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lkh_lashouts2010-07-21 01:15 pm
glimmerfox.livejournal.com) wrote in lkh_lashouts2010-07-21 01:15 pm
Q&A with Laurell
This is Jon's youtube account and on it he has a 14 part Q&A with Laurell on her tour with Bullet. Thought this might be an interesting watch for everyone (if you can survive all 14 parts).
www.youtube.com/jondgreen
Updated with the Q&A summary in the comments
www.youtube.com/jondgreen
Updated with the Q&A summary in the comments
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Editing in a break
Re: Editing in a break
Alternately, the HTML is just lj-cut in brackets.
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Summary
Laurell takes the stage and I shouldn’t comment on what she’s wearing that much, but her short snake skin jacket is really a distraction. And her clothes are very tight. Admittedly, she seems to be keeping in good shape, but please, no woman her age looks good in panted on jeans.
She explains that people have to go to the microphone to ask questions. She explains to the audience like she’s talking to a pack of kindergarteners.
Everyone has a copy of Bullet and she asks if people has already read it. Apparently a few already have. She says she’s worried about spoiler questions for Bullet because she wasn’t sure how to handle them.
She introduces Jonboi, and he comes onstage and puffs out his chest, and his fashion statement is actually worse than Laurell’s, wearing a coat in that faux military style with the buttons and big cuffs. He bows and walks offstage. Laurell says he’s not her manager or agent, but husband. She’s very forceful about that point. Jeeze Laurell we get it.
(I’m going to generalize the Q&A, not everything will be word for word.)
Q: What keeps you inspired, with so many books coming out how do you keep going?
A: Laurell says she’s inspired by everything around her. She talks about the short story Geese and how it was inspired because she took out the trash and geese were outside. She says the ideas are not hard and claims that she has so many already she’d have to live to be 300 before she used them up. She says that keeping the spirit going is the hardest part. Everyday life will sap energy away, she says what helps her is a view of the water and music. She says that today was a Drowning Pool type of day. She wrote on the plane and in the hotel room, but she has a good view, and music and Jonboi with her…so it’s all good.
She also says that other writers have asked her how she’s such a prolific writer and she goes onto how it’s so easy because Anita and the other characters are her friends. And that they are so real to her that she actually purchased Christmas presents for characters in her book. We’ve covered this before on this site, but she really sounds like a crazy person explaining that the imaginary people in her head are trying to buy thing for other imaginary people in her head. She says that this a level of reality that other people never seem to achieve with their series.
But this is just a big shaggy dog answer because she ultimately says that she doesn’t know what gives her the drive to crank out stories. Just this is the way it just works out for her
Q: I’m writing but I’m writing three overlapping series, how can you stay on top of your series?
A: Laurell asks her back if she’s finished a book already and she says she’s finished two already. Laurell tells the girl to see what she can do to get the book published. Laurell says there is no problem with having multiple series. The questioner says that she’s starting to act like her characters and all her friends think she’s crazy, but Laurell says that’s no big deal if it helps her finish the book. She doesn’t really answer the question, but pushed her to send out her books
Q: He’s the son of a published author who’s books are all stand alone and in different genres. He thinks that series books do much better, and wonders how Laurell decided to do a series.
A: Laurell says that she’s never had a single stand alone idea in her life, that she’s just made to do a series. She says that there are two type of writers, those that get an idea and let it grow, write a book and then it’s over, and those that think of everything as interconnected. She actually says that his parent may just not like the idea of a series book, and that’s okay. It’s really personal writing a book. To Laurell, writing like jumping off a cliff and hoping her words will catch her. She does her research first, but once she sits down to write, she’s gone. She says that if you’re a careful writer that you’re slower and more meticulous.
(At this point in the interview I can no longer ignore her pacing. She’s wearing these big clunky heel boots and I can hear every step. In fact she moves the chairs and table on the stage back to give her more room to pace)
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A: She says that Jonboi and her were thinking about doing an Edward original comic, but no plans to do a novel. Edward doesn’t talk to her that well. He keeps his secrets. She talks about Edward’s surprise in Obsidian Butterfly. She said that she knew that surprise two sentences before Anita knew. She says that a comic will be easier because she doesn’t have to get too deep in his head, but a novel is out of the question.
At this point Laurell makes a big deal of unbuttoning her very tight jacket. Jonboi holds her microphone so she can mess with the buttons. Back to questioning.
Q: How many times have you come across a line that you wouldn’t cross in your writing? Are there other people who tell you not to cross certain lines?
A: Laurell says that she’s never had anyone in the publishing world say that she’s gone too far. She says she keeps waiting for a rejection. She says that the only time she’s had a book rejected for content was with A Lick of Frost, but the editor told her that she needed another sex scene.
She said that when she started out she didn’t want the sex on paper, but as the series went on she knew that she was going to cross that line. She was very uncomfortable with the sex, and realized that she could write violence and dismembered bodies with no problem, but sex between two people who care about each other was uncomfortable. She emphasized that it’s a first person narrative and that made it even harder to deal with. And Jean-Claude has been a ladies man for hundred of years and her words must defend his honor. And with all the build up to the sex scene how is she going to pull it off?
She had a good friend, who sent her nude drawings of Jean-Claude for inspiration. And since she kept sending pics of him wet, the sex scene was in a bathtub. She kept sending the sex scene to that friend and the friend kept saying that Laurell can do better. She sent it 3 times until her friend says it was perfect.
Now she talks about how reporters tell her that her work in uncomfortable because she’s writing from a woman’s view point. It’s that she’s a woman and writes about women having sex and enjoying it., and that makes people uncomfortable.
Then she realized that she’s not sure if she’s answered the question. She had to work through her own issues and if she was okay with the violence what did it say about her if she wasn’t okay with the sex, so she got over it.
Q: She asks which character is her husband.
A: Jonboi takes the mike and answers that one dead character in Blue Moon, had his name Jon Green. They both talk about how neither of them realized she used his name. At this point she was just friends and she starts talking about how they didn’t date for years.
Now she’s talking about being single after her first marriage. None of her anecdotes are funny.
Q: How did you come up with the character of Nathaniel and where can I meet Jason in real life?
A: She says that Nathaniel was loosely based on a real person. She goes on to her research of the BDSM community and says that everybody else writes it wrong, but not her because of her research. And found that there are people who are so into pain and they have no stop. Real Nathaniel had disappeared and Laurell decided that what you can’t do in real life, she did in fiction and saved him. Someone in the audience says “Thanks.” and Laurell give this solemn, “Your Welcome,” back like she actually saved a real person.
She goes into how he’s a total fantasy of the dream men, he does housework and shops, he’s gorgeous, he’s a stripper, long hair, he’s sensitive. She says he’s really close to perfect.
She doesn’t mention anything about Jason.
Q: Where did Merry come from?
A: She wrote 5 Anita books all in a row and had a dream where she was Anita and Edward was with her, and that people were chasing her. She woke up in a cold sweat. She didn’t like the fact that she had an anxiety dream about Anita’s life so she developed Merry.
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A: She’s writing the books closer and closer to deadline. And with Bullet the first three chapters will give things away. Jonboi interjects that he’s puts up the first chapter as soon as they got it. Laurell talks about a member of her staff put something online before editing and that’s another reason they don’t do that now.
Q: How different is it writing Merry and Anita?
A: Anita writes faster and her voice is closer to Laurell’s. Merry isn’t bothered by much of anything and doesn’t have the same kinds of issues so she writes slower. Merry helped Laurell grow and get out of small town thinking.
Merry series is also the last hurrah to the long hair. Laurell loves long hair, she talks about how her first husband would cut his long hair.
And she talks about a friend who has really long hair, and says that she isn’t realistic about the long hair. How it tangles, and gets everywhere.
She makes a joke about Nathaniel can get away with it because he has a 20 Dexterity score and is the Legolas of their band.
Q: Will Anita get over her issues with Damian and Asher?
A: Jonboi answers “So how much of Bullet have you read? Keep going.”
Q: Are we going to see more of Edward, Bernardo and Olaf?
A: Laurell said that she Twittered about Edward and Olaf being in Bullet, but she took them out because it was too big a plot to be part of a book, but a whole book, and it’s her next book. She says that Olaf has a limited shelf life in the series and eventually he will cross the line and have to be killed.
She even mentioned her errors in Olaf’s size. She said he was the tallest character in the books. Claudia is 6’6” and Dolph is 6’8”, so is he 6’10”? She goes onto how fricken tall he is and how Anita would be at his belly button without heels. So she says that she may just arbitrarily change his height.
Q: Do you find that there is a little of yourself in the characters of Merry and Anita?
A: Anita and Laurell are equally as stubborn and both torture themselves on decisions, but they are both growing out of it. Doing the research for Anita and talking to police and military, that she’s had Anita get weary with the crime.
Merry helped her get over some of her issues and pushes Laurell’s envelope. Pushes what makes her uncomfortable, and she says if there isn’t a good reason to be uncomfortable she gets over it.
Q: What is your take on Vampire Literature these days?
A: She was invited to write YA Anita and Merry novels. She said that she can’t behave herself for even a short book, and if they like the book, they’ll seek out the other books with the adult content.
She gave this message to her agent and told them to give it to the publisher exactly. “I am not a pedophile.”
She doesn’t approve of other writers making a YA book and then the children will seek out the adult material because there aren’t anymore YA books. She writes for grown ups.
She says that the Twilight books are bad role models for women. It’s the Princess myth: women waiting to be rescued and the men having to rescue you. It’s not about being saved, but having a life so when someone come along you can have a life together. Being passive and trying to get someone to save you all the time isn’t a good life.
Then she tells this not funny anecdote about her daughter wearing body glitter to school
Q: How did you capture the cost of being a cop and how did you capture the cost of leadership?
A: She talks about a friend of hers who is a Marine and became a police officer and watched as the toll of being a cop takes on a person. She was someone that he could talk to when he couldn’t take it home to his wife. She says that she’s listens, with no shock and horror, and it’s a gift.
She says that cops and emergency room nurses are the funniest people but they have the darkest sense of humor.
She talks about leadership with taking care of her people, and talks about her abusive childhood and how the people who were supposed to take care of her didn’t.
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A: She says that fans think that Nicky was Nathaniel’s brother who was supposed to have been killed, but it’s not true, but there is a book in the future dealing with this because there are no statute of limitations on murder.
She now talks about how memory can be a tricky thing when it comes to eyewitness testimony. And how memories seem to change over time.
Third person isn’t really her thing, She’s needs a character to talk to her. She goes off on how her characters talk to her mostly commenting on how Asher sulks. She has a short story idea in mind with Juliana and Asher with the shared memories
Q: Could you tell me more about Nightseer? And what about the endings of Anita and Merry. Do you see endings for them?
A: Anita is not a fairy tale so there isn’t really a ending for her.
And she goes off on a tangent about being on tour with the Anita book is helping her write the next Anita book.
Nightseer was supposed to be a four book series, but the first one didn’t sell well, so they didn’t want the next one. She wanted to write Toilken meets Robert E. Howard. But the fantasy market crashed, so she looked through her short story ideas.
She says she got some of the best rejection letters because the fantasy thought it was horror, horror thought it was mystery, mystery thought it was romance, blah, blah, blah.
She goes on to mention that those editors have apologized to her.
Q: Tell about what happened to the Anita TV series.
A: If she could get a series or movie made that kept to the points of the book she would do it. But if it won’t be good, she won’t do it. She says she doesn’t know enough about the business yet and is learning about Hollywood so that it could have a better chance.
She tells a story about being on a elevator with Angelica Houston.
Q: Will Anita be more comfortable with homosexual aspects of her sex life?
A: Laurell says that in Bullet more women were added to the cast and they crossed a few lines that haven’t been crossed before.
Q: How many guns do you own? Have you used them and have you had any formal training?
A: No formal training but friends who were former military and police have taken her out shooting. She doesn’t want to reveal all the guns she owns but just says that she’s well armed. She then goes on this tirade about how she shoots and how her husband shoots and about how they like different types of guns and ammo. Jonboi admits that he’s a “size queen” when it comes to guns. Laurell goes off on different types of handguns and what she likes and doesn’t like about them.
She tries to shoot everything Anita shoots, but draws the line at things Edward used. She will never use a flamethrower.
Q: You’ve been writing the Anita books for twenty years, but it’s only been a few years in the series. Did you make a conscious decision to stay away from the upgraded tech like cell phones?
A: She made the decision in Bullet to update everything. She could keep trying to remember how it was, but said screw it, and now Anita has a iphone. She said she had fun finding songs for the ringtones for everyone. Nathaniel programmed a ringtone for himself on her phone: “What’s up Pussycat?” by Tom Jones.
Q: How would you like the books to end?
A: She goes on like it’s like asking for a friends life to be over, so she doesn’t want that and she doesn’t know. And anyway the books have not gone on in the direction she set out.
Q: Is there any author that is your personal favorite?
A: Robert B. Parker’s Spencer series. She says these books helped her learn how to write dialogue. She says she’s doesn’t read her own genre, because she writes it how she wants to read it and no one does it like her. She says that she keeps in contact with other paranormal authors, and tells about how some writers who came from romance are “Girl Mean” and that’s not the way the sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal people are.
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A: Ronnie will come back after a little more therapy. She’s hoping that Anita will get a few more female friends just so Anita has those moments of being a girl.
Ronnie has to make peace with Louie and the fact that Louie wants monogamy, but Ronnie doesn’t. Laurell talks about how frightening having one person for all her needs can be.
Q: Are you worried about the Marvel comics and that they will not be able to publish some adaptations of your novels?
A: It will take a long time to even get to the books with the sex in them, so she won’t worry about it for a few years. She was approached by a different comic company for Merry, but refused because you can’t keep standing in shadow, or hidden by word balloons forever.
Q: Do you read a lot or is writing taking up too much of your time?
A: She reads a lot of Non-Fiction, and things very different from what she writes. She finds that physical activity helps her out more. And she likes movies but can’t sit still for two hours to watch one. She goes on to say she hasADD. She says the sticky notes are a coping mechanism for the ADD. A bunch of little ideas that she can just stick on her wall and forget about.
Q: Have you had more than one sexual partner at a time? (Laurell made these giggling girls be more and more specific about their question. I’m glad that she’s even letting them ask this question)
A: Yes. And thankfully she doesn’t go into any specifics.
Q: Will Merry and Anita every cross paths?
A: No they are different worlds. Spilt them so that there would be no contagion politically and metaphysically.
Q: Will we see Dolph in Anita’s life again?
A: Yes, Laurell goes on how she wants to see a diner with Anita, Dolph, Dolph’s family’s the vampire daughter-in-law and Jean-Claude. Now that the Church of Eternal life in under the control of Jean-Claude, he wants to help smooth the water between police and the church. She also wants to see a cookout at Zebrowski’s house with Nathaniel helping Katie in the kitchen.
Q: When Jean-Claude was mortal he had a wife a child, does Anita know about it?
A: He’s shared that memory with her, so yeah she knows about it. The baby died soon after birth so there are no descendants.
Q: Is Anita going to be exposed to more culture?
A: She mentions in Bullet the ballet has come back, and she mentions the dance recital in Bullet. She hoping that she can do more things with Anita, like going to the theatre.
Q: Did you ever have trouble with Anita’s beliefs being different than yours?
A: When she started the series she was Episcopalian and Republican and now she is Wiccan and Independent. She says she’s one of those pesky independent voters that think and read things and don’t just pull the level because it’s easier.
So she doesn’t have a lot of problems with Anita’s faith. She talks about the Harm None aspect of the Wiccan faith and that it’s a religion without guilt as long as you harm none, including yourself. But this doesn’t mean she a pacifist and she says that if your good for so long you almost look forward to someone crossing the line.
Q: Why was there so much of a drastic character change with Anita throughout the books.
A: Laurell doesn’t feel that it is a drastic character change. She says when she was twenty she was atypical of other twenty year olds. She was conservative and responsible, and a virgin still she was married.
She now talks about how none of that worked out for her, and her first husband now remarried and happier and she’s remarried and happier.
She’s reread the older books for the comic series and says that Anita was miserable in the early books. She had noting but death in her life and is happier now, although it wasn’t what she thought would make her happy.
Laurell goes onto how she didn’t think marrying Jonboi who is twelve years younger than her would make her happy, but that’s totally what happened.
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A: She recounts when she went to her daughter’s school and one of two things will happen. 1) they don’t really care, and 2) they are huge fans and will ask questions that the teachers will get in trouble for. So she doesn’t want to get anyone fired for answering a question about Oral Sex. She now goes on her soapbox about how you can’t answer anything about sex in schools and safe sex. I think she would’ve kept going, but one of her aids tells her she doesn’t have a lot of time left.
Q: Are we going to see Gretchen again?
A: Yeah She’s in Bullet.
Q: Is Anita going to Europe anytime soon?
A: She has plots for Anita to go to Europe but a few thing have to happen politically first before she can go. She has a plot for Paris, England, and Ireland.
Q: Why are we getting two Anita books this year and Merry has to wait until 2011?
A: Laurell says that it’s just hard to keep up doing two books in two different series a year. And she needs to wait and she what Merry has to tell her for the next book.
Q: I know that Merry has a conclusion, but every time you give a number of books the number always increases. How many books do you see Merry becoming?
A: She said she could’ve ended the book in book Seven, but she was locked in an overarching plot and she’ll never do that again. She didn’t have the chance to play in Merry’s world so she’ll do that in the next couple of books.
Q: Richard is my favorite masochist, will Richard every get comfortable with everything?
A: He makes great progress in Bullet.
Q: Narcissus was supposed to be pregnant, what happened with that?
A: She could’ve swore she put in the books that she miscarried, but it could’ve got edited out, but it’s mentioned in Bullet. But he does want a child.
Q: Do you have pointy ears?
A: Laurell’s never been asked that. She lifts up her hair to show that she has regular ears. They’re not pierced either.
The time’s up and she thanks the audience for coming, everybody gives a standing ovation, and I finally look at the audience and there are a lot of gaps in the seats. This theatre really wasn’t up to full capacity.
Jonboi gives an announcement of a limited edition t-shirt that everyone should buy.
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And I don't think I could transcribe it. Too many bad jokes and meandering answers would drive me batty to write all the jibberish down.