Old Interview where lkh again admits she uses calendars as research

[glimmerfox.livejournal.com]

She also goes into a few other details of Narcissus in Chains and the rumor that Micah=Jonboi.  This interview has more details on that than any other that I've seen.  Ans she actually admits that she wanted Micah for Anita because during the writing she felt so lonely and didn't want Anita to be lonely.  So of course instead of having Anita run to Richard, or Jean-Claude for comfort, she should turn to the guy who raped her in the shower. 

Again it's an old interview, at this time her newest book is Danse Macabre, but it is a good read.

www.flamesrising.com/laurell-k-hamilton-interview-horror-author/

Comments

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I think that's one of the most thoughtful and coherent things I've heard her say about how her personal relations affect her books. I don't think it's the whole truth, per se, but I'm willing to accept things like the fact that she'd already made some of the character of Micah before she was dating John. I just see no reason to doubt it.

I've often thought that perhaps her negativity to Richard in the books wasn't because he represented LKH's husband, but because he represented conventional marriage. We know LKH believes herself a feminist, and that her relationship to her first husband was conventional (he mostly supported her since she mainly records losing low paying jobs while writing and having a kid). Richard represented conventional marriage and conventional family for Anita (white picket fence and all). Anita can't manage that normal relationship any more, and so she rejects him. She doesn't do balance well.

If John is a mix of Micah and NATHANIAL I feel pity for the poor man. That's just not a complimentary discription.

And I agree that the "be with the guy who raped you thing" never made a lick of sense. They actualy edited and changed NiC after it came out to make Micah less of a rapist. Very interesting to see her take back her words.

[rentuc.livejournal.com]

Not to defend LKH or anything but I've heard of the "using a calendar for research" thing, couldn't she be using it for the pics of tigers? So that her physical descriptions of the tigers are more accurate?
Or did she say somewhere that she was getting actual "facts" from the calendars?

[naeko.livejournal.com]

As far as I've found, she's never said she used the calendars for actual factual research; I suspect it's just that she wants to stare at pretty kitties while writing.

[cryptaknight.livejournal.com]

Loathe as I am to defend LKH, she mentions several books, as well as the calendar. So I doubt any factual research came from the calendar; you're likely right that it was used to see pictured of tigers in different poses.

That said, I sort of want to read these tiger books to see if the red/blue/gold/rainbow tigers are for real.

[kindofstrange.livejournal.com]

This is a 'blue' tiger: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltese_Tiger

Not exactly cobalt, eh?

Here's 'gold': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_tabby

I couldn't find anything for a red tiger (doesn't mean it doesn't exist, just that my quick google search didn't turn up anything obvious), which honestly seemed like one of the more likely ones to me.

[kindofstrange.livejournal.com]

Looking closer, it looks like the blue tiger 'photo' is actually an artist's rendition, so it's up for debate as to whether or not they actually exist.

[cryptaknight.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think LH vastly misinterpreted "blue" as it applies to most animals, eg blue pitbulls (http://bluemagicpits.com/v-web/gallery/albums/Patches/MVC_380S.jpg) and blue siamese cats. (http://imagecache2.allposters.com/IMAGES/NPLPOD/1145645.jpg)

I guess she couldn't resist the idea of rainbow-hued hotties for Anita as well as Merry.

[mystoflare.livejournal.com]

You know, I joked to friends that LKH used Lisa Frank calendars/folders as her "research" material (they're so shiny and colorful and ouch, even if they're not GAWTHE and EDGY as LKH seems to think of those words XD). Now I have to wonder if there's a grain of truth to that.

[lady-fellshot.livejournal.com]

I suspect that it is possible to have the "Slate grey" color mutation on a tiger. I want to say hat it might be a result from an incomplete expression of the white coloration, but I'll leave that to the people more versed in biology and genetics than I. (I'm probably wrong anyway :P)

The other thing that occured to me is that if the color variaton never existed in a live animal, would there be a term for it? Or maybe someone way back when was very clever and painted his white tigers to look more like a badass. "You've got tigers as pets? Well, I've got blue tigers as pets!"

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

It's all true. In Skin Trade there were red, orange, yellow, blue, white and black tigers. I was waiting for the lavender and lime green ones to show up as well.

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

I know in some dog breeds the 'blue' or 'slate' coloration is called Merle, I was watching a dogshow on TV and they had a collie with merle colorization and actually placed first in the catagory...roomie was shocked since it's not the 'standard' colors for a collie

[terrie01.livejournal.com]

Merle actually refers to dark spots on larger, lighter backgrounds and areas of white. There are blue merles, with black spots on gray, and red merles which are dark red spots on a lighter background. In the reds, the background color varies more than in blues.

[glimmerfox.livejournal.com]

here's the thing that really bugs me about lkh's wereanimals: she doesn't just have werewolves there are weretigers and wereleopards and werefoxes, and werehyenas, and wererats and wereswans...etc, and these groups are all special and they can be different to break up the weregroups. But she just can have the special groups, they have to be special colors as well, blue, gold, red, black, white.

It goes again as to why everyone not only is everyone in her books just special, but has to be super-special.

[graesea.livejournal.com]

Do any of her were-characters actually have any animal like behaviors? Other than kitty kat eyes and hanging loosely in a pack, I don't recall the weres possessing any behavioral attribute that brands them as not quite human r distinctly wolf over leopard.

In the earlier books, I vaguely remember some of the leopards sniffing people for one reason or another. No one has mentioned that sort of behavior in the latter books.

Having so many male predators in close proximity with one female in constant heat would cause conflict. Of course, they've all been partially or completely neutered. LKH just doesn't understand much about animal behavior in general.

The weres are a weird parody - really nothing more than dildos given wigs and and tacky clothing.

[roguetailkinker.livejournal.com]

I think the only thing the upheaval in my life did was change how quickly Anita and Micah got together. I think my imagination couldn’t take Richard dumping Anita, and her heart breaking without someone to comfort her. I think my imagination needed Anita to have someone, because when I wrote the scene I had no one.

~HEADDESK~ Does the name JEAN-CLAUDE ring a bell, LKH?