Laurell K. Hamilton is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, which now totals 17 books and several Marvel comic books. Anita Blake has been greenlighted to become a TV series on The Independent Film Channel this coming summer. Laurell has also written the Meredith Gentry series, which is about a private investigator who happens to be a faerie princess. In all, she’s got over 7 million books in print in 16 languages.
Matthew Peterson:
My next guest is Laurell K. Hamilton, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, which now totals 17 books and several Marvel comic books. Anita Blake has been greenlighted to become a TV series on The Independent Film Channel this coming summer. Laurell has also written the Meredith Gentry series, which is about a private investigator who happens to be a faerie princess. In all, she’s got over 7 million books in print in 16 languages. Thanks for being on the show today, Laurell.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
Thanks for having me here, Matthew.
Matthew Peterson:
Since this is a vampire episode, let’s talk first about your Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series.
What got you interested in writing about vampires and supernatural creatures?
Laurell K. Hamilton:
I’ve been interested in monsters since I can remember. I remember at five begging my grandmother to let me stay up late and watch the Creature Feature Hour on our local television station and staying up in the dark by myself until it got too scary and I’d have to run and jump into the covers.
Matthew Peterson:
[laughs]
Laurell K. Hamilton:
I’ve always been attracted to monsters and frightening things. I don’t know why.
Matthew Peterson:
And you started Guilty Pleasures back in 1993. Had you written anything before that or was this your first book?
Laurell K. Hamilton:
Actually my first novel was Night Seer and it was a more traditional fantasy, sort of Tolkien meets Robert E. Howard with elves and dwarves and dragons and things like that. But the bottom fell out of the fantasy market and I had this little short story called, Those Who Seek Forgiveness, with a character named Anita Blake in it. She raised the dead. And I had never seen anybody else do anything like this, so I thought, “Well, I’ll try something different.” And so I set down to try to write a book, which turned out to be Guilty Pleasures. It would end up being the third book that got published of mine, because I did a Star Trek book in there too.
The short story, everyone loved it, all the editors loved it, they even recommended other markets for it. But no one could buy it because they didn’t know what it was. Was it mystery? Was it a science fiction? Was it horror? Was it fantasy? Mixed genre didn’t sell back when I was trying to sell this book. Nobody knew that vampires were hot. I had editors tell me the vampire genre was dead. They have since come to me and said, “Oh, you know, I wish we’d had a chance at your series.” ‘Cause of course, vampires are incredibly hot right now.
Matthew Peterson:
Oh, yeah. And your main character, Anita Blake, I couldn’t help but notice that she looks like you, at least in the comic books. Was that just a coincidence?
Laurell K. Hamilton:
I made her my height because I do fight scenes and I do weaponry and guns and so I made it so that my hand would be the one I was trying to fit for weapons and my body would be the size I was trying to get out of the fight scenes for her. Otherwise I’d have to go borrow tall friends all the time.
Matthew Peterson:
[laughs] See, I’m a second degree black belt in karate. I did a fight scene in one of my books [Paraworld Zero] and I’m like trying to get my wife to help and she doesn’t do karate or anything at all and it was very difficult. And I’m like, “Man I sure wish I had someone else that could do this.” So, I totally understand what you’re saying.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
And I like my hair and since this is a series where she solves murders and there’s all sorts of vampires and werewolves and everything, I figured since I’m going to make her life hard, I’d give her something I like, so I gave her my hair. I’ve actually lightened my hair recently and I get much less fan confusion now. I couldn’t change her hair, so I changed mine.
Matthew Peterson:
Does anybody ever call you Anita Blake by accident?
Laurell K. Hamilton:
Oh yeah.
Matthew Peterson:
[laughs]
Laurell K. Hamilton:
Oh yeah. I get a certain percentage. Some people catch themselves and they get embarrassed and say, “Oh, I’m so sorry.” Some people never get themselves, and they will do an entire conversation calling me Anita.
Matthew Peterson:
How funny. That is hilarious. Well, Anita is a very strong character. She’s a vampire hunter. The latest book Skin Trade came out earlier this year. Tell us a little bit about this book.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
Skin Trade is the book where I had to do the most research into tactical teams, SWAT, Las Vegas Metro SWAT, one of the most prestigious or impressive, amazing SWAT units that we have in this country. I mean they are one of the top. And I was very privileged to be able to go and visit and talk to people and ask questions. It’s always intimidating to me in a book when I know I’m going to have to use some detailed police work or whatever, because I’ve never been a policeman. And I’ve never been in the military, so I always feel like I’m a little behind the eight ball. And Skin Trade is where Anita gets to go to Vegas. Vegas is so much a city that cries out for vampires.
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah, yeah.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
Because you can be in a casino and never know what time of day or night it is. It would be very easy with night shifts and never have your neighbors know. Of course, in my world you can be a legal vampire and it’s fine. But Vegas is just such a city that comes alive at night. So Anita goes and there is a serial killer who has sent her, and in the opening paragraph, sent her a human head, packed in ice in a box, mailed to her, with a note saying that he’s in Vegas waiting for her.
Matthew Peterson:
Waiting for her.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
He’s the only serial killer that ever got away from Anita.
Matthew Peterson:
Ah, interesting concept there.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
Well, he got away because police that had helped with research and police that were just fans had one complaint. They said, “You solve the mystery in one book and it’s done.” And they all said, “Real police work doesn’t work like that. You can’t solve it in an hour show and you can’t solve it in one book. It takes much longer.”
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
So, I actually let the bad guy get away in one book, for the policemen and women who were saying, you know, “You made it too simple”. But I knew we would go back and track him down again.
Matthew Peterson:
And you’re doing more books. You have the 18th installment coming out, Flirt. Is that continuing on with this last one, or is this completely different?
Laurell K. Hamilton:
Anita is organized like a mystery series, so that each book stands alone, you solve the mystery and you move on. You get character development from book to book, but each book is a whole meal in and of itself. As much as possible. It’s hard. Eighteen books into a series, it’s really hard to give enough information for new readers, but not give so much information to people who’ve read every book so like they’re, you know, “I know all this already”.
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah. Well, you have to come up with new angles to the whole mystery thing. And Anita Blake, I mean, the character itself has kind of created a life of her own. She’s now on comic books. There’s going to be a TV series. So she’s larger than life now. I went to Marvel’s website this morning and I’m like, “Whoa, wait a second! There’s Wolverine fighting Anita Blake?”
Laurell K. Hamilton:
That was a very fun cover.
Matthew Peterson:
[laughs] I was like, “You have to be kidding me.” Is Anita going to duke it out with Wolverine? Or is that just a funny little cover they put on there?
Laurell K. Hamilton:
It was done for the movie. They pick some of their bigger sellers and “We’re going to put Wolverine on the cover with the main character.” And Wolverine’s always been a favorite of mine because he’s short. I know that the actor who portrayed him is like over six feet, but in the comic books he’s about my size; he’s about 5'3" and I’ve always loved that because most of the comic book heros are very tall and I am not. So it was very fun when they wanted to put Wolverine and Anita on the cover together. [hear more about this in the extras]
Matthew Peterson:
And it’s moving on also to television. Everything in the entertainment business is a little shaky right now, but I hear it was green-lighted.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
It was green-lighted and that’s about all I’m allowed to say.
Matthew Peterson:
Oh! Okay.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
I will say that the more I know about how the industry works, television and movies, I’m just amazed that anything gets done because of how many people have to be involved with everything. [hear more about this in the extras]
Matthew Peterson:
Oh, I know. And you have another popular series that deals with dark magical faeries and mystery. I guess not the vampires, but I know you have a new book coming out, too, Divine Misdemeanors. Tell us a little bit about Meredith Gentry.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
Meredith Gentry, Merry Gentry, she is a P.I. in Los Angeles, but she’s also one of the only fae princess born on American soil because Thomas Jefferson, he was a faery-phile, just like he was a francophile, and he let them come into this country and they have their own society within ours. She’s escaped from fairy because everybody was trying to kill her. Being heir to a throne was always dangerous, if you read real history. Being an heir to the throne, if you don’t have any political clout to back you up, usually you got assassinated.
Matthew Peterson:
Oh yeah. And you’d never want a sibling.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
No.
Matthew Peterson:
‘Cause it might be the sibling who does the assassination.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
So she is a P.I. and she has her P.I. license in California, but she is also dragged back to faery to contest for the throne and we go through seven books to find the answer to that question of: Will she? Won’t she? Can she? Can everybody survive long enough? And she falls in love along the way, and everything that she loves and values gets threatened and is about to be destroyed. And it’s another strong character who has to do things that she might not want to do, but you do what you do to save people you love.
Matthew Peterson:
Well, I know people will be continuing to read these. You do have a nice fan base, and with a possibility of a TV series and the continuing comic books, those type of things will definitely increase interest.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
Well, that is one of the things. Somebody sees one episode of a television show, not even one of the top television shows, you can have more viewers in one night than even the best-selling book series.
Matthew Peterson:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. It does make a huge difference, and it also can introduce people to a series that they’ve never heard of before.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
That’s very true, and also, vampires have become mainstream. It’s the weirdest phenomena. I’ve been doing this for, you know, since ‘93, and I never thought I would see it. But thanks to--oh, dare I say it?--thanks to Twilight, that feeding frenzy of everything and thanks to Charlaine Harris on HBO and everything. Thanks to my own contribution too, and now you have The Vampire Diaries on CW and everything. I actually saw a little girl about 12, wearing a t-shirt the other day that said, “Every girl needs her vampire.”
Matthew Peterson:
Oh. [laughs]
Laurell K. Hamilton:
These were mainstream family, mom, dad, brother, sister kind of thing. So, I never thought I would see it. With as hard as I fought to get my series, and everybody said vampires were dead. And now here we have, we have. . . vampires have become the new prince charming.
Matthew Peterson:
When I was a child, vampires were absolutely evil and you didn’t want to even be near them; they’re going to kill you. And really the trick is that you’ve, in a sense, humanized them to the point where you could fall in love with them and they’re not going to kill you. You know, they actually could be pleasant to be around, maybe a little dangerous, though. And in that sense they’ve not become the monster that we’re scared of; now they are this intriguing creature.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
They’re the bad boy.
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah. Yeah. And that has helped. That’s made, I think, all the difference.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
I think you’re right. The vampire is the new bad boy and most of them are handsome and very sexy and they fall in love with you and sweep you off your feet. Mine don’t, so much. Anita doesn’t really want to be swept off her feet. Merry would be fine with being swept off her feet, but there just hasn’t been time between assassination attempts and solving mysteries to really be much swept off her feet.
Matthew Peterson:
[laughs] Yeah, yeah. I understand. Well, we’re coming up to a commercial break. I’ve been speaking with Laurell K. Hamilton, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter and the Meredith Gentry series. Thank you for being on the show today, Laurell.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
Well, thank you very much for having me, Matthew.
Matthew Peterson:
It’s been a great pleasure.
Alright, don't forget to visit www.TheAuthorHour.com after the show to listen to the bonus questions. Stick around. I've got the author of The Vampire Diaries, L. J. Smith, coming up next.
Bonus Question(s) that Didn't Air on the Live Radio Show
Note that you can also listen to this while you read it.
Matthew Peterson:
Let me ask you a bonus question. And this is not about books or anything. I just thought this was an interesting thing. I went to your website and I noticed that you do a lot of charity work, dealing with animals and helping them. What got you interested in doing charity work?
Laurell K. Hamilton:
Well, I think that if you are doing well, that one of the things that you’re supposed to do is take care of the people around you and see if other people aren’t doing as well, you’re supposed to do that. That’s just what a responsible human being does. You help others if you can.
The reason I work more with animals is those were the charities that came to me first and also, to be honest, I’m very much an animal person, always have. I have a degree in biology. And if you’re having a bad day, you can go to almost any shelter in this country and you can save a life because we have animals being put down by the thousands everyday across this country. So I work with rescues and everything, trying to help support them as they take care of abandoned animals. Because, you know, I lost my dog of 17 years last year. I’ve lost several dogs and it just breaks my heart that people get them and they give them away if they get too old. They give them away if they move. They give them away if they have a child. And nobody puts any planning into this live creature that is your responsibility. That just drives me nuts.
Matthew Peterson:
Many of them have like a mentality of a like a three year old. I mean, they have feelings. [laughs] They’re very loving.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
More than that, yes they have feelings, but I just don’t understand being able to treat another fellow creature on the planet that badly.
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
Some of the abuse stories have been absolutely heart breaking.
Matthew Peterson:
Oh. I live in Arizona and we are getting, it’s like every night, on the news, they’re finding a dog in a gunny sack, or something. I cannot believe people abuse animals like that.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
Well, actually, Missouri’s one of the worst states for puppy mills. And with the economy being the way it is, a lot of puppy millers are dumping their dogs on the breed rescues. If they kill them they could get arrested, they could get in trouble with the law, not a lot, but some. So they’re dumping them on rescues. I know some of the pug rescues, ‘cause that’s my breed, are getting six new dogs a week, and some of them with tremendous medical problems. Some people are giving up their dogs because they can’t afford the vet bill, which is really sad. But I mean when times are tough, one of the things that goes is people stop donating to the animal charities as much. All the charities are down, though, both the people charities and everything else. One of the charities that we support that is not for animals but for people, and that is children with diabetes.
Matthew Peterson:
Hmm.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
So what I’m hearing is all the charities are down. So if you’re doing well this year, then, I know this sounds really old fashioned, but I think it’s really your responsibility to try to see if you can help out. I know that on a day that I was very frustrated with my writing, I would get on PetFinders, or one of the places, and see if I could find one of the dogs with a medical problem and if their medical bill could be paid, and especially if it’s a young dog, then they go on to have a healthy life and find an owner. Even if you’re having a bad day, you can donate a little money and . . . I go, “Well, the day sucks, but at least I’ve helped someone, another living person.”
Matthew Peterson:
I’ve helped someone. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. My wife and I, we’ve been in the habit of every month we do a little bit of charity. We donate to the poor or to some sort of thing. I totally agree with you. I mean, even when times are tough, and they are tough, there are people that probably have it worse than you. And you can help them.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
You know, I am very blessed. I am doing really well in a time when a lot of people aren’t, and if you’re doing well, one of the ways you show the universe at large, or deity, that you’re grateful for this, is you share. You share. You help other people. Help animals. Help people, because you’re supposed to take care of. . . especially with animals that can’t take care of themselves. It’s just what you’re supposed to do.
And some people donate their time. I don’t have a lot of time. But some people donate their time. I know some people that go down to the homeless shelters; you donate to the food pantry. There’s a wonderful program, I’m going to be--totally blanking on what it’s called--where foster kids, kids in the foster program, they have something they want for Christmas. And you can buy them a gift so they get a gift on Christmas, even though they are in foster care.
Matthew Peterson:
That’s a great idea.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
There’s all sorts of wonderful charities out there.
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah.
Extra Material That was Cut from the Show Because of Time Constraints
Note that you can also listen to this while you read it (you'll need to fast forward past the bonus questions).
Laurell K. Hamilton:
I’ve just gotten into the techy stuff pretty seriously in the last few months. And it’s amazing to me how many people you can contact so quickly.
Matthew Peterson:
Oh, I know. I haven’t gotten on to twitter yet. That’s like the last thing and I’m like, “Oh!” It’s very time consuming doing all the things.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
I actually like twitter because it’s only 140 characters. And I find that other sites have no limit to characters. I’m a novel writer, not a short story writer!
Matthew Peterson:
[laughs] Yeah.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
So, if I’m not careful, I will write these huge long blogs and I have to really limit myself. On twitter it limits you anyway.
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah, yeah. I know my brother does twitter, he has like thousands of follower.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
Yeah. I’m 8,000 something.
Matthew Peterson:
Uh huh. He does it for his business. So, he’s like, “Yeah, I’ll make ten thousand dollars just by posting a twitter thing.” I’m like, “Okay. Wow!” [laughs] “That’s pretty cool.”
Laurell K. Hamilton:
We have actually had people find a signing, or an event, from twitter, “I was just down the road so I came in.”
Matthew Peterson:
Wow.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
So, it actually does work.
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah. That is cool.
* * * * * * * * * *
Laurell K. Hamilton:
‘Cause I was trying sell this two, three years before it ever hit the shelves. Everyone loved it. Nobody knew what to do with it. Finally, of course, someone took a chance, and suddenly there was a new sub-genre: paranormal thrillers, is what I call them.
* * * * * * * * * *
Matthew Peterson:
Just reading online, After Dark Films, Lionsgate and the Independent Film Channel, at least are the companies that I’ve read, that were involved in this. So hopefully we’ll be able to see something there.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
Hopefully. It’s been very educational learning how the business works. I mean, it’s a creative business, just like publishing, but as with publishing it’s also a business, business.
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
So it’s always very interesting when you have something that’s very creative and at the same time, the bottom line is it’s a business, it makes money and you have people that are depending on it. So it’s just that interesting mix of art and finance.
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah. It’s like a puzzle piece. I mean there’s so many pieces that need to fit in for it to be completed and work. I agree.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
I actually had no idea how many people would be involved with just one movie or one episode or anything. It’s been very interesting research.
* * * * * * * * * *
Matthew Peterson:
Like in the Anita Blake universe, the Gentry Universe, the society is aware of these people, right?
Laurell K. Hamilton:
Well, see, what always interested me from the very beginning with Anita and then with Merry, is I like to take the real world. If we woke up tomorrow and fairies or vampires or whatever were real and modern society had you deal with them. That’s what I like. That’s what I’ve always liked. I’m not interested in this secret society kind of thing, where people don’t know they exist. If you have a zombie shambling down your street, I want the police to be able to come and help you. If you were out dancing in a club in L.A. and you see somebody who’s more beautiful, even than the stars around them. You can sit there and go, “Oh! It’s one of the fairy.” You know, I love that juxtaposition of the fantastic with the mundane, so for me that is what interests me. I had Merry, at one point, she helped with a political campaign. And it was off-stage, but she was helping them get the younger vote.
Matthew Peterson:
Huh. Interesting.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
Because, it’s cool to be a fairy princess.
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah, yeah.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
I mean, not having to actually survive it.
Matthew Peterson:
There’s gotta be some perks to it. [laughs]
Laurell K. Hamilton:
The men, probably, the royal guards, are probably the biggest perk.
Matthew Peterson:
Well, you’ve created these best-selling worlds. Do you have any plans on creating a new world, a new series?
Laurell K. Hamilton:
I have some ideas, but I honestly can’t possibly do more than two series at one time. I think I would lose what’s left of my sanity. And you know, Divine Misdemeanors comes out November 8th and that’s book 8 for Merry. And well, the next Anita book comes out February 2nd. So, I’m already making notes for the next book.
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
I mean, I’m always finding new things to do in my worlds, that interest me, things I haven’t been able to do before. New ideas.
* * * * * * * * * *
Matthew Peterson:
And you have a lot of characters, fun characters, to play with, so that helps tremendously.
Laurell K. Hamilton:
I love Anita and her crew. But it was fun to take her out of town, away from Jean-Claude, Master Vampire of St. Louis. It was very fun to have her just out there with Edward and having the other U.S. Marshals, the Preternatural Branch of the U.S. Marshals out there hunting a serial killer as a unit. That was very interesting.
* * * * * * * * * *
Matthew Peterson:
Is Wolverine actually in the comic book with her?
Laurell K. Hamilton:
No.
Matthew Peterson:
No, okay. I didn’t think so. I was thinking, “That’s a stretch.” [laughs]
Laurell K. Hamilton:
No. It was one of the specialty covers. But it was very fun watching the pencils come through. And, I don’t know, it’s just, as a little kid you read the Marvel Comic Books and you never think that when you grow up that your gonna have a job that let’s you play with Marvel and let’s one of your imaginary friends play in the Marvel universe.
