If you read today’s Buzz, you saw but a small portion of my exclusive interview with Anita Blake scribe Laurell K. Hamilton. This is the interview in its entirety.
Matt Knicl: Who do you feel is your target audience?
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Laurell K Hamilton: I don’t really target an audience. I write and if I’m enjoying it and having fun then I hope that the reader will enjoy it and have fun. In all honesty, when the sexual content was lower the demographics were 11 to 60 plus, women as well as men. I think the comic book has brought a lot of men in, but we’re seeing more men in line.
Matt: Some fans feel you put parts of your personal life into your books. Do you feel this is true or not?
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Laurell: No. I put very little of my personal life on the page.
Matt: How much of the negative and positive fan feedback do you allow to influence your writing?
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Laurell: I’m going to quote Thornton Wilder at you. He said criticism, negative or positive, should never end up on the written page. The people who love you can’t take too seriously because then you think you’re wonderful, and nobody’s that wonderful. And the people that hate you – that’s not true either because they hate you. They don’t know you. They hate you because of words on paper. I actually don’t read any critique or criticism; I don’t read any of it. If it’s negative, you sit there and feel bad and if it’s positive you don’t feel like you can live up to it. So either way it messes with your head. As a working writer, you just can’t afford to get caught up in it.
Matt: Anita Blake set the stage for a new subgenre focusing on single supernatural female detective and I’m sure you’ve seen some of those clones on the market today. How do you feel about those series and do you think they add or detract from your series’ popularity?
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Laurell: I don’t know if they add or detract from what I’m going for. I toddle along my merry way, and as of June 15th Blood Noir will be the #1 book on the New York Times fiction list. So, I’m doing fine. So many people have taken my ideas and made a jumping off point and actually made something very fresh, like Charlaine Harris and MaryJanice Davidson. Others do read like lukewarm me. I do think people would be better off writing something that’s their own unique voice rather than imitating. But, what I’m told is a lot of people are breaking into fiction because there’s such a large market. I created a genre in a time in publishing when a lot of things are having hard times. I’m doing very well, but even my genre as a whole that I’ve made popular is a bright light in a time when other parts of publishing are not.
Matt: Is there any one of those series that you just absolutely don’t like?
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Laurell: I don’t do the negative thing. I’m a big believer in what energy you put out is what comes back to you. So if you put out negativity, that’s what’s going to come back to you. Just be positive. Life’s too short.
Matt: What is your basic reaction to those who you’ve called “closeted fans” - those who criticize the sex scenes in your books?
Laurell: Well, the critics swear they don’t read the books and yet every book that comes out they criticize minute details of the books, so obviously they’re reading them. Or, they’re criticizing them without having read them. The sex scenes - why does it bother everybody here in America? When we toured Italy I literally had to defend myself the other way. They were asking me why she hadn’t had sex sooner - she was not a modern women because she had not had sex. I spend all my time here in this country defending my choice that she’s had sex and in Italy I had to defend the choice that she didn’t have it sooner. I don’t really understand why everyone’s having such problems with the sex scenes. One of the things I’ve said is, “Would you be happier if I had her slaughter more people and have no sex?”, and some people actually say, “Yes. Slaughter and kill and maim.” The sex bothers them more than that and I think that’s an odd thing. I don’t understand why violence doesn’t bother them, but the sex is very disturbing.
Matt: Why did you choose to add more sex as the series progressed?
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Laurell: I think I got tired of killing things. The level of violence was so stark and so sad sometimes, very hard to write, that the romance and the sex - the emotional issues - seemed to me more life-affirming than killing everything. It’s only fiction and I only write about it, but working on, you know, the serial killer unit on paper for ten years and more; that’s a long time to be researching true crime and looking at that kind of stuff. I just wanted something a little softer. I didn’t do it as a conscious decision, but once it came on paper it just felt like a good balance to all the violence and the death - something more life affirming.
Matt: What year does the current Anita Blake book take place in?
Laurell: That’s an interesting question. When I started the series it was set in the late 80s early 90s; pre 1994, and I tried to keep it that way. Over ten years has passed here, but in Anita’s world I don’t think five have passed. I finally decided I had to stop keeping her stuck in time and she needed to work with computers and cell phones. Since 9/11 too many changes have taken place in the country - she was so retro. Even though technically the year shouldn’t be past the mid 90s the past few books I made the decision to update her technology and bring her up to speed.
Matt: Why did you choose the non-St. Louis setting for Blood Noir?
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Laurell: Jason decided he was ready to go out of town and introduce me to his family. I know that sounds weird, he’s an imaginary person, but I’ve been writing this imaginary person for ten years or more and he’s like a friend who comes and says, “It’s time.” He choose his hometown, not me.
Matt: Why did you choose Jason as the central “boyfriend” for this book?
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Laurell: I’m not sure boyfriend’s the right term, but I can’t think of a better one. This was Jason’s story. This really was where we got to see Jason’s family, Jason’s background and learn a lot about him that we didn’t know. I thought it was very cool that he’s been in every book but one since book number five and here we are at book sixteen and we learn new things about him - he grows as a character. It was his story and it wasn’t a choice. Once I knew what the plot was it had to be Jason’s.
Matt: Are there any of the secondary male characters that you are planning to explore more in-depth in the future?
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Laurell: Yeah. I have no idea when it will fall in the schedule, but I’m hoping to have Anita go home with Micah to meet his family. I’m hoping to revisit some of Nathaniel’s past. Hoping to see more background for Jean-Claude and Asher - Damian as well. I’ve got a plot for Damien. And we’re going to be seeing Edward on stage in the next book.
Matt: What can we expect to happen to see from the next novel?
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Laurell: Well, we’re going to be out of town again. And Anita is going to be as a U.S. marshal hunting a very, very bad vampire with Edward and some of the other marshals that are in the preternatural program. We’re actually going to see her go out and do that part of her job more than we’ve gotten to see her.
Matt: How do you feel about the Marvel comics adaptation of Anita Blake’s first book, Guilty Pleasures? Is it true to what you intended?
Laurell: Since every page of it goes across mine and my husband’s desk, we get to see it at every stage and help it along. Yeah, I’m pretty happy with it and I think it’s very true to the books and very true to the vision at the time. It’s been very interesting working on the comics since I don’t draw. And it’s been very interesting working on script because my husband and I did First Death, a prequel to Guilty Pleasure written totally for comics and it was very interesting to see what comics has as a strength as a form of media. The whole idea of a picture being worth a thousand words was so very true. I write novels and I have to describe everything. Every room, every piece of clothing; if I don’t describe it it’s not there. And with comics it’s mostly dialog and a little bit of direction for the artist and the artist does the work for you. It was great. It was darn near magical. From this little bit of writing look at all we got! I’ve really enjoyed working on the comics and I was just very lucky to have my own personal comic geek in my husband so he could explain this brave new world to me.
Matt: Are there plans to continue after Guilty Pleasures with each book adapted as a comics?
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Laurell: Yes. Sales are doing very very well and we actually have seen the first pencils for the beginning of Laughing Corpse and the cover for the first issue of Laughing Corpse I believe is going to be up at Comic Con. We’re seeing the character sketches for new characters that appear in Laughing Corpse that did not appear in Guilty Pleasures. We’re rolling right along.
Matt: Hypothetically, how would you feel if Marvel were to put Anita Blake into the mainstream Marvel Universe and live in the same world as Iron Man and Spier-man?
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Laurell: I think that would be a copyright problem. I mean, I’ve been a fan of Spidey for years, but of course Spidey’s having such a bad year. I’ve stopped reading Spider-man. It’s too depressing. But, I think it would just be a copyright problem between their universe and mine. I’m not counting it out. I’m not saying we couldn’t come to an understanding, but we did do a variant cover for First Death where Anita is surrounded by the Marvel Zombies and I have to say that was really really cool to see all the Marvel characters with my character standing in the middle.
Matt Knicl: My name is Matt Knicl. I'm a U of I alumn and one of those unemployed English majors Garrison Keillor likes to make fun of. I've been reading comics since high school and one day I would like to write them. My goal is to expose readers to what is out there in the world of comics and using my English powers, show what is worth reading or not. I can be reached at buzz.comics@gmail.com.
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the217
Buzz Magazine
Matt Knicl
My name is Matt Knicl. I'm a U of I alumn and one of those unemployed English majors Garrison Keillor likes to make fun of. I've been reading comics since high school and one day I would like to write them. My goal is to expose readers to what is out there in the world of comics and using my English powers, show what is worth reading or not. I can be reached at buzz.comics@gmail.com.
Vince (Vince) says:
(Posted June 19th, 2008 at 2:29 pm)
Haven’t read any of Hamilton’s books, but that whole sex vs. violence thing is fascinating, regardless of what kind of fiction you’re talking about.
It’s hardly the same thing, but I do scrape the edges of the fanfiction circles, since I periodically write for that and more often read snippets to see if I can get interested (usually, I don’t), but even on online circles, violence is generally more acceptable than sex. They’ll accept disebowelment more easily than a sex scene.
Cultural reasons aside, violence certainly is easier to do than sex, I think, just like a confrontation between characters is much easier to manage via a fight scene than a tense, chess-like conversation. I remember reading an arrogant little introduction by an aspiring writer, a fanfic writer, where he pretty much lauded himself for having the “balls” to represent sex in his story. Naturally, as this sort of thing comes across like a challenge, I looked to see how he did it. I was treated to page after page of mind-numbing, banal, high school-inspired love-themed insipidness. Y’know, the standard “oh, you’re so wonderful,” “I love you so much,” “I’ll put you over my duties (even though it’s clearly irresponsible and unprofessional),” “you’re so good in bed, I wish I didn’t have to get up,” blah blah blah, with a status quo that persists with the only exceptions being ineffectual outside influences and minor misunderstandings that get cleared up in a page or two (”I’m sorry that I was so busy fighting that I didn’t come and save you… I wasn’t thinking (wtf?!)”).
At that point, it hit me like a small fish wielded by a dancing man in khakis, sex and interesting romantic relationships are very difficult to write. I mean, I knew this in my gut, as I’m sure you remember that I generally tended more towards violence, antagonism, and discomfort in my stories, but this was probably the first time I consciously thought it. It really put perspective on things, as well as highlighting things I need to try out.
Not really related to the topic, I know, but I wanted to put it out there.