Momentum quickly followed with
Laughing Corpse in 1994. For the rest of the decade and into the new millennium, her popularity rose with each new Anita Blake book. (Photo credit: Richard Nichols)
2006 has been a busy year for the St. Louis writer. She wrote the new Anita Blake books, the paperback
Micah in the spring and the hardcover
Danse Macabre in the summer. In the winter (December),
Mistral's Kiss will be published, the fifth book in Hamilton's series about Meredith "Merry" Gentry, a faerie princess of the Unseelie Court who is also a private eye.
Born in Arkansas and raised in Indiana, Laurell was first inspired to write horror by the stories her grandmother related to her. Laurell would go on to feel that she was destined to become a writer. One, it turns out, who would become known for not shying away from potentially controversial aspects of storytelling, such as sexual situations and violence.
Hamilton lives in St. Louis with her family and is active in animal charities. Her Web sites can be found at
www.laurellkhamilton.org and
www.laurellkhamilton.com.
Why did Micah come out only in paperback?Hamilton: The publisher wanted to try something new—novellas (we are calling them Novel-lites) in paperback between hardback books. So this was the first experiement to see how it would go over. It did go well, and more are planned. It does give me the opportunity to do things I have been planning for a while but just somehow never seem to make it in to the books.
The Killing Dance was originally called Dance Macabre. Your new Anita Blake hardcover is called Danse Macabre. Why did you decide to call this book that title?Hamilton: I had been wanting to use that title for years. The first time, I was told I couldn't because Stephen King had a book out by that title. This time, I got the go-ahead. It is also the name of the dance club Jean-Claude owns.
Because Micah and Danse Macabre were both published this year, does that mean another Anita Blake book won't be out for a while?Hamilton: I'm almost finished with the next Anita book. A couple more weeks should see it done with the first draft and then off to my editor. I don't have a publication date, yet. But it should be out sometime next year.
What are some of your favorite vampire books?Hamilton: Camilla by Sheridan Le Fanu is still a sensuous and frightening tale. Even after a century. The writing is smoother and more "modern" than a lot of stories from the same time period. The nonfiction book that stands out for me is
The Natural History of the Vampire by Anthony Masters. I first discovered it in high school, and it is still one of my favorite reference books for vamps. It was one of the earliest books I came across that had a large bibliography in the back. One of the things I've learned in reference books is that if the book does not contain an extensive list of books that that book itself has referenced, then you are often getting merely the opinion of [that] person, the author of that one book. I also have a copy of
The Vampire Book by J. Gordon Melton on my shelves. It contains more popular culture and covers more modern cases, and also has a nice bibliography. And no list is complete without Anne Rice's
Interview With the Vampire. That was, and still is, a most lovely book.
Was getting pigeonholed as a "vampire writer" ever a concern to you early on in your career?Hamilton: No. First, I don't think of myself as a vampire writer. Because there are lots of other kinds of monsters in my books. Funny how no one ever says someone is a werewolf writer. My main character isn't even a vampire. But there is something about putting a vamp in your stories that does indeed make people label you as a vampire writer. My books are mysteries, romance, fantasy (some people have even called them science fiction), but because there is some horror elements in every book, and vampires in most, I did get pigeonholed. But I'm OK with that. A pigeonhole is only a burden if you don't like where you've been shelved. I am writing exactly what I want to write in exactly the way I want to write it. There is nothing better, as a writer is, than that is.
Do you allow your characters the luxury of taking the story in an unexpected turn, or do you stick to the original outline? Any examples?Hamilton: Outlines were meant to bend, or break. At least for me. I will never sacrifice characterization for plot. The plot can be reworked; character growth, once screwed up, is almost irretrievable. I don't always like the choices my characters make, but I am amazed that they were "alive" enough to make the choice, to argue with me. I've finally made peace with the fact I'm wrong, a lot.
Example: Early in the series I would have bet good money that Jean-Claude would never be a romantic lead. I was so tired of the vampire as a romantic figure. I mean, they are walking corpses, what's so hot about that? That was honestly how Anita and I both felt in the first book,
Guilty Pleasures. I swore that I'd kill him before he ever became a true romantic lead. It would take me two more books before I began to understand that I couldn't kill Jean-Claude off, that losing him would hurt Anita, and me. Anita is like most of my friends—I can give them dating advice, but they rarely take it. Career advice, I don't even try. I would like to see Anita truly happy for more than moments at a time, but I no longer know the route we will be taking to get there.
Is the Anita series proof that a genre novel can be a best-seller, too?Hamilton: I think the question answers itself.
Cerulean Sins debuted at #2 on the
New York Times best-sellers list and stayed on for four weeks. I think
Narcissus in Chains debuted at #5 and stayed on for several weeks. If you include my Merry Gentry series, where I have done for the fey of Celtic myth and folklore what I did for vampires, brought them out of the closet and mainstreamed them, then my last four books have made the list.
What are the origins of the Church of Eternal Life? How important is it to the Anita Blake series?Hamilton: When I sit down to write, I always think—if this true, then what? It's part of how you're told to write science fiction, but I think it is equally valid with horror or fantasy. If vampires are real in Anita's world and they have rights and freedoms, the whole nine yards, then what next? What would that mean for a modern-day America? The Church of Eternal Life was one of the things that came from that early brainstorming session. The idea that if vamps were real, that people would want to be one. Here was a church that didn't require a leap of faith. You want to know what's it like to be dead, as a church member. Most people don't believe in [the] immortal soul anymore, not really. I think if you don't sweat that little detail, then people would be signing up in droves for a little guaranteed immortality. It's still one of the most disturbing ideas that I've come up with, at least to me. I'm hoping we'll be seeing more of the Church in book 12 (as yet untitled) of Anita, but I can't promise.
Hamilton: Welcome to the world of Anita Blake—zombie raiser and vampire hunter. A world not dissimilar to our own, if we woke up tomorrow and everything that went bump in the night was real.
I intended for this to be a mystery series with horror overtones. Combining hard-boiled detective mysteries with horror. This is also where we first meet Jean-Claude, who was to play a larger part than I ever intended, and Edward the hit man, who kills monsters because humans are too easy. Edward was intended to be so alien to everyone's experiences that he would truly be someone no one could really like—respect maybe, but not like.
B. Laughing Corpse.Hamilton: With this book we further explore Anita's world and what her life is like. We get to see where Anita draws lines. Who was the bigger monster? Humans willing to do anything for money or monsters themselves? What did it mean to be a monster? It had to be more than just what you were told it had to be [by who] made you. Not all monsters are easily recognizable just by looking.
C. Circus of the Damned.Hamilton: What does it mean to have power? Power over another? And how do you handle it when the other is you? It was while writing this book that I realized I couldn't follow my plan: to kill Jean-Claude. Not only would Anita miss him, but so would I. I introduced the character of Richard to forestall Jean-Claude's ever becoming a romantic lead. I swore long and loud to everyone who would listen that Anita and Jean-Claude would never be a couple. Edward makes another return, and we introduce Larry Kirkland, zombie raiser in training.
D. The Lunatic Café.Hamilton: This was actually one of my very few trunk books I have that got cannibalized and became the
Lunatic Café. It was also where we learned a lot more about the werewolves and their culture. I drew heavily on Greek and Norse mythos for the hierarchy and language the wolves would use amongst themselves. Edward is back yet again, a character I truly thought everyone would find despicable in some sense. But he had already developed quite a following of his own.
E. Bloody Bones.Hamilton: This was Anita's first out-of-town adventure. Branson, Missouri's answer to Nashville. We also see our first fey in this series. I thought I knew a lot about the fey when I wrote this book. Later, when I started research for the Merry Gentry series, I realized how little I really knew about Celtic myth and folklore.
F. The Killing Dance.Hamilton: I originally wanted to title this book
Dance Macabre, after Jean-Claude's dance club. But my publisher didn't want me to use the same title as the Stephen King book, so it got retitled after a sexual euphemism among the werewolves. Which is only fair, as they are one of the focuses of this story. This is also the first time we have actual sex on paper.
G. Burnt Offerings.Hamilton: This story focused more on the vampires and their hierarchy. What was their culture like? How did they run their own group? So we got to see the politics that are inherent in the vampire life via the Council, who are basically the vampire government. We also learn more about the wereleopards than Anita ever wanted to know.
H. Blue Moon.Hamilton: Out of town again for Anita, this time in Tennessee. We find out that not every werewolf pack works the same, though the vampires are frighteningly deadly everywhere we go. We also continue our learning curve on the wereleopards. Sex again!
I. Obsidian Butterfly.Hamilton: Anita goes to Edward's aid in New Mexico. This one is the Edward book. I was just as curious as fans were as to who was Edward really? What was his day-to-day life like? Surely he had one. Where did he live? What did he do when he wasn't killing things?
This was also the hardest monster to come up with. What would frighten someone like Edward? It took me weeks of research to find the monster that'd scare Edward, and anything that would scare Edward [would] certainly scare the heck out of me.
J. Narcissus in Chains.Hamilton: I honestly set out to simplify Anita's love life in this book. Boy, was I wrong. More and more complex it grows.
K. Cerulean Sin.Hamilton: This book is where Anita faces the realities of what her life is. What she had planned for herself is never going to come around. What is love? What is lust? What is friendship? How do you tell them apart? Is violence always the answer? Is there a different way to accomplish your goals without killing or being killed?
L. Kiss of Shadows.Hamilton: This was the debut of Merry Gentry—fairy princess/private eye. Like Anita, this is set in our world, with a twist. The fey have taken up residence in the United States when they were thrown out of Europe.
I have written five Anita books in a row and really needed a break. Besides, no one was writing the fey the way I wanted to see them.
M. Caress of Twilight.Hamilton: This book is about power. Power of love. Power of politics. Merry is beginning to realize what it means to rule. To truly rule, not for yourself but for those you're ultimately responsible for. She is starting to see what that means, and what it may cost her in the long run.
N. Seduced by Moonlight.Hamilton: This is still a work in process, and I am really bad at hinting. I always give away too much, so I will say nothing. Sorry.
Are networking conventions and other places writers gather essential to long-term success these days?Hamilton: Yes, and no. At the beginning of your career, very, yes. First, dress for success. You can be dramatic—by all means be yourself—but don't show up in jeans and a T-shirt, unless you look really good in jeans and a T-shirt. Be clean, neat, presentable. This is a business; treat it that way. I highly recommend dressing nice, so you don't look hungry.
By that, I mean, if you look and act like you need this job, need this contract, need to sell a book, people will run from you, or treat you badly. If you act businesslike, and not like the fate of the world, or least your sanity, rides on this editor's opinion, you'll do better. Trust me. I speak from experience. Act confident, no matter how you feel inside. Have business cards made, but [be] sure they look good, not cheap. You can do some pretty nice ones on most computer printers these days. But they must not look cheap.
You can be the best writer in the world, but at a convention no one is reading your writing, they're just seeing you. Remember that. If you present yourself badly, you hurt yourself. You don't have to be brilliant, just professional. [I've] had breakfast meetings, lunch meetings, dinner meetings, snack meetings, every kind of meetings, over the years. I think, of all those meetings, I sold one short story, and no books. Was it wasted time? No. Some of my fellow writers (members of my writing group), Deborah Millitello and Mark Sumner, to name two, sold more short stories than I did, at the same meetings. It led to a book contract for Mark. So it wasn't wasted. You never know what contact will pay off. I met my first agent at a convention. Though that is highly unusual. But be wary, some people that go to conventions are not always as good as they seem. Anyone can claim to be editing an anthology or be an agent. Get the agent's client list. Find out who they represent.
If they are legitimate, then they will have people you can call, that will tell you what kind of job they're doing as agent. Though bear in mind that the agent isn't going to give you names of people that think they suck.
Anita Blake has come to understand the world is not simply black and white, but has shades of gray in it as well, and it's happened in a very natural progression. Was this something planned from book one, or did it happen as the characters matured? Hamilton: When I first researched Anita's world I talked to policemen for the first time in depth about their job. I learned something of the cost of the job. I watched my brother-in-law go from bright and shiny to tired. As I continued to research for Anita, I talked to combat veterans and was privileged to have them share some of their experiences with me. Because Anita really has a violent level that is far above most police work. I use to joke she lived in a combat zone until I did one book where she visited what amounted to a real combat zone, and she was out of her depth. Book nine,
Obsidian Butterfly, we visited Edward's world and saw something closer to real soldiering.
It was frightening. But as I talked to men, and some women, about their lives, I realized that to keep Anita at the level of violence that she was would have a price. Part of that price is innocence, and the knowledge that the world is not black and white, and answers are not as simple as they seem.
Anita had to go through this process, or it would have felt like a betrayal of those people who spoke with me and shared their experiences.
Your grandmother told you horror tales taken from the hills of Arkansas, leaving you with the thought "Rawhide and bloody bones will get you if you aren't good." Do you ever think back to those stories for influence or inspiration?Hamilton: I don't really think back to my grandmother's stories for inspiration, but I think that I have absorbed those stories into the pores of my being.
It was simply an accepted fact that ghosts were real, that the dead didn't always rest easy, that things could move by themselves, and that simple things could be frightening. I used to blame my family's penchant for macabre true stories and other real-life tragedies for my dark turn of mind. Recently I've had to rethink that. My daughter is 8, and she loves mummies. Her favorite book for ages was
Cinderella Skeleton, where all the characters are ghouls and such and the main character loses a lot more than just her slipper running down the stairs. It's made me remember that long before my mother's death, when I played cowboys and cowgirls, it wasn't enough for the chairs to be tall cliffs. No, we had to have a pit of rattlesnakes at the bottom of the cliff, so we'd be bitten to death. A fall just wasn't horrible enough. My daughter's childhood is making me rethink my own. Apparently it wasn't early tragedies that made me this way. Maybe, just maybe, it was the way I came.
Anything else you'd like to add?Hamilton: If anyone would like more info on Anita or Merry, we have the first chapters of each up on our Web site:
www.laurellkhamilton.org.
We also have a message board, the book covers from all over the world, links to nifty sites, photos from various cons and signings, more interviews, all kinds of Anita and Merry merchandise and a link to Pet Finders and Granite City Illinois APA, in case you looking for a new friend who really needs a home.
And lastly, please remember to spay or neuter your pet. It is the kind thing to do.
