Tweet flog/Bullet update, Barnes & Noble forum Q & A

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I posted this on my journal first, so I'm sorry to the people who get this twice, but! News fresh in from Twitterland! So fresh, rigor hasn't even set in!

LKHamilton: I've finished crying over my imaginary friends, but I'm left empty and sort of numb. Stunned with the turn of events. Jan 18 8:44

LKHamilton: I've spent days trying to save this character. I pulled a major metaphysical event to save the day & in the end not enough. Jan 18 8:46

LKHamilton: Death will come, final and complete, and the light in their eyes dulls until the windows to the soul show nothing but emptiness. Jan 18 8:47

LKHamilton: The body is still warm, the flesh still soft, you can still hold them, cradle them in your arms and smell the sweet scent of their skin. Jan 18 8:49

LKHamilton: Death comes soft at first, lay a last kiss on their mouth while the warmth lasts and before the cold comes. Jan 18 8:52

LKHamilon: I'm out of here. I have not the heart to stay. Time to find someone real and get a hug. Should have known what was coming. Sometimes . . . Jan 18 8:55

LKHamilon: . . . even in fiction you can't save everyone. I fucking hate that. Jan 18 8:56

SOMEONE IS GOING TO DIE IN BULLET! This is doubly amusing because not three days ago, in a Q & A for Barnes and Noble, she said this:

Ok, this is a spoiler if you haven't at least finished Guilty Pleasures then please do not read this message. Ok, I've done the warning bit. Anita and I were both traumatized by Phillip's death in Guilty Pleasures. I promised her after that if she cared for a man I wouldn't kill him off. Her way of getting around that was apparently to care for every man we met in the books from that point on. Talk about unforeseen consequences.
 
I honestly think my subconscious is responsible for the low death count among major and major/minor characters. People dieing, or leaving, when I was very young have left their mark. In real life you can't save everyone, but in fiction, sometimes, you can. We may actually have some deaths at some point, but I think my muse and I would rather not.

Bold emphasis is mine.

I was talking to a couple of people over the weekend and saying that if LKH wanted to keep things as real-to-life as possible, as she claims she does, then she'd have to let some characters die. In my opinion, you can't really have it both ways; either you keep things gritty and real and deal with the tough breaks the story gives you, or you can make it a fancy fictional la-la land where nobody dies and everyone's sparkly and happy. Trying to fudge one just hurts the other, and...well, the books are a really good example to that with the random metaphysics and miraculous saves. So it's nice to see that someone's biting the Bullet.

Umm, on a related note, I went through the B & N forum and copied out the Q & A in more readable format, so that LKH's answers are right after the question and you don't have to scroll around to try and find what she's talking about: Part one and part two. I'm sorting through the Facebook chat in a similar fashion, but I'm going to add more blog links and commentary to it.

Comments

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

pleaseletitbemicah, pleaseletitbemicah, pleaseletitbemicah.

It's Richard Zeeman isn't it? He's been the whipping boy for about 8 books now, bound to be dead now?

But that aside... they're not real people. Killing them off doesn't leave a mark on this world.

Oh and this:
People dieing, or leaving, when I was very young have left their mark.

1) It's DYING.
2) You lost someone as a child. WE GET IT. There is only so long you can wring sympathy from people over it. Get some therapy for goodness's sake!

Well, it's done something her blogs, tweets and chats haven't done for quite some time. It's made me want to know what happens in one of her books!

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I had a horrible thought that it might be Edward, but I'll be content if it's any number of the other dudes. Odds are that it's one of the more recent additions. Or possibly Jason, I don't know. From the Twittersphere, she was writing something about Haven, so...it could be him too. The great thing about AB:VH is that the possibilities are endless.

But man, now I'm going to have to finish on my catch-up reading, because something's actually happening in this book. Goddamn.

[yaoihuntresse.livejournal.com]

Something's actually happening and it's not bad sex? Are you sure you're reading the right book?

[yaoihuntresse.livejournal.com]

I feel like she might cock-block this like she does with stuff in her comic books. It might be Richard, but she needs a punching bag and it would mean having to get a new member of the trinity or whatever it's called. Wait, that would mean Anita would have to do a massive sex tryout to find a replacement.

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

Well, if she kills Richard, she has to change cannon, as part of the triumvirate, killing him should kill them all. It's happened in other books, where killing one member of a triumvirate kills them all.

Micah is 'Nimir Ra' which isn't really a supernatural bond as strong as the bond with JC/ Richard. Nathaniel is just her boytoy. Jason is her fuckbuddy. So any one of those three would not have a major impact, although there is the minor triumvirate of Nathaniel/ whatshisfacetheredhead/ Anita. She's pulled 'major metaphysical' on that triumvirate several times already.

I really hope it's not Edward - I still maintain Edward would kill Anita. If it was the serial killer she wouldn't be angsting.

Maybe it's Ronnie, her favourite whipping girl.

I pretty much stopped reading after 'Cerulean Sins', so no doubt other people have cropped up.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

Nathaniel is also in a triumvirate with Anita and Damian. Though neither of them seem strong enough for a triumvirate. Damian's primary purpose in the series seems to be "Damian's dying!!! I need to have sex!!!"

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

Damian, that's the one. But she calls that a 'minor triumvirate', so I can still hope :).

[kindofstrange.livejournal.com]

Yeah, at this point I don't really think it'd stop her. It'd just give her a way to show this amazing new OMGSPECIAL power that Anita somehow acquires that allows her and all her precious men to survive.

She might even mourn Richard for a page or two before finding yet another reason to start a metaphysical gang-bang.

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

Can't be Richard. Aside from the issues pandaemonaeum brought up, Anita wouldn't have the only say so. They'd have to find a replacement who worked with JC and was of anywhere near equal power to Richard.

Jason is a Philip replacement, so I wouldn't think it would be him. My money is on Nathanial if its part of the main cast.

[yaoihuntresse.livejournal.com]

It might also be a publicity stunt.

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

Quite true. Always works for JK Rowling.