“I went into journalism to learn the
craft of writing and to get close to the world I wanted to write about - police
and criminals, the criminal justice system.
I still look at a newspaper as the center of a community. It's one of the tent poles of the community,
and that's not going to be replaced by web sites and blogs.”
– Michael Connelly
Connelly, born on this date in 1956,
decided to become a writer after discovering the crime mysteries of Raymond
Chandler while attending the University of Florida. Majoring in
journalism and minoring in creative writing, he excelled at both. He started his career as a
newspaper reporter, working in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale
and specializing in the crime beat, of course – Chandler’s influence shining
through.
Eventually he landed at the Los
Angeles Times and then started writing creatively in what would make him a
household name – mystery and crime fiction. I was first drawn to Connelly’s
writing because of his “newspaper style” – concise, to the point, and
riveting. When I read Blood Work, one of the cleverest ideas
for a mystery I’d seen, I was really hooked.
Translated into 39 languages, his
books have garnered every major award for mystery and crime writing, and he has
served as President of the Mystery Writers of America. 
Besides being a journalist, Connelly
said a great incubator for being a writer is simply to BE a writer. “You
need to write. Even if it's just one
paragraph, write every single day."
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