How many books has the writer written so far?

Host: And I want... I’m going to start Jodi by saying that "Damn girl". You are so prolific. I mean 19 novels at your 45. I’d like to live in your brain for a few weeks because I think it could be a very exciting place to be, because it must be working overtime. And I hate to be pedestrian by asking you a frequently asked question but you are not interviewed as a number of authors through the course of my career, and I remember, just name drop, Philip Boroff told me that he right standing up in John Grisham writes longhand on legal pads. I’m not sure if he still does but that’s what he used to do. And can you just tell us a little bit about your writing regime? I think I also read that you start a new book. The day after your previous one is... the day after it’s finished or the day after it’s published?
Jodi Picouit: The day after it’s finished.
Host: Oh, my god. What is wrong with you?
Jodi Picouit: I don’t know.
Host: I mean you don’t take a break at all?
Jodi Picouit: Well, that..., not that way because I’m usually overlapping books, you know. I tend to write one book at a time, to be physically writing one book at a time and that’s a bit like I was writing two books at one time for this year. But um... it starts for me with a what-if question. And it’s something that’s keeping me up at night, something that’s bothering me, something that..., you know it just makes me wonder what would I do in that situation. And if I continue to think about it, I know it’s really a good idea for a novel. And if I keep thinking about it, characters pop up like mushrooms. And they begin to take the story away from me. And at that point, I stop everything.
Host: To call security?
Jodi Picoult: No. Here’s the thing. It’s funny. I said this many, many times but writing is successful, schizophrenic. I’m paid to hear voices in my head, right? And so you know
Host: Already then.
Jodi Picoult: Right, but really you know it’s great because you listen to them but you also know that you need to stop and learn as much about these characters as you possibly can because you’ve the authority. So I don’t let myself read a word until I’ve done a boatload of research. And I bet you’re gonna get to that later.
Host: Definitely. Because I mean among many things, that is such a fascinating topic, the way that you research books. But before we get to that I mean, you really do grapple with big issues as you said things that keep you up at night. I mean organ donation, gay rights, abortion death, row bowling, murder in an Amish country, teenage suicide, the right to die... I mean, to name just some of them all kinds of ethical dilemmas and I’m just curious how you get interested in these topics? Do you read things in the paper? Do you see things on television? What picture(s) interest and a particular issue at any given time?
Jodi Picoult: It really depends on the topic. Sometimes it can be a story that I read. When I was coming up for the idea which handles with care, which’s about wrongful birth lawsuits , it actually has its genesis here in New York City. I was on a book tour. I had Sunday morning to do nothing and I picked up a copy of the New York Times and I read a magazine article there about a woman who had sued her OBGYN for wrongful birth. And I was fascinated by it. And I couldn’t get it out of my mind so that really started that particular book rolling. Sometimes it could be my mother telling me nobody knows about the omission, if anyone could find out about them, it will be you. And that’ll be the reason that I...
Host: Your mum is here tonight, too.
Jodi Picoult: Yes, she is. Hi, mum. And you know and then sometimes it’s... I think, a much more organic process, something that I’ve come to worry about because I’m a mum mostly. Something like what are the worst things that you can imagine happening to a kid, you know, a child being kidnapped, a child getting sick, a child dying. All of those things which are very natural fears for parents manifest themselves somewhere in my fiction and I think to some extent and this is completely wrong. I’m very superstitious. I think if I write about it, it will never happen to me. Is that weird?
Host: No, I can see that... I can see that... I can see how you feel that way. Meanwhile you know I should mention the research you do really is extraordinary and so fascinating. I know your newest novel is called Lone Wolf and sort of whose life is that, anyway, meets dancing with wolves. Not really but...
Jodi Picoult: It is to Hollywood...
Host: And not really, but can you tell us a little bit about what this book is about and the kind of research you did for because it’s sort of... two very different ideas in one novel?
Jodi Picoult: Right, the book is about a guy named Luke Warren, who is a very unique kind of wolf biologist. Instead of studying wolves from afar, he actually goes and lives with the wild wolf pack of Canada.