The lack of research, it burns...

[tenaya-owlcat.livejournal.com]

I don't know if any of you have had the misfortune to see this, but LKH has an interview in the latest issue of Writer's Digest. I, being curious (which as we all know, killed the kitty), read this interview. Pretty standard LKH fare, until I got to an answer she gave concerning the Merry Gentry series.

Now, I don't have the mag, so this isn't an exact quote, but she said something to the effect that when she wrote the first MG book, she was doing research into the mystery genre, because up to that point, there were no fantasy series that had gotten to five books.

Um, excuse me? One trip to the bookstore (or one logon to Amazon) would show you differently. The first MG came out in 2000, I believe. At that time, there was the Wheel of Time series, the Myth Adventures series, the Dragon and the George series... and if you allow series/trilogies that continue stories from earlier series/trilogies, you can add in all of Tamora Pierce's Tortall books, Robin Hobb's Farseer and Liveship books... The list goes on. I suppose she needed to feel that she was breaking new ground or something.

And worst of all? She said that she found out that the series with the most amount of books in it had gotten to 70 novels... so that's what she wants to beat.

Comments

[christraven.livejournal.com]

"With two series that defy categorizing, this popular-fiction author has forged a hugely successful writing career by going her own way."


HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHA! *gasp* **Ka-THUD**


Oh, and let's not forget Piers Anthony's Xanth series. That was out LONG ago.

[tenaya-owlcat.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I had thought of Xanth when I was initially posting and totally forgot to include it!

And I dunno, there are times when LKH's writing is just beyond description... ;P

[glitterglass.livejournal.com]

I should have looked at the comments before I posted mine. ;)

[drho.livejournal.com]

Taunt not the special snowflake with trivial matters like research. Clearly, the fact that she wrote her books after a myriad of successful, long-term series means that she inspired them through psychic means. Super win!

/sarcasm.

[wyvernfriend.livejournal.com]

what series did she find with only 70 I wonder. Nancy Drew? Hardy Boys? One of the longest running series I know about is Perry Rhodan (), from all reports it's at over 1000 at this stage. Andre Norton had several series more than five books long and I wouldn't mind having her selling numbers!

[tenaya-owlcat.livejournal.com]

I can't remember, darn it. I think it was Raymond Chandler or something like that...

Oooh, good catch on Andre Norton. Isn't it Witch World that would have been more than five books?

[glitterglass.livejournal.com]

did she actually say there was no fantasy series past 5 books? because by 2000, the Xanth series had 24 books.

[tenaya-owlcat.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's what I read. She said that there were no fantasy series that had made it past five books. She also said some tripe about the authors getting bored with their series or something. :/

[nightangel486.livejournal.com]

Dear Lord...70 books of tight, hot, wet moon swallowing....

*runs screaming into the night*

I, being curious (which as we all know, killed the kitty)

I love cats, but I'd have no problem with curiosity killing one if the kitty were, saaay...Micah?

[easol.livejournal.com]

And to think, originally she claimed it would be a single-digit series. Weepies!

[pith]

Maybe she meant fantasy-mystery? Because honestly, there are a lot of fantasy series over 5 books. Pratchett's Discworld must be at or around 30 by now. And it is so much better than it deserves its own genre, dammit.

[tenaya-owlcat.livejournal.com]

If she'd'a meant fantasy-mystery, she shoulda said fantasy-mystery. *nods firmly*

Of course Discworld was WAY over 5 by then! Again, I'm asleep at the computer over here to forget that (and at work, away from my bookshelves...).

[freyalorelei.livejournal.com]

I'm going to add to the tally with Redwall, the Dune books, and I'm pretty sure a lot of children's fantasy like the Dark is Rising series extends to five books and beyond. Narnia much? Oz? Hello?

[cicipsychobunny.livejournal.com]

Dark is Rising is 6, I think. Narnia's 6 because we don't count the abomination that is The Last Battle.

[tehuti.livejournal.com]

No fantasy series past five books, eh? Uh huh.

I'm kinda surprised Anne McCaffery hasn't been mentioned before now. How many Pern books are there? And how many books have David Eddings and Terry Brooks written? I know that Eddings did ten just about the characters of the Belgariad, but I've never read any Shannara books. But for more recent authors, how about George RR Martin? He's got five Song of Ice and Fire books. If she means only urban fantasy writers like her, Jim Butcher and The Dresden Files are about to hit double digits. Kim Harrison is also on five, with no signs of slowing down.

She really doesn't do well without her handlers, eh?

[daphne-gateau.livejournal.com]

your icon is awesome.

[daphne-gateau.livejournal.com]

bah. She is always spouting off how cutting edge she thinks she is. So annoying. So bullshit. She sounds like such an amateur to not have the slightest clue about what others are doing.

No other fantasy series was past five? LMAO Puh-leease. And even if she meant fantasy-mystery... where the hell is the mystery in Merry Gentry? I don't remember Merry really investigating anything. The same came be said for Anita anymore. Any elements of 'mystery' in Anita/Merry are ignored throughout the book and just slam-dunked into the final chapter.

[rin-x-x.livejournal.com]

I just went to the LKH forums, wondering if this article came up anywhere.

I almost cried.

[easol.livejournal.com]

You can find 7 book long series in the CHILDREN'S area -- not mentioning Harry Potter, just try the Lost Years of Merlin, Garth Nix's younger series (and soon, his older ones), etc. The Chronicles of Narnia clocks in at seven books.

And the adult fantasy section is crammed with overbloated Tolkien ripoffs that keep on comin' lest the money stop, as well as pulp fantasy/sci-fi series, great series that sort of trickle on by, and sequels to past series/trilogies. I can't even remember them all, since my head tends to hurt if I do -- but think Robert Jordan, Dennis McKiernan, Robert Zelazny...

I'm not sure why she's so obsessed with the NUMBER of things -- the number of pages, the number of books.

[wellowned.livejournal.com]

laurell is all about quantity not quality. which is why her books clock in at 600 odd pages of porn, 3 pages of plot.

[vmisery.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I read that article (I subscribe to the magazine) and was trying to think of the proper way to present it. It's typical fangirlish interview filled with pretty much all the same treasures, including such gems as "Writing Merry was hard because Anita's voice kept butting in", and "I'm tired of people saying I ripped off Buffy". Oh, and direct quote: "My characters are so real to me that they make decisions that aren't mine".

Stuff cut from the interview (http://www.writersdigest.com/writersperspective/OFF+THE+PAGE+Laurell+K+Hamilton.aspx)

Taken directly: because they don’t edit you as you become successful.

That explains so much.

[terrie01.livejournal.com]

OMG! It hurts so much.

Novels are where I’m comfortable; I like huge works.

All I can say is "Explain Micah."

[fishsanwitt]

70 books?

Oy vey.

[leggomylegolas.livejournal.com]

What the hell. I WISH more fantasy authors would limit themselves in the number of books. In my (admittedly biased and probably worthless) opinion, any story an author can't tell in less than, oh, say, 80 gagillion words is probably not worth reading.

Wheel of Time, hello.

[tenaya-owlcat.livejournal.com]

I actually had a long discussion with someone once, in which I explained how the WoT series could have been done (and done brilliantly) in six books. But I am a plot geek like that. ;)

[moonsinger.livejournal.com]

Wow, she must really think that her readers are morons. I could lose count of the authors that have written over 5 novels int a series very quickly. But here's a short list: Anne McCaffrey, Roger Zelazny, Piers Anthony, Katherine Kurtz, Mercedes Lackey, Jim Butcher, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and C.S. Lewis to name several that are much better reads than LKH.

[tenaya-owlcat.livejournal.com]

You know, when I read that statement, I actually had to read it three or four times, because I simply couldn't believe that something that dumb had ended up in such a big magazine as WD.

And then I got up and left the magazine area, because it pissed me off so badly. :/

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

Why don't the fact-checkers at these magazines correct her? I mean really, there's respecting a quote (which is a strong impetus, I will admit), but there's also a responsibility to NOT spread disinformation and not to allow the speaker to make themselves look dumb!!

[tenaya-owlcat.livejournal.com]

I agree with the responsibility not to spread disinformation, but what responsibility do they have to baby-sit the egos of authors? *shrugs* Of course, LKH will probably blame WD for not editing that out when/if she becomes aware of the fact that she said yet another stupid thing. O.o

[hookncrook.livejournal.com]

Well, she has to pay the bills somehow...and I assume witht he bad turn of her writing she isn't creative enough to think up another series... She's what? 40? That means we have at least 20 more novels in each series for her to write before she gets to old to type...and then she might just dictate like Barbara Cartland did while eating bonbons.

[tenaya-owlcat.livejournal.com]

I did NOT need the mental image of Jonboi feeding LKH bonbons! :P

[alondra-del-sol.livejournal.com]

Yay! Pern-fans! DRoP for the win! Minus Todd's stuff. Not so fantastic, I concur.

[tenaya-owlcat.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Todd's stuff literally gave me a headache. O.o

[cheeky-duckie.livejournal.com]

OMG I so wanted to go on about this but pussed out.

I thought that her lack of an answer to "Does [criticism about the sex in AB] have any affect on how you write the next book?" was lame as hell. She babbles about Europeans and Americans versus violence and sex, and completely misses the point of the question.

Also, the cover is really unattractive. I looked at it didn't even recognize her; I thought it was an older woman (read, late 40s early 50s) trying to look like she was in her twenties. I swear all the black and angst ages her. I remember the first picture I saw of LKH being kind of pretty -- what happened?

[tenaya-owlcat.livejournal.com]

I didn't really expect her to actually address the criticism of sex in her books. She's gone to such great lengths to justify herself, I doubt she'd talk much about people who don't like what she's done.

[contrariwise.livejournal.com]

She said that she found out that the series with the most amount of books in it had gotten to 70 novels... so that's what she wants to beat.

Ugh, because quantity is always better than quality, doncha know.


And, um, Tanya Huff's Vicki Nelson series ended with the fifth book, which came out in 1997. But we wouldn't want to mention a cool urban fantasy/mystery series with a strong/believable heroine and an actual practicing bisexual vampire co-hero, would we now. *rolls eyes*

[acostilow.livejournal.com]

Wait, the Shannara books (yeah, geek here) are fantasy, and they're waaaaay over five books. Then there's David Eddings, which are juvenile, but still. The Belgriad and the Mallorean? Five books each...

...I should really stop expecting LKH to make sense. Really.

[tenaya-owlcat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you'll notice the list of series that are more than five books got pretty lengthy here. ;)

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

Jeebus. Marion Zimmer Bradley, Darkover. The almost equally fluffy yet ever-prolific Mercedes Lackey, who always writes in the same damn world. The anthology of the 80's and early 90's, Thieves World was way over 13, and if you want to get into same subject multi-writers, Sword and Sorceress is heading rapidly for #25. DragonLance just went on and friggin' ON. So did several other of the D&D type specials. Hell, Ravenloft, to which ms thing contributed? Way more than five. I think they hit 10 or 13, in fact. Sure that's multi-author, but again, more than five. Eddings. A bunch of co-writes by people like Stirling and Lisle went up well over five. (One book in the series, and yeah, they were good, and full of the lesbian, so LKH would be horrified, was titled "SnowBrother", and damn, but I want to replace that series. It was really good.)

JUST in her own general sub-genre Jim Butcher is over 7. Kim Harrison is up to 6. GOD only knows how many "Women of the Otherworld" Armstrong's coughed out, but it's damn sure more than five. Patricia Briggs is only up to 4, but there's every sign she's not stopping any bloody time soon. Rachel Caine is over 7 and going strong. There are several other newer authors already up to two and three who aren't about to stop from the looks of things.

She REALLY needs to check her facts. She's NOT special. She wrote a few entertaining books, then went to crap. I'm betting Harrison and Butcher way outlast her on what's good in number of books in their respective series.

-Dira-

[tenaya-owlcat.livejournal.com]

LKH check facts? You must be kidding... ;)