Blogflog - Dead Ice: Jean-Claude

[blogfloggery.livejournal.com]

Link: Dead Ice: Jean-Claude
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's blog. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.

In the lead up to Dead Ice hitting the shelves, I’m going to be doing a special blog series. I’ll be answering three of the most common questions I get about a character. I’ll be trying to include something not as commonly known with each answer. Then, you get a sneak peek of that character from Dead Ice. To kick off the blog series, we start with Jean-Claude – of course.



Question: Is Jean-Claude named after Jean-Claude Van Damme?

Answer: No.

Secret to share: In fact, Jean-Claude’s birth name wasn’t Jean-Claude. Vampires only had one name in Old Europe, so if there was already an older vampire with your name, your master could force you to pick a new name or even choose one for you.

Quest: Why is Jean-Claude French?

Answer: Because he refused to be Spanish, the way I planned.

Secret to Share: Jean-Claude was first created in the late 1980’s. That was close enough to my school days that I could still read Spanish and understand it if it was spoken to me – slowly. Please, do not try to speak Spanish to me now, I am too out of practice. My pronunciation must still be good though, because Spanish speakers will still break into rapid Spanish if I answer any question in their native language. As for my knowledge of French, all I can do is apologize for all of it in the early Anita Blake novels because my language “expert” wasn’t nearly as good at French as they told me they were, and well, some phrases are just awful. As my own French has grown marginally better, even I don’t know what one or two phrases were meant to convey. *face palm* It taught me to be more certain that my experts in any field actually were experts. I still pronounce French badly, so much so that I’ve been told by more than one native French speaker that I can learn all the French I want, but I will never speak it as fluently and musically as I do Spanish. In fact, I’ve been told that I speak French as if Spanish was my first language. It was my second, but apparently it has left it’s linguistic mark.

Question: Didn’t I feel that making Jean-Claude French was too much Anne Rice’s territory, because of Interview with the Vampire?

Answer: Yes, I did, which is why I wanted him to be Spanish; but the harder I fought to force him into a nationality that he didn’t want, the more illusive he was on paper. I couldn’t get my main vampire to cooperate on paper until I got out of his way and let him be French. Only then did he show up in his full glory and write smoothly on paper. He showed up in his typical black and white clothing with the frilly shirt, skin tight pants, and great boots. I did not choose his clothes; he did. Though in an effort to keep his clothes up to his standards I would watch the Fashion Channel for the first time and read my first copy of Vogue. I joke that Jean-Claude taught me to walk in high heels; he helped me understand the magic of gliding in heels. I don’t envision ever being as elegant as he is, but writing and living with him in my head for a couple of decades has helped up my grace and poise content. Though he shakes his head over me sometimes, just like he does Anita. He’s been an interesting influence on both her fictional wardrobe and my real life one. People will ask if my husband and I are in a band, or if we’re visiting from New York, as we get off the plane here in St. Louis. I’m not sure exactly what it means that we get asked that so often, but I know that it’s Jean-Claude’s influence, or rather me writing him that’s changed the way I view clothes.

Sneak Peek from Dead Ice:

“Perhaps modern people do not speak of it so bluntly, but it is the age-old game of chase and capture. There is always someone in a relationship who begins the hunt for someone’s heart, and the pursued must decide whether she wishes to be easily caught, or to be a long and difficult hunt.” He smiled when he said it.

I frowned at him. “Have you ever not gotten to sleep with someone you set your sights on?”

He raised the dark, graceful curve of one eyebrow. “You led me on the merriest chase of anyone I had ever met, ma petite.”

Comments

[alondra-del-sol.livejournal.com]

*cough*Bullshit.*coughcoughcough* Oh I'm sorry, I got something stuck in my throat, but what I meant to say was...LIES.

Question 1: You did what the rest of us terrible name choosers do where you go to some site like twenty-thousand names dot com close your eyes and point or worse, "This sounds french-ish, I'll roll with it," and that's what happened. Also notice how he never had a Spanish name?

Question 2: In my experience most Spanish speakers are happy when I communicate with them, very poorly on my end sorry to say, and like in English when you get excited they just go fast there isn't some sort of mysterious lingual connection you are cashing in on. She also shouldn't pretend she does research at all much less blame someone else for her poor research skills.

Question 3 (which is directly related to Question 2): A) The word you were looking for is 'elusive' and B) you just wanted him to be a fucking French vampire because of Anne Rice and hey THAT'S OKAY. To be fair I wouldn't say so either because Anne Rice would probably descend from her own even higher and more ivory of towers and try to sue the pants off you so sure, deflect away, but can we please stop with this persistent and frankly worrisome, "my imaginary best friends do what they want and speak to me like they were the muses incarnate themselves!" At best what she is really saying is that, "I couldn't get away from this initial character concept in my head, and so I went with it despite my misgivings about what people would think when they read the character," (which would be a perfectly fine way to say it) and then does so in a way that insensitive and ableist to people who do hear voices in their head and have to take medication for that sort of thing who don't treat it as some sort of mystical best friend experience. At worst she really does have a troubling relationship with her imaginary friends, but she is caught up in this "I must suffer for my art" deal which means she won't ever seek any sort of help nor will she ever examine her writing in a critical way because the characters came up with it and she thinks she has to cede authorial control because of this.



Also thank you for reminding us LKH that Jean-Claude is a skeeve. He was a sex obsessed skeeve from book one and he really hasn't ever changed (except to become more romanticized and de-powered by the deus ex sexina machine). Love does not equal possession, love does not equal possession, love does not equal possession. How is Anita any different/better than Belle Morte again? Too bad LKH is too busy covering her ears going, "La la la la HATERS," to listen to some actual advice. Also I forget about those godawful comics and then that terrifying picture. I'm going to go hide before creepy over bulged muscles come to get me.

[darkestgrace.livejournal.com]

What in here is new? I didn't know that little bit about someone else doing her French in the early books, but other than that, I've heard this all before. And I always thought that JC dressed like some kind of pornographic pirate. I never got fashion and elegance from him, the best I ever though about his clothes was 'expensive cosplay'.

'It taught me to be more sure that my experts were actually experts'.
Then I really hope that some of your 'experts' have been fired. Whoever told you that it was OK to drag a civilian into an active crime scene, and not wear any protective clothing or hairnet. Whoever told you that wearing a miniskirt and heels was acceptable for a police interrogation. And conversely, you don't need to throw every single detail your expert told you about weapons into every single book, especially if they aren't ever used.

That last quote. He's trying with the 'someone in a relationship' who hunts for 'someone's heart', but he ruins that by saying 'she wishes to be easily caught'. How hard would it be to say 'they wish'? Because of course the predator is always male. No woman in the history of the world has ever pursued a man.

[guardians-song.livejournal.com]

so if there was already an older vampire with your name, your master could force you to pick a new name or even choose one for you.
Since so many vampires are abusive/sadistic assholes, does this mean that all the pretentious/ludicrous names are actually some Master's idea of a prank?

I’m not sure exactly what it means that we get asked that so often
That's for the best, LKH. It's for the best.

the pursued must decide whether she wishes to be easily caught, or to be a long and difficult hunt.
Or whether she is NOT INTERESTED and wishes to spritz you with holy water, perhaps...

[jessica collett (from livejournal.com)]

Q1: So, what is JC's real name, then? Ah, that would involve more world building and thinking time, no doubt.

Q2: Just admit you wanted him to be French because all vampire authors since Anne Rice have had French vampires. And 'I will never speak it as fluently and musically as I do Spanish'. Right, so you can speak Spanish well. And yet, despite having Hispanic and Latin characters, you have no Spanish ever in your books, whether linguistically or culturally.

Q3: JC is not real. He is a character you have created. Stop going on about your characters in this way. I find it disturbing and weird, and not in a good way. 'People will ask if my husband and I are in a band, or if we’re visiting from New York, as we get off the plane here in St. Louis.' Yeah, whatever. You dress like any other goth I've ever seen or known, but without any of the interesting extremes.

[apep727.livejournal.com]

First things first: looking at that picture, especially how JC seems to be fondling himself, I can't help imagining that he's about to say, "Would you fuck me? I'd fuck me." Not something I want to be thinking.

Secret to share: In fact, Jean-Claude’s birth name wasn’t Jean-Claude. Vampires only had one name in Old Europe, so if there was already an older vampire with your name, your master could force you to pick a new name or even choose one for you.

To quote Carl Sagan in Atomic Robo, "I'm trying to think of how to say 'but that's stupid' without resorting to the word 'stupid'." Why? Why would vampires have to change their names? If vampires have always been out in the open, there'd be no reason for them to need to change their name. Oh, wait, that would require thinking about your world-building, rather than just lazily shoving supernatural critters into the real world.

And why don't they have last names? Or bloodline names? Or clan names, or whatever. Even in certain cultures without inherited family names, they still used patronymics or matronymics - hence the preponderance of "[name]son" surnames in English. Once a society gets to a certain size, you need ways to differentiate people, because you've run out of names.

Answer: Yes, I did, which is why I wanted him to be Spanish; but the harder I fought to force him into a nationality that he didn’t want, the more illusive he was on paper. I couldn’t get my main vampire to cooperate on paper until I got out of his way and let him be French [...] He showed up in his typical black and white clothing with the frilly shirt, skin tight pants, and great boots. I did not choose his clothes; he did. [...] I joke that Jean-Claude taught me to walk in high heels; he helped me understand the magic of gliding in heels [...] Though he shakes his head over me sometimes, just like he does Anita. He’s been an interesting influence on both her fictional wardrobe and my real life one.

Okay, Laurell? I'm sure you think your whole "the characters are just so real to me" schtick is cute and quirky, but honestly, it's really, really disturbing. I know some writers occasionally act like their characters have wills of their own, or that the characters are actually talking to them, but I usually put that down to them (the writers) having a good, strong feel of what their characters are like. That's not what I get from you - from you, it's more like you actually think they're real people. Which is not normal, and kind of indicates that you might need actual, professional help.

People will ask if my husband and I are in a band, or if we’re visiting from New York, as we get off the plane here in St. Louis.

Sure they do, Laurell. Just like random women confide in you about their asshole ex-husbands all the time.

“Perhaps modern people do not speak of it so bluntly, but it is the age-old game of chase and capture. There is always someone in a relationship who begins the hunt for someone’s heart, and the pursued must decide whether she wishes to be easily caught, or to be a long and difficult hunt.” He smiled when he said it.

Yeah, that's totally not creepy and sexist. Screw all that 'getting to know each other' crap - romantic relationships are all about relentlessly "pursuing" the other person! All the refusals, the macing, the restraining order - that's just playing hard to get! Oh, and let's not ignore how JC goes from using gender neutral terms to referring to the "pursued" as female. Nice bit of sexism, JC/LKH. Stay classy.

Honestly, it's basically JC coming out and admitting that he was always creepily obsessed with Anita, and that eventually he just wore her down. How romantic.

[dreamstrifer.livejournal.com]

He’s been an interesting influence on both her fictional wardrobe and my real life one. People will ask if my husband and I are in a band, or if we’re visiting from New York, as we get off the plane here in St. Louis.

BULL. SHIT.

God, how long has she lived in St. Louis? Does she thinks he has some super special fashion sense that the ALMOST 3 MILLION PEOPLE IN THE METROPOLITAN AREA don't dress like her? God almighty that is the weirdest lie/brag I have ever seen come from her. I went through my goth and punk phases in high school and college (and wore them on planes), as well as more trendy after that, and no one thought it was 'OMG YOU LIVE IN NEW YORK?!'.

UGH THIS PISSES ME OFF HOW CAN SHE LIVE HERE AND UTTERLY NOT UNDERSTAND HOW THIS CITY AND AREA WORK WHAT THE HELL.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

“Have you ever not gotten to sleep with someone you set your sights on?”

No, and it's not because he's sooo hot, because WOW he's not. (That picture will never cease to crack me up.) It's because he's a rapist with a magical roofie. Though "sleep with" -- yeah, no, he rapes.

[bronzed.livejournal.com]

Hello, new member. just found the books and this author through a friend and read the first two. through the education I have received in this community I highly doubt I will go further than book three unless I have read everything else on my e-reader. Anyway I just wanted to say reading these entries and snark from everyone has really made the last few days marvelous and I love you all!

[plastraa.livejournal.com]

Instead of reading ANY of this. Just go watch Army Of Lovers music video Crucified and if you don't see Jean Claude in Jean Pierre then I don't know what to say. The time line fits as well.

Seriously and please LKH the fact that people think you and your husband are in a band because you look like bad larping participants is not actually a compliment on your coolness factor.