nine one one and they go to the wrong place.
And the state was not keeping track of it, and
the state was not correcting these thousands of errors. And
when we got a hold of it, we I'll tell
you this really really quickly. So research for an investigative
(10:50):
story can be really dense and hard and it takes
a long time, and we demanded that the state handed
over hand over what they call disc repency reports, which
is every single time there was a mistake in an
emergency responder. So they didn't want to give me that,
and they said that is not a public record, and
(11:11):
I'm like, yes it is. You know you all made
mistakes in the nine one one system. Of course it's
a public record. Give me those documents. So they, after
a year of fighting, they delivered a box like someone
had taken they well, was six thousand individual pieces of
paper in no order in a box which somebody had
(11:31):
just dumped into the box. So I thought, yes, this
is a treasure hunt, and this is investigative reporting. This
is a treasure hunt. I put them all in my
living room floor. My poor husband thought, said, what are
you doing. I spread them all out, town by town,
three hundred and fifty one piles of paper, and at
the end of the weekend I knew which towns had
the biggest nine to one one problem. It was and
(11:53):
I was the only one in the world to know that,
And it was just so exciting. I looked at so
many pieces of paper that by hands were bleeding from
paper cuts and I had I told my producer, I said,
there are blood. There's blood on the documents and so
and that's how you tell if you have a good story.
There's blood on.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
The document true and your passion for it.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, well, I mean I love that. You know, we
found so many problems. Uh, you know, firehouses, the place
where firefighters live and work, were in such terrible condition
in Massachusetts that they would not pass fire inspection. The
firehouses were not up to fire code, and we got
we got money appropriated to get that fixed. We found
(12:35):
so many problems in the mortgage lending and home improvement
contracting businesses that three new laws were passed to prohibit
the things that we had uncovered. I've gotten millions of dollars,
millions of dollars in refunds and restitution for consumers and
people's homes out of unfair foreclosure. You know, I've gotten
(12:55):
people's homes back to them. So again, that is the
power of television, and that is the power of you know,
sort of trying to change the world a little bit.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yeah, your impact is immeasurable. For what you've done for
all of us for the past forty years. You've touched
all of us in some specific way. We were talking
before we started this about journalism has definitely evolved with
the intranet and these just trying to get the information
out as fast as you possibly can, and a lot
(13:25):
of times there's a lot of misinformation that's put out
because the news outlet wants to be the first to
print something. Has that affected investigative journalism that you can't
take as much time to really delve into a story
as you could in the past.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I mean, it's so interesting because when I started in
television was there was film, not videotape, and there was
no live television. That you could not go live. So
if something happened after two thirty in the afternoon, it
could not be on the six o'clock news because the
film wouldn't be developed in time. That is the lag
(14:04):
you all don't remember that. I trust me that trust me,
that's true. Trust me, that's true. So as television evolved
and as live TV evolved, you know, initially what to
go live was a big production with a big truck
and a big microwave mask, and it took a long time.
Now you can go live with a little you know,
(14:25):
with your own phone, with your friend, and so that
changed to your point exactly, Lisa, that changed the immediacy
of what could go on the air. And now a reporter,
I'm in awe of the street reporters, all of them now,
who are sent to a place and you had it
as soon as you arrive, you're going live and you think,
(14:46):
I have no idea what's going on, and they say,
just describe it. And so, because as you say, we
need to be first, that's the goal of you know,
breaking news is let me tell you this as fast
as I possibly can. So what you need to know,
as good television and news consumers is to be aware
of what situation the reporter is. And if they say
(15:09):
we have just arrived on this scene, that means we
have just arrived on this scene and they're there to
find out the news. But they don't know it right
and it then, but they're doing the best they can.
So I'm an absolute awe of them. As for your
question about investigative stories not getting as much time, I
think what the result of that has been is that
(15:30):
the stories are smaller because you need to keep putting
stories on TV, but no one, you know, it's really
rare now to get the months and months that I
used to have to put a story on TV. You know,
it's like, can you get that on tomorrow?
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Maybe?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
And so of necessity, that makes the topic of the
story have to be smaller interesting.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
So we talked about some of your successes that you've had.
Has there been something that hasn't been such a success
for you that you wish you could go back and
redo a television story?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, if I say no, is that okay.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
No, that's great. I just don't know if there was
something that just didn't work out.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
I think it happens. It happens every day. I mean
think about it. As a reporter, I get hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds of story ideas. I have hundreds and
hundreds of story ideas, phone calls, emails, letters, curiosity, you know,
everything is everything is a possible story. And so I've
opened billions of doors, you know, doing research saying is
(16:30):
this a story? Is this the story? Is this the story?
And often the doors close, and so I just don't
go any farther than that. But when a story is
big enough and has the fullness of an investigative story,
that's what goes on TV. So I'm superly proud. I mean,
I've had. I'm superly proud of all of them. And
I'm lucky as an investigative reporter to get that little
(16:52):
bit more time to not only investigate, but correct craft
a beautiful television story and also to write it in
the best way that I possibly can. And that was
also something that I was very proud of as a reporter.
I am very proud of as a reporter that I
love to write. I want every story I do to
(17:13):
be the best story you've ever seen about whatever it is.
And I'm really focused on that.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
All right, let's talk about your book. Nice segue here.
One Wrong Word is her latest novel, and I need
to ask you, how do you come up with your
character names in the book? What is your process behind that?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
If I tell you how I come up with the
character names, I will I'll tell you the truth. It
is magic. It is some kind of writer magic, Lisa,
I don't know. Sometimes the main character in One Wrong
Word is arden Ward. I don't know where that came from.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Really, it's a very unique name, is I know?
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Because that's her name?
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Right?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
I mean, I sometimes I really struggle. Cordelia Banister in
the book how many of you have read the book.
Oh that's so nice, Thank you. Cordelia Banister was always
Cordelia Banister. It just when I started writing her. That's
what her name was. Now her husband Ned, Ned had
ten thousand names, and I finally got Ned. Sometimes when
(18:25):
I'm stuck up for a name, I go to the
missing money thing that they said, ohmsmoney dot com. Yeah,
and you see that's full of names.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
It's full. It's hilarious.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
And I close my eyes. I close my eyes and
I say, first name is this, last name is this?
Now it the thing is?
Speaker 1 (18:46):
And I know she's laughing. Now that's that's a good story.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
The thing is. And here's the thing that makes it magic.
That that seems like it would just work, you know,
Sally Smith, that can that be? It doesn't. It often
doesn't work to do that. It often doesn't work. To
search for a name. It just has to I don't
know how to tell you this. It just has to
(19:11):
be the right name. And I know when I have
the right name. My book, The Murder List, which won
the Anthony for Best Novel of the Year, the main
character started out being named Gianna Delaney. Now that's a
good name. I love that name, Gianna Delane beautiful, but
she just the character would not come to life. She
(19:32):
was like, it was like pushing wet spaghetti. She did
not do anything. And I kept trying to write her
as as whatever our name was, Gianna Delaney, Gianna Delaney.
It kept trying to write Gianna Delaney. She wouldn't write.
So I thought I was in despair as a writer.
I mean, I had hit the wall with this character,
and I almost dumped the book. And I just on
(19:53):
a whim, I thought, well, maybe that's not her name.
Maybe Gianna Delaney is not who she should be. So
I thought, oh, or whatever, I changed your name to
Rachel North. And I'm telling you, she sat up in
her chair and she had an attitude and she's like,
watch me do this.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
She was alive.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
She was alive because I had given her the wrong name.
And that is why I say, it's the man.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
It's so interesting. So how long do you give yourself
to find the right name? Well, how long did it
take you to write one wrong word?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
It took a year. It takes a year to write
a book. Now, And I'll tell you why. It's a
very it's a very secret formula. And that is because
my contract says it has to be due on this
day and that and that is a year away. Wow,
And that is how publishing works.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
They give you a year? Is that standard?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
A year for a writer like I write fast paced
cat and mouse thrillers, you know that you would love
on a beach or at an airplane or vacation or
read for it just one weekend at a binge for
those kinds of books, for that genre of novel, a
year is pretty standard, okay. And that's hard.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
I can't imagine.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
It's the hardest thing I've ever done. It really is,
because it has to be. Every book has to be
better than the previous book. You know. I want you
to have read my book and then think ooh I
can't ready to read the next one, and then have
you say, oh, it's even better than the one before.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
It's very true.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
And let me just say one more thing then. And
I also challenge myself with each novel because it gets
so much more difficult actually, as time goes by. Usually
in our lives, when we do something and we practice,
it gets easier. The next time. We think, oh, now
I know what I'm doing about this. But In writing
(21:44):
a novel, it's much more difficult because you learn. You're
learning along the way. I'm challenging myself along the way.
I want to be better. I want to be cooler
and smarter and more unique and more riveting and more interesting.
And how do you do that? So I give? I
give one hundred percent of myself to every novel I write.
(22:08):
But I don't know how to put this. I hope
that the one hundred percent gets bigger every time. I
know mathematically that will not work. Don't call me, but
I think my hundred percent is bigger every time, and
so I think that makes my novels be bigger every time.
I wouldn't my first book, Primetime. I wouldn't change a
(22:30):
word of Primetime. I love that book. It's still in print.
I still get royalties for Primetime. I love it. You know,
fifteen books ago, sixteen books all go now. But it's
a different kind of book than one wrong word. One
wrong word is the biggest hundred percent I ever had.
When I was writing it.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
I noticed that in a lot of your novels. I
read two. Now you mention street names in Boston, you
mentioned mass General, but you don't mention restaurant names that
are like like Ellen Hildebrand mentions actual businesses and we
just had a discussion about it and how it really
(23:09):
helps the economy on Nantucket because if she mentions a store,
people go to it when they when they visit the island.
Was that a conscious decision for you not to name
specific places?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
And why I write crime fiction? You know, I love
Ellen Hilda Bround. She's a genius and her books are marvelous.
But not many people die in the restaurants. That's true,
you know, And so point how happy would that, you know, happen?
Happy would the restaurants in Nantucket be if somebody die?
Speaker 1 (23:39):
That's true?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
So because exactly so, because my books are crime fiction,
because people do die, because people do have conflicts, because
people are often unhappy or sometimes unhappy in the places
I say in my acknowledgments that I have changed, right, uh,
the geography of Boston to tech the innocent. Also, you know,
(24:02):
I don't want there to be I don't want there
to be like somebody's house on Beacon Street. I'm making
this up, you know, one one one Marlborough Street where
the bad guy lives and somebody goes and says Oh,
that's one one one Marlborough Street. That's where the bad
guy lives. So you don't you don't want that.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
So your story ideas are they? Jen?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Have?
Speaker 1 (24:22):
They sometimes been loosely based on something that maybe you
had heard of or had happened at one point.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
We see what she's doing here. You see she's acting like,
oh she just thought of that question. Well one more thing,
really quickly, about where about Boston? About Boston? We were
talking about this a minute ago. The books, though, are
very true to Boston. Oh definitely, although not specifically. I mean,
(24:53):
how many have you seen or philp that you have
been there?
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Yeah? The streets? Oh yeah, My.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Husband and I were driving down the mass Pike one
day and I said, oh, exit seventeen, this is where
Jane was chased by the bad guy. And then I think, no,
I made that up. By that totally made up an
answer to your question. I know, finally an answer to
your question. It's really hard to tell you this, but no,
(25:20):
they're not my television stories made into fiction. Now that said,
you know, my life as a television reporter and even
before that in politics and in radio and on Capitol
Hill in Washington, d C. How many experiences. How many
billions of experiences is that that I've had? And I
(25:41):
think that's why if Lisa and I said, you have
an assignment, you're all going to write a short story
about the man who walks through the door, every single
one of our stories would be different, right, because every
single one of us has had different experiences. We have
different hopes, different fears, different dreams, all those things, and
so my books could only be written by me because
(26:04):
I'm the only one that has had those specific experiences.
So it's kind of like, you know, a Rubik's cube
of twists and polish and change, and you come out
with something that's wholly fictional, completely entirely fictional, but still
is only the product of only my brain.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
I like that idea that maybe we should do that
at the next book club, y'all. I give you all
a little note card and you write five sentences, five
sentences about the man that walked through the door. That's
a good idea. I think that's a really fun idea.
I want to talk to you about your book cover.
How involved are you with the covers of your books?
(26:46):
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Well? I will tell you that specifically, and I want
to show you all something. And I pick up your book,
Lisa and cut your nose in half.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Yeah, see how see how you become the book? And
if you and every we'll do that again for the camera.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Let's that's very cool.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
And you do you have to do what Lisa to do.
I can do it, help her do it. Cut your
nose in half, and you see when when Lisa does it,
or when I do it, or when you do it.
And I want a picture of every single one of
you with that book cover. I have a lot of
input into the cover. The gorgeous Katie Klemowitz at Forge
(27:37):
was the one who designed this cover, and she's a genius.
But my editor and Katie and I talked about how
we wanted a book cover that was beautiful and soft
and gorgeous and but relatable, relatable, And one of the
things I wanted to do with this cover, and it
was very specifically designed, was to make us all realize
(28:00):
that any of us could be arden Ward. What happens
to arden Ward could happen to anyone. So I wanted
you the reader to instantly feel like part of the book,
because when you hold that book up to yourself, it
is you, and that's what this book is.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
I love that, and I love how involved you were
in the cover art, because I know that some authors
don't have that luxury that the cover is chosen for them.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Yes, yes, and I'm very lucky about that. Now, I
do have to tell you something that was a surprise
that Caitlin for Caitlin at Winchester. No pressure, it's just
our career and her livelihood for you to buy books
for tonight. But this edition of the Other Woman, the
book that came out in twenty twelve, it won the
(28:48):
Mary Higgins Clark Award for Best Novel of the Year.
I have never seen this cover in my life. The
original cover of this had the same gorgeous woman in
the running on the bridge, which is very apropos of
the book, but the words on the cover were looking
looked like this read. I've never seen this blue book.
(29:10):
I think this is a rare treasure. Actually this doesn't
exist anywhere else in the universe, but right here on
that table, I'm telling you, Caitlin will tell you that
when I saw that book, I actually literally emailed my
agent and I said, have you seen this? So I
but every cover that's on that table. I have had
(29:31):
a big hand except for this one which I helped
with the original one, which I adore.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
So we should buy them tonight. You have Hank sign
them because it's a collector's edition.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Those may never appear anywhere else again and one wrong,
but but yes, because how do you choose a book?
I know you ask Lisa what to read? Okay, but
after Lisa suggests.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Well, I was actually going to ask you that how
do people how do people choose books? Do you look
at the cover and say, oh, that looks what kind
of in testing? Right?
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Yeah? I mean I think that the common wisdom is that,
of course, if you go into a bookstore, if you
go into a bookstore like Bookends in Winchester, you you
look at You're drawn to the cover, right, You're drawn
to the cover, and you say, ooh, that looks good.
I mean, how many times have we said ooh that
(30:24):
looks good. By that looks good. That's the cover of
a book you don't know anything about it. Then you
might pick up So you pick up the book, you
might read the inside cover flap to see what the
genre is and whether the story sounds good. Then you
might look at the back to look at the endorsements,
the blurb on the back. How many of you do that? Okay?
Does that matter to you? You might look at the
(30:47):
the picture of the of the author to see whether
you think it looks like somebody you might like. Right,
and then you read then what happens though? You read
the first page? You read the first line. And how
many of you, after you read the first paragraph of
a book in a bookstore, say.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
No, it's not grabbing me.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
It's not grabbing me. How about that? You all? That's amazing?
That blink reflex is what every author cares about, is
that opening of the book has to really grab you.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
I want to ask you a question about why people
are so obsessed with suspense, with true crime. What do
you think is behind that?
Speaker 2 (31:30):
There's just this is just the best question in the universe,
because I think it's one of the burning questions for
all of us. And I think the essence of it
might be, and I'd love to know what you all
think too. I think the essence of it might be
that we all really want things to work they should
the way they should work. You know, we really want justice,
as I was saying earlier, we want the good guys
(31:52):
to win and the bad guys to get what's coming
to them. And we want the world to be an equilibrium.
We want it to be fair and we want to
to be right. And in crime fiction and in suspense,
you can. I mean, part of the contract with the
reader that I make in every book is that stuff
is going to happen, that's going to keep you turning
the pages. But in the end you're gonna go, yeah,
(32:14):
that's exactly what should have happened. And that's my goal
at the end of each book is to have you
be feel that someone was empowered and someone's life was changed,
and that the world was set back into equilibrium. Now,
I think that also the reason people like suspense is
because they like puzzles. They try to you know, they're
trying to figure out who did it before the before
(32:36):
the author tells them that.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Don't You also think it makes us all feel much
better about ourselves too, that well, we're not that bad,
Like WHOA didn't he didn't do that? You know, right, Yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
It's not I thought my life was pretty bad.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
It's nice that's going on early book.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
And I think also, you know, especially in times of
stress and trouble, and we have all lived through some
stress and trouble. You know, we're in this book solving
someone else's problems, you know, and being in someone else's world.
And I think you know that sense of escape into
someone else's story. Is that what you were saying to
That sense of escape into someone else's story also is
(33:17):
what draws us into these.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
I want to ask you a question about yourself. Is
there something about you that people may be surprised to
find out.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
That feels like you all know me so well?
Speaker 1 (33:32):
But is there one thing that maybe like you like
you like rap music, or you like you you guys?
Speaker 2 (33:40):
In high school? In high school, all I wanted to
be was a major atte. Really, I just wanted those
little white boots and a little skirt. I just thought
that was the coolest thing. You can't This was in nineteen,
like sixty three. I want you just to remember that,
and I wanted that. So I worked and worked and
worked to be a major aette. And I tried out
(34:02):
to be a major atte. Do you even know what
that is? Okay? Say okay? What Like they're like, I
don't know what that is, sweetheart? And I tried out
and I got to be I got to be a majorette,
and I got my little outfit. But but LISTA, I
was so terrible. I was so terrible that the band
director put me in the middle of the back row
(34:25):
and he took me aside, and he said, go out
there and pretend to twirl because because I was gonna
I was gonna drop it, you know, I was gonna
drop it and trip up the tuba player and it
would just be a mess. But I I loved that
sort of the music and the glamour and the little outfit.
(34:47):
But that was a long time.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Again, you put yourself out there, you gave it a shot.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
It was very embarrassing. I have to say. I was terrible.
I was a terrible major. I was a terrible majorrette.
There's my epitaph.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
I have has it gotten easier for women in journalism
since you first started?
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (35:06):
And what would think?
Speaker 2 (35:07):
What do you think?
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Yeah? I think I definitely think it's easier. I think
definitely think that there are more opportunities. But I'd like
to know specifically, what do you think has changed since
you first started?
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Well, I think you know, I started as I started
as a radio reporter in nineteen seventy, if you can
picture that. And I went into the biggest radio station
in Indianapolis and I said, I'm here to apply for
a job as a reporter. And we went through this
whole litany of how inexperienced I was. Have you been
(35:39):
a television reporter, no? Have you been a radio reporter, no.
Have you been a magazine reporter, no? Of you been
a newspaper reporter, no? I had no experience. And finally,
at this at the end of this absolutely you know,
doomed interview, as I was applying for a job for
which I was not qualified in any way, and the
news director told me that he said, you seem like
a very nice young woman, but you know you are
(36:01):
supremely unqualified for this job. And he says, can you
tell me one good reason why I should hire you?
And I said, yes I can. I said, your license
is up for renewal at the Federal Communications Commission right now,
and you don't have any women working here. And then
I just smiled, you were born to do this. And
(36:24):
the next day I had my first job in television.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
At you that is that's good?
Speaker 2 (36:29):
And let me story apropos of your question Jane, and
that was nineteen seventy. And Jane Paully, who started in
television at the same time, calls us the class of
nineteen seventy, the class of nineteen seventy, the women who
you know, Leslie Stall and Barbara Walters, Jessica Savage, Jane
Paully and I all started in nineteen seventy. All got
(36:51):
our jobs because we were women, but we couldn't keep
them because we were women. And all you know, in
every realm of society, any of you who started your
careers in the seventies, we had to work harder and
work stronger and be better. But we change the world.
And when I talk to women and young women in
journalism classes now, I say it's you know, if I
walked into Channel seven right now and said you should
(37:13):
hire me because I'm a woman, they'd say, yeah, sister,
you and everybody else in this building right my boss
is a woman, and her boss is a woman, and
her boss is a woman. And those of us who
started I'm really proud, Lisa actually to be part of
that sort of breaking up the gender barrier in broadcasting,
because I tell young women starting now, it's not like
that now, and you know that that now.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
But every single name that you just mentioned I remember fondly.
I really I would be glued to their stories and
they were so impactful. So I totally agree with you.
Do you guys have any questions for Hank, don't be shy.
In the back.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Are the books in order?
Speaker 1 (38:01):
And which which is your favorite?
Speaker 2 (38:03):
The books are there? The books are standalonees, so each
one stands alone. Each one is a singular story about
a singular word world with different characters, so you can
read them in any order. The newest one on that table,
the newest one anywhere in the youth the universe is
one is one wrong word. That's the newest one that's out.
And you know, it's interesting about what's my favorite? Okay,
(38:25):
come on, you know everyone is my favorite because because
it's the best possible book that I could have written
at that time, and I love, love, love them. You know.
The Other Woman is my first standalone you know how
wonderful is that? And the murder list, the murder list
is really surprising, you know. And I figured out the
(38:47):
end of the murder list. I stood up and applauded,
and I was and I was by myself, you know,
and so her perfect life and the house guests that
sort of took me into another realm of domestic cat
and mouse gas lighty suspense, and I love that. And
(39:07):
then One Wrong Word, I think is incredibly powerful and
really really about It's about a woman who has the
rug pulled out from under her. Everything she relies on
and trusts in the world is gone. She was wrong.
She cannot even get her breath because she's so she's
(39:28):
so surprised and so terrified, and it's about her getting
her power back, and I'm really proud of that.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Do you have a favorite character.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
You know I have? Well, Gianna Delaney, who turned into
Rachel North, is one of my favorite characters, and definitely
in this book has several of my favorite characters. Arden
Ward I love. I would love to be arden Ward.
Everything about her. Absolutely love to be arden Ward. Also
Monel Churchwood, who is an obsessive, just empowered district attorney.
(40:06):
I love her too. I think she's hilarious. So both
of those, What about you?
Speaker 1 (40:10):
I like garden Ward because I was in public relations
for ten years, so I really I was drawn to
this book because I understand that on high profile clients
and powerful clients and how you deal with it. So
I like I like Ard absolutely the pressure. I think
we have another Patty in the back?
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Am I in the middle of a book? Now?
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Yeah? What's your new latest project?
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Patty? I sent book sixteen in yesterday. I I am
so happy right now?
Speaker 1 (40:46):
What do what do you do when you send it
to the published? Do you have do you have a ritual?
Do you how do you celebrate?
Speaker 2 (40:52):
You know, it's interesting. I should celebrate more than I
do in every way, on every level, and I don't
allow myself really to do that. And I know that's silly.
We should all celebrate every milestone, no matter how small
the milestone. But I did come out. I did sort
of feel like there was this massive weight off my shoulders.
(41:14):
And I love the book that I'll tell you. I'll
tell you quickly if you want breaking news. The new
book is called All This Could Be Yours? All This
Could Be Yours, and it's about a debut author with
a surprise best selling novel who realizes that she's being
followed by someone who's trying to ruin her life and
(41:35):
the family She left back home on book tour, all
because of a Faustian bargain she once made, and it
may be that it's time for the devil to be paid.
I love your reaction. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
When will the book be out?
Speaker 2 (41:52):
The book will be out this time next year. All
this could be yours. Follow me on Instagram. You all
follow me on Instagram. Follow me on Facebook at Hank p. Ryan,
and sign up for my newsletter and you will get it.
You know. I'm also always looking for what I call
super readers who get an early version of the book.
So we might want to talk about that.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
Oh, I want to ask you that question because you
gave me the early copy of this book. So how
does that differ, Like, how does that copy versus.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
What have copy, which is called the early copy, which
is called an advanced reader copy. Sometimes they're called arcs.
An advanced reader copy has not been has not been
copy edited, and it has not been proof read. So
those books go to reviewers and savvy readers who can
read around the typos and who can read, you know,
read around the dropped lines and the weird printing because
(42:47):
they're just dashed off by the printer. So you read,
so you read the story without being picky about those
kinds of things, and That's why you'll see on an
advanced reader copy it'll say, do not quote from this
book because it isn't the final, final book. And also
don't write that author and tell them there's a typo,
because because.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Of course there's a they now they know you don't
have to tell them. Are any of your books in
development for any TV projects, movie projects?
Speaker 2 (43:15):
They are definitely. There is definitely talk about one wrong
word and I can you not picture I can totally
picture one wrong word. The Murder List also, and the
Other Woman also so far you never know. I mean, like, hello,
anybody anybody interested in the other ones? Yeah? I mean this.
I I have to tell you though, I it would
(43:37):
be cool if there were, you know, television series of
one of them, or you know that kind of thing,
but it doesn't I never really think about it because
my books are written to be books. They're written for
you to read. And my goal is more than having
(43:57):
a television movie or series, is to have the movie
in your mind start to play and when you say
to me, oh, I could just see that. That's that's
what my goal is. So you know, there's things that
might happen, who knows. But if it never happens. That's
fine too, because I love my books as books.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Who could you see as arden Ward?
Speaker 3 (44:21):
Well?
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Did you who?
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Could you guys see it?
Speaker 2 (44:23):
Who would you guys see? Because you know the new actors?
I'm not sure of all of them, but I do
envision tay Leoni could be her. Remember she's could be Hello,
Tay are you out watching? I'm sure she's what she'd
be really good? And also did you see the new
the newish, the newer Thomas Crown Affair? And it's Renee
(44:43):
Russo in that dress in the Thomas Crown that Renee Russo?
Are you out there to so? I'm sure there are
many I'd love to hear from you about who you think,
but I it would be a really great role for someone,
don't you think? Would you like to do it?
Speaker 1 (44:58):
I would love to do it. Wouldn't she lived it?
She'd be a perfect lord. Do you guys have any
other questions?
Speaker 2 (45:09):
And to say it is my favorite?
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Please give him a hug for me? Do you? As
for the audio books?
Speaker 2 (45:27):
What a good question. Do I pick the voice actors
for the audiobooks? Yes? They Yes, I will tell her
she was Gail Shahan is just a genius. They send me,
the publisher sends me. McMillan Audio sends me several audition
tapes where the readers have read just a bit of
(45:47):
the story. And I and I'll tell you that, as
an author, it's very weird to hear someone else's voice
being Arden, being Cordelia, being Monel, because for that year
of me writing the book, I've had their voices in
my head and it's kind of my voice, you know,
it's how I think, how I think they sound. So
(46:09):
it's very disconcerting a little bit to hear somebody else's
voice saying those words. So I listened to all the
audio So for this book and for all of them,
I listened to all the audio auditions, and every single
time there's the one, there's just the one. There's good, good,
good good, wow, and those the other actors are wonderful,
(46:31):
and they've done other wonderful, amazing books, but some you
just hear it. I mean, I remember when I heard
her voice doing the audition tape for one wrong word,
I just burst into tears because I thought, that's art
and Ward, you know, how did she do that? So
it was quite marvelous.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
That's great. Any other questions. Yep, oh great, Yeah, this
is what it's all about.
Speaker 3 (47:07):
Yeah, yeah, they repossessed urgy.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Oh that's wonderful. Thank you. Give for a hug for me.
I got back someone's.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
That's a good story, thank you. Okay. Well, yes, oh
that's a great questioning.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
That is a great question. I do not know the ending.
At the beginning of the book, and we were talking
about this, the group on the couch and I were
talking about this earlier. I I just sit down and
I type chapter the words chapter one, and I think,
let's see what happens, you know, let's just see so
(48:05):
it's really fun for a while. And then at some
point you got to figure out what really happens. And
I get about seven eighths of the way through the
book and I think, okay, this, I better figure this
out now. At some point I got to cut bait
on who is the bad guy? And but and along
the way, I'm thinking about it. Along the way, you know,
(48:27):
is it this person? Is it this person? Is it
this person? And if it is that particular person, why
would they do that? Because a good novel is all
about motivation. It's all about what does someone want and
how far will they go to get it. That's a novel, right,
That's what we're talking about, and people with competing and
conflicting desires crashing into each other is what makes a story.
(48:53):
So the ending has got to wrap up every single
thing in the novel and have you be surprised. But
it has to be surprising but inevitable. I want you
to say, oh, I should have seen that, you know.
Ask got to be totally fair every clue. I'm really
careful that, bless you. I'm really careful that every clue
(49:14):
in to the solution is in the book. I'm just
distracting you from it. All of my magic writer magic
slide of hand. I'm saying, look over here when you
should be looking over here. So I try in my brain.
I try in my head, in my mind, I try
different endings throughout, but I don't really know till I
(49:35):
get there. So when you know, I had one person
say to me, oh, I saw that coming a mile away,
and I said, you did, because I didn't. And so
there's you know, so you know you talk about foreshadowing,
there's not foreshadowing. There's only the foreshadowing. That's the same
as we have in real life. And how many of
(49:57):
us have had something happen to them and you think, oh, oh,
I misread the signs I should have seen that I
should have known. And that's the essence. That's the essence
of crime fiction. So at the end, when I know
what the ending is, whoa, I know it. And that
is quite the moment when I my darling husband in
the back room, in the back of the room knows
the moment that I come out and say I've figured
(50:19):
it out.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
You know, I figured it.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
Out, And it is always a really high point in
the story.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
What is your writing process? Do you write during the day,
do you write late at night or does it.
Speaker 2 (50:30):
Very you know, I have writer pals who get up
at five in the morning and they you know, they
say they love when they're kind of groggy before they've
even had coffee and they go down to their computer
and their you know, unfiltered, gorgeous words. If I went
down to my computer at five in the morning with
no coon, you'd see me my head clunked against the computer.
(50:54):
That's not happening. But I think it's because after all
these years as a reporter, I can tell you every
day when it's almost six o'clock, and I can tell
you when it's almost eleven o'clock because that's when the
news is on and that's when my stories have to
be ready. So I get really good at writing at
like two in the afternoon, when it's the metabolism of
(51:15):
a news story having to be ready, and I can
write like crazy up till, you know, up till six,
at seven, at eight, late at night. I'm great. Sometimes
I'll say to my husband before we go upstairs to sleep,
I say, and it's midnight, and I say, I'm just
going to go say good night to the book, and
(51:35):
I and I open the manuscript. And that's sometimes when
I have my best ideas.
Speaker 1 (51:41):
That's wonderful. Any One, we have time for one more question,
and that's it. Right back there?
Speaker 2 (51:48):
Oh, how do I come up with the titles? So hard?
Sometimes so hard and so easy other times the other woman.
I was reading a story about the ex governor of
South Carolina, Mark Sanford. He's the one who, yeah, everybody's going, oh, yeah,
I know that, okay, So you know, so he told
(52:09):
his staff and his employees and his constituents that he
was out hiking the Appalachian Trail when he was really
off with his mistress. Remember that, yes, And I remember thinking,
who would be the other woman? Why would you do that?
You know, it's such a destructive thing to everyone involved.
And I was reading an article about it and a
(52:31):
person who was involved in this episode said, you can
choose your sin, but you cannot choose your consequences. And
I thought, Oh, that's a book. That's a book. That's
a book, and so what could that be called but
the other woman? And that is what the other woman is.
So sometimes, you know, one wrong word is about is
(52:54):
about rumor and betrayal and scandal and revenge. You know
how one wrong word can ruin your life. So that
made total sense. On the other hand, other books, you know,
I just work and work and work for the titles.
And sometimes usually it's in the text of the novel.
Usually somebody along the way will say something and I think, Oh,
(53:17):
that's that's a perfect that's a perfect title. So it's
different every time. Sometimes it's very difficult. Sometimes with like
one wrong word, it's very easy because it's just so
perfect for the book.
Speaker 1 (53:28):
Well, thank you, Hank, You're thank you an absolute You're
a dream. We could sit here and talk to you
all night. Your stories are fabulous and so interesting and
we loved the book. Hey, coming up Lisa's book Club,
we'll go to the Mandarin Hotel. Well, we will host
doctor Paracone, who is a celebrity dermatologist. That event is
(53:50):
coming up in July. Details to follow.
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