A Plum opportunity: See Janet Evanovich at Texas Book Festival

Talking with Janet Evanovich is a little like reading her books.

Conversation flows easily and touches on a wide range of topics. There are laughs. And there’s depth you might not even realize at first.

“Reading should be a joy,” Evanovich says firmly during our phone interview. “It should be this wonderful experience that you look forward to every day … I want the reader to just move through the book effortlessly. And that actually involves a lot of time. That’s the physical part of writing, that’s the skill part of writing.”

Evanovich knows her medium. She’s penned a dizzying 42 New York Times bestsellers, including 29 Stephanie Plum books. Plum returned Nov. 1 in “Going Rogue” (Simon and Schuster, $28.99), the newest volume in Evanovich’s series about a bounty hunter, her family (found and biological) and the two special men in her life. Evanovich comes to Austin on Nov. 6 as part of the Texas Book Festival.

She mulls and maps her transitions to carry readers along on Stephanie’s adventures, which in “Going Rogue” get rolling after office manager Connie is kidnapped as part of a plot to acquire a mysterious coin. Back for the ride is tart-tongued fan favorite Grandma Mazur, a fictionalized amalgam of Evanovich’s own grandmother, aunt and more recently, actress Debbie Reynolds, who played the character in the 2012 feature film “One for The Money.” And of course, we see Stephanie carom between steady romantic interest Morelli and alluring, hyper-competent private safety whiz Ranger.

Both men have roots in Evanovich’s start as a writer in the romance genre: “Morelli is the guy you’re probably going to end up marrying and Ranger is the man who is going to be the fantasy in your head for the rest of your life.” They’ve also anchored Stephanie as she’s matured in both her personal and professional lives.

“There’s been a lot of years of Plum, and I think in (“Going Rogue”) we really see how she has evolved,” Evanovich says, adding that Stephanie’s achieved a certain level of competency at work and in her romantic choices. “I think she's starting to understand more about herself, her strengths and her weaknesses, and what's going on with the men in her life.”

Just as important are the women who surround her. The supporting cast of Grandma Mazur, Connie and irrepressible Lula, among others, helps shape a very intentional part of Stephanie’s existence.

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“One of my agendas is family, and not just the family you were born into, but your community, your co-workers, all of these people that make up your world,” Evanovich says.

Next on the horizon are, naturally, more books. The 30th Plum novel is slated for November 2023, and there’s her new “Recovery Agent” series, which launched in March. It features an Indiana Jones-like globe-trotting treasure hunter for hire, Gabriela. And perhaps there’ll be more adventures onscreen. “I have a brand-new agent who is amazing and has people hard at work for me,” Evanovich says. “I think maybe we’re finally going to get some television, which has been the missing component in my career.”

Until then, she’s glad to escape each day into the worlds she’s invented to create new stories for her readers.

“My goal, my little niche in life, is to be an entertainer,” Evanovich says. “You know, when you’re having a bad day and you just want to sit down and have a glass of wine or maybe a cup of tea and have maybe 45 minutes of a happy experience, that’s what I want to do. That’s who I want to be.”

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If you go: Janet Evanovich at Texas Book Festival

Janet Evanovich will talk about “Going Rogue” at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 6 at First Baptist Church, 901 Trinity St., as part of the Texas Book Festival. Tickets are $37 and include a copy of the book. Purchase at texasbookfestival.org. A signing session follows the event.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Janet Evanovich is coming to Texas Book Festival; here's how to go