I had to stop reading a Janet Evanovich book on a train once because I was laughing so loudly that people were staring. On another occasion, I was completely ticked off that my train pulled into the station because I had to close the book on a particularly juicy sex scene between bounty hunter Stephanie Plum and her cop boyfriend Joe Morelli.

“Both good things,” Evanovich said with a laugh when I shared this in our recent interview on the day before her latest Stephanie Plum book release – Finger Lickin’ Fifteen -- and the start of its book tour. It must be noted that the day we spoke, June 22, was also the day doughnuts were created in 1847.

“I heard that on the radio this morning,” I told Evanovich, prompting another laugh from the bestselling, wildly popular author whose characters spend an inordinate amount of time consuming the sugary confections.

This is the thing about Evanovich. She appeals to our most basic cravings and appetites because she knows how to feed them. Her books are bawdy, salty, sexy, adventurous and outrageous. If you add in predictable, logic says that would mean dull, but on the contrary, she manages to be consistently entertaining.

“My readers, for the most part, reflect the attitude of my books -- that this is basically a happy experience,” Evanovich said. “They come out to my signings and go to my Web site and they’re generous, enthusiastic, and warm. Once in a while you get someone who feels Ranger hasn’t had enough time with Stephanie, but that is a very small minority.”

Ranger, for those who aren’t fans (yet), is the other love interest in Stephanie’s life. Evanovich’s fans remain at about a 50-50 split on which one is best for her: the hunky Italian cop (Morelli) or the smooth Latino bounty hunter (Ranger). There are Web conversations and YouTube.com videos galore on these New Jersey-based characters, many speculating on who should play them in the movie (the film rights were sold to Columbia Tristar in 1994 but there is currently no movie).

“They’re the classic bad boy hero,” Evanovich said. “They’re who we would all want in our fantasy. Maybe not in reality, but this is fiction. They’re good-looking, over-sexed in a non-threatening way, they offer protection and they’re respectful of Stephanie. Listen, I’m as liberated as anybody, but I don’t want to kill my own spiders. I think that’s true of almost all women.”

When I told her that several people I spoke to wondered if Stephanie would ever get married, we got to talking about how passionately people project onto her characters.

“I think that’s fascinating,” she said.

However, when you look at TV shows with sexual tension in the plot (i.e., Cheers, Moonlighting), they were never the same once the parties got together.

“In real life, marriage is the beginning,” Evanovich said. “In fiction, it’s the end. I’m the first person I please and I’m having a lot of fun the way things are.”

If there’s one overarching thing I learned about Evanovich in our hour-long conversation, it’s that she doesn’t just have fun, she knows how to live in the present.

“I never really thought about it,” she said when I mentioned it. “I’ve always thought of myself as delaying things. I don’t go on vacation, I’m always gonna lose weight next week. But I think I do live in the present. I’ve structured my life to do what I want to do every day. I take twenty-minute vacations. I live in New Hampshire in the woods. I can go outside and watch turkeys walk by. Or I can go to the river. I have a home in Naples, Florida, and I’m at the beach in five minutes.”

Simple pleasures have ruled Evanovich’s life. She was a stay-at-home wife and mother before becoming a published author, first in the romance genre (after a 10-year journey, the burning of rejection letters, and a surrender that led her to the world of temping) and then, in a calculated move, as the creator of Stephanie Plum in the mystery genre. She was 51 years old when One for the Money launched the series in 1994.

“I’m the poster child for persistence,” she said. “If anybody takes anything away from my story, it’s that you can have many lives. This business that you have to be a professional, that you have to do it now, that you have to accomplish things when you’re 20, I say, ‘No, you don’t.’ We live in this fabulous country. If you can enjoy being a mom, enjoy being a mom. Too many of us are waiting to enjoy the future.”

Not Evanovich. As the kid who could always draw, she majored in fine arts at Rutgers University. She got married in 1964 and loved being home with her children.

“I’ve never understood women who felt locked in the house all day,” she said. “For me it was about coloring books and reading children’s books. We baked brownies and stuffed chickens. It was a healing time, a time when I was allowed to get myself together.”

Once the kids got older and she had more time, Evanovich didn’t anticipate painting being a lucrative career, so she tapped into her love of telling stories and began writing.

“I could be just as happy baking a cake as writing books,” she said.

As a born and bred New Jersey girl who knows intimately the Trenton streets Evanovich writes about and the “dialect” of her rough-and-tumble characters, I for one am glad she didn’t go the Betty Crocker route.

My train rides just wouldn’t be the same.

Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.