Interview with LKH and Charlaine Harris

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Amazon's Kiss the Dead page now has an editorial featuring a side-by-side interview with LKH and Charlaine Harris, where they talk about charcters and writing processes. It's...nothing really new from LKH (no surprise) but it highlights her limitations (this is the nicest way to put it) when put next to Harris. For example:

Does fan response play a part in your planning process?

CH: Not in the sense of changing plot direction in my novels. This is my story to tell, and I have to write it the way I see it. But every now and then when reader response to a character is unexpectedly enthusiastic--or the opposite--I'll take a second look at that character to see why he/she is coming across in a way I didn't expect or anticipate.

LKH: I don't change plot direction for fan reaction either. My story, my world, my books, my stuff, my way. The only people who can change the direction of my novels are my characters. It's their life, after all, so if they're really insistent on a different plot, then they win. I agree that reader response to a character can make me puzzle over them more, but it doesn't usually change how often the character is on stage, or how big their role is, because weirdly if the fans are interested, then I'm already intrigued. Best example is Edward who started out as this cold blooded assassin, almost a bad guy, and now he's one of Anita's best friends, and he's a U. S. Marshal. So, not what I had planned for him.

Read the entire thing here

I pretty much lost it where LKH says "I can't lighten Anita's hair, but I can lighten mine!" in response to a question about readers expecting authors to be their characters. Yes, because we can do so much more in this wacky land of reality, like change hair colour and fly to the moon, whereas it's clearly impossible to do any of those things in fiction. Yup.

On a related note, the product information for Beauty has been updated to reveal that the "steamy outtake" is 33 pages long. Asking $3 for it seems way too steep.

Comments

[muse-books.livejournal.com]

Harris comes off assuch a much nicer, more accessible person. She may not be a stand-in for Sookie but there does seem to be a kindness in both character and author that comes through.

[terrie01.livejournal.com]

Why is LKH so surprised that some fans act like her characters are real people or based on real people? SHE acts like they're real people.

[zombiegoat.livejournal.com]

A 33-page sex scene? That's just... wow. Wow.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Realistically, at least half will be dedicated to Anita's angsty issues about not being pretty but being reassured that she is, and maybe five more pages of ultraviolet descriptions of JC, Asher, and their clothing. Because she's made all new introductions for context, in case nobody knows who these people are.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I'm also calling bullshit that she never realised that Anita closely resembles herself. And lol at never basing characters on real people, we know that's not true too.

[zombiegoat.livejournal.com]

(does math, never a strong suit) So that leaves about a dozen pages to be filled with sex. I'd say that isn't possible, but this is LKH here. Ugh. Does anybody else here get depressed when they think about the first few books of the AB series and how good they were, up until it all keeled over and died with Narcissus In Chains? I know I sure do.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure the opening sex scene for...Blood Noir was drawn out to ridiculous lengths - I haven't read the book, but the first chapter is mostly Nathaniel and Jason talking about having sex with each other Anita and then there's more talkity talk about what they like/she likes/they all like together before they finally get it on. Hit List had a similar thing with Anita stopping to talk about "but what do you like?" and insulting all the ladies that had rejected the woobie of the moment because he had mixed blood noooes horrrror.

Not to mention there'll be a whole lot of repetition and circular arguments. So I could be off by about ten pages.

But yeah ;__; I can't read the earlier books for pleasure anymore, I'm stuck in critical reading mode and switch off by the time I get to NiC etc and enter the "This is so bad it's lulzy!" place. A bottle of bourbon in the cupboard does help a whole lot.

[queenmeow.livejournal.com]

Notice how Charlene's answer to not looking like her main character was gracious and about her character while LKH was like, well our hair is different, LOL

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

And LKH reveals that she has fans who are insane or stupid enough that they believe Jean Claude, Nathaniel, etc. are real and get mad if they can't get their phone number. I'm not sure that I would brag about my fandom being made up of the abysmally stupid and the clinically psychotic.

[4tonedeaf.livejournal.com]

You can really tell who's the class act in this interview. Not that I'm surprised.

[the-mome-wrath.livejournal.com]

That's short if you consider the fact that Mistral's Kiss is pretty much just one long sex scene.

[zombiegoat.livejournal.com]

Now I feel pretty good about making the executive decision to not read anything after Cerulean Sins. Remember when Anita used to end the book splattered like a Jackson Pollock painting because of blood and ichor from the monsters she'd killed versus splattered from... you know?

I miss those days. Too bad she went batshit and decided she didn't need an editor.

[maedren.livejournal.com]

An interesting comment to me personally was when Hamilton said that her characters made a relationship choice and she had to throw out almost a third of what she had planned for the book but that ultimately the book was "better" because of it. I'd love to know what book exactly this happened in. *rolls eyes* she probably had sex with one of her many, many personality less walking sex toys and then had to spend the rest of the book talking about his hair. Or eye color. Or penis. You never really know with that woman.

[volatilesublime.livejournal.com]

Comments like these make me wish that LJ had a "Like" button.

[astronauta.livejournal.com]

"I don't think anyone can plan to write twenty-one novels in a series and still be excited about starting the twenty-second."

I don't know what she meant with this since she later talks about she's excited to continue exploring this world of hers. However, this statement still upsets me. As an aspiring writer, I'd be kinda honored to have a series that's over twenty books long. She's acting like it's a chore. As someone who hasn't written this many books, nor under pressure with deadlines and such, maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe as a successful writer, each book gets less exciting. I don't know. I can't imagine it. Either or, if this series is starting to become a chore, why not retire it? Give it some long-deserved closure. Redeem Anita by forcing her to realize she's become the monster she's always hated when she was young and anti-vamp.

Maybe start a spin-off series starring Jean-Claude.



EDIT: I just realized I may have read this wrong. Maybe she meant like.. she didn't expect to be having such a long series and she IS unexpectedly excited about it. Either or, I vote this series ends with some dignity.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I read the statement as planning takes the fun out of things, so if she'd had ~~plans/outlines~~ then she probably would not be excited to start book #22 because ho-hum, it's just another thing to check off the outline/list. It makes sense after what she said about finishing Swallowing Darkness and how she hated being tied to a main story arc so she viewed Divine Misdemeanours as a chance to open up and explore Merry's world.

Unfortunately, being tied to a main story arc actually improved her writing because she had an aim and was forced to actually resolve stuff.

[aramuin.livejournal.com]

Honestly, that flat-out baffles me. I wouldn't get anything written if I didn't plan it. I know a too-rigourous outline flips the 'done' switch but if I didn't have some idea of where I'm aiming to get to, the story just sputters out. If I was planning to write 21 novels my outline would cover the world

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too. I usually stick to dot-point outlines, maybe a paragraph of something specific that has to happen in one part, and then I get the fun of connecting the pieces.

Ordinarily, I'd roll with whatever works best for other people -- no outline, a glass of wine, an hour on the treadmill, it's all cool, ditto on the freedom to explore the world and different characters -- but in the case of LKH, she's hurting both her series SO MUCH by being so...static, stuck with the same fixed POV as our "camera" on the world that then gets twisted so she has a reason to bear witness to events/characters that she'd otherwise have no reason to get involved with. So I can't really wrap my head around the idea of keeping either series open-ended like this and not have an idea of working toward an endgame. (Then again, I would have ended AB:VH ten books ago, because asking people to stick with the same POV/core cast for 21 books would be tedious unless they were working toward something truly epic).

[aramuin.livejournal.com]

Yeah but outlines are the bouyancy aids of writing - I love them most when I hit the 'WTF am I aiming at again' point?

The part about ABVH that really bugs me is that it is just too much - Anita's been through too much to be able to handle any more without some collapse and it really shows.

It's such a pity; the world hinted at in the earlier books would be a lot of fun to explore but we can't do that through Anita's eyes and it would be so refreshing to occasionally see from someone else's point of view.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

YES, this frustrates me more than anything; this series could be good again, maybe even great. The opportunities are there, and I'm sure that a dozen other writers would run with them to take things in amazing and different directions. But LKH just glosses over it, I don't know if it's because it's too hard or goes against how she feels the characters have evolved, or if it leads to the killing off of extraneous characters, or if she does not realise that the seeds are there to salvage this mess, or what. It's so irritating and disappointing from a reader perspective to see all this potential and watch it get wasted. And embarrassing as there are times when I feel like I'm reading someone's private wank fantasy.

[aramuin.livejournal.com]

One of the writing classes I went to had a really lovely piece of advice; "Even if your world is infinite, your MC is going to retire eventually."

I think Anita is past that point and going further and further in the wrong direction; if living with the leopards is what her happy ending should be fine. I personally don't like it but I'm all for it if she just stops being everything to everyone.

It's not like she hasn't got characters that she could put in place instead; Dolph, the not-crazy-murderer, Sylvie, Raphael.....there are so many other persepectives we could see from here.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I got nothing to add except a huge YES EXACTLY THIS.

But that said, bring on Kiss the Dead. I'm in the mindset that this will be the worst book I've ever put in my eyeballs, so it'll be a pleasant surprise if it manages to be...not as awful as previous instalments.

[aramuin.livejournal.com]

Um, better you than me? I haven't the stomach for her later work (and Best Beloved Beta objects to book-shaped holes in the walls) but I've enjoyed your deconstructions. ♥

Hail, dwg, those not about to face that horror salute ye!

[amamelina.livejournal.com]

I can't remember who it was, but some author once said that he (or she) used to line the kitty litter box with rejection slips.

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

One of the writing classes I went to had a really lovely piece of advice; "Even if your world is infinite, your MC is going to retire eventually."

That's exactly the humorous point Castle made in like the first season! He (Richard Castle aka Geek God Nathan Fillion *g*) retired/killed off his main character - Derek Storm and was looking for new inspiration when he found Kate Beckett and made her infamous as "Nikki Heat."

Seriously, if a TV show makes a point of talking about it, then you know there's something to that statement. :-p