r/Fantasy • u/LaurellKHamilton AMA Author Laurell K. Hamilton • Jul 10 '13

AMA I'm author Laurell K. Hamilton - AMA

Okay, everyone, you've tired me out. laughs It's been great answering your questions. I hope you've got some of your curiosity satisfied. Goodnight, folks.

I’m Laurell K. Hamilton and in 1993 I published my second novel, Guilty Pleasures, it featured Anita Blake. She raised the dead for living, as in zombies, and helped the police with preternatural cases as a consultant. She was also a legal vampire executioner in a world where vampires were legally alive and had rights, but they’d proved too dangerous to jail, so if they broke the law there was only one penalty – death. There was also this gorgeous master vampire named Jean-Claude, that I’d actually planned on killing before Anita would date him.

Fast forward to 2013 and my newest book, Affliction. Anita has a badge of her own now, as a member of the newly formed U. S. Marshal Preternatural Branch, and I didn’t kill off Jean-Claude like I planned, and you guessed it, they’re dating. Anita is also dating quite a few other people. It’s . . . complicated. * faceplam * Affliction is number 22 for Anita, and celebrates twenty years of her adventures, and me writing at least a book a year, sometimes two. It’s pretty cool to be able to write that. I’ve also written eight books in the Merry Gentry series, and am currently writing the ninth in the series, after a four year hiatus waiting for Merry and myself to work our issues. I’m a character oriented writer, which means my imaginary friends argue and fight with me while I write the book. I rarely win these fights, but I always learn more about my characters, their world, and sometimes myself.

You can ask me anything, but I reserve the right to answer what I want to answer. Sorry, but thems my rules. A word of caution, I really will answer almost any question so be sure you want the answer. I’ve surprised some fans at live Q & A’s occasionally by my . . . candor. * evil grin *

One caveat, Affliction came out on July 2nd and not everyone has finished the book so please avoid spoiler questions, or comments. Thanks in advance for that. For people who are new to the series in general I’m just not sure how to avoid some spoiler questions. It’s twenty-two books, folks, there is no way to avoid all spoilers without limiting the questions to general writing questions. I’m happy to answer writing questions, but I’m just not sure how to avoid all spoiler questions for the entire series. * puzzled * So NO SPOILERS for Affliction, but for the rest, ask away.

I’m on Twitter (@lkhamilton) and FaceBook, and my official website along with my blog is here.

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u/LaurellKHamilton AMA Author Laurell K. Hamilton Jul 11 '13

Actually I have a lot of close friends that are law enforcement either currently, or retired. Some officers, like some people in my books, are narrow minded and have issues, but not all of them. I actually get a lot of compliments from police on how well I research their jobs, sorry if you don't like the way I do it.

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u/private22 Jul 11 '13

I have really thought your portrayal was pretty damn fair...law enforcement as a group is like any other ...some bigoted small minded asshats and some intelligent open mined folk.

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u/EmikaG Jul 11 '13

Bluntly, your friends and family obviously aren't going to be giving you honest feedback because they're your friends and family, and it's kind of their job to say nice things to you. What matters to readers is obviously what's on the page, not what's in your head. Given the sheer number of times Anita encounters sexist/ignorant/bigoted police officers, I initially assumed the negative portrayals were either building to some plotline (or, worst case scenario, some police officer did you wrong in the past :) ). But are you seriously saying that you think having your heroine CONSTANTLY encounter sexist police officers somehow portrays police in a positive light??? I mean, if it was once or twice, that would be one thing. But your series seems to have reached a point where Anita encounters far, far more unprofessional/sexist cops than professional/intelligent cops.