LKH's Seattle Q&A for A Shiver of Light

[blogfloggery.livejournal.com]

Many apologies for not posting this sooner, Lashers:

If the embed doesn't work, the link is HERE. For those who don't want to sit through 90mins of LKH talking or have issues with the audio, mod has done a thorough transcription: DOC and RTF format. It's too long to post to the comm in its entirety but we wanted it to be available.

Highlights of the video include:

● seven minute sexist monologue intro
● 4/24 questions relate to Merry Gentry and one doesn't count because it's a spoiler.
● LKH's opinions on body positivity, polyamory, pregnancy, therapy, Guy Zen, the French, Crocs footwear, and softcore porn. This is in addition to answering questions about the books/characters, writing, research, inspiration, and rejection.

Book/character discussions:
● LKH has notes on Anita going home to her family for Thanksgiving.
● She has no favourite book that she's written, she prefers character arcs and development.
● She has notes for a book about Nathaniel, his traumatic childhood, and giving that some resolution.
● Olaf will probably die. Also LKH does not think Olaf/Anita shipping is cool.
● Apparently Asher has always been a bag of dicks and LKH has no plan on Anita "fixing" his scars. Also he's not ambitious enough to try for a Council position.
● Bernardo Spotted-Horse and Peter will return if/when LKH writes about Edward's wedding.
● Belle Morte may come to America but struggle to adapt there.
● Anita will not willingly get pregnant. If Nathaniel could do it, LKH would go with that.
● There are plans for more books set in Merry's universe; two ideas include stories about Barinthus and Rhys. Merry is "content" so LKH isn't sure where to go with her story.
● The preternatural branch of the US Marshal Service may become its own entity. It has too much power and may go horribly wrong.
● LKH struggles to find myths in order to include more reptillian shapeshifters.

Comments

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

Wow, love the great big slut-shaming rant she starts with. Yeah, men being inappropriate is just totally women’s fault. We should never ever wear anything we like if it might possibly be the least bit sexy because men just can’t help themselves. See, guys, she understands! She’s one of the COOL girls! Love her, dammit!

I enjoy how she openly said there’s not boundaries between her writing and life. I mean the way she followed it up shows she doesn’t mean it like THAT, but…yeah.

I get putting her self-image issues into Anita, I really do. I feel so much sympathy for her there. But with Anita, it truly is obnoxious, firstly because Anita herself so clearly doesn’t believe it with how she’s always comparing other women negatively to herself (even the ones supposed to be “prettier” than her ala the tall thin blondes are still actually always bashed as fake, boyish, etc.), secondly because she doesn’t change. In real life, yes, this sort of thing can last a lifetime, as evident by LKH herself, but when it comes to characters in a book, evolution is necessary, and it comes off as patently ridiculous for Anita to still be at the same place when she is hailed as the hottest woman on earth by almost every character she encounters. Which brings me to my third point---it feels very hollow, even insulting in a way, to read this coming from someone who isn’t simply “not ugly” but seems to in fact by objectively the most attractive women in her universe. Anita is never NOT someone’s cup of tea, and she has no actual physical flaws besides her super-kewl scars that she makes a show off to someone once a book. I get that the message is probably meant to be “even really beautiful women can be made to believe they’re ugly” but it’s kind of grating for me as a perfectly normal woman to read this knockout goddess repeatedly lamenting her awful deformity of being PETITE and CURVY and BRUNETTE book after book, especially since this is such a common thing among heroines in general (though that last bit isn’t LKH’s fault) I think a better message would be for Anita realizing some people don’t find her attractive, sure, and that’s FINE, it doesn’t mean she’s objectively hideous, and beauty isn’t that big a deal anyway, and some people DO find her attractive too…as it is, it seems the tragedy is supposed to be “oh no this beautiful woman thinks she’s UGLY!” as if her self-hate would be just fine if she actually were conventionally unattractive or anything less than the impossible ideal figure she actually is. It really, really comes off as “beauty is the most important thing, so she should realize she’s beautiful” rather than a more positive message like “There is no universal beauty, and it’s not like it’s that important anyway so I’ll try to grow beyond hinging my self-esteem on it” I don’t demand that all heroines come to this conclusion and work through all their issues to a perfect state of emotional wellness---that’s just not human---but I think Anita is highly symptomatic of an author that never even got close to this, and that’s why she’s got to be the most universally beautiful woman in her world and every man must believe so. Which brings me back to what I said before about me feeling sorry for LKH.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

It really, really comes off as “beauty is the most important thing, so she should realize she’s beautiful”

And this is just reinforced with how LKH waxes on about all the descriptions of the men being SO BEAUTIFUL and that's clearly the most important thing in Anita's or Merry's mind. It's not like any of these characters have anything else going for them; no personality, no internal life, no outside interests. They're beautiful. That's it.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

They really don't.

No, LKH, trauma doesn't count as personality either.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

At this point, I'd be pleasantly surprised if LKH's characters had enough personality that their trauma was the only thing about them, so long as it actually mattered. But it doesn't. Nothing matters but how pretty people are.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

And how pretty people are when they cry so Anita can have sex with them to make their sads go away. Orgasms fix everything!

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

You know, the very first Anita novel I ever read, I remember really liking that Anita was short, busty, had hefty thighs, lots of hair and scars from her Kewl Danger Life. She seemed like an interesting creature, attractive, fit and real (and also a raiser of the dead) and a bit complex even. That was before she became the embodiment of all beauty.