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.

