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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.
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This episode originally aired on 11/19/2009 with the following authors:
Note: The following interview has been transcribed from The Author Hour radio show. Please excuse any typos, spelling and gramatical errors.
Interview with Laurell K. Hamilton | | |
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.
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah.
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