Kiss the Dead Tour - Seattle

[blogfloggery.livejournal.com]

Link: Kiss the Dead tour - Seattle
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's blog. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.

I’m writing this blog about our wonderful event in Seattle while looking out at palm trees and Southern California ocean. Much warmer, sunnier, and just different from the great Pacific Northwest. Both have an ocean, but this is all sand and beach goers, and Seattle is more about the city, and what comes out of the sea, rather than dipping our toes in it. Jon and I love Seattle, but I admit that I’m glad to have sunshine and no rain.

Thanks to everyone that came out last night to the Seattle Town Hall, where University Books sponsored yet another great event for us. Thanks to the whole crew, but especially Duane, and Art, who helped keep us secure, and Michael who risked life and limb to take the pictures. We really thought he was going to back off the stage a time, or two. Some of the fans said they’d seen us at least three times, or was that four? I know you guys want the new books as they come out, but I’m amazed that you also want to hear the question and answer session, the show, again and again. I’m glad I can entertain you for two hours at a shot, and keep so many of you coming back.

One question I figured I’d get a lot this tour was when’s the next Merry Gentry novel coming out. Most of you knew it was scheduled for December. Last night I asked, “How many of you follow me on twitter, or FaceBook?” Over half the audience raised their hands. I then asked, “How many of you have noticed that I’m having trouble with this Merry book?” Again, a lot of hands went up. I’ve been listening to a lot of Christmas music which is what I go to when I’m really struggling with a book. Merry has not been happy with this book from the beginning, and neither have I. I wasn’t sure what was wrong at first, but eventually Merry told me, if you stop arguing with your characters and let them talk to you, most of the time they’ll let you know what’s wrong. What’s wrong is that to have a book you have to make your main character’s life unhappy. To make an interesting book you have to have things go wrong, and Merry is truly happy for the first time in her life, or at least since her father died, and she doesn’t want me messing that up. She has her twins, the men she’s in love with, and the men she loves, and it’s all good. I honestly think I should have stopped the series at book seven, Swallowing Darkness, but I was still under contract for more books and I still love the world. I also couldn’t imagine never writing about Merry, Doyle, Frost, Rhys, Galen, . . . heck everybody. But if I had stopped with book seven I could have given her that happy-ever-after-ending, and moved on. But I didn’t, I wrote book eight, Divine Misdemeanors, and even that could have been the end, but I left one huge plot point looming. Queen Andais, Merry’s aunt, has gone completely bug nuts and is basically a serial killer except she’s picking on victims that can’t die. If they could die, she’d be torturing her nobles to death. They are fleeing to Los Angeles and to Merry and her men. Andais won’t tolerate that forever, but more than that Merry can’t leave her people to the ministrations of Andais. If I had not added that last bit of insanity to the queen we could have walked away, but I wrote it and now we’re stuck. Merry can’t leave Andais on the throne, but she fears she will die in a duel and orphan her babies, and lose everything. Merry wants to be left the fuck alone, and I can’t really blame her. So, what to do?

I took a day to clear my head and write something else, because sometimes an idea will block the creative pipe. Fifty pages later I had the beginning of the next Anita Blake novel. It was ready to write and ready to go. Okay. I went back to Merry, because that was what was due next. Again, the writing slowed to a crawl, so I took a day, and thirty-forty pages later I had the beginnings of a brand new book set in a brand new world, with a brand new main character. That book is almost ready to write, I just need a little more time to world build, but the character, the voice, and the opening gambit are written and set. It’s based on a sticky note that I’ve had on my wall of stickies for ten years. I love it when an idea finally lets me know it’s ready. Then I went back to Merry, and the book never picked up. I crawled along at a pace that was never going to make deadline. I finally had to call my agent and my editor and tell them it wasn’t happening. There will be no Merry book in December this year. Sorry, guys but there won’t be. Merry has put her foot down and simply doesn’t want her life screwed up this badly. I have tried everything and anything I can think of, but in the end Merry won’t play ball. I’m leaving her alone, and going to let her and the muse that plays with her sit and think. I think we’ll work it out eventually, but I have no idea when. I know we will though, because I have scenes written when the twins are in kindergarten in L. A. and they are fun scenes. We will get there, but first we have Andais to conquer, seduce, or something. I have some ideas, but they aren’t ready yet. It’s cooking, slowly, and in the mean time . . .

If I had still been at two different publishing houses I’d be in serious trouble, because the other publisher would want the Merry book, but this sort of thing is why I decided one publisher in the U. S. would be a good thing, because now whatever book I write is theirs, so they won’t get a Merry book in December, but they’ll get the next Anita book, though not in December. Sorry, even I don’t write that fast. They’ll get the new book when the time comes, too. Whatever I’m working on is something they get to publish and make money from, so they stay happy, and I have the luxury as a writer of actually writing what speaks to my muse, and wants to be written next, regardless of deadline pressure. This is the first time in twenty years, thirty books that I’ve ever had to miss a deadline completely, and just say, “I can’t.” I hated doing it. Hated saying it, but once I worked through the issues of having to do it, it was a huge relief. I should have called it a couple of months ago, but I’m nothing if not stubborn, and I was just sure I could force my way through it. But writing isn’t like making widgets, it’s not just tab B into slot A, if it was then anyone could do it, and you’d get a Merry book this Yuletide season, but there is an element of mystery to it that even I don’t completely understand. I do know that by forcing myself to stay with this book long after I, my muse, and my main character, were done with it hurt me as a writer, and pissed my muse off. She left me for a bit, my muse. She left me to the harsh mercilessness of the blank screen, and no words. I’d never been so empty, not since I was twelve. It was one of the most horrible feelings. I had been disdainful of people with writer’s block. That it was a failure of confidence and that wasn’t really something I suffered from as a writer, but it’s more than that. The muse, whatever it is exactly, needs a certain amount of care and feeding, and trying to force feed this Merry book down it’s throat damn near made us both choke.

My muse wants to play with Anita, and the new story, and other ideas are coming, but only after I came to my senses and stopped treating my gift, my muse, my inspiration, like an assembly line where you can just put a book together because it’s time to do it. I’ve done it that way for twenty years. I have never, ever abandoned a book in place. Hell, I sold the first book I ever wrote, Nightseer. Most writers have trunks of unsold, and mostly unsalable books, but not me. I write it, I sell it, its what I do, but not this time. This time my muse let me know that I had to cut this shit out, or she was packing her bags and leaving, so . . . I cut this shit out. I listened to that mysterious part of me, and I am learning what feeds my muse, what inspires me, and what starves her, and what harms me as an artist.

Eventually I’m pretty sure you’ll get the next Merry book, but I don’t know when. You will get the next Anita book, because I’m writing it now, and you will get the brand new adventure because it’s alive in my head and I’m making more notes, and there will be other short stories, because my muse and I have reconciled like a feuding couple rediscovering that they love each other, after all.

Comments

[summersdream.livejournal.com]

... it is really obnoxious the way she talks about Merry like the fictional fairy princess is a real person, with control over her life and not just admitting "Sorry y'all, I just can't think of anything for her to do yet" OR "I got kind of carried away on this other stuff, but I'm working on it, just not as fast as could be."

I can't bloody imagine in any universe where GRRM would sit there going "I'm sorry, guys, the Winds of Winter is just not showing up because Dany has her dragons and she's just not interested in fighting ice zombies." The entirety of his fandom would run screaming to the internet about how he's finally lost it and gone senile and we're never getting the next book.

Or JKRowling: "I know I promised Harry would fight Voldemort but he's not interested and I can't blame him."

Is she trying to sound cute and failing or what?

[theblackraven.livejournal.com]

And I love how she's all, "I've got the scene with the twins in kindergarten all written..." and I can't help but wonder how in the hell that's progress and plot and not just pointless filler. Also, doesn't it kind of contradict when it says as a writer its her job to make her character unhappy, but she's not going to write this story because it makes her character unhappy? I love how she once again talks about how she's scorned other people having writer's block, never had it, and what she has is much worse. It's all at once proclaiming herself the most special snowflake ever and nothing that goes wrong is ever her fault. It's the muse, etc. Lastly, I'm sorry, but that part about how she sold her first novel compared to other people and how she can tell the publishing company what's what and they'll be happy because she'll make money just sounds obnoxious and arrogant.

lol. I also now have this image of Harry just clapping his hands together, going, "I'm out." and walking away from all the fighting.

[dreamstrifer.livejournal.com]

TBH, I, and many other writers I know, have WAY too much fun thinking up horrible things to do to our characters.

I once even tried to figure out what character's death would affect fandom the most. XD GO RIGHT FOR THE JUGULAR, YEAH!

But then again, I do not think I'm a special snowflake, just another wannabe writer doing her best.

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

Another Jim Butcher Quote- "My income is directly related to how much hell I can put Harry [Dresden] through..."

[theblackraven.livejournal.com]

Total agreement! There was one piece of writing advice I got and it was always do what you don't want to do to your character. Well that and when the plot seems to be heading one direction, trying veering to the left. I've ALWAYS written better stories the meaner I am to the character. (Plus its just fun making their lives hell lol).

hehe I've done that too. Always kill the most loved. XD

[othellia.livejournal.com]

lol. I also now have this image of Harry just clapping his hands together, going, "I'm out." and walking away from all the fighting.

That image is... rather awesome actually.

[theblackraven.livejournal.com]

lol, I know right? XD

[kessie.livejournal.com]

I also now have this image of Harry just clapping his hands together, going, "I'm out." and walking away from all the fighting.

BRB, nearly crying from laughter.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

The thing that immediately leaps to my mind - and it is not a novelist's mind, to be fair - is that there are a whole lot of other characters in the Merryverse that she could choose to make central to the story if she's so hell-bent on everything being nicey-nice for Merry for the moment.

[aramuin.livejournal.com]

It really annoys me because it's such a lazy cop-out - it's not like either of her avatars have ever actually had to face serious consequences/choices so it's not even like they have much to recover from. Even when she does talk about something that might be dramatic - Andais, for example - I just don't believe she going to carry through.

Plus, the obvious rebuttal as everyone above me has pointed out is "Of course your characters aren't going to like it! That's the point of the plot!" and as a real, serious writer, it's her job to put on her big-girl panties and deal with that.

::sigh::

[the-mome-wrath.livejournal.com]

it’s not just tab B into slot A

But the sex scenes have been that way for years!

[bloodredroses1.livejournal.com]

I read that line & my first thought was "Laurell, sweetie, hate to break it to ya but *ALL* your books now are insert tabs B-thru-Z into slut A."

[morilove.livejournal.com]

And that remark of hers convinces me she either reads, or gets reported on, the snarky comments made here and on the discussion boards on Amazon, where there have been frequent mentions of her IKEA sex scenes.

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

One can only HOPE she spoke to her Publishers about 'I don't wanna do Merry!' before this. Though I believe they had a clue she wouldn't get it done since there is no listing for it on Amazon or the Publisher's Lists of 2012 releases.

HOWEVER they have strongly hinted they want more than a book a year, they want her to produce as much as her peers which is at least 1-2 books multiple short stories ect. She might skate by on more 'e-special outakes' but eventually fans (and the publisher) are going to want more original content from her

[naeko.livejournal.com]

Just donning the mod hat to ask if you can provide a source for info about what her publishers want? I honestly would not doubt that some disgruntled employee who has to deal with Hamilton would leak about what a pain she is, but mainly we just see a lot of supposition with no facts behind it.

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/2011/10/playing-as-hard-as-i-work/
Here she states she's writing two books in 2012 It's from Oct 2011.

http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/2011/05/rumors-about-the-merry-gentry-series/
And from May 2011

Did it start because there isn’t going to be a Merry book in 2011? See previous paragraph. I was still taking a break and having the Merry Gentry series at my home publisher along with the Anita Blake series meant I had the luxury of not having to do two big books this year. Having time to breath, to play, to be with family, friends, to travel, see new things, refresh my muse and me. It almost wasn’t a luxury. I was burning myself out doing two books a year, will my publisher want me to get back on track with one Anita book and one Merry book a year? Yes, but it’s still an easier schedule, and after ten years of two books a year, easier sounded good.

Bolding mine.

[cheeky-duckie.livejournal.com]

I did wonder if one book a year was a slow pace for a full-time writer. We can't all be James Patterson & the Writing Factory, but I would think a full time job would sustain more time for writing. (I can't even manage one a year at current rate, but I cling to the excuse that I do this on the side and no one is relying on me. XD)

[morilove.livejournal.com]

For writers of popular fiction (particularly series) one book a year seems to have become the minimum

[naeko.livejournal.com]

I honestly do not have the patience for Hamilton and her idiot fans, lately. I haven't been able to spend more than about two or three minutes expending brain power on reading or hearing about her.

But I did catch the bit in this blog about how she can't finish a book by DECEMBER and it makes me want to claw my own face off and then slap her with the bloody, gory skin. THIS IS ALL YOU DO, WOMAN. THIS IS LITERALLY YOUR LIVELIHOOD! I can (and have) written a 70k novel in one month and then take no more than two weeks to proofread it and consider it ready for someone else to give me feedback. I HAVE A FULL TIME JOB! YOU DO NOT!

While I understand that not everyone is as fast as I can be, this is on another LEVEL. Writing is literally her job. It is what she is supposed to be doing; it's what she's been contracted to do. The fact that it's fucking JULY and she usually turns her manushits in-ooooh, what?-- one month before they're to be published and she's saying she can't publish a book by December is rage-making.

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

If some non-pro authors can do NaNoWriMo & do 10k in a month, then WTF is taking her so long?

I think she spends more time on finding reasons not to write, than actually writing.

A lot of authors manage to put out 2 - 3 books a year, because all they do is write. They don't wangst away about how hard their life is even though they have a staff who pretty much run her household for her. :p

[morilove.livejournal.com]

It makes ME wonder about her finances. Maybe she doesn't need the income? Has made as much money as she'll ever need? Has made great investments? Doesn't ever have to work again except at her whim?

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

The only way I can see her doing okay is if she has a great investment manager. She appears to have an expensive lifestyle with lots of household help, she's always bragging about the expensive (and ugly) clothes and boots she buys, she takes tons of vacations and they always involve a plane flight (and she's mentioned she only does first class). She appears to be the typical upper middle class person who spends as fast as she earns.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

I hope she could quit if she needed to (because she kind of needs to), but I too wonder about her finances. She spends so much money going on vacation after vacation that I think she may be as bad with money as I am and that's pretty bad >.>

[igenlode.livejournal.com]

If she's become aware that her current book Really Isn't Working, this sounds like a good sign - indications of author quality control?

[maximilia.livejournal.com]

No, I don't think it is. It's the way she's talking about it. To me, it sounds ever more like she lost her mind and has gone batshit crazy, but happens to be making money off of her crazy. I write, and I understand how hard it is to put a story together, especially one that's interesting. However, she hasn't been trying for a long time anyway, just plopping her masturbatory fantasies down on paper and calling it gold.

I remember reading the early books and thinking how cool they were, and how I wish I had thought of that. But after NiC (which I was horrified as I read it), it's becoming more and more clear she's not only losing touch with our world, but losing touch with her world(s). At least, IMO.

That being said, I'm actually sad there isn't going to be a new Merry book. Anita to me was all about the violence; Merry was always all about the sex and thus, it didn't matter to me if it was wall to wall sex and dramaz with Merry... because that's what it always was.

Sorry, rambling, heh.

[aramuin.livejournal.com]

Ditto on the Merry disapointment - though those books were always a let down in the opposite direction to Anita's, the sex was too scant and too bland. I mean, she had a character with TENTACLES for Loki's sake and nothing ever came of it.

Also, Merry rates a fail on an authorial level because the one big emotional crossroads in the story - which of the men is she going to wind up with - was killed off in favour of a Merry Ex Machina.

[morilove.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my line de jour is that Hamilton not only writes an alternate universe, she lives in one.

[igenlode.livejournal.com]

To me, it sounds ever more like she lost her mind and has gone batshit crazy, but happens to be making money off of her crazy. I write, and I understand how hard it is to put a story together, especially one that's interesting. However, she hasn't been trying for a long time anyway, just plopping her masturbatory fantasies down on paper and calling it gold.

I made the mistake the other week of doing what I swore I'd never do (http://igenlode.livejournal.com/14717.html#cutid1) and picking up one of the 'new' Laurell K.Hamilton books -- "Flirt". In my defence I can say only that it was short, it was there on the library shelf (and the book I actually wanted wasn't) and the opening chapter actually looked pretty promising: an ethical dilemma involving Anita's actual job as a plot-line.

In about chapter 2 the dreaded entourage made an appearance and I started skim-reading sections. I skipped all the scenes with Micah, all the scenes with sexual activity and most of the scenes that didn't seem to have anything to do with the zombie plot.

I got to the end of the book very quickly, having run out of content....

[viridian5.livejournal.com]

Now she thinks both of her main characters are stopping her from writing actual plot because they don't want her to make them unhappy. Great.

[paksenarrion2.livejournal.com]

Even her fictional characters are tired of her bullshit and want nothing to do with her.

And any takers on a bet on her new character being a female with a magical vagina that has all the menz lusting after her?

Bueller?

The only thing different will be the world she sets said female in.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Rumour is that it's a male protagonist - her fangirl 'continuity editor' leaked it on twitter after the St Louis event: here (http://twitter.com/MissyMacLeod/status/210283787458854912) and here (http://twitter.com/MissyMacLeod/status/210285610169143298).

[paksenarrion2.livejournal.com]

LOL.

Must be he is going to have a magical cock that every woman can't resist. :D

Still not going to buy. May not even borrow from the library.

[aramuin.livejournal.com]

I think it would actually be really interesting - given that one of the common complaints is that if Anita was a man and her fucktoys were women, the story would read very differently and LKH's deteriorating ability to write characters means that the new character is likely to be more of the same, we might finally get a chance to see how that actually works out.

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

Wow, she did a St. Louis event? I'm utterly shocked!

She acted (acts) like everyone in our city was (is) out to get her.... (I remember her "date" with Kathy and having a freak out and calling Chuck on his day off and come "investigate" some totally random dude that was at the place she'd gone to eat at with Kathy, before they even got there.)

[cheeky-duckie.livejournal.com]

I had the beginnings of a brand new book set in a brand new world, with a brand new main character <-- This made me really excited for her. Hooray! Good job! Growth as a writer! I could potentially be really interested in seeing if she breaks the mold. It felt like a little beacon of hope. Then...

[...]other ideas are coming, but only after I came to my senses and stopped treating my gift, my muse, my inspiration, like an assembly line where you can just put a book together because it’s time to do it.[...] Hell, I sold the first book I ever wrote, Nightseer. Most writers have trunks of unsold, and mostly unsalable books, but not me. I write it, I sell it, its what I do[...] <-- This made me turn to my husband and say, "What snide, self-aggrandizing statement."

[cheeky-duckie.livejournal.com]

Curse my failed closing tag!

[nightwalker.livejournal.com]

How hard is it to just say, "Look, I wrote myself into a corner with the Merry series and I don't know where the next book is going yet. I hope to have it ready for December, but if the publication date gets pushed back, I'll let everyone know as soon as I can."

How hard is that? No babbling about Merry being a real person and whining about how hard you work. Just tell your fans the truth.

[morilove.livejournal.com]

She's an arteeste. Charlaine Harris might admit something like that, but never LKH.

[morilove.livejournal.com]

I've lived in Seattle. I love Seattle. I'm a graduate of the University of Washington. If it was actually the U-Dub Bookstore who hosted LKH, as an alumni, I am going to write them a VERY HARSH LETTER for encouraging the dumbing down of the American reading public.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

I love (and am in!) Seattle, too, and I think they just bring in any author who will bring them money; sadly, that's the state of corporate America, these days. Fuck whatever would actually be good for the world; they want MONEY.

[morilove.livejournal.com]

By the way - I have no clue how to post an image, and I hate the faceless non-entity accompanying my comments. Instructions are welcome.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

http://www.livejournal.com/editpics.bml

You can upload an icon there; 100x100px, no more than (I think?) 40k. :)

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

I checked and compared. It rains slightly less in Seattle than it does in Philly. The difference being that Philly's precipitation is pretty even throughout the year whereas Seattle has drier summers and much wetter autumns. And no one considers Philly especially rainy.