Laurell: I often joke that Anita is me without therapy. But neither is really me. I have a husband, kid, and dogs. None of which Anita or Merry has. Anita and I started out the same age and at the rate we are going I will be using a walker before Anita reaches thirty. But you must mellow out as you age or your head explodes.

Merry is less like me. She is closer to me in age than Anita is. But with Merry, I set out to write a character that wasn't middle class, middle America. I threw out several hundred pages of the first manuscript because Merry sounded too much like a white bread, middle America girl. I wanted something totally different culturally for the fey. I wanted them to have their own unique voice and I think I have achieved that.

Jill: If you could be Anita Blake or Merry Gentry for one day, which character would you choose and what would you like to do in that one day?

Laurell: Hm, that would be a difficult choice. I don't think I would like to be either. They are like girlfriends, though. I give them good advice but they ignore it. Anita always chooses the most difficult path for everything.

Jill: Would you tell us a bit about your background - where you were born, raised, went to school? Did you grow up wanting to be a writer?

Laurell: I was born in Heber Springs, Arkansas. Shortly after my birth, my mother moved in with my grandmother in Sims, Indiana (a hamlet with a population of about one hundred souls), and that is where I grew up. My mother died when I was six years old and my grandmother, Laura Gentry, raised me.

I attended Marian College (now Indiana Wesley University), where I got dual degrees in English and Biology. A writer was all I ever wanted to be. It wasn't until I read Robert E. Howard's "Pigeons from Hell" that I knew what kind of writer I wanted to be. I wanted to write fantasy.

Jill: When you begin a series, do you have an idea of how it will eventually end? Do you know how many more Anita Blake and Merry Gentry stories there will be? Is that a contractual issue or a matter of ongoing inspiration?

Laurell: Anita is an open-ended series. As long as I am having fun with it, I will continue to write Anita. There is no end in sight. I have something like another fifteen plots planned out. And, of course, each book spawns new ideas, new areas that need to be addressed.

Merry is a closed series. It will run to between seven and eleven books total. How many exactly I don't know. But I do know how it will end - sorry, not going to share quite that much. Of course, since it is a fairy tale, we will have the "happily ever after ending." That's it. You never see beyond that in the fairy tale - there is no need to.

Jill: Why St. Louis as your primary setting for the Anita Blake series? What about the city attracts you as a setting for the paranormal?

Laurell: It is where I live. I cannot write about an area I have never visited. I need to walk the streets, feel the air, see the people. That is one reason we have not seen any of Europe in the Anita series yet. I haven't gone yet and I have books plotted for there. So once I go, I will be able to take Anita.

In St. Louis, I can always research an area and visit it immediately. It definitely makes it easier to write about.

Jill: What shaped your worldview of vampires? For instance, were you more influenced by Bram Stoker, Anne Rice, or Barnabas Collins? Or something else entirely?

Laurell: I have always been interested in scary things. As a child, it wasn't enough that you were going to fall over the cliff when we played cowboys. There had to be something horrific at the bottom of the drop, like a nest of snakes.

There is an old Hammer film, "Circus of the Vampires." I watched that when I was a child. I recently saw it again, and there was a French male vampire who wore lacy shirts and had long dark hair. I didn't remember that from seeing it as a child. But it does explain some things.

In high school, I ran across the book "Natural History of the Vampire." I read it so many times I almost memorized it. I just loved it.

I started Anita because no one was writing vampires how I wanted to see them. The same with Merry - no one was writing the fey the way I wanted to read them.

Jill: What do you find harder to write, action scenes or sex scenes? Why?

Laurell: Mostly, it depends on the scene. Each has its own difficulties. Every crime scene is based on something that really happened in our reality. I don't need to make up the gory stuff, it is there already. There are some things I have read that I will never use. I try and make sure that what works in the books, only works because it is using my magic system.

In some ways, sex is more difficult to write because it is harder not to make it seem mechanical - kind of insert tab A in slot B. But once I decided to do sex scenes, I wasn't going to shy away from it. I wondered what it said about me as a writer that I could do the violence and not flinch, but wanted to when sex was involved. I want a kiss to be so believable it gives the reader shivers. But I don't want to do gratuitous sex or violence. It must further the plot or character development or it just doesn't go in.

Jill: I think you write action extraordinarily well. Do you have any practical experience with weapons or does your knowledge of firearms and knives come from advisors, research, or both?

Laurell: Both actually. I not only do research, I have shot most of the weapons Anita uses. When I first started researching guns for Anita, I had only shot two guns in my entire life. One was a .22 pistol, the other .357 Magnum. I had no trouble with either. But the Magnum always ended up pointing at the sky between shots. Anita would have gotten one shot off and the bad guy would have been on her. I find that strength is not what dictates whether you can shoot a gun of a certain caliber or not. I know a man who broke his wrist shooting a .45 revolver because he tried to strong-arm it. Get a good grip and let the gun do its job, don't fight with it.

I found the gun world full of a lot of men who felt a petite woman shouldn't shoot at all. The worst comment came from a gun shop owner who said, "A woman with a shoulder holster looks like she has three breasts." It took me two years to think of a comeback for that. "Does a man wearing a shoulder holster look like he has one breast?"

I chose the Browning because, at the time, it was the biggest gun on the market that I could hold comfortably. Remember, when I began to research guns and write Anita, it was about 1988. There weren't a lot of compact 9 mm on the market then. Yes, I know Anita needs to go gun shopping again now that there are so many compact 9 mm on the market.

Jill: Aside from the major players (Anita, Jean-Claude, Richard, Micah), who is your favorite character in the Anita Blake series and why?

Laurell: I don't think I have one. I love them all. It is what made it so hard when my editor suggested reducing the size of the cast. She wasn't able to name one character to kill off, nor could I. I would miss whoever goes.

Jill: After ten Anita Blake books, your fans have some pretty strong feelings about the characters and what happens to them. How do you handle fan expectations?

Laurell: There were two weeks where I freaked out about being on the New York Times Best Seller List, the hoopla of touring, and some of the fan reaction. That was my time for letting it get to me. For a few brief weeks, I let other people's opinions and demands interfere with my writing. Than I had to find a way to put thoughts of the fame and fan reaction and everything like that away.

There is no way to please everyone. It just isn't going to happen. So in the end I please myself. If the writer is not having fun, then the reader won't either.

Jill: Your characters resonate so strongly that they've inspired a lot of fan fiction. Do you read any of it? How do you feel about your characters in the hands of others, taking on lives apart from the ones you've given them?

Laurell: Fan fic is illegal. Writers who give permission for their characters to be used by others can lose those characters. So no, I do not read fan fic. I don't surf the Internet so it has not been a problem for me. If I don't know about it, then I don't have to do something about it.

I have been approached by other people who want to publish their story about one of the characters, usually from another character's point of view, not Anita's. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And I am humbled that so many people feel so strongly about the characters. But the answer is no. I'm sorry, but that is it. I do suggest that they instead try writing their own stories with their own characters. They should bring their own unique vision to paper. Besides, I am an only child and I don't share well with others.

Jill: A favorite pastime among Anita Blake fans is casting "the movie" or "the mini-series." What actors can you see playing your characters?

Laurell: When the series gets made into a movie or television series, I will be thrilled no matter who gets chosen.

Jill: The women of RBL Romantica read a lot of romance novels, yet you have a following among us due in large part to the sensual and erotic nature of your storytelling. Do you have a favorite sex scene, and if so, what one and what made it special for you? (For me, it's a tie between Anita's first time with Jean-Claude in THE KILLING DANCE and Merry ending Frost's long celibacy in A KISS OF SHADOWS.)

Laurell: I don't know that I have a favorite. I usually end up saying whichever one I am currently working on. Probably because it is freshest in my mind. The hardest part is trying to give equal time to the various guys, and not to make one scene so good that none of the rest can ever measure up, so to speak.

Jill: Anita hasn't had a sexual one-on-one with Jean-Claude since THE KILLING DANCE. In NARCISSUS IN CHANIS, he's almost more Dr. Ruth or big brother dispensing advice than he is Anita's lover. Since there are a lot of us who adore Jean-Claude, we're dying to know how you see Jean-Claude's relationship with Anita evolving in future books!

Laurell: The book I am currently working on is CERULEAN SINS, which will be out February 2003. The first chapter is up at the Fan Club Website and another chapter appears in the paperback of NARCISSUS IN CHAINS. It is the Jean-Claude and Asher book. Anita will be dealing with them a lot, as well as with her job and several crime scenes. So we will see a lot more of Anita with Jean-Claude and their interaction with one another, including a one-on-one with Anita and Jean-Claude. I realized that they had not had time alone together in a few books. So yes, in February everyone will get the chance to see them together again.

Jill: A KISS OF SHADOWS was filled with lots of yummy men. Do you plan to keep them all around for Merry, or will one or two (or three!) come to the forefront in further installments?

Laurell: Merry in CARESS OF TWILIGHT is coming to realize what it truly means to rule and be ruled. So yes, some of the guys are going to have to come to the forefront, so to speak. Not all of them would make a good king, and Merry is starting to realize that. Merry is going to have to consider this for the future. It's not only her life they will be affecting, but the entire court and the direction the fey will be taking. Not all of them would be capable of surviving the political intrigue as King.

Jill: Would you describe your writing routine for us? Do you have an office? Do you listen to music while you write, and if so, what do you listen to? Do you write a set number of hours or pages per day?

Laurell: I do have an office in my home. It really disappoints people to find out it is pretty barren. I have a desk, chair, computer, and a couple of bookshelves with current research books on them. That's it, other than sticky notes stuck up on the walls. The current book is always the sticky notes over the desk. I try to work first thing in the morning with occasional food breaks. I work until my daughter gets home from school. The only thing I need is sunlight or an open view. And even that is not required if the writing is going well enough. I usually keep a cup of tea or bottle of water with me. And I usually write with music of some type playing.

I try to write twenty pages a day now, which is a lot, and some days I do less and others I manage more than that. If it is not going so well, I will stake out a table at a restaurant with a pot of tea and write long hand on a pad of paper. This usually takes me past whatever hump I am trying to get over.

Jill: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

Laurell: Gardening, I love my yard and it is a work in progress. I walk when the weather permits. I will read other writers' works. Watch movies. Play with my daughter, my dogs, or my husband. I really have a rather full life.

Jill: What do you like to read? Who are your favorite authors?

Laurell: Hard-boiled mysteries, which I didn't discover until after college - especially Robert B. Parker's Spenser series and Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski series - and Anne Perry is also a favorite. I really don't read in my field that much. I am also a fan of Sharon Shinn's Archangel series, Rhett MacPherson's cozy mysteries, and Mark Sumner's News From the Edge series.

Jill: I know you have a daughter. How old is she? Is she old enough to understand what her mother does for a living? Is she old enough to read your books?!?!

Laurell: Trinity is now seven. She does understand what I do for a living. She knows that I write books. She describes them as "scary books." She is not old enough to read my books. But at this point she is not interested in reading them. They are beyond her abilities to read at this point. When she is old enough to ask and read them on her own, then I will permit it. My Granny never censored what I read or watched. She figured if I was old enough to ask, then I was old enough to handle it. I always valued that. Of course for my daughter this presupposes she will be in the double-digit age group first.

Again, many thanks to Sarah and Darla for making this interview possible. And, of course, many, many thanks to Laurell for the interview, and for her wonderful books that we all love so much!

~Jill~



Ketchup
April 2005






I'd like to welcome back Laurell K. Hamilton, author of two best selling series. Since her new book - due out this month - is part of the Merry Gentry Series, I'm going to concentrate on that one. For those of you unfamiliar with Merry Gentry, Laurell has given us a new world of the fey. Merry is a faerie princess in a contest for the throne of one of the main courts of the sidhe. In her spare time, she is a private investigator in the city of Los Angeles.

Not only has Laurell given us a new world to explore, she's taken it a step farther and given us a world where it's expected that you sleep with many until you find the one. After you've found the one, you are honor bound to be monogamous. But you can have lots of fun finding that one ...

Beaty: I've been told that the new book will cover the trips to the Goblin Court and the Seelie Court. Are we going to see those two trips completed in this story?

Laurell: No. In fact, we don't get to the Goblin Court in this book nor the Seelie Court. It would have taken at least another 100 pages just to get to the Goblin Court, followed by another 200 pages to get through it.

I finally realized that if I needed 200 pages to get to the Goblins and another 200 for the Seelie Court, that that is another book in and of itself.

Beaty: How did you come up with the title of STROKE OF MIDNIGHT?

Laurell: The naming convention to date has been a little darker each book. Each title was later in the day, since the last book was SEDUCED BY MOONLIGHT, then STROKE OF MIDNIGHT seemed logical. I had also planned on her leaving the Seelie Court at midnight just like Cinderella.

Beaty: I've thought and thought about what it is about your writing that keeps "calling" to me. I've decided it's the characters. They come alive to me in the pages of your books, and I can only go so long without visiting them again - and again. Have any of your other readers explained this phenomenon? What is it about your characters that makes them so alive?

Laurell: First, thank you for the lovely compliment.

The characters are very alive to me, as well. Alive enough that I will find myself seeing something in a store around Christmas time, and think, "Well, wouldn�t that just be the perfect present for Anita, or Jean-Claude, or Galen?" Not the same present, obviously. But some of the characters are alive enough that I think about them like good friends or lovers. They have become part of the people I know so well, or think of so often, that I am reminded of them when I am far away from my desk, and not thinking about work at all. They are very real to me, but not as real as they are to some of the fans. I have had fans ask for the phone numbers or addresses of my fictional characters. Most are simply a little embarrassed when I point out that fictional people don�t have phone numbers and addresses. But a few get angry, or keep insisting. To the ones who insist I say, as an example, "If Jason were real, and were my friend, he�d be mad if I gave his phone number out to strangers." That seems to satisfy some of the over-zealous. Then there is that scary contingent that still insists that I give them the real address. What I write seems so real to them, that they won�t believe that it�s just make believe. I suppose it�s a compliment to the writing, but I have yet to figure out what to say to those people that become angry that I won�t tell them where the "real" vampire clubs are. Or those that insist that I could not write so vividly unless I�d seen at least people to base the characters on. I have disappointed people across the country when I tell them that I do not base any character on a real person. Too many bad things happen in my book for me to use real people. And my rule is, I never lust after anyone that I might actually meet (which pretty much puts most of the population of the country off the board for me), so because of the sexual content, I again, can�t use real people.

Beaty: I've read other interviews that you've given, and it sounds like your characters have their own voice in your mind and that they actually speak to you. Which one/s of the Gentry series characters do you talk to? Do you listen when they talk? Do they listen to YOU when you talk back? *grin*

Laurell: Characters have their own voices, but they don�t actually talk to me. A phrase here and there will come into my head if I�m researching something that that character would be interested in, but actual conversations I�m afraid are a painful thing to come by. If a character is not working for me, I will sit down and write out a conversation where I ask, "Why aren�t you talking to me?" It�s a last resort, but it usually works and gets things moving again. The characters are more a presence at my shoulder sometimes when I write or research. It�s the feel of them inside me; separate, but not. And no, whatever character I am arguing with - because they�ve ruined my plot or are behaving badly to another character - they so do not listen. Because I write first person narration, Merry�s voice is the one that is clearest to me. Her fears, her desires, her triumphs and confusions. Those are what I "hear" most clearly.

Beaty: In the series so far, there have been a few points I'd like clarified that I didn't get from reading the stories. It's probably something you'll cover later, but I'm dying of curiosity and I want to know NOW! *grin* What did Fflur want to talk to Merry about "later" that couldn't be said in front of everyone in the rose room?

Laurell: I can�t tell you what Fflur wanted to talk to Merry about because it is a spoiler. We will get to it, maybe next book, but I won�t promise exactly when, just that we will clear it up.

Beaty: When did Frost touch the ring for the first time?

Laurell: The Queen asks Merry, in A KISS OF SHADOWS, who else the ring responded to besides Barinthus and Galen. Merry replies Doyle and Frost. But try as I might, I cannot find the actual scene where he first touches the ring. Either it got cut inadvertently during the rewrite, or it was one of those out-takes that was supposed to go back in and never made it. Oops.

Beaty: Will we know by the end of the series how Doyle found Merry?

Laurell: Doyle found Merry because he�s the ultimate assassin and can track someone over air itself.

Beaty: Your clothing descriptions allow me to actually "see" the characters in my mind. JC's clothes are to-die-for. LOVE those thigh-high boots! *grin* But I'll never forget the party clothes that the Queen had made for Frost in the first book of the series, A KISS OF SHADOWS. How/where do you get the ideas for all of their outfits? And did Barinthus have an outfit for that ball that we never got to see?

Laurell: I design the clothes for the men. It was Jean-Claude being such a clothes horse that first forced me to be more aware of fashion. But I was very disappointed in the men�s clothing as opposed to the women�s, so I decided to make some men�s clothes that were as pretty and sexy as the women�s clothing. From your reaction, I guess I succeeded. Frost�s outfit was one of my favorites, and yes, Barinthus did have an outfit we never get to see.

Beaty: Do you recycle ideas that don't fit? I keep having visions of some of my favorite characters in GREAT scenes hitting the cutting room floor where I'll never get a chance to see them. So - do you pick them up and put them in some place else? Or do I have to mourn? *grin*

Laurell: Yes, there are out-takes. I have files just for them. Some get recycled, but some actually do go away and are never seen again. Yes, and some are really fun scenes, but they are made mute by decisions of the characters. Choices will make a scene, no matter how cool, not needed, or even contrary to plot and character. Sorry.

Beaty: You're killing me with all the story arcs you've got going. Some of them will be answered soon - as in the next book - and I understand that those need to be carried over. A for instance - Kurag trying to save Siun by trying to get Rhys to name a male goblin that abused him during his torture. I figure that's going to be expanded on at the goblin court in the newest book. That I can handle. But your quietly mentioning during a sex scene the hand of ecstasy and then not explaining it! That is killing me! *GRIN* Soooo ... what's the hand of ecstasy? Has he always had it or is it something new?

Laurell: The hand of ecstasy is an old magic for Rhys, before he diminished as a power. He hasn�t actually regained the hand yet. But also, it�s not what you may think. Ecstasy doesn�t always mean sex, or not sex alone. There are all sorts of ecstasy, for it means to be overwhelmed with delight. Do a little research and you will find that one man�s delight is another�s nightmare. And, sorry, but since we didn�t get to the goblin court in this book, we don�t get to follow up about Kurag�s interest in those that tormented Rhys there. Next book - really, I mean it this time. Mainly because the goblin court will be within the first two hundred pages of book five, and I�ve never written a book that short in my life.

Beaty: How did Merry get the title Princess of Peace?

Laurell: One of her mother�s titles was "Bride of Peace," from her marriage to Prince Essus being the act that cemented the peace treaty between the two courts. Thus, by logic, that makes Merry the "Child of Peace."

Beaty: Speaking of story arcs, how do you keep them all straight? How do you know which ones will be answered in this book and which ones will be carried over?

Laurell: Merry is the most extensively outlined series I�ve ever done - because hers is the most complicated story arc I�ve ever attempted. I was actually forced to "story-board" the entire series before I finished the second book. I cannot draw, so I "story-boarded" in words. I have a wall of sticky notes that holds bits and pieces - main events, necessary plot points, characters yet to come, possible destinies of the main and minor characters. I say possible destinies, because I am never absolutely certain what will happen with a character. Their choices effect their lives and their fates. But, because of the complexity of the politics, the personal relationships, the cultures, and the magic system, I had to plan out enough to make certain nothing conflicted. It is quite a balancing act, and it has taken me four books to truly understand both the plus and minus of writing a series this way. And no, before you ask, I don�t know who will father Merry�s child and be king. I really don�t. That�s too much a thing of chance, and changing circumstance, to be engraved in stone.

Beaty: Since the inception of the series, Merry has been quietly collecting allies. She's obviously going to need those allies in the Seelie court. Is she going to be allowed to bring them along?

Laurell: As of now, yes, she�s going to be allowed to bring her allies to the Seelie court. Though some at the Seelie court will seek to strip her of those hard-won allies. But she is a princess and heir to a throne - that is not someone who is easily bullied. The plan is that some will seek to make her come alone, or almost alone, and she will simply say, "No. We go in with our guard and at least the allies that are our personal lovers. We bring them, or we do not go."

Beaty: I know you'll soon be starting the next Anita Blake book. Can you give us a little bitty teaser? What's one thing that will happen?

Laurell: I�m really bad at little teasers. I always seem to give away too much. Hmm. I know we will be seeing more Asher on stage. Edward will be back. He�ll be bringing back-up to help Anita deal with some very scary vampires that are coming to town. There - a tease, but not to much given away.

Beaty: I always close my interviews by asking one of the characters a question. If you'd permit me, I'd like to ask Kitto one.

"Kitto, you've gotten to know the guards very well (since you're always in the background listening). Knowing that your opinion won't be a reflection of the actual outcome, I'd still like to know your thoughts on who would make a good king? Oh - and I promise not to tell! The other guards will never hear it from me!"

Kitto: "Anyone but me."

Laurell: Thanks so much for making the time to interview me Beaty!

You have no idea how excited I was about doing this interview! I'm a Hamilton addict - I just can't get enough. Thanks for visiting with us, Laurell. We'll be sure to "ketchup" with you again soon

~Beaty~




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