Blogflog - What’s Next for Anita Blake?
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lkh_lashoutsLink: What’s Next for Anita Blake?
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's blog. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.
One of my goals for this year was to work happier, so I gave myself permission to write anything I wanted, and that was great for awhile. I’ve made some notes and even chapters, or pieces of chapters in a brand new world. I’ve learned that I need dozens to hundreds of pages that aren’t for publication while I explore and world build. I’ve tried skipping this part of my process and it’s what led me to throw out 70% of the first Meredith Gentry book after the editor had already accepted it and start the novel over. The book was immensely better for it, and the world, my main character, plot, everything vastly improved, but I learned my lesson. Unless the muses give me a book opening and world whole and complete through near magical inspiration, I need to write out my world building before I write the first book in the world.
I finished a brand new Anita Blake short novel that’s even longer than Micah which was my last original paperback surprise. Eventually, I had to look at my deadlines and my goals for the year and realize it was time to get down to brass tacks and begin the next full-size Anita Blake novel. This year, 2014, will see the first new Merry Gentry novel in almost five years, 2015 will be Anita’s turn, but to make that happen I have to write the book. Funny, how they don’t write themselves.
I usually know what I’m writing next with Anita, but I did something I used to do years back, but had stopped in the press of deadlines when I was delivering two big books a year. A decade of doing that put a lot of things on hold. There just wasn’t time to do my usual process and meet those deadlines, but see that goal to “work happier”, so I was trying to recover some of the pieces that had made things more joyous for me and my muse. I used to tidy and sort my office between writing projects, but I’d fallen so far behind on that I had literally boxes of papers on the floor, and sticky notes on the wall so old the ink had faded.
I went through every file folder, every piece of paper in my office. The desktops are cleaned and ready to go for the next book, but which one? Because in going through all the notes and scrapes of paper I’ve got a wealth of possibilities. I thought I’d chosen a follow up on Sampson, the mermaid/man, and his rather dysfunctional family situation: sirens, vampires, and murder, oh, my! But I think that Sampson’s story maybe a short story, or a different book than I thought, so – not yet. I have this great opening that I wrote on the plane back from Paris a few years ago. It has Nicky featured and I thought, cool, we’ll do a book where he takes center stage. Um, no, not ready. That opening may have Nicky in a main part, but I think it’s a book more about Anita’s necromancy and the power boost/side effects from the Mother of All Darkness. (You didn’t really think all that happened without side effects, did you?) But the book isn’t soup yet, not done, not ready, so . . . Valentina, our forever five-year-old vampire, has a story to tell, and a modern spin on her own fate, and I thought that was next, but as I tried to write it . . . it slowed down, and . . . Edward’s wedding finally? No, that story isn’t ready yet, close, but not quite ready. Olaf’s return? Maybe, but not yet. Nicky will be going home to make sure his abusive mother doesn’t get parole and Anita will go with him for moral support, but not this book. (That may actually be a novelette, or short story, and not a book at all.) Bartolome trapped forever in the body of a twelve-year-old boy, has more to tell, but again he’s not ready to tell the rest of his story. I’ve got a short story/novelette with Micah doing his job for the Furry Coalition, but so not soup yet. I’ve got a Jade novelette, or short novel, and that maybe close, but not sure. I’ve got the beginning of a short piece where Jean-Claude and Asher tell an adventure they had when they were a happy threesome with Julianna. I know the whole plot there, I think, it’s more how to tell the story without running into the traps of “telling a story,” where you know the people survived, or they couldn’t be telling you the story now. I’ve got two short pieces where Richard is on stage, and one that revisits his family, his brother Daniel in particular, but that’s not even close to ready to be written. I’ve got several pages of a story about Jean-Claude, and Nathaniel, and we find out something from both their pasts that intertwine in a way that totally surprised me. That seems to be the front runner at the moment, but again it feels more like a novelette than a novel. There’s a piece that features Detective Zerbrowski and his son, and that’s close to being ready, but again I don’t think it’s a complete novel. It may even be a short story. I found notes about a visit to Philadelphia to visit Requiem in his new home. A book set in the Carolinas that was inspired by a horrible hotel room my husband, Jon, and I had in Charlotte, North Carolina once, but though a great beginning, it’s just an idea, a book length idea, but it needs another idea, or two to bump into it before I sit down and begin in earnest. That’s just a few of the ideas I rediscovered, or tidied up into folders for later.
I’d forgotten that I did that, shed ideas like flower petals in a high wind, so that the path is strewn with wonders, and curious notes. My office is clean and neat as a pin, but my imagination is cluttered with fragments of this and that idea, character, plot, so that it’s like I’ve smashed a stained glass window and covered the floor with bright, shining, pieces, but which to pick up first?
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's blog. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.
One of my goals for this year was to work happier, so I gave myself permission to write anything I wanted, and that was great for awhile. I’ve made some notes and even chapters, or pieces of chapters in a brand new world. I’ve learned that I need dozens to hundreds of pages that aren’t for publication while I explore and world build. I’ve tried skipping this part of my process and it’s what led me to throw out 70% of the first Meredith Gentry book after the editor had already accepted it and start the novel over. The book was immensely better for it, and the world, my main character, plot, everything vastly improved, but I learned my lesson. Unless the muses give me a book opening and world whole and complete through near magical inspiration, I need to write out my world building before I write the first book in the world.I finished a brand new Anita Blake short novel that’s even longer than Micah which was my last original paperback surprise. Eventually, I had to look at my deadlines and my goals for the year and realize it was time to get down to brass tacks and begin the next full-size Anita Blake novel. This year, 2014, will see the first new Merry Gentry novel in almost five years, 2015 will be Anita’s turn, but to make that happen I have to write the book. Funny, how they don’t write themselves.
I usually know what I’m writing next with Anita, but I did something I used to do years back, but had stopped in the press of deadlines when I was delivering two big books a year. A decade of doing that put a lot of things on hold. There just wasn’t time to do my usual process and meet those deadlines, but see that goal to “work happier”, so I was trying to recover some of the pieces that had made things more joyous for me and my muse. I used to tidy and sort my office between writing projects, but I’d fallen so far behind on that I had literally boxes of papers on the floor, and sticky notes on the wall so old the ink had faded.
I went through every file folder, every piece of paper in my office. The desktops are cleaned and ready to go for the next book, but which one? Because in going through all the notes and scrapes of paper I’ve got a wealth of possibilities. I thought I’d chosen a follow up on Sampson, the mermaid/man, and his rather dysfunctional family situation: sirens, vampires, and murder, oh, my! But I think that Sampson’s story maybe a short story, or a different book than I thought, so – not yet. I have this great opening that I wrote on the plane back from Paris a few years ago. It has Nicky featured and I thought, cool, we’ll do a book where he takes center stage. Um, no, not ready. That opening may have Nicky in a main part, but I think it’s a book more about Anita’s necromancy and the power boost/side effects from the Mother of All Darkness. (You didn’t really think all that happened without side effects, did you?) But the book isn’t soup yet, not done, not ready, so . . . Valentina, our forever five-year-old vampire, has a story to tell, and a modern spin on her own fate, and I thought that was next, but as I tried to write it . . . it slowed down, and . . . Edward’s wedding finally? No, that story isn’t ready yet, close, but not quite ready. Olaf’s return? Maybe, but not yet. Nicky will be going home to make sure his abusive mother doesn’t get parole and Anita will go with him for moral support, but not this book. (That may actually be a novelette, or short story, and not a book at all.) Bartolome trapped forever in the body of a twelve-year-old boy, has more to tell, but again he’s not ready to tell the rest of his story. I’ve got a short story/novelette with Micah doing his job for the Furry Coalition, but so not soup yet. I’ve got a Jade novelette, or short novel, and that maybe close, but not sure. I’ve got the beginning of a short piece where Jean-Claude and Asher tell an adventure they had when they were a happy threesome with Julianna. I know the whole plot there, I think, it’s more how to tell the story without running into the traps of “telling a story,” where you know the people survived, or they couldn’t be telling you the story now. I’ve got two short pieces where Richard is on stage, and one that revisits his family, his brother Daniel in particular, but that’s not even close to ready to be written. I’ve got several pages of a story about Jean-Claude, and Nathaniel, and we find out something from both their pasts that intertwine in a way that totally surprised me. That seems to be the front runner at the moment, but again it feels more like a novelette than a novel. There’s a piece that features Detective Zerbrowski and his son, and that’s close to being ready, but again I don’t think it’s a complete novel. It may even be a short story. I found notes about a visit to Philadelphia to visit Requiem in his new home. A book set in the Carolinas that was inspired by a horrible hotel room my husband, Jon, and I had in Charlotte, North Carolina once, but though a great beginning, it’s just an idea, a book length idea, but it needs another idea, or two to bump into it before I sit down and begin in earnest. That’s just a few of the ideas I rediscovered, or tidied up into folders for later.
I’d forgotten that I did that, shed ideas like flower petals in a high wind, so that the path is strewn with wonders, and curious notes. My office is clean and neat as a pin, but my imagination is cluttered with fragments of this and that idea, character, plot, so that it’s like I’ve smashed a stained glass window and covered the floor with bright, shining, pieces, but which to pick up first?
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no subject
Date: 2014-05-05 10:50 pm (UTC)(Actually, I think Jean-Claude is the true Sue of the Anita Blake series, hiding behind Anita Blake. Her personality has been warped to please him and everything she does adds to his power. Though lately even he's been getting grouchy about some of the things she does or does not do, so perhaps she is fighting back.)
no subject
Date: 2014-05-06 03:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-06 04:39 am (UTC)The difference is that her father's murder got RESOLVED in Swallowing Darkness, and that people tried to KILL HER for years over not being properly Sidhe. So it's not this random WTFery that Anita has where the wrong hair color is a sign of absolute and overwhelming evil.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-06 11:55 pm (UTC)Or if she does it's not as uber obvious in the Merry Books
no subject
Date: 2014-05-06 01:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-06 06:10 pm (UTC)(And with Anita slurping the MOAD... yeah, Anita's a comparable level of Sueness now.)
The only redeeming thing is that Merry is so totally chill about being a walking plot device that it takes the edge off. They don't go on for pages resisting the inevitable sex scene so much as they go 'What's that, Goddess? Power-up-via-sex time? OKEY-DOKE! :D' and jump on each other. (Not much exaggerating. The Merry books kind of read like a fever dream* at points because the characters are so blase about stumbling from plot point to plot point for no reason other than 'magic and the Goddess command it'. It would be much better than Anita for that reason alone... if only the sex was at all interesting...)
*Take a look at one FAN's summary of the book... (helen-keeble.livejournal.com/28618.html)
These books are total, tooth-rotting, not-even-pretending-to-be-good-for-you candy, and I love 'em all, if only to snark at how many more powers Merry can acquire in this book through sex with even more improbably endowed men.
Also, I should let you know that Merry is really friggin' stupid. Stupider than Anita. It must be to compensate for her lack of bile and spite.
Goddess: How clear can I make this? Look - blood bad! Sex good!
Merry: What?
Goddess: *facepalm*
But at least she's cheerfully brainless.
Merry: Hooray! More sex! Even after I've been bitten, stabbed, and drowned, I'm still up for it!
...And LKH doesn't even try to pretend she's taking this shit wholly seriously. A refreshing change.
Sholto's Uncles: Why the fuck is the King of the Sluagh wearing a crown of flowers? And where did all this grass come from?
Shockingly enough, there is even a genuinely funny moment at the end!
Sholto: Actually, as Lord of That Which Passes Between, I can call cabs. Because they pass between things, you see. Behold!
Taxi cabs: *appear*
All: Now THAT'S what I call magic!
(That actually is how the book ends. So, as you can see - while LKH is obviously smoking crack with this book, at least it's not wangst!crack.)
no subject
Date: 2014-05-07 07:57 pm (UTC)The original "Mary Sue" story was about a woman with whom Kirk and Spock both fell in love, and who died in the end so she could be even more beloved. The reason she was a(n intentionally) bad character was that she changed the personalities of people around her solely to worship at her feet. (Killing off your main character is actually the traditional path for Sue authors, especially common in the Victorian era.)
A character can have amazing powers and be drop-dead gorgeous and have no "Sue" traits at all. In fact, I believe this idea that being powerful, smart, etc. is what a Mary Sue is has led to some of the worst writing in existence. It means there are now a ton of characters who are mean and stupid and powerless, and yet whom everyone adores. It's obvious the writers are trying to prove their characters aren't "Sues" by making them incredibly clumsy or ignorant or incapable or nasty. I would argue that Anita Blake actually fits this description.
Worse, it means that women are now particularly afraid of writing powerful and awesome female characters, since the "Sue" label gets thrown at every female character with even one talent or one man who wants to have sex with her.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-09 11:55 pm (UTC)So Merry doesn't really DO anything due to her Goddess Avatar Powers. She just prays and random Dea Ex Machina contrivances drop out of the sky. It's about as exciting as someone constantly typing cheat codes into the console. 'Teleport here! God(dess) Mode On Here! Heal HP To Max here!' So it gives Merry LESS agency, because Merry's actually capable of doing something from time to time (unlike Anita) and the Goddess Avatar Powers are just LKH's excuse to get out of devising a way for Merry to get out of this mess via the resources already at her disposal.
I'm not going to call her Sueish for the Hands of Flesh and Blood, certainly, even though those are VERY high-powered magical abilities when she uses them to their fullest. She uses them. They're extremely important. They actually make sense given all the rules of the universe. Those don't make her a Sue, they make her a very high-powered mage.
The Goddess Avatar powers are essentially LKH's way to say 'Aaaaaah, screw actually resolving this scenario using the set-up I devised, I'm BOOOOORED! Next plot point!'
In all fairness, that's slightly more honorable than just forgetting about the plot points that bore her in the manner that she does in the Anitaverse. But not by much.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-09 03:05 am (UTC)Whereas Anita has to have people reassure her that she is so beautiful and sexy. Beautifuller and more sexyer than any other woman in the room. Right now or ever at any time. At every opportunity. It gets so wearying.
I wonder if it's the fictionalised version of Jon going "yes Laurell your thigh high boots and pirate shirt really IS more alluring than that lady's bandage dress. Honestly. Your style is timeless."
no subject
Date: 2014-05-10 12:03 am (UTC)I wonder if it's the fictionalised version of Jon going "yes Laurell your thigh high boots and pirate shirt really IS more alluring than that lady's bandage dress. Honestly. Your style is timeless."
I think it's a variant on Ellen going "I’m sorry that I [...] made you feel like you had to share that story." in Shutdown and Anita taking that as 'I'm sorry I made you feel unhappy, forgive me, O Goddess of Darkity-Dark Beauty' rather than 'I'd say she was fucking Helen of Troy if it made her stop wangsting'. :P