The Horror of Hamilton
01/10/2003 . Source: Ben Sharpe 

Laurell K Hamilton on the eleven Anita Blake novels she has written to date, and why the series is a regular visitor into the upper reaches of the New York Times bestsellers list.

Laurell K Hamilton has written eleven Anita Blake novels to date, and the series is a regular visitor into the upper reaches of the New York Times bestsellers list. Her novels, blending preternatural horror with cunning sleuthing and unforgettable characters, are now required reading for any fan of vampire stories, horror and well ... just fabulous storytelling. Ezine thinks she's great, and we were really very chuffed that she agreed to be interviewed to coincide with the publication of Cerulean Sins . Here's what she had to say...

With eleven Anita books now in print are you finding the stories come easier each time, or are the plots more difficult to develop?

The plots come easier because I find the further into a series I am, the world and characters come so much more to life and give me ideas.

A lot of authors seem to find it the opposite, they get tired. I am not tired, I am having a wonderful time. It is easier to come up with ideas, but I am also finding it is more complicated due to the characters' development and the events my characters have gone through.

At the beginning of the series it was much easier because they were more linear. One book would be straight mystery, one book would be straight horror. But as I've got further into the series I'm using all the genres: every book has a romance element, every book has a horror element, every book has a mystery sub-plot, or a mystery spine that the rest of the book hangs from. So you have to do justice to as much of that as you can and that does make it hard.

There are so many strong central characters in the series - is it hard not to be drawn off at tangents and into each of their back-stories, rather than sticking to the central plot? And related to this, do you have any plans to write stories from Jean-Claude/Asher's early years?

No, I am absolutely not attracted to the idea of back-stories. I am a first person narrator. Anita is my only "eyes" on this series. So I am not attracted to other peoples back-stories.

If Anita doesn't know it, then usually I don't know it or at least not much beyond what she knows. I have no intentions of writing Jean-Claude or Asher's early years. What we will get will be in memories or flashbacks. But that' all.

What happened to Edward? Will he appear again?

Edward is back in New Mexico, still engaged to Donna. I am hoping he reappears in the next book, Anita Book 12 which is as yet untitled.

What first got you interested in all things preternatural?

I have tried to answer this question before, but for the life of me I think the real answer is: I came this way. I used to blame it on being raised on Ozark Mountain ghost stories and the early tragedies in my life. But I now realize, as I look back over my childhood, that I was interested in horror movies and scary stuff long before those things happened. Also, my daughter who has not been raised on horror movies and ghost stories - I purposely did not do this, she has had a much more 'normal' upbringing - also loves and is attracted to scary stuff. Not the same things I was as a child, but she decorates her playhouse as a haunted house. I am beginning to think it is just genetic.

Was it difficult to devise the rules that make your alternate reality seem so, well ... real?

Yes and no. No, it wasn't because this is the way I think. I have a rather concrete way of thinking for a writer, strangely. But I think what helped me a great deal was that I have a degree in biology as well as literature. The sciences will help you think well and more orderly than most of the more literary type classes. It is a different way of looking at the world around you even if it is a 'soft' science like biology. I think my background in science was very helpful in creating the rules that work and make the world more concrete.

Have you been surprised by the level to which readers have become absorbed into Anita's world? What do you think gives the books their extraordinarily addictive quality?

Yes. I wanted the series to be popular but every writer does. But the vehemence and depth of emotion people have invested in this series and the characters is somewhat surprising. As one of my friends says, these are my imaginary friends, these are people I have made up and put down on paper. And some people tend to treat them as more real than I do, they talk about them like they are real people. Which I do to to some extent. I have almost bought them Christmas presents before I realize that there is no way for them to receive them.

What has been disturbing has been the people that have either tried to decide that because I write this, this must be how I live and they seem to have trouble dividing me, Laurell, from Anita the character. Those are disturbing, as are the people who want my life to mirror the books. I am afraid I am a disappointment to them.

The people who can be the most painful to be around are those who have taken the whole series of books so much to heart that they will blame me if the character or story is not going the way they want. Of course there is no way to please everybody, so there is always someone who is unhappy with you. I have had people react as if I had dumped their brother or best friend - to which I want to remind them that these are fictional characters. That level of emotional investment did really surprise me. At the same time, it is very gratifying to know that people are that interested in people I made up in my own head.

I don't know what gives them such an addictive quality. I wish there were a formula I could recite. I have looked at other series that have a long life and sizeable readership, to see what everything has in common. There are only two things they all seem to have in common: strong characters, or characters you can sympathize with or love or hate, and a world that is unique enough that you would want to visit it.

Now maybe with Anita you would only want to visit if you got a safety pass where you knew you would come out the other side alive. But you feel like you could walk the streets there, shop and live there. I think that level of realism is part of the appeal of all long running series. Other than that I don't know how to answer the question.

Which of the books are you most happy with as a writer?

Happy as a writer is a hard question. If you want to know which mystery plot I was happiest with, that would be one question. If you want to know which character development am I most happy with, that is another question. For just sheer happiness on how the mystery came out it would be Guilty Pleasures, The Laughing Corpse and Lunatic Cafe. For favourite villainesses it would be Lunatic Cafe, because it is the first time we meet Raina, a perennial love-to-hate. The only person you can kill and not get rid of.

The Killing Dance, because I did something on paper I swore I would never do on paper because they usually are not well done: a sex scene. But I muscled through and did it, and I think did it well.

So for me, highlights are things I have never done on paper, or not done as well as I would have liked. But each book has it's own special points for me. Obsidian Butterfly not only let me learn more about Edward but, because the supporting cast was not there, I learned a lot about how I write. And believe me Edward is not a joyful travelling companion. But it made me realize just how character driven a writer I am.

Having to create new characters for Anita to interact with made it take longer. I hadn't realized how familiar the supporting characters were, almost as familiar as Anita herself. It was wonderful to see New Mexico, which I had never been too. But that is where he insisted he lived in my head. He argued with me that even though I had never been there that is where he was from. So I went, and it was just perfect. I have learned to quit arguing with my imaginary friends.

I love all the books, but for very different reasons.

How much of Laurell K. Hamilton is in Anita Blake?

Mostly my stubbornness. My grandmother use to call it sheer cussedness. That depth of your personality that when people tell you 'No, you cannot do that' you try harder. Especially if they say it is because your a girl. Anita and I both hate that a great deal. It just makes us more determined to do it. Other than the perverse stubborn streak, the voice. We sound very much alike in speech rhythm and cadence.

I used to joke that Anita was me before therapy. We were more alike early in the series, but I went off and got married, had a child, and live in suburbia with three dogs. Anita went on to have the highest kill-count in literature outside of a war novel. So our lives have definitely diverged. Now that she is nearing thirty we seem to be coming full circle and becoming more alike again. She is beginning to look at herself and be more introspective rather than just reacting. That is one of the hallmarks of being an adult - looking at your life and trying to be proactive instead of strictly reactive.

Do you think Anita will ever settle down and raise a family, or has she gone way too far beyond the boundaries of normal relationships? Do you know what the future holds for her at this stage, or are there a number of potential paths ahead?

We are too far down the road for her to have the white picket fence sort of life. I am hoping though that she finds a relationship that works for her. I have talked to people while doing research that have non-traditional lives. Ménage a trois (two men and one woman) that have lasted more than twenty years. They are doing better than most marriages. I looked at non-traditional relationships because that appears to be where Anita is headed. I cannot see her dumping all the non-traditional stuff and becoming traditional. Though there is still a part of her that desperately wants that.

Despite that, my bets are off the table. I have been wrong so many times on what would occur, who Anita would date, who would be her lover, who would be anything, that I have quit doing more than just giving Anita advice. Like any friend, she may take it, she may not. But it is not my life it is hers. She has surprised me before, so I am keeping my opinion to myself on this one.

Anita books are often like a chose your own adventure book. I give Anita choices A, B and C. She almost always chooses the most difficult one. But what she decides makes a difference on where the other sub-plots go. So it is important. Richard gets three choices and he will choose D - none of the above and go off in a completely different direction. Not one I had planned at all. He is always surprising me. Jean-Claude is the easiest. He always tells me to choose for him.

I do know what mysteries we will be doing in the future, what themes and what monsters. But that is about it.

Will Anita ever leave the US? A lot of your European and Australian fans would love to read an adventure set on their shores ...

Funny you should mention that. Yes, we have tentative plots for Anita to go to London. Unless something else comes up, that will probably be the first out-of-country book for Anita.

And finally ... has Sigmund joined you in the UK? Do you think London is his kind of town?

Sigmund did not get to go to London because, truthfully, none of us thought of it until I got back. And it was too late. Also he has been travelling so much he really didn't want to get on another plane. But I think on my next trip he will definitely accompany me.

Sigmund is not really a city boy. London is a lovely city. It was amazing seeing the Tower of London and the British Museum. It was wonderful to get to walk in the places I have been reading about since I was a young girl. And I know Sigmund would have been as awed by it as I was. But at heart we are both country folks. We got out to the Glastonbury area and that countryside was amazing.

England is so green. It gets so much more rain than the middle of the United States where I live. The weather when we visited was sunny, bright and clear. Only rained one day and was cloudy one. I know all the gardeners were lamenting the lack of rain, but it was still wonderful. I look forward to coming again.

Thanks to Orbit Books (and Ben Sharpe) for permission to post this interview. For more details of their SFF authors and books, visit Orbit at www.orbitbooks.co.uk