Interview about the ABVH Graphic Novels

[naeko.livejournal.com]

There's a new interview making the rounds from Graphic Novel Reporter.

Laurell K. Hamilton Talks Graphic Novels (and Giant Cobras)

In it, LKH talks about what she does in terms of bringing the comics together, and admits that "it was like Brett reached inside my head and plucked out the image." So the huge thighs and derpy expressions were exactly as she pictured them!

She also mentions that she doesn't read much anymore, because "One of the most interesting things as a writer is that the more successful you get, the less time you have to read others’ work. You’re writing your own." Interesting and a little sad. Not as in pathetic, but just sad as in, there are some awesome books out there that LKH is missing out on because she's too busy "writing her own." Also, slacking off.

Then, of course, she manages to stumble over her word choices and land in a pile of insults. " It’s not like it was years ago. There are beautiful, grownup, and interesting storylines out there." I've not ever been big into comics, but as I understand it, it's been way more than ten years of "interesting" story lines out there. Adults and kids have been reading and loving comics for, what, fifty years now? At least? Sigh. Just because your comics came out, Cupcake, doesn't mean there wasn't anything worthwhile beforehand.

Anita is really at heart the way it reads. The format is based on the old hardboiled detective fiction, which means it’s very, very dialogue-heavy. There are descriptions, too, but dialogue-heavy books are easier to translate. What I’ve been told is that my books are easier to translate than most books.

I think it's not easier because they're better, but easier because you insist on doing all the work. And, by "doing all the work" I mean you refuse to pare down anything.

The whole package wraps up with her talking about how the CoTD comic is indeed happening, and- of course- mentioning her biology degree! It's a good thing, too. I had forgotten all about it! That and her husband's name. Jon Green, her husband Jon. Wait, what's her husband Jon's name again? Oh right. Jon, her husband Jon Green.

Comments

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

I haven't even read the whole interview yet because I tripped over this:

With a novel, you sit down and you write it. It takes you between six months and a year or more.

My God. I can't help but think of authors like Richelle Mead, who has three series on the go, or some of the ebook authors I know who manage a novella a month. A year or more to write a book at LKH's level seems utterly, utterly appalling.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

*snort* I know, every time I hear about how hard it is or how long it takes for LKH to write a book, I think of Nora Roberts. She puts out 2 books a year in her ongoing series, and (iirc) two unrelated Romance books a year- at least. LKH does not work as hard as she thinks she does.

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

It drives me insane that she talks so endlessly about what a workaholic she is. I can't decide if she's delusional or dumb.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's either. I think she's insecure and, especially now, feeling like she's no longer relevant (which is isn't, really). So, she does what she can to make it appear to the outside world like she's important and put upon. I think she wants the attention and the pity, and whining endlessly about how hard her fabulous life is all she can come up with.

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

I reckon you're probably right. It's a shame she's so transparent... Well, to us, anyway. I guess the troos are easier to trick.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

I understand that they believe what she says and that they think everyone must have heard of her. It's all rose-tinted glasses; they like her work, and there's been a lot of it (twenty five? from her two main series alone, plus all the snippets in other books and such), which speaks to some sort of popularity and staying power.

What I don't understand is why they like her books! I don't see a single redeeming factor in any of the recent ones. It honestly baffles me that people can be so stupid as to believe her work is good. Although, I'm still shocked every time someone reads the breakfast hours off the sign here at work and then turns around and asks me what time breakfast starts. I need to give humanity much less credit than what little I already give them, apparently.

Had to drop the lurker-cloak to interject this...

[sankaku-atama.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

Oversimplification: it states that the incompetent are incapable of realizing that they are, in fact incompetent at what they do. I thought it was apt.

::re-cloaking in 5...4...3...::

Re: Had to drop the lurker-cloak to interject this...

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I've wondered about that for a while. It certainly seems to fit LKH in a lot of ways.

[akisora.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a serious lot of slacking to me. Now I understand that you can hit a wall, but really? Yasmine Galenorn puts out three books a year (two different series), and that's not counting anything that might go into an anthology.

LKH - midlife crisis? Maybe she realized she has no talent, lol.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

Slacking/lack of actual ideas has got to be the problem. If she was still working in "cooperate" America, then I think I could buy it. Working full time, taking care of a kid, trying to have a life *and writing a novel as long as hers usually are could conceivably take 6-12 months. Right now, though, she's on twitter all day, on vacation every other week and only has her kid half(?) the time- her teenage kid, might I add.

I don't think her problem is an inherent time requirement for writing a book, I think she just can't admit she has no new ideas and no real drive to keep writing dreck.

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

It'll be interesting to see if anything does come of this new idea she keeps hinting at.

[rosencrantz23.livejournal.com]

typical author output is 1-3 books per year; the more you can put out, the happier your publisher(s) are with you.

That said, not everyone writes that fast -- Jean Auel's Cave Bear series came out in 5-year (or so) intervals; Patrick Rothfuss has been 1.5-ish years on the sequel to Name of the Wind, Robert Jordan had slowed to 1.5-2 years between Wheel of Time novels.

(Lois McMaster Bujold takes about 10-16 months per book to write -- there's a well-known anecdote about her first contract with Jim Baen's publishing house, when Jim said after reviewing her manuscript for Shards of Honor, "Give me three books a year, and in 7 years you'll be at the top of the best-seller lists." To which Lois replied in horror "How about one a year for 21 instead?")

Mind you, I find LMB's novels infinitely better written than LKH's tripe, but Laurell isn't intrinsically wrong for saying she takes upwards of a year to write a book.

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

I agree that holding her output against her isn't the best plan. Some authors are really prolific, some aren't. And she's not wrong about the timing for her books.

[starrysnafu.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Quality, not quantity (too bad her quality has gone down, rather than up) Authors have different output-Hemingway only did 500 a day, King 2000... and how long it took to produce that amount differs. It could be a day, or a couple hours. Some of the greats supposedly would spend a day fretting on one sentence.

[gwynethfar.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to stridently object to comparing what LKH is writing to Wheel of Time.

But we're also not considering that releasing one book a year doesn't mean she's writing just one book a year. Writing a long series burns a lot of people out. She might be writing side projects that she just hasn't found a home for yet.

[rosencrantz23.livejournal.com]

True enough, and I wasn't necessarily comparing LKH to Jordan or any of the other authors I listed; I was just picking authors that I knew took a while between books.

You're very right, too: any writer worth his or her salt WRITES (it's why they're called writers...). Doesn't matter if it's for publication or just to put the story down, a writer writes in a vain attempt to make the Voices In His/Her Head to please shut up for a minute or two, and maybe let them go back to writing whatever it was they were working on before.

[polymexina.livejournal.com]

IDK I write everyday (blogs, academic, and fiction) and how much I write isn't representative of how much is GOOD

[gwynethfar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there are ebook authors doing one or two a month. But I would imagine LKH is pretty burnt out at this point and we've all seen her entries about how she procrastinates.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Of course she can't bear anyone else writing for her characters, they are her babbies best friends. Heaven help anyone that wants to exercise their creativity in interpreting the text differently - IT WILL BE WRONG, OMG.

I...I'm not even going near the implications about how comics are mostly for dudes or that they're suddenly for adults too.

At least this isn't a cupcake update, and she stayed quiet on International Womens Day.

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

"I...I'm not even going near the implications about how comics are mostly for dudes or that they're suddenly for adults too."

Dudes or lesbians. Straight chicks don't read graphic novels, I guess.

[says the straight chick with the graphic novel collection]

[wyrdmuse.livejournal.com]

It’s not like it was years ago. There are beautiful, grownup, and interesting storylines out there.

You mean like in 1986 when the first issue of Watchmen came out and pretty much revolutionized the comic book industry? Or 1989 when the first issue of The Sandman came out? Or 1993 when Vertigo was launched, giving us some of the best fantasy comics out there? Yep, comics certainly were only for children until only a few years ago.

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

Lets not forget, "The Killing Joke" and "The Dark Knight Returns" credited for ushering in the "Dark Age" of comics where grim gritty and realistic were the mode and the happy bright Silver Age went away in a hurry.

Gah...here's hoping this somehow makes it to the more mainstream Comic sites to be debated I'm half tempted to drop this on No Scans Daily...

[nekojita.livejournal.com]

*this* (and above). You can *not* tell me that the grand age (starting in the 80s) of Gaiman, Miller, Moore, Morrison, Ennis, Wagner et all wrote silly little comics for children. Not about to see any of her comics break any awards or revolutionize the field, I'm rather certain.

[wyrdmuse.livejournal.com]

Oh, "The Killing Joke." Without it, we wouldn't have the awesomeness that is Oracle and without that, I really doubt that we'd have "Birds of Prey" and just about everyone would have forgotten about Lady Blackhawk and all of that makes me a sad panda.

[gwynethfar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I want to know how many years ago. Because I'm sorry, I personally feel that Batman has had "interesting" story lines since it started-- in 1940.

[wyrdmuse.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree. But that probably wouldn't be darkity dark enough for her.

[othellia.livejournal.com]

She also mentions that she doesn't read much anymore, because "One of the most interesting things as a writer is that the more successful you get, the less time you have to read others’ work. You’re writing your own."

Yeah, she's been that way for the past several years now (if not more).

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

Strangely enough, Charlaine Harris, Cherie Priest and Richelle Mead and I'm sure many if not most other authors manage to make time to read other people's books. IMHO she's just intellectually lazy. She has lots of time to watch TV and blog and tweet about what food she's eating.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

This is exactly what I think her problem is- she doesn't want to be exposed to anything new, and probably doesn't want to read anything by other authors because it will make her feel bad about what *she's writing.

[ellenel13.livejournal.com]

So, did she get a either of her contracts renewed or not?

I also remember her hinting that she was tired of Merita and wanted to start writing something new. I have to admit I'm morbidly interested on that.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

I don't think anyone knows. She's been ignoring pretty much ANY tweet that asks about what book is coming next, and she hasnt broken Merry silence (afaik) in MONTHS.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

I don't go there, but someone on Amazon said that TeriO on LKH's is saying something about Merry being "due out in November". But then she goes on to say that it's up to LKH what she writes next. That sounds like a non-answer with some wishful thinking included.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

The November estimation is likely because, late last year, LKH said that a Merry book was coming out "late 2011." Since then, though, she's staying silent.

I agree with your assessment of it, too; I dont think anyone outside of LKH's camp or her business partners (whomever works with her at the publishing house, her agent, etc) knows for sure whats coming up, or what's going on with her contracts. I assume anything not from LKH herself is just BS gossip.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

Now my own personal opinion is that she doesn't have a contract for Merry, but she will get one for Anita. I think the next thing she's actually going to be working on is this new project that she's been mentioning.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

I agree and I hope to god it's true. Merry was done as soon as she was pregnant and it worked out just as LKH had said when she first mentioned Merry. She had estimated five books (then, of course, she changed that 58390850932 times) and I think that was fine.

I fear that the new character will be just as absolutely shitty as Anita has become and as Merry always was and that her moron fans will just LOOOOOVE her, too. I would like to see Hamilton go completely in another way, maybe to write from a male's POV. I wonder if her hatred of making females "weak" and of making them fawn all over men would stop her from making the books mostly about bad sex. Or, if she'd just basically try to write from JC's POV, but she'd call him "John" and the books would simply be him following "Rita" around, confessing his love and trying to sleep with her.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

Oh, no doubt that the new character will be a 5'3" Snappy Sue with dark hair and ginormous bosoms that all the bishie boys desire and the ebil jellus blondes hate. And she'll save the day by routinely gaining magical powers at the last minute.

[gwynethfar.livejournal.com]

The fans had very, very specific ideas in their head and this was their fist time to be able to see a visual. I felt I owed the fans to try to come up with the closest to my ideal—which isn’t their ideal—but it’s the closest I’ve got.

I'm confused. The fans had very, very specific ideas about how the characters would look, but she felt she owed it to the fans to give them her interpretation, even though it wasn't what they wanted? I get going "I don't care what you think, Anita looks like this," because it's her character. But I don't get how you can owe it to someone to not fulfill their expectations.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

She probably means she owes them in the most selfish way: she OWES it to them to show how wrong they are, and how right she is!