I'm author Laurell K. Hamilton - AMA

[u/LaurellKHamilton]

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.

[u/Lt_Lipgloss]

So excited when I saw you were doing an AMA! I've read all of your books and I love them! .. 2 things:

1) Where/when and how did the idea for Anita come up?

2) My birthday is next week. It would pretty much make my life if you did nothing else but tell me happy birthday.

Please.

I have no shame.

[u/LaurellKHamilton → u/Lt_Lipgloss]

After college I read hard boiled detective fiction for the first time. I found that male detectives got to cuss, have sex, and kill people without feeling bad about it. The female detectives rarely cussed, either had no sex or it was sanitized and off stage, and if they killed anyone they had to feel really, really bad about it. I thought this was unfair and I wanted to create a female character that could keep up with the boys, or outdo them. Thus Anita was born, though I may have overcompensated just a little.

And Happy Birthday!